How Men Treat Women and Children in The Collector of Treasure by Bessie Head

    The Wife of Bath's extraordinary prologue gives the reader a dose of what is sometimes missing in early male-written literature: glimpses of female subjectivity. Women in medieval literature are often silent and passive, to the extent that cuckolding is often seen as something one man (the adulterer) does to another (the husband). Eve Sedgwick argues in Between Men that in many literary representations, women are playing pieces or playing fields in struggles between male players. By default it seems, male writers cannot help but create shallow constructions of women; heroism occurs in male spheres of activity, while the wives and daughters make the background, and

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

Gortyn was a city-state populated by descendants of the Mycenaean’s and Dorian settlers. Greek city-states that were settled by Dorians including Sparta, gave greater rights to women then city-states, which instead were settled by other tribes. In Ancient Greece, it could be argued that many saw adultery as an act, which was worse than rape. The Gortyn law Code could therefore be classed as unusual as in there is a punishment albeit only financial. ‘If one commit rape on a free man or woman, he shall pay 100 staters …and if a slave on a free man or woman he shall pay double, and if a free man on a male or female serf, five drachmas, and if a serf on a male or female serf, five drachmas.’ The fine is largely determined by the difference in social status between the victim and the accused. A free man raping a slave is the lowest fine and a slave raping a free man or woman is the largest fine. Free women seem however, to have a respected place in society if raping a woman is seen as a punishable offence, which in the ancient world wasn’t always seen as that. It emphasises how Gortyn society valued omen based on what social class they adhered

In the short story, the writer tells a woman’s depression which guides her to break the limits and restrictions over woman. The woman who has no name or identity symbolises all women’s suppressed position in patriarchal society. In the story, the woman describes the house and her rooms with the words; ancestral hall, old-fashioned chintz, barred windows, heavy-immovable bed. The descriptions depict the house as patriarchy’s realm. Also, the yellow wallpaper’s surrounding of her shows the woman in a trapped, confined and repressed position. Not only the yellow symbolise the weakness, but the paper also

The author agrees with the idea of women as victims through the characterisation of women in the short story. The women are portrayed as helpless to the torment inflicted upon them by the boy in the story. This positions readers to feel sympathy for the women but also think of the world outside the text in which women are also seen as inferior to men. “Each season provided him new ways of frightening the little girls who sat in front of him or behind him”. This statement shows that the boy’s primary target were the girls who sat next to him. This supports the tradition idea of women as the victims and compels readers to see that the women in the text are treated more or less the same as the women in the outside world. Characterisation has been used by the author to reinforce the traditional idea of women as the helpless victims.

Rain of Gold, is a true story about the history of Mexican people, their culture, traditions and customs that were passed down from the Euro-Indian heritage of Mexico. Rain of Gold was written by Juan Villasenor in search for his ancestral roots. The people of this story are real and not fiction. The places that are discussed are true. And the incidents did actually happen to his family. There are several underlying themes that need addressing. Such as: the importance of family, the importance of religion and spiritualism, woman as center of home and family, respect--protection of woman's virtue; ideal of women as pure, power of the woman--the mother, being a man-man as protector of the family, pride of man to be a

In 1953, Flannery O'Connor published her famous short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” In this story, a family of four members is the Grandmother, Bailey, the children's mother, John Wesley, June Star and the baby. The family is on their way for the vacation after the Grandmother complaints about going to Tennessee instead of Florida; the Grandmother mistakenly brings the family to a dirt road by lying about a secret panel house (the house is actually in Tennessee, not Georgia). A car accident happens, unfortunately, they get help from the Misfit and are shot by the Misfit.

The culture of Mango Street lends itself to espousing two main gender roles for women, most importantly the role of mother and caretaker, and less significantly, as sexual figure. Women on Mango Street commonly embrace or are forced to embrace at least one of these roles. Marin, a woman who takes care of her cousins by day and sits outside smoking by night, easily embodies both roles. Sally particularly exemplifies that women cannot get away from the gender roles that bind them. In her family, being a female means becoming a vulnerable person for the man to control. However, Sally prefers to ignore this gender role and advertise herself as a seductress. As she agrees to give “a kiss for each” boy (Cisneros 97) in exchange for her keys back, “beauty is linked to sexual coercion …; there are no promises of marriage here, only promises of giving back to Sally what is already hers” (Wissman). Her family rejects his role, though to some extent accepted by Mango Street. By accepting the alternate gender role, Sally tries to break away from the gender role her family expects of her. However, she is unsuccessful. To escape from her father, Sally is “married before eighth grade” (Cisneros 101) to an equally controlling man who “won’t let her talk on the telephone” or “look out the window” (Cisneros 102). The marriage is a way

