Anna Haywood 's ' The Maze '

In a harsh world, desire is something that can bring vulnerability to any person. Cristiana Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is a riveting tale about two sisters who handle desire differently. One knows desire exists, but has the maturity and courage to not give in to her own yearnings, whereas the other cannot control her desires and pays dearly for them. Love is a strong theme in “Goblin Market” and is shown through the love that Lizzie has for her sister, Laura. Lizzie does not let her desire get the best of her when hearing the goblin men, she “thrust a dimpled finger / In each ear, shut her eyes and ran” (Rossetti 67-68). However, it is Laura that falls into a desire for the goblin men through curiosity: “Curious Laura chose to linger / Wondering at each merchant man” (Rossetti 69-70). The difference in the sisters understanding of desire cannot be better shown than in these lines.

Kate Chopin's ideas of feminism were seen in this story through Louise Mallard's reaction after the death of her husband. I will prove that the repression Louise Mallard felt was so intense she would rather die than spend another day in servitude. Also I will cite an example of how the author's feelings of repression were seen through Louise Mallard.

     Relationships seem to be the favorite subject of Kate Chopin’s stories. As Margaret Bauer suggests that Chopin is concerned with exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (Bauer 146). In “The Story of an Hour” Chopin deals with the subject of marriage. She illustrates the influence of family alliance on individual freedom. According to Wohlpart,“The Story of an Hour” describes the journey of Mrs. Mallard against the Cult of True Womanhood as she slowly becomes aware of her own desires and thus of a feminine self that has long been suppressed”(Wohlpart 2). The Cult of True Womanhood in the XIX century included “purity” and “domesticity”. The former suggested that women must maintain their virtue. The latter – denied them their intellectual and professional capabilities (Papke 12). Being the victim of this Cult, Louise Mallard was a good example of a wife without “her own desires and feminine self”.

The plight of women is evident in the texts presented in“The story of An Hour” and “Hills like White Elephants”. “The story of An Hour” is a short story presented to a reader, the story of a woman whose name (Mrs. Mallard) is interestingly only known after the death of her husband. The illustration of the invisibility of women in Chopin’s work is evident by the use of her literary style. In “The story of An Hour”, Mrs. Mallard seems to live in the shadow of her husband, similar to the story line in “Hills like White Elephants”, a story about a traveling couple to Barcelona. Likened to Mrs. Mallard, who yearns exclusivity from her husband, the woman in in “ Hills like White Elephants” –Jig, is repressed and under the control of her husband who eventually convinces her to procure an abortion. Despite the fact that their men appear stifling, the devotion and love of these women to the men is both trepidating and unexplainable. Both women in hills of white elephants and the story of an hour devoted their lives for their companions as they felt the need to be taken care of. This manuscript therefore provides an analysis of the situation of both women.

Margarita Engle, a poet, and novelist, once said, “Marriage without love is just one more twisted form of slavery.” In the eighteenth century, marriage was the exit door of many women from their homes whether they believed in love and filled their hearts with hope, or had no choice, and they were sold to men as if they were cattle. In The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin shows complex issues such as marriage, independence, symbols, and ironies. After hearing the news that Brently Mallard was dead in a railroad accident, Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend, went to the house to be next to Mrs. Mallard and to help her at this difficult moment. Contrary to what everyone was worried about, Mrs. Mallard knew that she would lament her husband’s death, but she was full of hope, dreaming of her freedom, appreciating life beyond the window, and a new beginning. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard’s dreams faded when she went downstairs and her husband arrived alive, and she could not stand it and died. Focusing on The Story of an Hour, there are three main points related to women in the early eighteenth century, such as oppressive marriages, women’s new perspective and ways of liberation, and women’s submission and obedience that demonstrates how women survived, even though they were not heard.

In the 1700s women were supposed to play the role of doting woman standing by her man virtuous and loving. However, one can say that gender power dynamics could easily be turned when the idea of sex and prostitution in placed in the dynamics. The two texts to support this thesis will be Eliza Haywood’s short story Fantomina: Or, Love in a Maze. Being A Secret History of an Amour between Two Persons of Condition, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s poem “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S to write a Poem called ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’”.

