Rebecca Feminism Quotes

On the surface Rebecca appears to demonstrate the conventions of the romantic genre. The storyline includes a heroine, who is thinks herself to be very plain “with straight, bobbed hair and youthful, unpowdered face, dressed in an ill-fitting coat and skirt…”, as well as a hero, who the heroine believes is

Mrs de Winter in Rebecca, is a young woman who openly admits to herself and her readers that she is "a martyr to [her] own inferiority complex";

Some skeptics such as Audre Lorde: may, argue that the focus of Larsen’s novella focused primarily on the juxtaposition of race and sexual identity of Black feminism in the early twentieth century. However, Larsen makes use of unstable identities that can been seen through the passage via Brian Redfield and John Bellew. The husbands’ envelope the extent of male privilege and contrarily shows their means of working against it. By exploring these men, it offers a more critical view to understanding Clare and Irene

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Because of her upbringing she has sat herself on a sort of pedestal, and at the despair she feels at the suicide of her young husband she was flung of her pedestal. This unwilling dethronement has led her to imagine a world where her sexual discrepancies merely do not exist, and to a place in her mind where it seems fine to fake who she is. This imagination and dreaming is almost exactly the opposite of

The conventions that Rebecca reflects of the romantic genre are those of the characteristics of the hero and heroine (as mentioned above). The heroine is

Irene’s queer personality lives repressed in her id and the attraction can be noticed through many too detailed descriptions of Clare body parts and personality. “Her lips, painted a brilliant geranium red, were sweet and sensitive and a little obstinate. A tempting mouth” (45). It is impressive to see how this supposedly straight woman describes Clare’s mouth as tempting, yet she does not stop there, because Irene also describes her voice, “What was it about Clare's voice that was so appealing, so very seductive?” (52). The utilization of these adjectives is questionable because even when Irene talks about her husband Brian, she never uses adjectives that could express desire or even love. Irene is aware that her marriage is an arrangement where according to Brian sex is a just grand joke (60).

Taking Daisy with appreciation and without alarm, we also re-read her character and re-evaluate her moral status. We (the readers) seem to meet James’ sophistication with out own, by agreeing on a mixed interpretation of Daisy: she is literally innocent, but she is also ignorant and incautious. (1)

John Collier’s ‘The Chaser’, a short story that follows Alan Austen, a character who shows typically feminine or androgynous traits, displaying Alan being timid, easily manipulated, cowardly, and inevitably, the harbinger of his own destruction. ‘The Chaser’ features Alan seeking out an old man for a love potion to make Diana fall in love with him. From a sophisticated gender perspective, ‘the Chaser’ is shown to be patriarchal to start, with androgynous areas that end with the story being heavily androgynous. Based on text in the story and underlying themes, ‘The Chaser’ is Feminine and Androgynous, and Austen displays Feminine androgynous traits heavily by the end of the story.

Becky McKelva and Fay are immensely different in the way that their society views them. Where the people of Mount Salus view Becky as an upstanding, revered citizen, they view Fay almost as a menace to the town. The town’s people perceive fay to be an obnoxious woman who only thinks of herself. In their eyes and in Laurel’s, she will never be able to live up to Becky’s exceptional life. In contrast, the entire town loved and respected Becky, before and after she died. She marries a top figure in the town, Judge McKelva, which helps her reputation throughout the town. When Fay marries the Judge and moves into his house in Mount Salus, she neglects Becky’s well-known flower garden, which also leads to her poor reputation.

While walking on the grounds, the narrator noticed Mrs. Danvers watching her from Rebecca’s window and decided to confront her about the costume ball. Mrs. Danvers accused her of trying to take Rebecca’s place at Manderley. The narrator fell into some weird sort of trance and then she let Mrs. Danvers lead her to the window. Suddenly she began to get a little suicidal thinking that death was the only way for her to stop the pain of Maxim’s rejection. And Just as she was about to let go of the ledge, she heard a loud noise from the cove. Mrs. Danvers thought the explosions were rockets from a ship in distress nearby. They could hear people running on the terrace below them.

An example of this notion is shown in Hope Leslie when Governor Winthrop, the landlord, reacts to Hope, the tenant, coming home late and refuses to reveal her reason why: “...Winthrop was not accustomed to have his inquisitorial rights resisted by those in his own household, and he was more struck than pleased by Hope’s moral courage” (184). Evidently, Winthrop’s reaction proves that women with “moral courage” are unladylike because moral courage is a manly trait. On the other hand, Esther Downing, another character in Hope Leslie, embodies the cult of true womanhood. Esther’s mere look at her love interest Everell is described as “a look of...pleased dependence, which is natural... and which men like to inspire, because --perhaps -- it seems to them an instinctive tribute to their natural superiority” (219). So, “Esther’s look … of dependence” confirms that the expectation that all women are supposed to have the same behavior, gestures and personality is meant to not only please men but to also hide their true form. Therefore, the cult of true womanhood presents an internal battle in female writers and Sedgwick presents this womanly struggle through the contrast between Hope and Esther. Society wants women to be quaint housewives but publishing a book defies the cult of true womanhood. Thus, defying the qualities rooted in the cult of true womanhood causes high risk of

While Pamela’s upstanding virtue provides the model behaviour for young ladies of the time, Cleland’s heroine sustains herself through the socially unacceptable act of prostitution. Although Fanny Hill is a pornographic novel intended to arouse its male readership, Cleland’s text is essentially anti-Pamelist in its account of Fanny’s life. Richardson offers his heroine multiple opportunities to flee the unwelcome advances of Mr B from Mr William’s proposal of marriage to Mr B’s offer to take Pamela as his mistress, both of which she refuses. Fanny, on the other hand, is forced out of poverty into the line of sex work. She relinquishes her hold on virtue, telling the reader that

For centuries women have been forced into a role which denied them equal opportunities. Virginia Woolf expresses her frustration on why women were denied privacy in her novel, A Room of One’s Own. Woolf compares the traditional lifestyle tailored made for the opposite sex and the sacrifices that came with it. Women are limited intellectually as to not interfere with their domesticated duties. Even having the same desires for activities and education as men, a women’s place was not allowed in the man’s world.