Dutch Culture In Washington Irvin's Dame Van Winkle

At the beginning of the short drama, “Trifles,” Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, is painted as timid and submissive wife. She willingly submits herself to the responsibilities she has as a wife. As the play unfolds, Mrs. Peter’s submissiveness begins to diminish. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale work together to uncover the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband. When the women find the evidence, they refuse to share it with the men. Mrs. Peter’s character transforms into a more confident individual over the course of the play.

In 1854 Fanny Fern published what was to become not only her most successful works, but one of the most popular and enduring works of English literature during the Antebellum period: Ruth Hall; A Domestic Tale of the Present Time. Though the title – especially to a modern reader – does little to convey the level of thoughtful and heady critique that Fern expounds through this book, it is actually is a strong indictment of the feminine position as the subordinate housewife, mother, and societal agent. However, despite this criticism, it does not seem that Fanny Fern is critical of the institutions of marriage or motherhood as a whole. Her critique is based on the limiting effects of the conventional roles into which wives and mothers fall, and the deleterious consequences these roles have on the personal development and self-actualization of the women who enter into them. Therefore, it is not the institution of marriage or motherhood that Fern is critical of, but rather the expectations and limitations that society assigns to the women who assume these roles.

The protagonist’s marriage with her spouse, John, exposes stereotypical roles of both male and females, and the subordination of women in that era. John’s assumption of superior wisdom assures

Dame Van Winkle was Irving's representation of the country of Great Britain. Her heavy hand represented the power that the British tried to displace onto the American colonies while over sea. The discipline handed out by Dame Van Winkle onto her husband may seem to the onlooker to have made him more carefree to look upon life as something to be lived. The oppression he experienced while at home enables him to go out with a different outlook on life, as it did with the colonist. Irving terms this thirst and knowledge of freedom by saying "to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the disciplines of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching virtues of patience and long-suffering." In other words, Dame Van Winkle was the oppressive hand that laid the foundation for Rip Van Winkle to experience the pleasures of life once out of the house, as did the people of the colonies once they escaped the rule of the crown.

Her loving husband, John, never takes her illness seriously. The reader has a front row seat of the narrator’s insanity voluminously growing. He has shown great patience with the recovery of his wife’s condition. However, the narrator is clear to the reader that she cannot be her true self with him. In the narrator’s eyes she feels he is completely oblivious to how she feels and could never understand her. If she did tell him that the yellow wallpaper vexed her as it does he would insist that she leave. She could not have this.

In Rip Van Winkle, it portrays a stereotypical marriage where the woman is constantly nagging her husband to do the things that she wants him to do. This story has a lot of derogatory language towards Rip Van Winkle’s wife, Dame Van Winkle and marriage in general. The narrator says that Rip Van Winkle after a fight would “take to the outside of the house – the only side which, in truth, belongs to a hen-pecked husband” (47).

In the World’s Wife Carol Ann Duffy gives a voice to the imagined wives - some fiction, others real - history long forgot or never gave a thought too. Duffy surgically dissects the quintessential homogeneous relationship of husband and wife. A recurring motif of marriage being exposed for all it’s foibles and weaknesses is expressed throughout the collection. It would be a misconception to suggest Duffy’s focus is the not hetrosexual relationship, though other forms are explored. These include: God, mother and daughter, female friends and lovers, her relationship with the self as well as her first love: literature. Relationships tend to come in three modes: the good (Anne Hathaway), the bad (Little Red Cap) and the downright ugly (Mrs Beast). This essay will explore the themes and motifs duffy exploits and question impression left by the collection.

With good intentions, John controls his wife's life and makes all decisions for her, whether she agrees with them or not. His wife is full aware of the restrictions that her husband has imposed on her, but she is recessive to his control and often agrees with him. However, she fails to see “signs of her confinement: the bars at the window, the gate at the top of the stairs, steel rings on the walls, and the nailed-down bestead” (Korb). Because she is unable to escape from the isolation that her husband has kept her in, the woman seeks relief from the yellow wallpaper and she creates an imaginary relationship it. In fact, the worst thing her husband should not of done is give his unstable wife an object that is not appealing to focus on. In doing so, he has given her an opportunity to let her mind wonder and create objects that no one else sees. John, however, does not give any thought to this because after all, he thinks he knows what is best for his wife.