Kate Chopin’s short stories testify to display to the readers her viewpoints about love, sex and marriage that one is not usually aware of. These three topics all tied together. Typically, it’s easy to think that when you love someone you get married to them. You only commit yourself to them and no one else. Of course not all marriages work out but that’s life. In two particular short stories though, it establishes the struggle for woman around the 1800’s. Kate Chopin’s “The story of an Hour” and “The Storm” demonstrates the dark side of love, sex, and marriage.

Written in a time when a woman’s sexual desires were considered unimportant and inappropriate, Kate Chopin writes a story portraying a married woman in the 1890’s who involves herself in an adulterous relationship with her former lover, Alcee. In “The Storm,” Chopin refrains from condemning Calixta’s sexual immorality by drawing parallels between the storm and her passion while ultimately allowing Calixta to move from the traditional housewife to a more liberating feminist role.

“Calixta would be there… That little Spanish vixen.” No matter what the age, there are certain types of women who seem to capture the attention of every man in the room. In the story At the ‘Cadian Ball by Kate Chopin, the protagonist Calixta is precisely that kind of a girl. She is an atypical female of her time. The ideal woman of the late 1800’s was demure, prim and restrained. She was the paragon of prudery, modesty personified. Then there was Calixta. Calixta was everything that the idealized ‘Madonna’ of her time was not. She was boldly flirtatious, impulsive, sensuous and altogether outrageous. For all these anomalous characteristics, she is admired in

Fantomina is a novella describing how a young woman Fantomina goes about trying to seduce Beauplaisir.Fantomina details the events of how a young woman curiosity leads her into “faked prostitution” and ultimately falling in love with Beauplaisir.The novella chronicles how the young woman does whatever she can through disguising her identity to be always with the one she has fallen in with, Beauplaisir.The story ends when Fantomina gets pregnant and is sent to a monastery in France. Haywood’s Fantomina represents an important moment in the evolution of gender constructions in the eighteenth century.This research essay is from short story Fantomina.Eliza Haywood Fantomina perceives that gender

Traditionally, women have been known as the less dominant sex. They have been stereotyped as being only housewives and bearers of the children. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Kate Chopin‘s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, focus on a woman’s dilemma near the turn of the 19th century. Contradicting the “normal” or sad assumption of death, “The Story of an Hour” illustrates the significance of death representing freedom. The Story narrates about an hour of Louise Mallard’s life, as she tries to understand, and deal with her feelings of her husbands death.

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

Kate Chopin is a renowned author of the twentieth century. She is famous for her short stories that were written in the late 1800’s. Most of her works were published in magazines at the time but were a posthumous success because of societal dissent. The beliefs and values exhibited in her works of literature are far ahead of their time by representing women’s desire for independence from being a homemaker. One of her most popular short stories, “Desiree’s Baby,” shows how women had no choice over their own fate and were bound by the will of their husbands during Chopin’s lifetime. It was not well received by the public until years after Chopin’s death because the story draws sympathetic feelings towards the situation in which the main character Desiree finds herself in. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin uses symbolism and irony to present the message of how the innocent suffer unjustly as a result of judgmental attitudes; she does this through the main characters of Armand and Desiree.

In Eliza Haywood's Fantomina, we are introduced to a female protagonist with no name who come across Beauplaisir at a play. She is instantly intrigued by his demeanor and discovers that she has sexual desires for him. However, her role as a lady prevents her from approaching him and expressing such desires.

Kate Chopin’s short story “Two Portraits”, tells about a woman named Alberta. The first story is about Alberta the Wanton, who is a captivating prostitute that is going on a downward spiral towards aging and alcoholism. In the second story, Alberta is a nun who is the most saintly of all the women in the convent. Chopin incorporates many features like dimensionalism and environment to draw a contrast between the two Albertas. As it is the author's intention to examine contrary states of innocence and experience to show the ways that society divides women rather than uniting them.