Essay about The Effects of Femininity

Tyson explains the basic concepts of feminist theory, and the ways in which readers can use the theory as a lens to examine the social pressures and gender roles within a literary work. To examine through a feminist lens, theorists need to first look at the different characters’ genders to determine whether their roles and responsibilities “conform to traditional (patriarchal) gender roles” (Tyson 84). “According to [patriarchal] gender roles, men are naturally rational, strong, protective, and decisive,” but “women [are] naturally emotional…, weak, nurturing, and submissive” (87). Moreover, “anyone who violates traditional gender roles is [looked upon as] unnatural, unhealthy, or…immoral” (86). Therefore, due to the “oppression of women” in

Henry James's Turn of the Screw was written in a time when open sexuality was looked down upon. On the surface, the story is simply about a governess taking care of two children who are haunted by two ghosts. However, the subtext of the story is about the governess focusing on the children's innocence, and the governess trying to find her own sexual identity. Priscilla L. Walton wrote a gender criticism themed essay about the Turn of the Screw, which retells certain parts of the story and touches on the significance they provide for the sexually explicit theme. Walton's essay is accurate because James purposely put an undertone of sexuality and identity confusion in the Turn of the Screw.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

The American literary canon presents a one sided view of women, due to the dominance of male authors. Classic American books generally present images of women in a male-centered viewpoint, creating a biased representation of women in literature. In “Feminist Literary Criticism: From Anti-Patriarchy to Decadence,” Anne Barbeau Gardiner states that the American literary canon is “strikingly narrow…prepared by white men whose judgment was prejudiced and whose language was full of gendered meanings.” (Gardiner 395). Gardiner

Feminist literary theory assumes that a text is not simply a work of fictional literature that is separated entirely from the physical world. In this lens, the boundaries are non existent. The circumstances of how a work was written influence its criticism and analysis. The location, gender and class of the author and characters are vital to a feminist criticism (Feminist Literary Theory 1) .

When on the topic of feminist writing, understanding the time period in which the author’s writing takes place persists as vastly important. Historically speaking, western culture follows a model thoroughly dominated by men. That commonality remains

Question: “Women received the vote based on their contribution to the war effort”. How accurate is this view that women gained the vote based solely on war work? 20 marks

Men and women and their actions, thoughts, and behaviours have been at the centre and focal point in several types of literature. The relationships between one another have been portrayed in various ways, each one representing each gender differently. The representation of women has been a common and controversial subject. The female gender roles depicted in each time period have always been present in literature throughout history. These traditional female roles that society has placed on women have not always been evident. Even with different time periods, there has always been a break in the traditional female roles. Traditional female roles have

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

In The Turn of the Screw, Henry James employs class divisions through clothing, representing how the characters are inclined to act through their degree of conformity to societal expectations. First published in 1898, by Collier’s Weekly, a magazine company that had a reputation of reporting on integral societal events and topics people considered important to their lives, the magazine commissioned the help of famous writers to write on pressing historical events of the time (Elduff). It grew to be one of the most widely read magazines in the United States by 1892, which allowed James to write a novella that hit on concerns regarding social mobility on a larger scale platform. Since the Victorian era was marked by prosperity and innovations in technology, incomes rose leading to the growing of the middle class. This had a drastic impact on the culture and the elites who feared the middle class movement for “they had many reasons for resenting their practical stigmatization as second class citizens” (Best 238). James highlights this concern through pointing out clothing which denotes which class a characters associated with and coupling this with immoral actions of the times.

Fiction is often thought of as being “fake” or “false” interpretations of real life. While the people and events that occur in fiction are generally imagined, the most successful of these works appeal to audiences as being realistic to some extent. An example of this imagined interpretation of reality in fiction is the portrayal of women. One association given to women of many genres is that of the needy damsel. With that said, examples of heroism and wit have grown over time, adjusting with the trends of feminism today. While women are often considered delicate and in need of protection in fiction, across the genres of gothic, science and mystery, there are also many depictions indicating the contrary.

These literary writings address how women were influenced by a “hermeneutic” belief system that placed women mutually in unity to abide by a societal “patriarchal” power (King and Morris 23). Again, women could not communicate their feelings receptively likewise, their values and conceptions were a reflection from their husbands. Essentially, the essay

The depiction of women in the literary works studied this semester has been controversy. It was hard to decipher if women were being valued or not, because of their unsteady portrayal in each work. This controversy subject can be linked to the view of women in society today. In society, some men write women out to be flawless and some write women out a being a flaw. Likewise are women written in the literary works of Jason and the Argonauts, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Antigone, and The Arabian Nights. Women played a big roles in all of literary works, but how their roles are portrayed is the matter in question. The women in the early world literature we have studied are depicted as either being sheros, sexual beings sometimes deceitful, or beneficial

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.