The Collector Research Paper

The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters

As the perception of women changes constantly, society is the only factor in creating their ideal image. These societal views are the basis of their treatment, with the expectation that it is beneficial for them. However, societal expectations of women in the Elizabethan and Victorian eras severely limit their freedoms and rights. William Shakespeare’s Othello and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein portray most women in their typical roles. Both authors depict the level of injustice in society’s treatment of women through the passivity of women causing their deaths, the silencing of vulnerable women and the portrayal of women as more humane than men.

Countries around the world suffer from gender inequality. In many different situations women find themselves being controlled by men. Some men treat women as lesser beings, and act as if women do not deserve the same rights as men. Sally and Esperanza’s grandmother face the harsh tolls that come with gender inequality. In The House on Mango Street, Cisneros emphasizes gender inequality through the perceived role of men and women on Mango Street.

Gender inequality will always affect the portrayal of women in society, the weaker, unnecessary, and other sex. It is not just a subject of the past, and still holds a name in society. However in the olden eras, the way women were treated and looked at was in a much harsher condition. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein, women’s roles in the books are solely based on the way they are treated in their time period. The portrayal of women in these books demonstrate that they can never be in the same standing as men and therefore will never have the same respect as them. In both Othello and Frankenstein women are treated as property, used to better men’s social standards, and lack a voice, which demonstrates that in

Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.

Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

In many cultures, even today, there are stereotypes about women; i.e. that their job is to cook and clean, or that they are not as strong as men are. Many people would probably admit that they view men as tougher individuals whose responsibility is to protect and put food on the table. This theme of the male versus female power constitutes as prevalent in both Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. These authors intricately weave this idea into their novels through their characters’ specific duties, their characters’ behaviors and emotions, and the way children are viewed and treated according to gender. Both novels are set in the late 19th, early 20th century, but take

An expecting couple awaits to discover the gender of their baby. The nurse announces that it’s a girl. The couple is extremely excited, but do they truly grasp the weight of what this implies? Gender is not simply a physical trait, as it affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Stereotypes repress the potential in all men and women. The same stereotypes are found throughout literature such as Medea by Euripides, Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, “Sonnets” by Shakespeare, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Frederick Waterman’s “The Best Man Wins”. A common thread between these pieces is that power can be gained by those who are suppressed by defying gender stereotypes and social hierarchies.

The extreme cultural imbalance that Wolff conveys, between one set of gender values as the dominant and unquestioned source of authority and power, and the other, subservient and powerless. Wolff’s portrait of his mother as a woman seeking to assert her independence in a male dominated world that is far from ready to cede its privileges and recognise the other gender as anything more than a second sex.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

Like a rich man telling a poor man to stop thinking about money,’ and ‘There was always class between us’. This can be seen as a metaphorical representation of the shifting power distribution of the time, the rise of the middle class instigated more opportunities for working and lower class people to gain wealth and power and further blurred the line between the traditional societal divisions. Clegg is representative of the old, caste-bound patriarchy and Miranda is a pioneer of the new, less rigid system. Miranda herself, however, makes reference to her hatred of ‘the new class people with their cars and their money and their tellies and their stupid vulgarities and their stupid crawling imitations of the bourgeoisie.’ and views Clegg as the epitome of ‘the new people’ although it is possible that this view is a result of her idolisation of GP and subsequent adoption of his ideologies and values rather than her own opinion as she also expresses her ‘…despair for days afterwards, thinking how much of their rotten, pretentious blood I must have in me’, in reference to her parents, implying that she feels she does not belong to the class she was born into or that she simply wishes to be free of the class-system altogether.

Women have been experiencing gender discrimination for years. Gender stereotypes for women are formed by unfair beliefs that all men and women are the same. This discrimination leads to certain effects such as how men expect women to do housework, take care of the children, and take on a passive role. Similar gender stereotypes are seen in “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell. In this short story, the murder of Mr. Wright was investigated by a group of men and women in Mr. Wright’s home. As the men search for evidence of a motive upstairs, the women stay downstairs and accidentally find the evidence needed to solve the murder. In Glaspell’s short story, “A Jury of Her Peers”, and in the article “Philosophical and Political Issues Surrounding Gender” it is made clear that gender stereotypes lead to gender discrimination. This discrimination causes men to assume women’s opinions are not as important as theirs and expect women to do all the house chores.

Andersen examines representation of gender because both men and women need to be looked upon as equals with one another. For example, there are many times when a women needs help and most men think that she is a “damsel in distress”, because a woman that needs saving looks fragile and needs a “man” to save her. This also shows that usually the women are the ones being saved, so that the men can be the ones doing

This cycle can negatively impact the author’s life and the reader’s life, whether they know it or not, because as they read or write harmfully gendered relationships, they subconsciously affirm the “truths” portrayed in the fiction and spread these beliefs to other readers. In other words, damaging gender roles appear right and natural, because they are so often depicted in the media as right and natural, with relationships healthy based on equality being rarely offered as the alternative. This makes heteronomrative gender roles a self-fulling prophecy—with people performing these stereotypes, because they are presented as the norm. If feminized male characters serve as the stand-in for the female reader, then fanfictions that depicts the “feminine” as mentally and physically less able than the “masculine” must contribute to this vicious cycle as well. In addition, the masculine gender role often exemplifies the type of behavior considered “natural” for men. In American culture, part of this “natural” masculine gender role assumes that men will be complicit ,if not actively participating, in patriarchal culture and the poisonous values often associated with it. The traditional masculine model is made to seem so “right” that men portraying this gender role, and the women reading about this gender role, are made to believe that the domination and exploitation of women, and even other men, is not just expected, but demanded (Carter 2011). Within the Hannibal fandom, this type

In today’s advanced societies, many laws require men and women to be treated equally. However, in many aspects of life they are still in a subordinated position. Women often do not have equal wages as the men in the same areas; they are still referred to as the “more vulnerable” sex and are highly influenced by men. Choosing my Extended Essay topic I wanted to investigate novels that depict stories in which we can see how exposed women are to the will of men surrounding them. I believe that as being woman I can learn from the way these characters overcome their limitations and become independent, fully liberated from their barriers. When I first saw the movie “Precious” (based on Sapphire’s “Push”) I was shocked at how unprotected the