Comparing Brooklyn, By Colm Tobin And Memoirs Of A Woman Doctor '

This generation of women, may it be young or old, are fortunate to live in a country where you can be anything, do anything, and say anything that men can. Although in theory the playing fields are still not completely even, we as a nation have made some substantial progress in women’s rights. Just a few hundred years ago, women livered mundane lives and rarely got to speak up for themselves. In the book, The Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, it follows the life of Martha Ballard through the use of her own diary. Martha Ballard captures the lives of common women in the Early Republic Era by providing an authentic record of the role women played in their communities throughout the developmental years of the United States.

Contemporary novels have imposed upon the love tribulations of women, throughout the exploration of genre and the romantic quest. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God (1978) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (2000) interplay on the various tribulations of women, throughout the conventions of the romantic quest and the search for identity. The protagonists of both texts are women and experience tribulations of their own, however, unique from the conventional romantic novels of their predecessors. Such tribulations include the submission of women and the male desire for dominance when they explore the romantic quest and furthermore, the inner struggles of women. Both texts display graphic imagery of the women’s inner experiences through confronting and engaging literary techniques, which enhance the audiences’ reading experience. Hurston’s reconstructions of the genre are demonstrated through a Southern context, which is the exploration of womanhood and innocence. Whilst Woolf’s interpretation of the romantic quest is shown through modernity and an intimate connection with the persona Clarissa Dalloway, within a patriarchal society.

During life, birth, and death, a family is one of the few natures of life that are present throughout. Often times, the value of family is taken for granted, and people tend to disregard the importance it carries. Due to the power present in the nature of a man, often times it is challenging for women to establish a firm independence, in distinction of the common norms inaugurated in society and in family. In both A Thousand Splendid Suns and Pride and Prejudice, men are the dominant figures in all households, as they have control over their financial status, who their children marry, where they live, and create means in which the females of the family must follow. The inferiority that women face leads to an inquiry of an immense pride

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

During this hours, everyone can see what is going on, so the narrator barely creeps, just like it was seen as taboo to be seen supporting women’s rights. “ [...] He said what I felt was a drought, and shut the window” (Gilman ). The windows in the story are a path to freedom, but when they are barred, it represents the opportunities for independence and freedom being taken away, and the narrator hold back from reaching for them. “She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession”(Gilman 650). Jennie was John’s sister, and she represented the “ideal” woman role expected by society, just like Mary. They are everything the narrator’s husband wants her to be, the stereotypical housewife, who does what she is told to do; the exact opposite from the narrator. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friend and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do? My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” (Gilman 648).The physicians are symbolic to high rank in society

Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.

Anita Nair’s “Ladies Coupe” has narratives by six women characters who by chance meet in a train ladies coupe that Akhilandeswari alias Akhila boards in. all the women speak of the repressive forces of a patriarchal India. Though they are from different community or cultural, all women share pain in different means. The novel is a ‘bildungsroman’ either narrating the childhood to adulthood life or the characters liberation by developing confidence to shun the web of patriarchal metaphors.

Ever since the days of World War I, women have been seen as second rate to men. They had to live up to many social standards that men didn’t have to and had strict guidelines on how to live their lives. This all changed when modernism deliberately tried to break away from Victorian Era standards in which women were subjugated to a lot more scrutiny. Ezra Pound, who was a large figure in the modernist movement, captured the spirit of the era in his famous line “Make it new!” Consequently, many writers started to experiment with many different and wild writing styles, which led to the short stories and poems we have today. The stories The Wife of His Youth and Mrs. Spring Fragrance were all written in this era of modernism. While they are written in a more traditional style of writing, both these stories have strong implications on feminism from the viewpoints of both male and female writers.

As a woman, the narrator must be protected and controlled and kept away from harm. This seemed to be the natural mindset in the 19th century, that women need to have guidance in what they do, what decisions they make, and what they say. John calls her a “little goose”(95) and his “little girl”(236), referring her to a child, someone who needs special attention and control. His need for control over her is proven when she admits that her husband is “careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without special direction”(49). John has mentally restrained the speaker’s mind, she is forced to hide her anxieties, fears and be submissive, to preserve the happiness of their marriage. When the narrator attempts to speak up, she is bogged down and made guilty of her actions. Her husband makes her feel guilty for asking, he says, “‘I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind!’”(225-226). By making her feel guilty for her illness, John has trapped her mentally from speaking up about it, convincing her that she must be more careful about her actions. Men often impose the hardships placed upon women during this era. They are often the people reassuring them of their “womanly” duties, and guiding them

Teresa of Avila can be known as an autobiography of Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, or even as Teresa refers to her piece as a confession. Throughout this historical, religious confession, Dr. Raquel Trillia pointed out throughout her lecture how Teresa used strategies that many women must use in order to be viewed as a writer. These strategies are used so that a woman’s writing will be accepted, or at the most respected within the literature society. With that being said, the main theme brought forth during Dr. Raquel Trillia’s lecture about Teresa of Avila is how much women are struggling to be a part of the literature community and to be graced with respect from other (male) authors within the novel industry.

The “fear” of women is one of the novel’s most central features. As most of the male patients in the novel have been damaged by relationships with overpowering women. The hospital, run by women, treats only male patients, showing how women have the ability to emasculate even the most masculine of men. The narrator of the novel, Chief Bromden, witnesses the

Women have always played key roles in literature, from the strong heroine to the damsel in distress. Common in works published before the 21st century, and even after, women are written as the caregivers, and the homemakers for their husbands. Literary women will often play the submissive role in society and in their marriages. These women react differently to their role; some remain submissive, some are rebellious, some are breaking free, and some go down as a result of their submission.

Many stories back then consisted of women being dominated over their husbands just because they are female and are considered the ones responsible to maintain the housework. The men who were considered dominant in this era, had the ability to control everything in terms of what the woman could and could not do. Along with that, it was expected that women were to be submissive to their husbands, or male figures in charge of their lives at the time. But in these three different stories, the outcomes of the woman all result in a significant impact to their lives in rather negative ways. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, The Story of an Hour, and Desiree’s Baby both by Kate Chopin, the reader experiences the reinforced and subvert gender norms present in the women with male figures who are dominant and have control over their lives.

The subjects of the two novels, Edna Pontellier and the Narrator, undergo a similar change; at the onset of the novel they meet all societies expectations and standards for women of their time- Mrs. Pontellier is described as shy and reserved and neither protagonist ever disobey their husbands- but with each coming page, the women convert into someone unrecognizable to their antierior selves. Though their metamorphose are both ignited by a new environment, they had internally harbored yet suppressed their need for independence and freedom. Like these two, every woman holds creativity and free will; however during this time they were unable to practice them, as doing so was almost unheard of and rarely tolerated. The Narrator and Edna themselves serve to represent the healthy creative urges within women that have been suppressed.

Women roles have drastically changed since the late 18th and early 19th century. During this time, women did not have the freedom to voice their opinions and be themselves. Today women don’t even have to worry about the rules and limitations like the women had to in this era. Edna in “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin and Nora in “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen were analogous protagonists. The trials they faced were also very similar. Edna and Nora were both faced with the fact that they face a repressive husband whom they both find and exit strategy for. For Nora this involved abandoning her family and running away, while Edna takes the option that Nora could not do-committing suicide. These distinct texts both show how women were forced to