Compare the ways in which The Ruined Maid and one other poem of your choice explores female characters WOMEN ARE SEEN AS OBJECTS • ‘We played at courtly love’ – suggestion that marrying her is all a game and she is their prize. • ‘toy, a plaything, little women’ – no emotional connection to her, once she is wedded and bedded she is just,’ a bit of fluff’. • Isn’t allowed to work but just look pretty, ‘we never do work when we’re ruined’. • ‘one’s life is pretty lively when ruined’ – sarcasm if told what to do – be with men RUINED FOR OPPOSITE REASONS – MARRIAGE • Before she was married she had a status, she was higher up, ‘out of reach’ • After she was married she loses her status because she is no longer worth striving for, ‘I became’ enjambment • She is seen as beautiful, ‘a damsel and the peach’ – something sweet and sensual • Now no beautiful imagery, ‘only a bit of fluff’ something so disregarded and unnecessary’ - needing to be disposed • Oppositely she is ruined and disregarded because she chose not to marry. • ‘You aint ruined’ – sense that she is envious that the other farm girl can be no naive (could remind herself of her).
The Role of Women in “The Odyssey” It seems if it weren’t for women in Homer’s The Odyssey all forms of empathy, love, war, or compassion wouldn’t exist. Although women held an entirely different position in society compared to men, they too held influence and power. “The Odyssey” revolves around Odysseus’ quest to return home to Ithaca and back to his wife Penelope, which has been overrun by suitors. Within the poem there are three basic types of women the goddess, the seductress, and the good hostess/wife. Each role adds a different element and is essential to the telling of the story.
Their enticing sexuality, he believes, tempts men to behave in ways they would otherwise not. A visit to the “flophouse” (a cheap hotel, or brothel) is enough of women for George, and he has no desire for a female companion or wife. Curley’s wife, the only woman to appear in Of Mice and Men, seems initially to support George’s view of marriage. Dissatisfied with her marriage to a brutish man and bored with life on the ranch, she is constantly looking for excitement or trouble. In one of her more revealing moments, she threatens to have the black stable-hand lynched if he complains about her to the boss.
Although Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she was manipulated and deemed secondary to her male counterparts. Helen can be looked at as a woman who had no say so in how she wanted to run her life and was manipulated throughout the years. In the Iliad the Greek Goddess Aphrodite played the key role in controlling Helen. Helen was taken from her husband Meneleus and could not return. Aphrodite being the goddess of love was the one who took Helen from him, and forced her to stay with Paris of Troy, which sparked the Trojan War.
Chapter 5: • “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.” (Curely’s wife) • “I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.” (Curley’s wife) • “I coulda made somethin’ of myself.” She said darkly “Maybe I will yet.” (Curley’s wife) • “I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” (Curley’s wife) She was a promiscuous woman, very attractive and knew it and wanted to prove it all the time. She would flirt with the ranch hands for her own fun and she stupidly tried the same with Lennie.
An' I coulda sat in them big hotels, an' had pitchers took of me." This detail shows exactly what Curley's wife wants, as well as showing what she has not got, she is the only female on the ranch and is married to a man who sees her as sexual object "he wears a glove fulla vaseline," and she is treated like a girl, "maybe you just better go along an' roll your hoop". She also has no friends like when she says- "I get lonely" and no one to talk to. Curley’s wife is downhearted by the dreams and hope’s she has I believe because she doesn’t look in the present she looks in the past of what she could have had so I don’t think hopes and dreams help
A feminist point of view would find these women to be flawed, for they cannot survive without the assistance of a man. The book tells the story of a “manly life” in first person dialogue. Considering every female Odysseus encounters “falls in love” with, we can equate that he makes his own problems based off of his ego. In a way, the Odyssey is not just the tale of the wanderings of Odysseus. The poet has made it into a type of descriptive catalog of women, in which he examines women of all kinds and from all backgrounds through objectification.
The only instance where a female takes on more of the characteristics of the male gods, is Hera, Zues’s wife and Queen of the gods. She is very powerful, but the greeks did not see her as a favorable god, because she caused so many problems simply with her jealousy, and in the end even she yielded to her husband, the male in their relationship. A fantastic example of this is in another passage from the Iliad where Hephasteus tries to calm his mother so that she will not be struck down by his
Lai 1 John Smith Dr. K English 154 19 October 2011 Women and The Lottery Through a feminist perspective, women view themselves as strong individuals and would be appalled by a society viewing them as nothing more than a material property. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, women had no voice in regards to public decisions and actions. For example, in the short story the townspeople had a tradition to sacrifice one person in the hopes of reaping the best harvest. In most cases the wives would be the first chosen, many feminists would view this as an abomination. Tessie Hutchinson, one of the main characters represents women who are being tyrannized by society because of their gender.
Odysseus’ decision to leave the island when he has the choice may have been a far more trying decision six years ago. On the other hand, Penelope is criticized for leading her suitors on. As Antinous complains to Telemachus in book II, “It’s not the suitors here who deserves the blame, it’s your own dear mother, the matchless queen of cunning. For three years now, getting on to four, she’s played it fast and loose with all our hearts, building each man’s hopes—dangling promises, dropping hints to each – but all the while with something else in mind" (l. 96-100). Penelope and Calypso: Seduction in The Odyssey The portrayal of Penelope as a seductress (though at other times she also plays the role of a mother) is especially interesting since the other seductresses in the Odyssey are goddesses, not mortal women.