Title: Repression of female identity by the patriarchal system which the oppressed woman, in response, seeks to subvert through acquiring self-expression via her imagination and knowledge. The essay will focus on the effectiveness of such attempts to reclaim identity.
Texts: “Sultana’s Dream” (SD) by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain & “The Yellow Wallpaper” (TYW) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Rational & justification for choosing the texts: Both texts are set in a similar time period from the 1890s to 1900s. Women of that era were generally subjected to restrictive conditions through being stringently controlled by patriarchy, an issue closely tied to my topic. Women in the social context of TYW were confined to the domestic sphere, their individualities
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The subordinated women in both texts utilise their creativity and insight to construct imaginative reconfigurations of daily normalcy. Sultana envisions the alternate utopian dimension of Ladyland to articulate her desires for female emancipation. Similarly, TYW sees the narrator adopting her wild imagination to actively shape the wallpaper, the object functioning as a site of her self-expression.
Cixous, Helene. “The Laugh of The Medusa.” The Portable Cixous, 2010, pp. 27-39
Historically, women have been repressed in written works. Cixous asserts the need for women to write themselves and to interpolate their voices into the medium of text. Only then can the dominating phallocentric discourse be destructed. In both texts, the authors attempt to transcend this universal censorship of female identity by according the protagonists with a voice – a powerful one that actively resists patriarchal control through the creation of an ambitious dream (SD) and an empowering space within the domestic realm (TYW).
Butler, Judith. “Gender Trouble: Feminism and The Subversion of Identity.” Thinking Gender, 1990, pp.
In “It’s a Woman's World,” Eavan Boland utilizes several literary techniques to reveal the poem’s complex conception of a “woman’s world.” Boland sheds light on the static nature of a woman’s role in society, which sparks their desire to overcome the societal limitations that is put upon them by men. Through her sarcastic title, use of personification, and critical tone, Boland is able to expose both genders stereotypical responsibilities and to convey society’s desire to silence women’s outrage against their role in this world.
In the disturbing novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, the setting in which the action takes place is extremely important. The author uses setting to focus the reader’s attention into the story in a gradual manner. Also, the manipulation of setting allows the author to subtly introduce symbols in the text. These symbols represent Gilman’s view on the status of women in the patriarchal society of the nineteenth century.
Thesis: The Narrator, who consistently seeks freedom of speech and expression, does not possess the ability to become independent due to the underlying bias of a patriarchal society in which she is entrapped by her significant other.
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in both the stories that we will be discussing today, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate
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