Oscar Wilde 's A Woman Of No Importance

In Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare examines the fragility of the male ego and its domination over women in an effort to critique the patriarchy during the Elizabethan Era. In the play, chaos is created and authority in exercised by the male characters with no regard for reason or evidence. This highlights their baseless need to protect themselves at all costs, no matter the effect it may have on the opposite sex.

In the early 1900´s women did not have the same rights as men and are not respected as much as men either. Women did not get their voting rights till 1920, four years after the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell. In the play women are suppressed by men and society, Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters prove that women are not constrained by society's rules and are in fact, the most astute characters in *Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”*.

The first essay, “The Roles of Women in British Drama,” represents my first exposure to a new genre of literature. The essay was also one of my first formal and interpretative essays at the college level. As a woman and a student of literature, I feel a special connection to this essay’s topic of women’s roles in literature. In addition, this essay shows my “knowledge of the social, political, philosophical, and religious forces that influence authors and the people they write about” (Oral/Portfolio). After reading some of the most prominent British plays of the twentieth century, I observed a discontinuity in the roles of women in this genre. Sadly, women’s roles in literature were very similar to their role in society. During the twentieth century, women were still trying and failing to emerge out of the roles they had been cast in by a male dominated society. Even though women were almost always portrayed as inferior to men, I found a strong exception to this stereotype through the role of Thomasina. I admire Thomasina’s intelligence and wit, but I truly admire Tom Stoppard for creating this character.

The playwriter Oscar Wilde sexual philosophies are reinforced throughout his play, The Importance of Being Ernest. Wilde’s characters and choices of stage direction evoke a tone of sexuality and deviance. The characters’ social belief’s and identities are in parallel with the Literary Queer Theory on many key points.

Though Madame Pernelle is a grouchy old lady who makes extremely uncouth remarks, her comments indicate that she has a strong sense of seniority and has the freedom to speak as she pleases. The maid, Dorine, demonstrates the power of defiance when she questions the motives of her boss as well as his daughter. She illustrates a strong fervent character who defies authority to obtain it. Lastly, Elmire reveals the influence of sharp thinking and women’s control in a marriage. Moliere’ has given us a feminist play where women ,that men and women can relate to, deal with modern problems in an 18th century time frame such as adjusting to change with the Madame Pernelle, dealing with inferiority with Dorine, and fighting for influence and trust in one’s spouse with Elmire. Though men have their parts in this play, the women most definitely step up to stimulate the action and prove that their influence is equal to men’s

The plot of both Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House” provides scope for a few scenes that lack the presence of all or any men. These scenes, consisting of communication between the female characters, assist in developing the theme of women openly defying the fact that the society they live in is primarily run by men. All the power and authority in their society, no matter the situation, belongs to the men while the women are simply excluded. The women in these plays defy the norms set by society and manage to evade the expectations of their patriarchal societies.

In recorded history, women have always been valued as inferior to men. This patriarchal concept prevails all the way to modern times, but what facts actually give credence to this concept? In both Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun and Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles, there is a multitude of female roles, all which have a significant importance in the story. Time and time again a subtle irony is played up in these stories that highlight the lack of credit these women receive for their monumental efforts.

Female gender roles have greatly changed from now and the sixteen hundreds when Shakespeare wrote the popular play Much Ado About Nothing. Women were raised to believe they were inferior to men. Women were taught that men should be the one who brings in money and women should stay home to clean and bare children. Also women were given no choice in who they were to marry or when. Over hundreds of years women realized that they were just as good as men and that they should be treated equally. This essay will cover the analysis of the women’s gender roles in the play Much Ado About Nothing, showing the analysis of Beatrice not following any stereotypes, Hero following all of the stereotypes, and Margaret not getting the same stereotypes as other women because she is a servant.

In fact, in a crucial commentary Margaret Wilkerson notes that “the timelessness of the play has not diminished” (Wilkerson 442) due to the way in which it addresses certain key issues of humanity. In this play, the young woman, Beneatha, is relentless in her efforts to attend medical school and become a successful doctor. Not only is she crossing preconceived gender boundaries by desiring a respectable occupation, but Beneatha is also rising above expectations of her race by her insistence on acquiring a higher education even during a time of unequal rights. With special regards to the expected compliance and obedience from the women in these plays, gender roles are less predictable since the plays involve characters that rise above social gender boundaries. This is achieved by acting out of the ordinary and ultimately revealing the truth that there are always those who are ahead of their time and that exceptions exist even within the frame of gender roles.

Even in plays gender roles can really show through the characters that the author makes. In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, the woman in the play illustrate sexism that was taking place during the 1900s. The “understanding” of Mrs. Wright’s situation as to why she was so calm for her husband’s death takes on many turns. The wives of the sheriff and the neighbor of the Wrights, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale represent a big part of the story. How they are portrayed and their actions show how strong gender roles and sexism were back in the day.

Viewing the play of The Importance of Being Earnest from a feminist perspective portrays the men in the Victorian Era to be misogynistic. A perpetuated stereotype in this play is that women should be protected from the truth. “Jack:[In a very patronizing manner] My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman”(29)! The belief that women are fragile and unable to handle anything serious is present. Furthermore, when Algernon discovers that Cecily is convinced that they had met before and had had many romantic encounters, she is presented as mentally insane. This perpetuates the belief that women depend on men and could not be satisfied without one in their life. In addition to this, Gwendolen and Cecily are the ones being deceived by Jack and Algernon. This shows that women are stereotypically submissive to men and can be taken advantage of. Through evaluating The Importance

All things considered, women are very underestimated when being compared to men. All women in this play were without power, a stay at home wife, without a clue and without the ability to stand on their own two feet. Whereas every male character in the play held all the power, were the bread winners, were rational and more than capable to think and be on their own. What this

Gender identity and its roles in 17th and 19th century England were regarded as rigid fact — definite and unyielding. The adherence to these social protocols was of utmost importance. Masculinity was viewed as being dominant, assertive, and bold, whereas femininity involved beauty, obedience, and chastity. The theatre became a method of challenging this rigid social concept. Both William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest explore these public values through their characters. Wilde and Shakespeare’s use of gender reversals satirize the traditions of social order, marriage, and gender responsibilities at the time, thereby revealing that gender is not absolute.

An exploration of Oscar Wilde's presentation of women in 'A Woman of No Importance' in comparison to John Fowles' views of women in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', in light of the view that Oscar Wilde has a more sympathetic view of woman in his time.

The setting of the play which takes place in the early twentieth century has established the theme that women have been looking down by men. ‘Trifles’ that is used as the title of the play has further foreshadowed the theme of the play in which discrimination of women will happen in the play. During the investigation of Mr Wright’s death, the men that involved in finding out the murderer have despised