Abusive Women in Great Expectations Essay example

“There were stories in the newspapers, of course, corpses in ditches or the woods… but they were about other women, and men who did such things were other men. None of them were the men we knew. The newspaper stories were like dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by other. How awful, we would say, and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic, they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives” (57).

During the twentieth-century stereotypical gender roles were prominent when it came to societal views. The roles of the female were simply to be a wife to her husband and mother to the children. In addition, it was also a familiar practice for women to be confined to the private space of their home. As for the role of men they were seen as the primary supporter of the family for since they were the only one allowed to have an actual occupation in the public realm of politics and business (Merret 3). They brought home the wealth earned and thus were in charge of keeping a roof over their families head. Susan Glaspell the author of a novel titled “A Jury of Her Peers” illustrates the social standards of women’s subjugation while a case involving a murder mystery is in the process of being investigated and solved. Glaspell takes the reader on a journey of not to only tell the story of a murder will out, but to also ensure that women 's subjectivity is not only to the rules of societal standards but also by those of their husbands.

Randall Martin in Women, Equity, and Murder in Early Modern England examines the growth of early modern printed news and its relation to the realities of female homicide and infanticide to forensic and ethical scrutiny by a diverse readership. (5) For Martin, printed crime news generated a paralegal culture of equitable perspective that enabled early modern jurors, judges and others to conceptualize the rational options of leniency extended towards female suspects in dismissed or acquitted trials. (11). By examining these links, he also traces the decline of the Devil’s involvement in legal cases and the changing stature of the law. (206) Writing from his former work, a facsimile edition of relating sources to women’s murder trials, Women and

The legacy a woman leaves behind makes her who she is; the jobs she has done, the family she has made, the people she has killed; yes, the people she has killed. One woman who comes to mind on the subject of murderesses is Mary Ann Cotton, Britain’s first serial killer. No one else compares in the case of ‘Whose Crime Is It Anyway?.’ With her poisonous smile and even more poisonous tea, Mary Ann Cotton is the infamous criminal who vitiated her community in disastrous ways.

During the punishment of Hester, the countrywomen with “...stone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts... “(48), and “...a boldness and rotundity of speech…”(Hawthorne 48) stand under the platform and gossip about Hester, such as the woman like  “... a hard-featured dame of fifty…”(49), “...a third autumnal matron…”(49), “...the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges.”(49). Those old countrywomen observe how Hester harms public behoof, how to put a hot iron on Hester’s forehead, or Hester brings shame and ought to die. Most of the readers of the twenty-first century think how ironing it is that the countrywomen laugh at Hester who contains unique temperament. Nevertheless, the Puritan culture natures those countrywomen who are in the crowd since their births and Bible is the only source of truth in their lives. Environment and culture cause illiteracy of the women in the town. The development of stereotypes leads the ladies to have stubborn but reasonable boundaries of good or sin in their minds which are unusual than people in today’s world. Other than the town people, Pearl also has interesting reactions towards

The novels ‘Lady Audely’s secret’, Rebecca’, and ‘The wasp Factory’ possess analogous elements of the gothic. They present diverging concepts of femininity rebelling against imposed gender stereotypes, and focalise on the usually marginalised ‘abjected’ figures of society. (Kristeva, 1982:3) This essay aims to argue how the gendered the monster are embodiments of social anxieties and ideologies and how challenge these projections. Mutual notions within the texts such as: the use of gothic tropes, uncanny gender subverting society’s ideals, and monsters as metaphors will be explored.

For example, in the society which Atwood creates, affairs lead to much more severe punishments for females than they do for males (Lü). After being impregnated by her employer’s son, Mary Whitney’s fate is sealed. She decides to have an unsafe abortion which kills her while her employer’s son remains unscathed (Lü). Also, in regard to Thomas Kinnear and Nancy, the male upholds his reputation as a gentleman whereas the female is scorned as “dirty” (Lü). Lü highlights that even after their deaths, Thomas’s tomb was better decorated. In my paper, I will expand upon many of the tenants of Lü’s arguments. Lü mainly writes about these situations from a feminist perspective, explaining how the men walked away scot-free while the females suffered, but I wish to analyze the socioeconomic implications. Poverty is a major factor in Mary’s pregnancy and Nancy’s affair, which to this point, has gone

Finally, Captain Murderer dies a gruesome death, which in my opinion, he deserves. In referring to the historical, Victorian context and how the original readers interpreted the characters we can see from the twenty first century viewpoint, that women were considered to

Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical style novel, Great Expectations, has a consistent theme of crime and punishment. The novel takes place in nineteenth-century Europe, a time called the Victorian Era. Dickens’ novel accurately portrays most aspects of crime and punishment during this time. Dickens depiction of the conviction system in the Victorian era is identical. His novel portrays the inconsistencies of conviction because of gender, social-class, and appearance. These inconsistencies which are displayed through his characters such as Molly, Magwitch and Compeyson. With these three characters, he precisely illustrates the conviction system of the Victorian Era. Not only does he portray conviction accurately, but he perfectly describes

Savannah Gutierrez Mr. Whitmore Honors English I December 2, 2014 The Detriments Revenge It is only human nature to get angry and crave vengeance on occasion, but to take that anger out of half of the entire world’s population might just be a little extreme. Everyone indeed does seek revenge at times, but one person takes that one step further. In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a woman named Miss Havisham is abandoned by her fiancé on her wedding day and vows to seek revenge on the entire male population because of one man’s act. However, she does not attempt to accomplish this alone.

Criminality and justice played a big role in the Victorian Era and Dickens knew it, that's why in the book we see how unfair trials where. We also see how social class was very important for the people who had crimes. In the book some characters that didn't deserve to be in jail where and the bad people were let free. In Great Expectations, it is clear thats Charles Dickens takes a critical stance against Victorian era criminality and justice. He didn't like how the prisoners were treated and the conditions that they were in, also some of the people there didn't even do anything really bad enough for them to be scented to death.

During the 19th century women were confined by labels such as ‘the angel of the house’ associated with fragility and weakness. It was therefore socially accepted that women were supressed and rejected, leading to gender power struggles (Anderson, 2004). Comparing and contrasting western views of

Throughout history, women have been viewed as inferior to men, being portrayed as weak, less intelligent, and dependent on men. This point of view has been exemplified in many literary works by creating a male dominant society. In A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, the female characters unlike the male, are all created as if to say that women are not capable of being well rounded people. Dickens’ portrayal of women in A Tale of Two Cities is problematic because rather than craft well-rounded characters, as he does with many of the male characters, he portrays them as beautiful but stereotypically weak, clever but crazy, and unattractive yet brave.

The correct portrayal of women in literature is highly significant as women have been marginalized throughout history. Although Charles Dickens wrote powerful and dominant female characters in his novel Great Expectations, Dickens’ portrayal of female strength is unsympathetic considering the period when he wrote this novel. During the Victorian Era, women never had dominance in situations and had less rights than men. In this case, Dickens alienated the female characters by writing them with characteristics that imply a negative connotation to the readers. Negative characteristics are still important for the development of a character, of course, but the Dicken’s depiction submits that women victimize Pip. The patriarchy and power in relationships are contrasted by the powerful female characters. Furthermore, the differences between men and women in Great Expectations are connected to social constructs rather than biological development. In addition, each female character have a significant impact on the male protagonist, Pip. Each female character is also shown negatively on how each of them is “redeemed” as the plot advances.

Another cultural aspect explored within Great Expectations is the position of women. Living in a patriarchal society women had few rights or opportunities. Women had little power, and the power they did possess was limited. Dickens compares the balance of power between men and women, thus creating a feminist reading.