How Bellamira Is Not A Social Agent

Bella was to become Lady Ducayne’s most recent victim. Needing money to support her mother, she attempted to become the companion to a lady. She was told “You see, you are so very uninformed—so much too young to be the companion to a lady of position.” (3, 81) Uninformed can be replaced with the word uneducated; when a person is uneducated, they are in a state of innocence. For Bella lacked the knowledge required to actually be the

Siering states this in her article as she is breaking down female sexuality in the novel, Twilight. The simple fact in her statement is that Bella cannot resist Edward and cannot control her sexuality and lust for him. Both Siering and Kilbourne relate to each other through different forms of writing by implicitly agreeing that media portrays women as if they cannot make their own decisions and that women have no self control.

She is frank, even blatant, about sex that in her own girlhood were kept private to the point of secrecy (Kirschenbaum 61). That she was a young, Italian American woman, in 1969, having sex at all and outside of marriage, and writing about it is what remains so remarkable even today (Quinn 178). In her poem, she chooses to put a quote by Gary Snyder before her own actual text. The quotes states, “The female is fertile, and discipline (contra naturam) only confuses her” (361). The choosing of this quote declines her parental and cultures’ standards and foreshadows the sexual expression in her poem. For DiPrima, sexual liberation is freedom from the old world of Italian American ethics, and into the new world of permission to do, say and be who she wants to be, and then to write about it (Quinn 179).

Sex is something Sofia is able to control and it empowered her to fight Harpo when he tried to reduce her to the status of an object.

Her honor is disgraced for her “actions” and Claudio will no longer accept her as his wife because of the dishonor she has caused him.

As a Renaissance woman protagonist, she acts within an completely male world: "I do not know/ One of my sex; no woman's face remember" (3.1.48-49).  While no other women appear in the play, references are made to other women, but the count here is still minimal and sums up to three.  Miranda speaks of the lack of female companionship around her because of her location, but simultaneously the audience sees that the references to women that do occur within the play often have a sinister purpose for appearing within the lines.  The other women mentioned in the play seem to provide a sort of dark cloak over the proceedings of the play, even if they are completely absent.  Regardless, Miranda, as the only physical woman in the play the audience actually sees and hears, is described by Prospero with kind words, and few, if any, negative imagery revolves around the appearance of the innocent Miranda.  For example, Prospero informs Miranda that this "Art" is prompted by his concern for her; "I have done nothing but in care of thee" (1.2.16).  Prospero also tells Miranda that his mistreatment and harshness toward Caliban stems from the fact that Caliban attempted to rape Miranda and Prospero wants to protect her from any harm that could come about from Caliban.(1.2.347-51).  Prospero also indicates that Miranda, to him, is "a third of mine own life,/ Or that for which I live" (4.1.3-4); therefore after she is

This passage characterizes Mina’s obedience to her spouse Johnathan, and introduces her as the modest woman. Lucy Westenra represents the sexual woman. In her second letter to Mina, she tells of the three marriage proposals that have come to her in one day, and the results of each. She has turned down two men, and accepted the last, but feels badly about having to turn down two of her suitors. She proclaims, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” (61). From this passage, it can be assumed that Lucy desires sexual relationship with all three men, as that is the result of marriage. Here lies the main difference between the two women. In the end Mina benefits from her domesticity and life of service to men. Lucy, on the other hand, is deviate from social norms, and in turn suffers the consequences for her own sexual aptitude. Dracula’s deadly bite does not harm Mina due to her morals dictating that she continues to live as a human. Dracula soon disappears from the scene, and Mina enjoys her marriage and bears a child. However, Lucy is not as lucky. She is described as a sexual monster after her death. It is believed her sexuality that sealed her fate. It is clear that this is a statement about not only the roles of women in society, but also about the fears of society. The good Victorian woman, represses her sexual desires and will lead a respectable life.

An example of this is seen as Perpetua is tossed back by Heifer, and then “asks for a pin to fasten her untidy hair: for it was not right that a martyr should die with hair in disorder.” For a woman like Perpetua vanity would’ve not been expected much less during her final chances to fight for her honor. Consequently, the question of whether her acts throughout Passion’s was simply a way to gain power and attention or if it was true devotion to God and Christianity. Although her decision to pause the fight in order to fix her hair can be looked at as “girly”, it also shows a true respect for God not only in Perpetua’s eyes but also in the eyes of Martyrs.

These women have strong sexual powers, to which they use to their advantage in dangering men with their reasoning. Nearing the end of Dracula the three brides are brought back into focus. When even Van Helsing, the strong doctor and picturesque example of what a Victorian male was expected to be, hesitates because “She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl with new emotion.” This heightens the danger over the women’s control and influence over men as even the knowledgeable and powerful

When Bosola entreats Ferdinand to cease his torturing of the Duchess, Ferdinand rejects the idea, exclaiming “damn her! That body of hers” (Webster 4.1.118). His outburst demonstrates how he equates the Duchess herself with her physical material, her body. Furthermore, it delineates how specifically the Duchess’s body is the object of his anger and obsession. Ferdinand often directs his anger at just the Duchess body rather than her whole being. After receiving news of her pregnancy, he says that “she’s loose i’th’hilts” (Webster 2.5.3). The phallic metaphor in this exclamation, with a sword operating as a phallic symbol and the hilt (which the sword goes into) functioning as a symbol for female genitalia, demonstrates how Ferdinand’s intense fascination with his sister’s body is intrinsically sexual. He goes on to say “would I could be one,/That I might toss here palace ‘bout her ears/Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads,/And lay her general territory as waste” (Webster 2.5.17-20). This statement contains language that is both intensely violent and sexual in nature. Moreover, by equating his sister’s body with pieces of land, Ferdinand demonstrates how he views her body as something to possess, just as he possesses land.

In Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu uses vampires to identify and challenge gender roles of women in the Victorian age. From the outset, Carmilla and Laura’s relationship appears to transcend mere homosocial characteristics; Carmilla awakens sensations in Laura which she has never known before because her sexuality has always been suppressed. This suppression is inherently motived by the dominant ideology in Victorian culture that lesbianism, and homosexuality more generally, are “unnatural” forms of sexuality. According to Colleen Damman, “as a woman, Carmilla can only claim her sexuality after death” (). This is an interesting statement because it provides context for the idea that vampirism is the only way Carmilla can express her own carnal desires; She too is then subject to the constraints of Victorian culture. This to say that, for Le Fanu, the only way to have an open discussion concerning homosexual desire is to employ the vampire. Bearing this concept in mind, by analyzing certain key passages and elements of Carmilla and by applying some modern conceptualizations on gender and sexuality, one can see that Carmilla and Laura are merely byproducts of a period rife with sexual desire, frustration, and tension.

In the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband Jonathan Harker. Lucy and Mina both become victims of vampirism in the novel. Mina is fortunate but Lucy is not. Overall, the assumption of women as the weaker specimen is greatly immense in the late 19th century. There are also many underlying

She says, “A knowing woman’s work is never done / To get a lover if she hasn’t one” (282). Through this statement, she implies that a woman needs a man, or at least needs to be able to seduce a man. However, the woman does not depend on a man to fulfill her and make her complete, as was a common concept; but rather, the woman dominates the man and takes advantage of the relationship.

Comparing the characters of Angelo and Isabella, one could argue that Isabella is ‘the symbol of goodness and mercy set against a background of moral decay’. Alternatively, one could see her character as self-righteous and hypocritical, as we later discover when she values her chastity higher than her brother’s life.

Brunner writes that Paulina is ‘‘as feminism demands, to not only critique the system but also prescribe alternatives and take concrete action’’, and due to female solidarity towards Hermione, is willing to ‘‘use that tongue I have. If wit flow fromt’t as boldness from my bosom, let’t not be doubted I shall do good’’ (2.2.53). A mother-son dynamic develops between Paulina and her King, and as his penance for past sins, is managed by the woman he once labelled ‘‘an audacious lady’’ (2.3.43) and ‘‘mankind witch’’ (2.3.68). She usurps the gender role stereotype of the time, by acting as counsellor and providing honest guidance to the remorseful monarch for 16 years, but in the end ‘‘ she removes the mask of the punitive and demanding mother, resuming her normal place’’ (Erickson