In the times John Steinbeck lived in women were not held in high regard but they were just present to serve men. However, they still tried to yearn for a better future by exploiting men. The character Curley's wife in the novel is a victim of society and her dream. She is married to Curley who neglects her and so because of her loneliness she is always seeking attention. She wears too much makeup and dresses like a "whore"
Gilman shows this when the woman of the story says “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already”. She also shows that woman at this time didn’t really do anything for themselves, “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able - to dress and entertain, and order things”. The woman in the story is believing in the social norm and what her husband belittles her to be. She feels that she is a burden to her husband because she dislikes the wallpaper and continues to complain about how much it bothers her. He refuses to change it making her blame herself for not being able to cope with the “dull” and “flamboyant” yellow wallpaper.
She started viewing herself in the wallpaper and also seeing other persons. These symbolize the condition of the women in that time, just being trapped and have no power to change that. Seeing the description the woman makes about the wallpaper and how uncomfortable she is being around it, you can see how the situation of being powerless affected past generations. Only their husbands had the opportunity to go out to have a social and productive life. This sort of conduct is everything but curable, for different situations to happen in our society, different conducts have to be modified.
Their need for comfort from the people they love and care for the most leads them to do whatever it takes, so they might be accepted. Along with being mentally isolated from the other characters in the play these women are also physically isolated and intellectually isolated from everyone. Part of the reason these women were so severely isolated from other characters is because they lived in the Elizabethan period. During the Elizabethan era women were raised to believe that they were second- rate citizens. To ensure that people continued to believe this concept the church used this verse from the bible as proof “woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man.” This belief put women in a state of being mentally isolated from men.
Alcee Arobin is a lady’s man who has many affairs with different women and intends to make Edna another one of his affairs. But Edna doesn’t let Alcee take control of the relationship; she writes him when she wants and decides when they should go out. Being in control is a reverse role for Edna, but she knows it is really who she is, and it is what she wants. Alcee plays along and lets Edna take control, and Edna discovers the satisfaction of using a man the way men usually use women. Although Edna has taken control of her own life, she is still not happy with her life because of the many different types of love she has experienced.
With an unequal marriage and a woman which let her self-expression ruin her, was the short story "The Yellowwallpaper," a great story to talk about the theme of gender. The theme of gender also has to do with how far the story dates back which is in the 1800's, this focusing on how much pain this woman is in with no place to run. Gilman narrates the story to let the reader have a better look at what this woman is feeling and how she reacts to her surroundings. She actually turns to her husband whom which is a doctor and her companion and he dismisses the notion of her mental illness. He sort of traps her in a controlled space by taking her to a secluded house with no human contact besides her sister, Jennie, and himself who both look at her illness in the same way.
Even though she thinks it’s unfair she hesitates and recognizes that men and women should have equal rights. Since most writers in the 18th century were men, society looked at women writers more on the negative side or didn’t take women serious. Between 1700s and 1800s, Anna wanted femininity. Considering women writers didn’t have much freedom with their own creativity. She says, “thou mayest command, but never canst be free”(20).
Unit 051 Outcome 1 Identify the different reasons why people communicate People communicate for different reasons, to portray their feelings, emotions, pain and opinions. The communication could be professional (formal), or personal (informal). The different reasons people communicate are: - To share; opinions, information, thoughts, knowledge, feelings, emotions, needs and wants. - To socialise, build and maintain relationships to satisfy our constant need to relate to others and have them relate to us. - To request or demand something.
Estella is also introduced in this chapter and believes she is better than Pip: “he is a common labouring boy!” When Pip talks about Estella he says: “I think she is very pretty… I think she is very insulting.” This shows she is cruel and a snob as she thinks Pip is less of a person than she is because he is poor, which engages the reader because they know that Pip has fallen in love with her but Miss Havisham has brought up Estella to have a hatred of men and the working class because of her own prejudice against them. Language is used to engage the reader in chapter 8. When Pip first sees Miss Havisham he says: “the strangest lady I have ever seen”. The
Alexandra “If Shakespeare Had a Sister” Virginia Woolf grew up facing many prejudices against educated women. As a result of her desire to be well educated, she took personal offense at the tradition of putting down women educated beyond the social norms. Shakespeare’s sister or any other woman would not have been able to rise to his status and maintain her sanity in the face of the rejection, denial and disapproval that would result from the attempt. The use of example is a tool Woolf uses well to demonstrate her points and exhibit her knowledge of classical texts and critical writing skills. One of Woolf’s supports for her essay was that she discusses the everyday life of a woman so far as she has been to piece it together from the few reports she has been able to recover of that time; complaining that there is not nearly enough information on the period only supports her claims.