The use of ‘evade’ tells Abigail that he cannot be overcome and therefore she cannot overcome god like she has taken control of the Girls. Miller has used a comma before Hale says Abigail to prolong the pressure that Abigail is under as well as to lengthen the dramatic tension. The women of Salem are only seen as house wives, doing the normal roles of a mother and wife. Miller exerts an extreme amount of pressure on them to be a certain way; it is like Miller is expressing his view on women in ‘The Crucible’. The society preaches freedom however value uniformity more.
As exemplified in Pride and Prejudice with characters like Mrs. Bennet and her child, Lydia, many ladies put money above love when it came to the subject of marriage. Perhaps the behavior of women in this time period is a question of nature vs. nurture. For females especially, society dictated class distinctions and parameters for retaliatory ridicule, while bringing emphasis towards honing “womanly” talents in lieu of formal education and opportunities. If a lady were to step out of the bounds of appropriate behavior, she would disgrace herself and most likely her family, thereby cutting them off from benefits that might otherwise shine upon accomplished personas. Mrs. Bennet’s least favorite daughter, Elizabeth, seems to be made of strong moral fiber and respectfully does not sink to the (often) poor matrimonial standards of her peers.
The male dominance within the Stepford community highlights the enforcement of patriarchal laws, creating a divide between genders. The lack of individuality represented through Carol Van Sant and the transformed ladies of Stepford reflect the want for female beauty and the characterisation of the Stepford families reflects the want for a nuclear family. Through the characterisation, The Stepford Wives intertwines the concerns of the 1970’s to create a fierce reminder of the freedom women have gained and is a critique of the world, which the author knew so well. Despite having gained the right to vote, during this time, women felt trapped within a domestic sphere. The women became wives and mothers without a voice.
In 1984, women are repressed in an alternate way, where their sexual desires are forbidden to the extent that committing any sexual act is a punishable rebellion. The reaction of women is very contrasting as the reader is shown their differing reactions to the subjugation they endure. The alternate female voices throughout the three novels further give insight into the female experience of the hierarchical worlds the authors create as well as highlighting cotemporary social attitudes. In The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood threatens a future world where women are forced to give birth to high ranking officers children in order to re-populate the country. By having a female narrator, ‘Atwood turns the traditionally masculine dystopian genre upside down’ Howell sees Offred as a narrator who disrupts and subverts the very genre of fiction she constructs.
English 101/096.03 Date: 02/10/2012 Assignment: First Draft of “The rage behind a woman’s stare” Stories being compared: “I want a wife” Woman’s rights are still considered a controversial issue in an equal partnership and how their duties in the household are unappreciated in today’s world. In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife” lists the responsibilities of the stereotypical wife in the 1970’s. The overall purpose of this story was to show the readers how wives were not classified as a person, but a tool that responds to their husband’s needs. Through Brady’s role reversal as “the mind of the husband”, she lists countless expectations that a husband wants in a perfect wife/mother and later proves in the story that wives are mistreated and aren’t considered an object that women can take advantage of, but human beings that demand respect. Comparing to “I Want a Wife”, the story “The rage behind a woman’s stare” talks about women who are unappreciated for the duties and responsibilities they accomplish around the household.
By doing this, Nanny hopes to prevent men from exercising their advantage that she thinks they possess in society. This exchange of women is a system that Rubin describes in which "women do not have full rights to themselves." Nanny sees this exchange as a cultural necessity to ensure Janie's safety and well-being. However, what she doesn't realize is that by doing this, she is perpetuating the patriarchal system that Janie must later tackle in all three of her marital relationships. The battles and decisions that Janie must face are representative of the battles that women encounter in their pursuit of a society free from gender hierarchy.
She was also a feminist. Often, the genders of the character she created determine the fate of them. As to highlight the problem of women’s unequal status in the society and state the role of women during her time. Elizabeth, a childhood sweetheart of Victor, did not have the same equal rights and opportunities as Victor did. When Victor compares himself with Elizabeth, he says “I was capable of a more intense application, and was more deeply smitten with the thirst of knowledge.” Mary uses her character Elizabeth to review the lack of support and the demand for institutionalized education of girls in public, whereas Mary could only be home-educated by her father.
Perpetual Childhood: Mary Wollstonecraft and Prescriptions of Women in the Late 18th Century “Men, indeed, appear to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner when they try to secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep them always in a state of childhood… for if men eat of the tree of knowledge, women will come in for a taste; but, from the imperfect cultivation which their understandings receive, they only attain a knowledge of evil” (Wollstonecraft 29). The prevailing belief in Europe concerning women, for many hundreds of years, had been one long inherited from Catholic traditions. Women were seen as an inferior creature, and had long been blamed by the Catholic church, for, well, pretty much every historical event which had ever been perceived as negative. At the point at which we find Mary Wollstonecraft expounding on the rights of woman, in 1792, the position of women in society had been made weaker still, by both the upholding of old prejudices, and the institution of a heap of new ones. The industrial revolution, particularly in England at this point (where the revolution first gained momentum), served to weaken the position of women in society in a number of ways, for even the women not immediately drafted for labor in the factories, would be inevitably repressed by the institutionalized and newly refined forms of degradation, that came along with the “rationalization” of society (the “civilization” of middle-class women, she argues, degrades them much more than laboring women).
In the 1930s America, women were seen as inferior to women. They were deprived of many rights and their default position was thought to be at home. Married women were by law forbidden to work and those unmarried were reduced to the worst jobs of society. In Of Mice and Men which is essentially a poignant tale about the friendship between two men, Steinbeck presents to us an unvaried sample of women. One of which actually speaks and appears for herself in person and another who although appears to have some moral values is “dead” and only appears through Lennie as a figment of his imagination.
Repetition enhances her sarcastic tone because after all that is expected of a wife, she says, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife,” (276) in the final sentence, meaning even an actual wife would want someone to do as much as she does. Similarly, repetition is prominent in “Girl” as well. Unlike Brady’s sarcastic, tone, Kincaid’s tone is instructive. The girl in Kincaid’s piece is expected to behave in a certain manner as shown