A Lost Lady By Willa Cather

Willa Cather, a nineteenth century American female writer, used her childhood experiences growing up on the great plains of Nebraska to write about a woman named Alexandra Bergson and her struggles on her family’s farm on the Nebraskan frontier in the book, O Pioneers! (“Willa Sibert Cather”). The narrator follows Alexandra throughout her life, and shows how she became successful while overcoming the patriarchy. Conversely, Cather also wrote about a young, confused girl named Marie Tovesky, who found herself in a crumbling relationship, not sure if she loved the man she married, or Alexandra’s sibling Emil. Her story both regales the reader with a tragedy, but also shows how others treated and oppressed women during that time. Cather’s O Pioneers! tells the tales of two women who find themselves on varying levels of society, and uses their stories to address feminism.

Cather's “The Garden Lodge” is about a woman named Caroline Noble whose husband, Howard, asked her if she would like to demolish their old garden lodge and replace it with a summer house. The conflict in the story is Caroline is not sure if she wants to knock down the old garden lodge because it brings back memories of when opera singer Raymond d'Esquerre, spent a month at their place. The resolution is that Caroline decides to go on with building the summer house and demolishing the garden lodge. The author uses flashback to explain how Caroline grew up and also when she reminiscences about her time with Raymond.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf examines the lives of a group of socialites in post World War I England. Clarissa Dalloway spent her life suffering from anxiety but was devoted to hiding it from the world. Septimus struggled with shell shock, or post-traumatic stress disorder, that no one could help him with. These people were not only characters in Virginia Woolf’s story, but also a representation of what had been going on in Woolf’s life. She used her own struggle with mental illness as inspiration in the story. Virginia Woolf’s struggle with bipolar disorder is clearly reflected in the personalities of Clarissa and Septimus.

During the nineteenth and twentieth century there was a number of changes made in America. Woman were looked at as less than back then and to a certain degree they still are today. There was a number of women that died or went insane because of the standards that they had to meet in order to be considered good women. In this research paper I will talk about the experience of the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper and Blanche DuBois from the story A Streetcar Named Desire. It will be shown within these pages how the moral and societal standards for women were far different than they were for men, and how the standards changed over the years. Furthermore it will be shown how this effected the women of those two stories.

In her story, “Old Woman Magoun” she delivered a feminist message more directly than ever. It’s based in turn-of-the-century New England, patriarchy still defined relationships even though the men themselves had degenerated. The story reflects the realities of Freeman’s own life, as her father’s business failed and her mother became the support of the family. However, Freeman’s life was not unique; rural New England is

The nineteenth century is popularly known for its traditional view of gender roles, especially regarding women. The term “True Woman” refers to what society at that time thought to be the ideal woman, carrying qualities of “modesty, submissiveness, physical weakness, limited education, and complete devotion to husband and home” (White, 2009, p. 1). Women were restrained in terms of sexuality, dress, language, and economic decisions. In Amy Gilman Srebnick’s The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Mary rebels against these standards by being a single women that is also sexually active, however, her actions are what seemingly lead to her demise. Similarly, Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall also goes against gender norms. In her case, she earns her own economic independence through her writing and lives a more unconventional life as a mother, but faces repercussions from her family. Through the novels Ruth Hall and The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, the main female characters revolt against being “True Women” through their daily actions and behaviors, however they’re each punished with consequences for trying to deviate from society’s path.

Considering I am one of the only two males in the Intro to Women’s Literature class, I felt moved to touch on Willa Cather’s flipping of the gender roles in the book O Pioneers! I will be using my own opinion in this essay, along with textual evidence to back up my claims. I will also be establishing connections between Cather’s portrayals of herself within the themes and characters in the book.

In this essay, I will be exploring the similarities and differences of female characters in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams; and ‘The World’s Wife’ by Carol Ann Duffy. Both texts denote women as somewhat weak and incompetent and as having a predatory attitude towards the mainly dominant male characters. A Streetcar Named Desire was written in 1945 and it initially connected with America’s new found taste for realism following the Great Depression and World War II. William’s based the character of Blanche on his sister who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Williams himself was homosexual, and

In her stories Lost Lady and My Antonia, Willa Cather explores the ‘woman problem’. She does this by exploring the lives of women through the lens of men who grew up around them. Doing this allows her to highlight how society treats women and men differently, and subtly show this distinction to readers in order to call out the patriarchal double standard that existed in her time, and continues to exist today. In the stories of Marian Forrester and Antonia Shimerida, Willa Cather highlights struggles women face when they deal with both financial and sexual ruin. Marian Forrester faces financial ruin when she and her husband find themselves deep in debt. Niel watches – and judges her – as she tries to keep herself afloat. Antonia deals with

Furthermost, within Howells Criticism and Fiction, it is evident that his short story Editha appears somewhat hypocritical. Throughout Criticism and Fiction Howells proclaims that the European style of writing romance novels fails to provide substance in reality however it inclines to romanticize human experiences. He states “The love of the passionate and the heroic, as the Englishman has it, is such a crude and unwholesome thing...” (367). He conforms to this writing style in the foundation of Editha’s character, which is grounded in the perception that all American women need to be won over by their husband.

In the book Cat 's Eye by Margaret Attwood, Elaine 's identity and her perceived sense of self is unique. The positive and negative experiences in her life have helped shape it. My own life experiences have also shaped me into the person I am today. Our childhoods and our nurturing during this crucial time has a powerful impact on what kind of individuals we turn out to be.

In “The Lady or the Tiger,” by Frank Stockton, the princess chooses to let her lover live, even if he would marry another person. This is because she would never see him again if he was exterminated. The author clearly states that she despises the tiger and would be in despair if the man died when he says, “And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!” Another reason that she chose the door with the lady is that she loves him too much to just let him fall to the beast. As it says in the story, “ she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands … opening the door …cruel fangs of the tiger!”

The Scarlet Letter (Figure 1) painted by Hugues Merle in 1861 depicts the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, an adulteress forced to wear the letter “A” upon her bosom forever, becomes an outcast from the community with her daughter, Pearl. Merle was often known for painting scenes of mothers and children. He illustrates the scene of Hester and Pearl sitting in the town square as part of her punishment. The townspeople walk by, pointing fingers and making shrewd remarks. Merle’s painting, his biography, and other renditions of the novel and painting will be later discussed.

One way Walker depicts the conventions of gender roles is through characterization of Meridian and Anne-Marion. In doing so, Walker has shifted the original boundaries and begun the transition to inexact definitions of what gender stereotypes truly meant. Women that do conform to these roles might identify as an “[...]‘Obedient Daughter’ … ‘Devoted Wife’ … ‘Adoring Mother’ [...]” as defined earlier in the novel (6). Meridian’s character can be illustrated as multidimensional: she is misguided, conscious, selfless, proactive, courageous. One way she views herself can be depicted by this direct quote from the novel, “Meridian was conscious of always feeling guilty, even as a child,”