Well obviously Bertrande and Arnaud du Tilh had intercourse since they conceived a child. “Even that proverb is not uniquely pertinent, for, in the conditions of sexual intercourse in peasant households of preindustrial Europe--the couple clothed, in the darkened house, amid the cold and dirt, surrounded by livestock and relatives—any wife of Artigat might equally well have regarded her bedmate with the jaded perspective expressed in the notorious masculine slur, De nuit tous chats son gris.” (Robert Finlay pg559) I have a difficult time with some of this because if this where all to be true which I’m sure he is exaggerating a little bit I bet a donkey wasn’t sharing the bet with them. I do bet they probably had dirt floors and it probably was a little cold but that doesn’t exclude her from knowing that he was not her husband because every person is different granted she hasn’t been with her real husband in a very long time but I’m pretty sure she would know the touch of a man. I am for sure going to have to agree with Davis on this you get older but your connection as husband and wife doesn’t change that’s what I think Davis is really trying to point out in the book is that as husband and wife even if it where only a few times together they would still remember those the rest of there lives. Finley goes out and says at night all cats are gray meaning that they really would have know idea who one would be with as long as it’s dark you

This book starts out with a traditional Lithuanian wedding. Jurgis is getting married to a woman named Ona, who is portrayed throughout the whole book as being a big push-over, and the type of woman that is very easy to take advantage of. Even though Jurgis and his wife Ona are on a low budget pay, they had a great financed wedding to say the least. Jurgis promises to pay everything back over the

Being strong and independent women no longer matters as the men that they will call their husbands enter their lives. Lesego and Kegoletile both represent the male figures and the change that Life and Neo must endure as they conquer marriage. Lesego represents the authoritative male that is respected by all the people of the rural village for his wealth and judgment. Life is attracted to

This ancient Athenian murder trial centralizes around the expectations of marriage, the role of women in ancient Greece, and the dangers a husband faces after failing to properly supervise his wife. Euphiletus stands accused of the murder of Eratosthenes, his wife’s lover. According to Athenian law, if a husband finds his wife in bed with another man, it is the husband’s right to determine what penalty the male adulterer will face. The Husband could demand he pay a fine, or even justifiably kill him. The time period of Euphiletus’ trial had come to acknowledge financial compensation as the common settlement for such offenses. Eratosthenes’ family is having Euphiletus prosecuted for premeditated murder; leaving Euphiletus to convince a jury

On her knees deals with themes such as family, pride and self-respect. The most important part of the story is when the narrator Victor, is advising her mother not to return to her place of work as the latter was accused of having stolen a pair of earrings in the house she works as a servant to make ends meet. At this point, the story has reached an important situation which will be discussed in this essay with close reference to the mother-son relationship. On her knees reflects the reality of life where one has to struggle and where those who work for honesty always face trouble.

In the One-act play A Question of Sex, by Arnold Bennett, the play provides the background setting at London in the 1900th, where the main character, George Gower, and his family members live in a house with the drawing-room just outside of London. In this play, George and his wife are just having their first child giving birth with joyfulness of first time as a father. However, The Father was stuck into the depressing moment for the difficulties he is struggled with since the child was born. One of the events is that he had been informed six months ago by his rich uncle, Francis Gower, that he would give the family ten thousand pounds if the upcoming child was a baby boy. Unfortunately, the gender of the upcoming child turned out to be a baby girl instead of a baby boy, as George has been concern and fear for during that period of time. In addition, George, after tasted the experience of being the new-parent, felt extremely exhausted and fatigue for taking care of the baby, as he needed to stay awake most of the time for taking care the crying by where he has never experienced ever in his life. Eventually, he had shown the depression and anxiety due to the high tension he has bear with the past months, as his sister May and sister-in-law Helen discover himself falling asleep with weariness and disappointment, which leads to the conversation they have at the beginning of the scene.

All characters in the novel are living in a man’s world; nevertheless, the author has tried to change this world by the help of her characters. She shows a myriad of opportunities and different paths of life that woman can take, and more importantly she does not show a perfect world, where women get everything they want, she shows a world where woman do make mistakes, but at the same time they are the ones that pay for these mistakes and correct them.