An Unusual Perspective in Kay Boyles' Short Story, The Astronomer's Wife

Since Lynn was a busy town of commerce and trade, the middle-class inhabitants were wealthy. The status of Margery?s father, John, several times mayor of Lynn, helped to instill Margery with self-respect. She was very much influenced by the people of Lynn?s concern with status and wealth: ?She had a very great envy of her neighbors that they should be as well arrayed as she.? In her Book, she even goes so far as to say that her marriage to businessman John Kempe did no justice to her ?worthy kindred? and was a socially-imbalanced relationship, although they both belonged to the same social class. This haughtiness and sense of pride are distinguishing features of Margery throughout her life.

mind was no longer just between men and women; it was now the working and the

Social expectations is a significant component in people’s lives, to the point where people become obsessive over materialistic aspects in life. These expectations creates normality for individuals and essentially tell individuals how they should behave. There are different social expectations that are induced for the upper class and the lower class, otherwise known as social status. The two protagonist Marta from “The Falling Girl” and Earl from “They’re Not Your Husband” undergo challenges that they face regarding social expectations and social status, which in turn shows the similarities between the two short stories. Marta was identified as someone of lower class, she had dreams and ambitions of being a part of an elite society. Despite all her aspirations in life, she knew that she would never obtain this lifestyle, which ultimately lead downfall as she wanted to be a part of society. Marta from “The Falling Girl” was influenced by the materialistic aspects in life that she failed to realize she had so much time to

Social status often establishes one 's credibility and integrity within a society. The power that social status has, encourages people to heavily focus on it. With this focus on social status ever pressing, one’s identity often gets intertwined with and reliant on their place in the hierarchy of society. People become fixated on one idea they have of a person in a certain social class, that anybody who breaks out of specific stereotypes may often cause anger amongst others. In the short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor, the main character, Mrs. May, is obsessive about the way others perceive her and her place in society. Mr. May’s identity is so strictly tied to her desire to get to a higher social class and her notions how society

“Pride and Prejudice”, a novel written by Jane Austen represents eighteenth century English women as illogical, domestic individuals who economically depend on male members in their household. Major decisions in their life are decided by their fathers and brothers. They perform subordinate roles, and are considered inferior to men. This novel reinforces the sexist stereotypes of women.The female characters in the novel possess these virtues in varying degrees depending on their role. Marriage is considered essential to secure a woman’s future ,they are expected to behave in a certain manner to earn the respect of the society, and are treated unfairly by the social and justice

The life of a lady in the 19th century is painted in a romantic light. Pictured in her parlor, the lady sips tea from delicate china while writing letters with a white feathered quill. Her maid stands silently off in the background, waiting for orders to serve her mistress. What is not typically pictured, is the sadness or boredom echoed on the lady’s face. Perhaps the letter is to a dear friend, not seen in ages, pleading with the friend to visit, in hopes that the friend will fill the void in the lady’s life made from years spent in a loveless marriage; or possiblyk20 the lady isn’t writing a letter at all, but a novel or a poem, never to be read by anyone but her. Edith Warton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, are 19th Century ladies who dare to share their writing with the world. Through their works, the darker side of a woman’s life in the late 1800’s is exposed. Gender politics in the 19th dictates that a lady is dependent on her husband for her financial security and social standing; that is if she is fortunate enough to marry at all. In Edith Warton’s The House of Mirth, Lily Bart is a beautiful woman in her late 20’s, who fails to marry a wealthy man. The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper slowly goes insane under her physician husbands misguided attempts to cure her of depression. The downfall of Lily Bart and the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is

Streib, Jessi. "Marrying out of Your Social Class Will Be Hard, but Not Doomed." Quartz. Quartz, 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 02 Feb.

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook, someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. In the essay "I Want A Wife," Judy Brady points out the different roles of a "wife" according to society at that time. I believe that Brady is sarcastically describing the ideal wife every man dreams of. Even though, women have been fighting for their rights for a long time now, even today women are still not equal to men in many ways. In today's society women are more respected and are acceptable for many jobs as men are, but still they are not treated equally all the times. Brady is a wife herself, and in her essay she wishes she had a wife that she described. Brady brings out all the

Despite the economic distinction and living conditions that separated the bachelors and the maids, they both have similarities. Though there are similarities, they only further expose the power of the upper class over the working class. These similarities bring to our attention the topic repeatedly discussed in class, which is the power of choosing. Both the bachelors and the maids lived or were isolated from the world and had no attachments to family. Melville explains, “…these easy hearted men had no wives or children to give an anxious thought” (6). The bachelors chose to not have a family so that it did not interrupt their tranquility and so that they did not have to worry

An expecting couple awaits to discover the gender of their baby. The nurse announces that it’s a girl. The couple is extremely excited, but do they truly grasp the weight of what this implies? Gender is not simply a physical trait, as it affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Stereotypes repress the potential in all men and women. The same stereotypes are found throughout literature such as Medea by Euripides, Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, “Sonnets” by Shakespeare, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Frederick Waterman’s “The Best Man Wins”. A common thread between these pieces is that power can be gained by those who are suppressed by defying gender stereotypes and social hierarchies.

Social expectations are a significant component in people’s lives, to the point where people become obsessive over materialistic aspects in life. These expectations create normality for individuals and essentially tell individuals how they should behave. There are different social expectations that are induced for the upper class and the lower class, otherwise known as social status. The two protagonist Marta from “The Falling Girl” and Earl from “They’re Not Your Husband” undergo challenges that they face regarding social expectations and social status, which shows the similarities between the short stories. Marta from “The Falling Girl” was associated as someone of a lower class, she had ambitions of becoming a part of an elite society. Despite all her aspirations in life, she knew that she would never obtain this lifestyle. Marta was influenced by the materialistic aspects in life that she failed to realize she had so much time to grow up and opportunities in life, but was focused on the unrealistic expectations. In Buzzati’s words, “Within it were

It is a very difficult task for women to live a content life while in a despondent marriage. Though it has been done, it is simply no easy task. In the short stories "Story of an hour", and "Astronomers Wife" Kate Chopin and Kay Boyle both suggests to their readers that a woman needs a man to connect with her physically to be happy. The two stories both share the thesis that women are being held back by their husbands and there is plenty of evidence to prove this. With Chopin's story taking place in the 50's, and Boyle's story taking place at the turn of the century, they encounter parallel situations with a time difference of almost 50 years.

The irony of the situation is that most women who are accepted by society and are able to maintain the role of being something worthy to look at are able to do so only because of a husband who supplies them with the necessary funds to achieve it.  In other words, in a male dominated society wherein women largely need the financial support of men to be accepted, they have become commodities.  Lily recognizes this predicament when she ponders her marriage to Percy Gryce, a position where she would be to him "what his Americana hitherto had been:  the one possession in which he took sufficient pride to spend money on" (Wharton  65).

The socialites in Daisy Miller's world aspire to a perfection, a nobility, and a superlative of character. But character is a misleading word; interiority is important only insofar as it reflects the assumed depths that come with an appearance of refinement, for the relationships in "Daisy Miller: A Study" are formed by observation, not by conversation. Winterbourne's