She shows how women can only be categorised as either an angel or a whore. It shows the way that women can only be judged at the time. She also frequently alludes to the “bad” women in literature to show how women could only be categorised in those binary opposites like Lady Macbeth or Eve. She uses rhetorical devices to explain how bad women are needed to disrupt the static order which is Patriarchy. Atwood also shows her opposition to the extreme feminism that existed in her time where feminism was influencing the creation of literature at the time.
They also include comparing the novel to Freud’s theories on sexuality. According to Freud’s theories on sexuality, the studies focus more on the sexuality of the inner human, or more how the Id affects the Ego. The characters repress (contain) sexual notions. Women not supposed to talk about sexuality so characters repress see above. Comes out in their dreams where vampires are their repressed sexual
I agree with Anne Mellor in the fact that she portrays Frankenstein as being sexist and against women. In the analytical essay, “Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein”, written by Anne Mellor, she talks about how Shelley depicts women’s injustice in nineteenth century society through her use of characters, science, political constructs, and offers an alternative portrayal through the DeLaceys. She explains how Victor Frankenstein possesses the patriarchal mindset prevalent during this time through his inability to exhibit balanced emotions, his creation of a being which perpetuates the idea that females are no longer necessary, and his need to keep women in a submissive role. Mellor describes how the women within the novel are confined to the home, while the men are
A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems. Harwood battles against the traditions that she believes support this downgrading by continually returning to the issue. In “Home of Mercy” there is a line in the poem. Here I believe she is talking about the Magdalene Asylums. It was a place of slave labor laundries from the 18th to the late-20th centuries to house "fallen women", a term used to imply female sexual promiscuity.
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.
This is best encapsulated in the debate as to whether Annabella can claim to be part of a “wretched, woeful woman’s tragedy” if her mistreatment was indeed her own fault. The question of love and its moralities is a large one in the play, considering the taboo nature of incest. However, what causes an even bigger discussion is perhaps the representation of women in light of love. Despite preconceptions of incest, it is undeniable that at one point or another, we as an audience sympathise with the lovers Giovanni and Annabella. Though, upon closer analysis of their interactions, it becomes obvious that their filial ties are not the only issue with their relationship; Giovanni makes it clear to Annabella that she has limited choice in their union as he declares “that you must either love, or I must die.” Previously to such a statement, Annabella had not expressed her love to such a degree, but it’s almost as if he blackmails her into believing she loves him, as her sisterly love for him would mean she would do anything for him not to kill himself.
The Dada artists proclaimed the uselessness of social action and thus broke with the Futurists, and this reflected the feelings associated with the war, viewed as a monstrous charade (Hunter and Jacobus 167). Luigi Pirandello and Elizabeth LeCompte show aspects of both surrealist theory and Dadaism in their works, primarily in their emphasis on "objective chance" and in their reliance on the fantastic. Pirandello had developed a theory of the theater by the middle of his career by which he saw theater as a "second-rate art form, only the imitation of an original work of art that loses its essential character, its substance, through being transposed onto the stage" (Matthaei 19). He managed to overcome this view with a series of grotesque plays and with a new emphasis on a new kind
Susan Sontag once said: “Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings.” Striking aspects are revealed when philosophical, archetypal and feminist approaches are employed in the short story “Genesis and Catastrophe” by Roald Dahl without which the aspects would not be apparent. Applying a philosophical approach, for instance, forces the reader to question the fate of an individual and whether their lives are a result of destiny.
In doing so, the function of the magical world will be identified, and by the finality of this essay the representations of magic and its construction of out-of-balance love will be understood. From the onset, Shakespeare precisely depicts the lovers as being out of balance, a theme which generates stress during the play. For symmetry’s sake, the audience desires the four lovers to be arranged into two couples; as an alternative, Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia, and Helena is left out. Hermia and Helena are therefore in opposite positions, increasing the feeling of fundamental imbalance. This imbalance is introduced and reinforced in Act I, Scene I, when Lysander says “The course of true love never did run smooth” (136).
Contrary to its putatively gender-normalizing conclusion, Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina generates a narrative of sexual subversion and female authority. The repetitive occurrence of female protagonists inverting gender hegemonies from the prostitute to Fantomina’s mother to the convent, produces a ‘gynocratic’, or woman-centered novel. When juxtaposed alongside the nameless, beguiled admirers and the named, yet four-flushed BeauPlaisir, the narrative constructs a hierarchy of female over male, contradicting the possibility of its reinstating archetypal gender roles through its questionable inclusion of assault. While acknowledging seemingly anti-feminist sections, this essay will articulate how Haywood’s text empowers its atypical heroine through Haywood’s syntax and plot, her covert theme of naming and the conclusion itself. Despite her antithetical ideologies, Haywood remains centuries ahead while incorporating the very themes of contemporary pop culture: Woman Power.