Mad Men, Misogyny and Madison Avenue Lauren Goodlad’s essay, Why We Love “Mad Men”, focuses on characterization of Donald Draper, a mysterious ad man who embodies miscontrived notions of masculinity, while balancing the contrasting roles of fatherhood and playboy. She claims that the rotating cast of characters that surround Don Draper and fragile situations that each of those characters inherit, is what makes Mad Men so captivating. The essay then address the tropes that make Mad Men so addictive, but it is fundamentally bankrupt when it comes to explaining what Don Draper is truly a symbol for. Goodlad’s essay is opens with her talking about her feminist aversion to men like Don Draper. She continues by addressing masculinity in a modern sense and brings up the idea that men are now dramatizing ones passions as opposed to shunning it, hiding it in the recesses of their identities.
Churchill’s lead character in the play is paradoxically a female misogynist who takes on a stereotypically male business persona who climbs to the top of the corporate ladder. Churchill also offers an interesting take on female pageantry, Post-Feminism of the 1980s, the “New Wave” of Feminism, and English feminism and capitalism under Margaret Thatcher’s rule, as well as family values and the ease and ability to climb the corporate ladder with a child. Churchill has openly acknowledged that Margaret Thatcher’s rise to the position of British primeminster was an important inspiration for writing Top Girls. Churchill is deeply interested in feminism and the constant consequences of the women’s liberation movement. There was a certain irony in Margaret Thatcher’s ascent to power in the wake of feminism, since Thatcher’s policies were deeply conservative and anti-feminist.
mankind’s experience of evil, experience of guilt and separation. • Psychological study of typically romantic characters, e.g. Victor, Walton, Clerval… • The ‘monster’ himself has been studied in connection with Rousseau’s theory of man’s natural goodness perverted by a hostile environment. • A sociological approach to the novel stresses its importance as a social document, giving evidence of a woman’s role /family ties/ education, etc.. in the first decades of the 19th century. • Feminist critics are especially interested in issues concerning women’s culture.
There was one particular quote in the novel that seemed out of place in my opinion. The quote depicts women in a very negative way. The beginning of the quote is as followed: “Experience will teach you the real characters of the beings who chiefly compose your species” (86). The statement was made by a male character from the novel. Then the quote continues and states: “You will find them, [women] a set of harpies, absurd, treacherous, and deceitful—regardless of strong obligations, and mindful of slight injuries…” (86).
Through Another’s Eyes: Point of View in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator’s point of view through first person narration gives the story it’s truly intrinsic tone. As the reader is lead first hand along one woman’s descent into madness, the fact that this story is to an extent autobiographical further increases the importance and appeal of the first person narrative. The story in itself has a deceiving prose, with the narrator initially appearing upbeat by the use of exclamation marks, sarcasm and humor but revealing to the reader that she is considered mentally ill by the outside world. Gilman’s personal experience with the depression and treatment described in the story undoubtedly comes forth in her ability to narrate “The Yellow Wallpaper” in such a believable manner. The narrator’s delivery from start to finish keeps the reader off balance, thus adding to the frightening style and evolution of the story.
Lady Macbeth: The Queen of Deceit The Shakespearian play Macbeth is filled with violence, conflicts, and mysterious environments. Many intriguing and intelligent characters litter the plot, grabbing viewers, or readers’ interests and carrying them into the story. Perhaps the most interesting and deceitful of characters is Lady Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth is first introduced, she is powerful and courageous, but as the plot progresses, readers witness her plummet to a horrifying demise. Throughout the plot, she transforms from a courageous woman, to a rash murderer, and finally leading to a guilt-driven suicide.
This woman uses mental and emotional harassment to attempt at getting what she desires. Curley’s wife is repeatedly displayed as a tart. Her overly flirtatious personality leads to her inevitable peril. Steinbeck uses this character to represent a different type of person who attacks emotionally and physically in unique ways. One example of her harassment is displayed when she meets George and Lennie on the first day of their arrival.
The Significance of Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope I believe Odysseus faces two types of women, honorable and dangerous. Figuring out which women are honorable and dishonorable and which are dangerous and deadly is Odysseus’s challenge throughout the story. Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope demonstrate hospitality and morals befitting honorable women, especially when we compare them to the women Odysseus has encountered for the last ten years like Klypso, Kirke and the slave women in his own house. Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope ultimately renew his confident faith in spite of Agamemnon’s warning not to trust or confide in any woman. If we focus on the honorable women in the story and their significance to Odysseus, we must start by first
Discuss madness in relation to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. The ‘revolting’(pg 3) paper is the eponymous metaphor of the novella. The wallpaper has layers, hidden depths and intricacies which can only be seen by close examination and only understood by the narrator by her when her obsessive interrogation of it reaches its disturbing climax. This wallpaper is an allegory which represents the complications of a woman’s position in conventional marriage behind the façade, or outer ‘pattern’(pg 3) of the sanction. Throughout the text, Gilman attempts to uncover the often disturbing truths that lurk beneath the surface of something seemingly innocent with reference to her own socio-economic philosophy; that is the economics of marriage and the nature of the mentally destructive sub-ordination of women within it.
‘The send -off’, shows Owen’s cynical attitude towards war. He opens with the line “Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way”. The deliberate alliteration of the “d’s”, of ‘down’ and ‘darkening’ display Owen’s cynicism towards the war. I think Owen is cynical because he himself knows the illusion of war. The soldiers are, “grimly gay”, which is oxymoronic as this quotation seems to be implying that they are forcing themselves to be happy.