An Essay On The Role Of Women In British Literature

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

On the same token, women face unique challenges that throughout their different life stages that places them into the Special Population group when compared to men. Women still face challenges today in areas of social, economic, sports, political and cultural despite the fact that there has been success in empowering women and shattering the glass ceiling for employment promotions. They live 7 years longer than men, make up majority of the world’s population but yet they are greatly ignored. Some women are subjected to part time jobs and lower wage position than their male counterparts. Likewise, women face ageism and sexism in the media on the average profile of a woman.

Literature is not simply a reflection of society; it is in actuality much more powerful. Literature draws upon society and creates its own meanings and images. It possesses the power to either nourish or discourage societal values and ideals. Hence, stereotypical views on gender relations in society are reinforced by literary depictions of men and women. The American literary canon is a collection of books that are widely accepted as influential in shaping Western culture. Stereotypes are evident throughout these texts, and often serve to justify the continuance of traditional roles. More specifically, women seem to be the target of cataloguing and other negative depictions. Classic books that are identified as part of the American literary canon tend to portray female characters in a way that emphasizes their inferiority. The depiction of females in classic American literature promotes a stereotypical view of women in American society.

“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in

In "Woman: Myth and Reality," Simone De Beauvoir describes the myth of the Eternal Feminine which creates inequality between men and women. In "The Four Idols," Francis Bacon uses the four idols of the tribe, the cave, the marketplace, and the theater to show how humans' understanding and intelligence hinders their knowledge of nature. In "The Origin of Civil Society," Jean-Jacques Rousseau concludes that the Social Contract benefits those who are not strong to fight for their equality in law and civil rights. In "The Communist Manifesto," Karl Marx disapproves of an industrial society, and he strongly supports communism with his ten points to prove that communism is beneficial. In Ceremony, Leslie

Throughout history, society has classified women and their roles and potential within a given society. There have been reasons in the past for this fact, which have included religious oppression and portraying of their role. The initial idea of a women’s place being in the home taking care of the children and looking after the home, this is still common in today’s society. Women now have a new found ability to fulfill their dreams and have achieved an independence that few would have perceived. Modern day society accepts the fact that sex should not determine your place within it, however, how did it get to this point? To find out, we will discuss some of the major events over time that have carved the modern day woman and the role

The main critical approaches that each author has touched on deal mostly with the themes of race and the patriarchy discussed in Chopin’s work and how they are portrayed within the story. Perhaps one of the greatest criticisms that each author has noted is that Désirée’s Baby, leaves too many questions unanswered.

Women have played an important role in American literature. Unfortunately, this role was often negative, without cause to be so. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are examples of American literature in which women are needlessly vilified.

One of the greatest turning points in American history was the Progressive era due to the advancements and social responses led by women and people of color. Many depictions of this era through secondary sources can be used to see the conflicts faced by the individuals of the time period and the political movement that ensued right after. Many favorable outcomes resulted from this time period including the start of reformation from women and people of color, and new entertainment source being literature. The nineteenth century was coming to an end, and new obstacles were coming into play. Urban growth, mass migration, currency deflation, and social issues all led to the

Since the early times, women were pictured as “intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil” as well as the weaker sex (WIC). For example, Pandora, in Greek mythology, was a woman who opened a forbidden box which then unleashed sin, plagues, and unhappiness into the world. In the early 19th century, women were only allowed to work in factories or, otherwise, stayed at home and did domestic work; the only professions that was acceptable for them to do was to become a teacher or a writer. In the 1920’s, women gained the right to vote. Throughout history, there has been many issues between the male and female genders, most significantly with the female gender, but, the rights of women have soared since the early times of history.

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.

“A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human.”(Nazarian, 7) Women portrayed a prominent role in history. In the early 1920s women's roles where to stay at home to cook, clean, and take care of the children. However during World War 1 women were to go to work and produce war time essentials. They where also given the chance to vote, and this is when women began to be seen as equals. Women wanted to stand on equal ground with men. In the 1920s women started a new generation by the way they dressed, and acted in society. Women fought for individuality and wanted to be seen more as humans. In the 1920s women’s roles changed society, such that women now have a more prominent, unordinary role then before; which created a different view on women. The rules that women fought against changed society’s views on them forever.

The portrayal of men and women has varied in different stories throughout history. Many portray women as beautiful, deceptive, manipulative, and smart, while men are portrayed as being strong, masculine, and easily tricked. In many of the works covered in the course “Major British Writers to 1800,” men are advised to refrain from acting lustful, believed that it would harm their overall ability to succeed in whatever the characters aimed to do. An example of this is seen in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” when Gawain is deceived by Lady Bertilak in an effort to prove that Sir Gawain is imperfect. The depictions of men and women are very similar in Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Phyllis and Aristotle. .

In most early British literature a woman is often presented as only one thing: an object. They can be objects of desire, objects of beauty, or merely objects to be owned, but it is rare that a woman is anything more than that. It is even more uncommon to find a female character in literature that is presented as an equal to the men around her. In William Congreve's The Way of the World he plays on the similarities of both his female and male characters to establish just how much of an issue gender really is because though their actions might be similar, the consequences are not.

Feminism, if anything, has appeared majorly in the literature spectrum through all decades and forms. Feminism is the political, cultural, or economic movement aimed at establishing equality and protection for all women. No matter the time period or place feminism has always been a popular literary topic that has made a few works quite notorious, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Both works contain the scenarios in which the main characters are taken advantage of due to the apparent feminist society.