How Does Defoe Present Roxana's Identity?

More often than not, analyses of John Rollin Ridge’s Joaquín Murieta interpret the novel as a demonstration of male bravery, and regard the female characters as counterparts that exist to remind the violent men of their humanity. However, an analysis that only considers women for their roles as sentimental beings is one that fails to detect their true significance in the work. Instead, it is essential to recognize that the female characters of the novel diverge from traditional, confining expectations of womanhood, and embody traits of masculinity as a response to their social situations.

In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky uses the role of women to further the understanding of thematic topics of the novel. The most prominent woman in Crime and Punishment is Sofia Semionovna Marmeladov, also known as Sonia, who is Raskolnikov’s beloved and the young daughter of Marmeladov. Sonia is forced into prostitution as a teenager and throughout the novel; Sonia is scorned by the people of the town because of it. Dostoevsky portrays Sonia as a multifaceted character causing many different thematic ideas to unfold throughout the novel. Contrary to the way society thinks of Sonia, Dostoevsky’s opinion on Sonia creates her role in the novel as a savior and an angelic character, which is seen through direct and indirect characterization, interaction with other characters, and allusions.

Middleton and Dekker collaborate to write The Roaring Girl, which concentrates on a real-life London woman named Moll Cutpurse. Moll was reputed to be a prostitute, bawd, and thief, but the playwrights present her as a lady of great spirit and virtue whose reputation is misrepresented by a small, convention-bound civilization. In the play, as in reality, Moll dresses in men’s attire, smokes a pipe and bears a sword representing a colorful and in the underworld life of Moll Cutpurse. She stood London on its head with her cross-dressing and gender-bending behavior, and illegal pursuits. Her defiance of women in this play is exceptional. Also, she is perhaps one of the only players to be scrupulously true to herself; some of the other characters display very hypocritical aspects. Such unorthodox and unconventional role, Middleton and Dekker implies, leads to her spotted standing. She is a roaring girl; An audacious and bold woman-about-town. But beneath this absence of femininity, is a courageous, high-principled woman. Moll interposes in the central plots and is associated in skirmishes with many of the characters, consistently showcasing her ability to stand up for the downtrodden and wronged. Therefore, Moll creates a 'third space ' that identifies her as importantly freed in her navigation of space and social relations.

The short story presents women as aware but misunderstood by men through use of narrative point of view. In society women are usually seen as inferior to men, and therefore often don’t get the acknowledgement they deserve. “The women held their secrets because when they mentioned it to their husbands or brothers they were laughed at….Instead of sympathy, the husbands and brothers now had a secret weapon”. This shows that women did not share their fears as it gave others ideas to torment them further. Women in the short story are also shown to be fully aware of the boy’s behaviour early on in the story. “The men of his home town said, but how

“You’re Convinced there was nothing important here…Nothing that would—point to any motive?” (Glaspell, pg. 5, 1908). In 1916, Glaspell worked for Des Moines daily news as a reporter where she later met her husband George Cook who was a play director. Together they wrote and produced plays, two of which are Trifles and Jury of Her Peers which are based off a crime scene she encountered while being a reporter. Glaspell’s plays are on the feminist side focusing on the roles women are forced to play in society and their relationships with men. Motive is the overall theme found in both versions of Glaspell’s story and is evidenced through the Wright’s relationship, the anger portrayed in various ways, and finally, regret found in Mrs. Wright.

On May 17, 2017, a man named Arthur got into a fight with his boyfriend who later decided to press charges. If he pleaded guilty during the first trial, Arthur would get three years of probation with a criminal record, but he could keep his jobs. If he pleaded not guilty, he would receive 30 days in jail before the second trial, but he would likely lose his jobs (Ralphling 1). While this is a terrible situation for Arthur, it’s difficult to feel the how his decision would affect all involved without a deeper understanding of their points of view. Given equally difficult opportunities to admit their mistakes and choices, the protagonists from The Scarlet Letter and The Other Wes Moore endured long periods of internal conflict as they struggled to correct or accept the mistakes that were direct consequences of their actions. The calculated use of diction and tone by both authors allowed the theme of these novels to actually feel real compared to Arthur’s case. The theme acceptance of mistakes is carefully crafted in each novel through the strong usage of diction and tone.

Even though Roxane realizes that it was Cyrano writing the letters, he never betrays Christian. An honorable friend will not betray his companion. An honorable man will always keep his word and stay true to his friend no matter what happens. Rostand coveys this through the Cyrano’s tone and actions, figurative language, and the character’s circumstances.

“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.

In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both authors introduce female protagonists that are confined by men’s authority. By displaying the protagonist's transformation, Glaspell and Faulkner highlight the repercussions of gender roles, to show that when women are trapped, they will go to great lengths to retaliate against their oppressors.

Hence, Austen’s protagonist Catherine Morland, is not the typical gothic heroine, she is an ordinary, gullible, and naïve young girl. However, stereotypically, to the gothic novels she reads, Catherine becomes absorbed with the metonymical language, and hackneyed fantasised events portrayed in this gothic fiction. Thus, Catherine’s ingenuousness disposition makes it difficult for her to differentiate between the fictitious gothic world, and real life-reality. Ultimately, she misunderstands situations, confuses friendships, and fails to distinguish between manipulative and genuine

In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, written in 1916, two female characters are left in the kitchen of a house where a murder has been committed, while the menfolk search around for clues. The men largely ignore the women and are mocking of them and their petty concerns on the occasions that they do speak to them. While the men are about looking for the “cold hard facts” of the murder, the women are in the kitchen bothering with “trifles” that display all of the details about the wife’s life and, most probably, her motivation for the murder. In this play, Susan Glaspell has written male characters that clearly display the “Ethics of Justice”, a sort of right is right and wrong is wrong view; while the women clearly embody the “Ethics of Care”, a view that takes relationships and feelings into account when judging the morality of actions.

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

Glaspell develops the theme of gender roles by what Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters fret about at the crime scene. For instance, the first concern that Mrs. Peters voices revolves around Mrs. Wright’s fruit preserves and implies that the women are housekeepers. Both the Sheriff and Mr. Hale remark about how the women are “worryin’ about her preserves” and “worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 3). Later, when the men go upstairs to look for evidence, the women decide to bring Mrs. Wright’s apron, fruit, shawl, and quilt for her in prison. To further establish Mrs. Wright as a domesticated housewife, Mrs. Peters suggests that Mrs. Wright wants her apron “to make her feel more natural” (Glaspell 5). Because of what Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discuss at the crime scene, Glaspell verifies that the women play the role of housekeeper and cook.

In the first scene of the sequence, Moll has just arrived in London and is seeking employment. She is dressed modestly and appears innocent as the woman in front of her looks her over. This woman is actually a brothel keeper named Mother Needham who gives her attention in the hopes of grooming Moll for prostitution. Moll’s facial expression suggests that she is flattered by the woman’s attentions (McCreery). The horse in the background has upset this stack of pots, which might be foreshadowing to Moll’s fall. There’s also a trunk in the right side of the foreground that has Moll’s initials on it. It appears to be coffin-like, which could also be foreshadowing for the end of the

In the end, each character has played a role based on the expectations society creates. The men and women all have their own ways of manipulating one another. “The woman is judged by society under the man’s law (Rosefeldt).” Society’s expectations of woman back