How Can a Feminist Reading of 'Lady Chatter-Ley's Lover' Illuminate Lawrence's Depiction of Men and Women?

As C. Sykes examines Victorian literature in his essay, he recognizes that many authors reveal gender issues. While some define characters by his or “her marital status,” others reveal inequality through “female capabilities” (Sykes). Victorian literature, like Bronte’s Jane Eyre, reveal gender

This gender role construct is what often makes women feel powerless/paralyzed to change their role in the domestic sphere due to overriding authority of the “masculine world.” In a literary point of view, the role of the mediocre woman in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility can describe how women, such as Lady Middleton and Lucy Steel conform to these submissive gender roles in the 19th century patriarchal institution of marriage.

The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,

Throughout literature women are often displayed as idealized characters. Women in the eyes of society are plagued with the stereotype of being kind, nurturing, and tender individuals while men are established as ambitious, assertive, and tough. However, when the time comes for women to possess the qualities of men and men of women, a turnaround of events can occur. Women were the individuals that then shape the males into their ending personna. Shakespeare's Macbeth, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrated the reversal of gender roles through portraying women as the instigator of the male character’s ultimate demise.

Within the usage of the intensified dialogue, the characters and the stage directions these attitudes are brought to life. While exploring both the male and female stereotypes we get a close look at society during this time and how people would be treated when challenging these stereotypes. By illustrating these beliefs and concerns that lie within each gender and society, Tennessee Williams effectively allows the readers to critically think if these expectations are accurate and still pursue in society today. It is clear that gender roles have played a major role in several societies and decades, but these strict expectations continue to put intense levels of burden on individuals, relationships and society

“A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story written by Susan Glaspell in 1917 illustrates early feminist literature. The two female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, is able to solve the mystery of who the murderer of John Wright while their male counterparts could not. This short story had been adapted from Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles written the previous year. The play consists of the same characters and plotline as the story. In both works, Glaspell depicts how the men, Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale, disregard the most important area in the house, the kitchen, when it comes to their investigation. In the end, the women are the ones who find clues that lead to the conclusion of Minnie Wright, John Wright’s wife, is the one who murdered him. Both of Glaspell’s female characters illustrate the ability to step into a male dominated profession by taking on the role of detective. According to Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, written by Lois Tyson, a reader-response critique “focuses on readers’ response to literary texts” and it’s a diverse area (169). Through a reader-response criticism from a feminist lens, we are able to analyze how “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles depict how a patriarchal society oppresses women in the early twentieth century, gender stereotypes confined both men and women and the emergence of the New Woman is illustrated.

To quote author Chimamanda Adichie, “Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn 't have the weight of gender expectations.” However, the influence of gender is pervasive from jobs to the military, even extending to education. Men are generally characterized as strong and independent. Women, on the other hand, are supposed to be more feeble and domestic by societal standards. These distinctions have always been the case in the United States, from the moment people first crossed the Bering Strait into North America. It should come as no surprise, then, that the societal expectations placed on gender affect literary works. Gender often conflicts with the hopes and dreams of the characters and makes it harder for them to achieve success. The flawed societal gender constructions found in American literature are adversarial to characters in their search for fulfillment. The concept of gender roles obstructing success is ubiquitous in the many works, including The Great Gatsby, The Mystery of Heroism, The Scarlet Letter, A Raisin In The Sun, and The Death of A Salesman.

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

THESIS: The sexist surroundings that entrap the Narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Miss Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily,” and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter ultimately suppress the respective protagonists’ identities as women, leading them to suffer in isolation.

Susan Glaspell uses a variety of symbols in her play to demonstrate the stereotypical view and treatment of women by men during the start of the twentieth century. She intricately portrays the female characters in her story as intelligent, but passive due to the fact that males dismiss their ideas and conversations as unimportant. The play, Trifles, uses multiple symbols to show how men fail to recognize the intelligence of women, and oppress the feminists’ way of thinking throughout society.

Both male and female characters act in varied ways, doing terrible things along the way. Constantly, however, men view women as less than equals, something to control or to be attained, and this is visible in many of the main male characters. Women are portrayed in conventional

The men and women in this novel have very different parts into society. They are very different not only based on situations in places of power but more so the workplace, men are shown as physiologically and mentally superior to women. This also claim to be the most situations in life overall. In the other hand women do have a way higher standing when it comes to social roles. In the book men claim to be in a higher way of status than women in all types of situations. We can also tie this into our own society, because in

Ever the keen social observer, Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) often expressed his reservations about the competences of the female mind through satire or by employing alternate literary voices. However, his ridicule of the female condition does not entail that he was simply a crass misogynist. In reality, the satirist scorned humanity in general: both men and women were unable to escape his seething misanthropy. Swift’s moral satire includes three notorious poems: “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” (1730) “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed,” (1731) and “Strephon and Chloe” (1731). Human beings tend to delude themselves and see order and beauty where none exists, yet in these poems both the male subject and the reader become disillusioned over the discovery of female humanity. Therefore, Swift seems to imply that life based on delusion usually ends in bitter disappointment, and thus attempts to free us from our prejudices and the futile denial of our basic nature. Furthermore, the author finds in Esther Johnson, or “Stella,” the perfect example of the redemption he aims to imbue in the rest of humanity. Thus, through his poems concerning women, especially Stella, Jonathan Swift reinforces his belief that all humans – even women – are capable of bettering themselves.

Through the Victorian Age, male dominance deprived women from a certain freedom. In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre repeatedly struggles to become an independent young lady due to the troublesome men in the story. John Reed controls Jane, Mr. Brocklehurst humiliates Jane, and Mr. Rochester sees women, in general, as objects. The author manages to depict patriarchal dominance through the characterization of John Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester.