Defiance of Gender-Based Work Ethics in Bartleby and The Yellow Wallpaper

In this essay I will discuss and analyze the social forces that influenced American women writers of the period of 1865 to 1912. I will describe the specific roles female authors played in this period and explain how the perspectives of female authors differed from their male contemporaries.

The narrator in Melville’s short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener” is put in a tough position as he hires a new scrivener, Bartleby. I sympathize more with the narrator as he is simply trying to go about his job while Bartleby’s troubled state and disobedience proves to he a hassle. Initially, Bartleby produced extraordinary work but then slowly declined to producing nothing. Being a scrivener proved a exhausting and demanding job but when asked to look over copies Bartleby would reply that he “prefers not to”. Most bosses in the position of the narrator would simply fire Bartleby but the narrator simply stops asking Bartleby to do any work as he cares about Bartleby’s well being. When the narrator finds Bartleby living in the office he says, “My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity.

For the most part, society’s conception of women in the 19th century dictated the way women were treated and influenced the portrayal of female characters in writing generated during that time. The Cult of Domesticity claimed that true womanhood was marked by a natural inclination to domesticity and submissiveness. Though all women clearly have the capacity to think for themselves, earn money, and overcome the emotional obstacles they may meet, the plausibility of complete independence was a challenging appeal for Harper to make. Men dominated family

In her 1945 article, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller illustrates a world in which “there exists in the minds of men a tone of feeling toward women as toward slaves”, and where men hold “the belief that Woman was made for Man”. Two books, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Woman in the Nineteenth Century, provide male and female perspective in the 19th century. These separate texts exemplify two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, Woman in the Nineteenth Century provides perspective of the feminine experience in a male dominated world while Moby Dick portrays a society from a male point of view and experiences woman as subservient to himself.

Sexism is the ideology that maintains that one sex is inherently inferior to the other. Sexism or discrimination based on gender has been a social issue for many years; it is the ideology that one sex is superior or inferior to the other. Sexism does not only affect females, but also males. Men are very often victimized by social stereotypes and norms based on gender expectations. Sexism has appears in almost all social institutions including family, the media, religion, sports, the military, politics, and the government. However, although both genders are affected, men have benefited from sexism the most (Thompson 300-301.)

The first example of suppression is the usage of the “rest cure” as a treatment for mental illness, which the author indirectly criticizes by showing the negative impact this treatment has on the narrator of the story. Instead of finding ways to work through her depression, she wasn’t allowed to do any kind of work or leave the house area, which caused her to get lost in her own mind. By not being allowed to work or write, she wasn’t able to deal with her problems. She spent most of the time alone in a room, with just her thoughts. Therefore, it is not surprising that she developed a fascination with the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. Although the rest cure treatment obviously did more harm than good it was widely used in the 19th century to treat nervous illnesses. According to the sciencemuseum.org.uk, patients usually were prescribed the rest cure for six to eight week and it meant that were on a bed

In the early 20th century, feminism was not very common thus women had less value than men in society. Two great examples in english literature that indirectly talk about this implicitly are The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men.

In Charlotte Perkins “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which was published in 1892, the author explores the gender ideologies of the time period and how women were seen as inferior, resulting in unfair treatment in cases even involving their personal health. The main character, who is a woman named Jane, is led to insanity due to the unsuitable treatment received for her depression, but the insanity she goes into symbolizes a revelation. As she progresses into this insanity, the author ties in the discovery the main character makes of the hidden figure in the wallpaper to a woman making the discovery of how the oppressions and limitations women face must be challenged and changed in order to escape the lifestyle which keeps them imprisoned to the

The two other scriveners in the office, Turkey and Nippers, only did a combined one full days work between the two of them. Turkeys drinking problem and Nippers not being a morning person caused lack of production between the two workers. Turkey could work fine in the morning and turned out good copies, while Nippers was incapable of working in the morning and getting nothing done. In the afternoon, Turkey would return from lunch drunk and not being able to complete any tasks without blotting paper and Nippers was the productive one. “But the blots, Turkey,” intimated I. “True; but, with submission, sir, behold these hairs! I am getting old. Surely, sir, a blot or tow of a warm afternoon is not got be severely urged against grey hairs.” (135) Bartleby recognizes this lack of authority and once asked by his boss to look over some of his work Bartleby says, “I would prefer not to” and refuses to look over his work despite his bosses wishes. Any normal boss might give a stern warning and make the employee complete the task at hand. On the other hand, Bartleby’s boss simply blew off the matter and summoned Nippers from the other room to look over Bartleby’s work. This event gave Bartleby the green light to believing he can do what he wants in the office and no discipline will be

Herman Melville’s novels, with good reason, can be called masculine. Moby-Dick may, also with good reason, be called a man’s book and that Melville’s seafaring episode suggests a patriarchal, anti-feminine approach that adheres to the nineteenth century separation of genders. Value for masculinity in the nineteenth century America may have come from certain expected roles males were expected to fit in; I argue that its value comes from examining it not alone, but in relation to and in concomitance with femininity. As Richard H. Brodhead put it, Moby-Dick is “so outrageously masculine that we scarcely allow ourselves to do justice to the full scope of masculinism” (Brodhead 9). I concur with Brodhead in that remark, and that Melville’s

     In the late nineteenth century, after the American social and economic shift commonly referred to as the "Industrial Revolution" had changed the very fabric of American society, increased attention was paid to the psychological disorders that apparently had steamed up out of the new smokestacks and skyscrapers in urban populations (Bauer, 131).  These disorders were presumed to have been born out of the exhaustion and "wear and tear" of industrial society (Bauer, 131-132).  An obvious effect of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of cure or another, although the "rest cure" popularized by the physician S. Weir Mitchell was the most

Some people say that sexism no longer exists in the workplace, yet only "19%" of women are in a presidential or chief position at work(Bomey ). Women are less likely to be hired for a job despite having all the qualifications, women earn less than men, and women are continuously harassed in the workplace. Despite the fact that women are capable to "perform with the same skill and success" as men, the issue of gender discrimination still continues to rise( ). In society, sometimes it can be difficult to recognize issues of sexism not only at work but in life. With the failure to realize gender discrimination and harassment in the world, educating people on the issue of sexism can make the workplace a success.

The yellow wallpaper is a story about John and his wife who he keeps locked up due to her "nervous condition" of anxiety. John diagnoses her as sick and has his own remedy to cure her. His remedy s to keep her inside and deterring her from almost all activities. She is not allowed to write, make decisions on her own, or interact with the outside world. John claims that her condition is improving but she knows that it is not. She eats almost nothing all day and when it is suppertime she eats a normal meal. John sees this and proclaims her appetite is improving. Later in the story, the woman creates something of an imaginary friend trapped behind the horrible looking yellow wallpaper in

The Lawyer had three other workers besides Bartleby, they were; Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut. However, his fixation stayed on Bartleby. From the Lawyer’s profession, he had many encounters with different people and a broad variety of personalities. Yet there was something about Bartleby that the Lawyer never could collect an understanding of. The speaker in Bartleby states, “But I waive the biographies of all other scriveners, for a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a

Sexism in the Workplace The workplace is the area in which sexism is most commonly found. Sexism is in evidence in unfair recruitment practices, unequal pay, and intimidating behavior towards colleagues. Legislation is now in place in many countries that prohibits unfair treatment of staff on the grounds of their sex. The problem with this legislation is that they are often difficult to apply.