Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The two publications that best contextualize gender are the Lowell Offering and the Godey’s Lady Book periodicals as the articles found in both magazines depict traditional gender roles for males and females. For the Lowell Offering, this is best seen in the article entitled, “Woman’s Proper Sphere”, which focuses on the thoughts associated with oppression like, “Is it ambitious wish to shine as man’s equal, in the same scenes in which he mingles” or “Does she wish for a more extensive influence, than that which emanates from a woman’s home?” Yet these progressive questions are met with answers like “How necessary, then, that she should understand these pursuits (of men), that she may truly sympathize with and encourage those, with whom she may be associated. In this way…her influence must and

More time passed, and the narrator reveals that her power was rising "like a dark moon in her soul." Three days after her

“Whose behavior could be odder / than that of a stubborn man / who himself breathes on the mirror, / and then laments it is not clear?” Man’s double standards and self-inflicted exacerbation of women has been a prominent issue for centuries. Consequently, women have faced marginalization and oppression throughout the ages. In moments of bravery, exemplary figures have spoken out against this injustice. Two such characters during the Enlightenment period are Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Mary Wollstonecraft. Specifically, Sor Juana’s poem “Philosophical Satire” and Wollstonecraft’s piece A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Sor Juana speaks to the injustice her gender faces through sharp words which attack the double standard and

A deeper level is achieved in the mind of the narrator when she acknowledges her own mental state and that she is eager to leave her sad mood. While the man is described as animal-like and savage, she stands “In moody sadness, on the giddy brink” (9) full of contemplation and reflection on her own worldview. The poet is quite self-aware while the lunatic is not, and through her intelligent banter, the reader can see the extreme difference in personality. The poet’s own self-conception, however, is ironic in that she is wishing for ignorance that can only be achieved by lack of a self-concept. The catch-22 she experiences is perplexing, both to her and the reader.

It describes how women did not get as much recognition in the scientific world due to only men in this profession being viewed/praised by society. “Most people have not heard of the women that will be discussed shortly, but surely all have heard of Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Sir Isaac Newton, and Rene Descartes”. “...families criticized their daughters for their absorption in such inappropriate, inelegant, and unfeminine endeavors.”

‘Then God created woman, also, and in the same image, but with these differences, according to her nature: her voice should be of higher pitch than man’s: she should grow no beard she should have two breasts…’

"No, my Lord. She is listening in, I'm sure, and with her origins, the creature you seek is a daemon she has probably dealt with."

She knew that she need to go long way to get medicine. She is talking by herself and watching day dream. Welty describes her mental illness “She did not dare to close her eyes, and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake” (Welty, 217). Her mind tricks with herself, she thought she can see a man with one arm. She also imagine a silent ghost in the cotton filed.

In the face of adversity, women refuse

It is arguable that Tess’ passive nature renders her responsible for her suffering. Tess is ‘asleep at almost every important part of the plot, for example when Prince is impaled when she rides in place of her father . This mistake foreshadows later events between Tess and Alec. When Alec seduces, or rapes Tess, Hardy writes that ‘his cheek was upon hers. She was sleeping soundly’. Tess is acted upon, and does nothing herself. Tess’ lack of aggresion is further shown in her relationship with Angel. When Angel embraces her, and she is said to have ‘yielded to his embrace’, Tess allows herself to be loved opening herself to Angels hidden crueltys. Tess essentially sells herself to Angel saying: “you know best what my punishment should be” . There

her far from herself. In one line in the poem she brings us starkly into the world of a

“From the sphere of my own experience I can bring to my recollection three persons of no every-day powers and acquirements, who had read the poems of others with more and more unallayed pleasure, and had thought more highly of their authors, as poets; who yet have confessed to me, that from no modern work had so many passages started up anew in their minds at different times, and as different occasions had awakened a meditative mood.” (2) (paragraph 31).

He said to himself that she was too light and childish, too uncultivated and unreasoning, too provincial, to have reflected upon the ostracism or even to have perceived it. Then at other moments he believed that she carried about in her elegant and irresponsible organism a defiant, passionate, perfectly observant consciousness of the impression she produced. (43)

The poem, "She Walks in Beauty," plays with the opposing forces dark and light. Immediately the poem begins by the speaker saying that "the best of dark and bright meet" in the woman's eyes. Additionally, the words "shade" and "ray" in the first line of the second stanza make the reader think of dark and bright. Further into that stanza, once again, the opposites are combined when her "every raven tress...softly lightens o'er her face." "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" also plays with the contrast of both dark and light. The poem takes place

the reason all women are fools; for women breeding up women, one fool breeding up another, and as long as that custom lasts there is no hopes of amendment, and ancient customs being a second nature, makes folly hereditary in that Sex, by reason their education is effeminate, and their times spent in pins, points and laces, their study only in vain fashions, which breeds prodigality, pride and envie (qtd. in Iliffe and Willmoth).