Summary Of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's A New England Nun

In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin portrays an image where someone shifts from one phase to another one. We find the protagonist go through a shift from patriarchy to feminist resistance. As this story continues to unfold, Edna goes through feminist resistance where she doesn’t want to still rely on her husband anymore and want to live by her own rules. Edna Pontellier’s “awakening” takes place in Grand Isle and New Orleans during the late 1800s. It is an important factor of the book because during this time period women were fighting for their rights. Usually before this time, women would only stay home and follow the orders of their husbands. Women during this time period needed to stay home and care for the house and the children. They always had to live for their children almost are like a slave to their husband. Women would be often seen as a property and not an actual human being. In this novel, we find restrains at the beginning and later see the shift to wanting freedom of expression.

What would you do if you were accused of a crime you did not commit? Would you be angry, or would you fight it? What would you do if you were punished for proclaiming you were innocent? This was the reality of many people in Massachusetts in the late-1600s. The poem “Half-Hanged Mary”, by Margaret Atwood, is written about this situation. It tells the story of an alleged witch, Mary Webster, being hanged and left over night. The next morning, to the villager’s surprise, she was still alive. Mary continued living for another 14 years after the incident. Although, the theme seems to be about a witch surviving an execution; it is actually about an innocent person surviving an unjust assumption.

Mary is 39 -year-old LPN and single mother who is attending a local community college to prepare for an A.S. degree in nursing so she can then become an RN. Mary has not been feeling well for several months. She has had bouts of nausea, a low fever, and has found that she no longer enjoys eating and smoking as much as she used to. She has also noticed that her urine is darker than usual and she has yellowing of her eyes. She has noted that she has a puffy appearance. Results of blood tests at her doctor’s office reveal that her ALT, AST , alkaline phosphatase, and bilirubin levels are elevated and that she also has an elevated count of lymphocytes. Further tests reveal that she is positive for the presence

The Book of Martha by Octavia Butler portrays a black woman, Martha, who is affected by society. God visits Martha and gives her a task to help save humankind from their destructive ways. Throughout the short story, Martha struggles to help find a solution that will be less disastrous and through this, she discovers more about herself. The book opens with God saying, "You're truly free for the first time", showing that Martha was free from society's input, barriers, and judging eyes. Society is the source of Gods transformations, how race, class, and gender.

Many people describe the role as a mother and a wife as something that is to be welcomed, a natural stage for women. However for the narrator, it changed from something seemingly beautiful to “old foul, bad...” Motherhood to her is then what creative women were to other people during the 19th century. Creativity was natural for the narrator, unlike motherhood; it was part of her being. Motherhood however, was a prison of domestic

In her story, “Old Woman Magoun” she delivered a feminist message more directly than ever. It’s based in turn-of-the-century New England, patriarchy still defined relationships even though the men themselves had degenerated. The story reflects the realities of Freeman’s own life, as her father’s business failed and her mother became the support of the family. However, Freeman’s life was not unique; rural New England is

When the notorious topic of women’s role in society comes to mind writers like Kate Chopin and Mary Wilkins Freeman break the norms of how women in America were imagined to be through different cultures and regions. In both Kate Chopin’s and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s time period women are portrayed as an ample servant to their husbands. Together the texts show how the controlled understanding of the nineteenth century society, had on women. At that time of these writers, people were restrictive about the viewpoint of women’s place in society. Women could not really do much without their Husband or another male figure in their life , they really didn’t have a voice of their own. In the stories A New England Nun , Desiree’s Baby, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm, Mary and Kate have represented how this situation of the society affected women and their viewpoints about life and marriage.

During the eighteenth century, marriage was a representation of not only the unity between man and women but it was also a representation of a woman taking a servile, less meaningful role in the household. Once married, women were expected to be completely submissive to their husbands. This was the norm across Europe and even in enlightened society. These relationships were hierarchical. It was not customary for women to attend schools that educated men the math and sciences. Women holding privileged positons in society traditionally allotted to men were seen as the exception. Yet these exceptions did not generally bother society because they did not lead to certain conclusion that women could do anything. In Gotthold Lessing’s novel “Nathan the Wise” and Francoise de Graffigny’s “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, both authors upset traditional expectations about what constitutes a novel’s happy ending by refusing to end either of their novels with weddings. In Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise”, the rejection of marriage plot reflects a larger symbolic representation of religious tolerance. While in Graffigny’s novel “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, the rejection of marriage plots illustrates a woman whose circumstances would make her the exception. Zilia, Graffigny’s main character, was an enlightened woman who chose sovereignty over servitude. Therefore, I would argue that the intentions behind both Lessing and Graffigny’s rejection of the marriage plot was not to serve the same

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

Additionally, gender roles affect Mrs. Wright’s (also known as Minnie) reaction to oppressive marriage. Before marriage, Minnie was a carefree independent woman who was active in her community. She always dressed in pretty clothes and was one of the town girls singing in the choir (Glaspell 1111). After marriage, Minnie’s life became sad and lonely due to the lack of children and the lack of empathy and warmth from her husband. Glaspell provides the reader glimpse of Mr. Wright’s character through Mrs. Hale’s description of him being honest and upright, but he was a “hard man” and not very amiable (1114). The Wright’s marriage is a perfect example of the effects of traditional gender roles. Mr. Wright represents the traditional role of male dominance in marriage by controlling Minnie’s life through isolation and removing anything that would bring her happiness. Although Minnie became submissive in order to conform to the demands of her husband, she took back control when she murdered her husband in the same fashion as he did to her pet canary (1116).

Lastly the dependence of men plays an extremely large role in this book. Williams uses Blanche’s and Stella’s dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. Both Blanche and Stella see male companions as their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for both their sustenance and their self-image. Blanche recognizes that Stella could be happier without her physically abusive husband, Stanley. Yet, the alternative Blanche

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.

Independence is an empowering state where one feels no need to rely on another. In the short story “A New England Nun,” Mary E. Wilkins Freeman demonstrates the internal struggle of a woman accustomed to being solitary that she feels confined by her upcoming marriage. The author presents the characterizations effectively through Louisa’s internal independence, the comfort she has with her household, the relationship she built with her fiancé and the connection she has with her late brother’s dog.

The theme of the story concentrates on women's suffrage. Mrs. Wright apparently has been pushed over the edge with the restrictions set on her life and one day she finally snaps. This implicit theme suggest