All three of whom are presented as posing a collection of traits and behaviors that cause Jim a great amount of frustration. Which after being analyzed in regards to the issue’s historical context reveals several instances in which the established gender roles were to some extent largely being ignored, or in the case of Jim’s mother and father are largely reversed. A creative decision that presents a family dynamic in almost direct opposition with the ideals of the era, such as those that describe the proper livelihood for a women being one of a supportive wife and loving mother. Or as it came to be known as the notion of the “eternal female”. In regards to Judy’s position on the spectrum of conventional deviance in gender her character is portrayed as exhibiting more behaviors socially specified, all of which draw a notable amount of influence from the concept of “normal femininity”. However, in the same vein as Jim and the other students Judy does conversely demonstrate a degree of rebellious disregard in her behavior. Leading such a phenomenon of recklessness to be attributed to an entire generation by their

In the film “The Real Charlotte,” based on the novel of the same title, written by Edith Sommerville and Martin Ross, Charlotte can be perceived in a variety of different ways. The film takes place during the 19th century, in an Anglo-Irish world, where there are social expectations of women to become a housewife and tend to their husbands needs, opposed to holding a job and social status. In this paper, there will be an analysis of how Charlotte’s true personality, priorities, and devious actions towards others is a result of her reacting against the patriarchal roles during the late 19th century of the Anglo-Irish world.

    What are the attitudes of the young Puritan husband Goodman Brown toward women, of the author toward women, of  other characters in the story toward women? This essay intends to answer that question.

One month later Dame Van Winkle could not find Rip Van Wrinkle. She falls in love with this dude named Vince. Dame Van Winkle saw that he did his job, mowed the lawn, unlike Rip Van Winkle. One day Vince proposed to Dame Van Winkle. Dame Van Winkle agreed to marry Vince because everyone in thinks that Rip died!Dame Van Winkle and Vince raised the kids Rip Van Winkle's kids until they were

The audience is provided with minimal facts about her, and learn the most about her through the dialogue in which she rejects her husband’s suggestion. Around 2 A.M., the newlyweds woke up ravenous. With no food in the refrigerator, the narrator proposes that they eat out. The wife immediately rejects the suggestion, stating that “you’re not supposed to go out to eat after midnight.” Due to her unambiguous response, the audience is inclined to perceive the narrator’s wife as a timid and simple woman who accepts certain social codes. The description of his wife does not expand from their exchange, painting her as a truly ordinary character. The audience quickly learns that she is not as the story progresses. After learning about her husband’s first attack on a bakery, she declares that he had been cursed and they must reverse it. The narrator and the wife drive around Tokyo with a gun and ski masks that the wife surprisingly owned. He writes, “Why my wife owned a shotgun, I had no idea. Or ski masks. Neither of us had ever skied. But she didn’t explain and I didn’t ask.” Her appearance in the story in very deceptive in that she unexpectedly has some expertise in theft. As more about her character is revealed, the audience’s perception of her escalates. Contrary to what she seems, she asserts her dominance in their relationship and destroys the readers’ assumption that the married couple

The ideas and values of society regarding independence and self-autonomy from a female perspective show from both and institutional and social standpoint, women are followers however their male counterparts are leaders. The lack of a woman’s self-autonomy can be seen in Dickinson’s Poem 83 where she suggests the conventional idea of inequality of leadership within domestic sphere of marriage. The central metaphor of the poem places the female of the relationship as the commodity and the male as merchant “But till the merchant buy… the subtle cargo lie” which reinforces the lack of independence juxtaposed to the males authoritative traditional role. However, these social norms are completely disparate in the character of Katherine featured

Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" is a tale that he wrote after an old traditional European story. Irving situates it in America before and after the Revolutionary War and describes Rip as a man whose only desire in life is to get away from "petticoat" tyranny meaning his wife. However, Rip may also be seen as a traditional figure of simplicity who is just as content to be a subject of the king as he is to be a subject of the President of the United States. Not being a political man, but a kind of Romantic who prefers to take life easy, he finds friends among the young people who appreciate his easy going ways. In this sense, Rip may be viewed as both traditional (since he is old and simple) and revolutionary (since he bucks the common cares and toils of society neglecting his farm and the raising of his children). He is a kind of Romantic self-centered force, whose doctrine might have sprung out of the writings of Rousseau whose philosophy appears to be rooted in Nature. This paper will analyze Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and show how it examines tradition and revolution in Rip, the people he meets, and the changes in rule.