The Elizabethan And Victorian Age In Virginia Woolf's Orlando

The characteristics of a “perfect” woman have clearly changed over time, and The Courtier proves this throughout conversations in the third volume. Some desired qualities are common to both the courtier and the court

One must read this piece multiple times before its true genius can be seen; this story is much like peeling an onion, tear-jerking hard work included. It is revealed in this story that she does not fit the common portrayal of the protagonized woman, as “[she is] thirty-four years old after all…” (Jackson 1), which clearly puts her as an outlier for her nativity and rash decisions.

The narration of the mother lecturing her daughter with commanding diction leads to the theme of women conforming to domesticity and if they don’t conform then they will lead a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive them. Women in the past believed that a woman’s role was that of a domesticated housewife. The narration of the third point of view in this story and the commanding diction of it places an importance in the reinforcement of this idea, that if a woman doesn’t follow social norms, she will eventually turn to a “slut” one that her family will be ashamed of. She must set the table for lunch and for breakfast that is “how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well, and that it the way they won’t recognize immediately the slut that [the mother has] warned her against becoming.”(Kincaid 485) through her commanding diction, the mother is telling her daughter how to set a table, how to cook, she

Our modern world is parallel in some points to the world of Theseus and Hippolyta – the rules of behavior for man and woman, “But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lie further off; in human modesty, Such separation as may well be said Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid ”. Female tolerance can be noticed in the next lines, “Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, Though I alone do feel the injury”. Classical ideals are still appreciated even in the contemporary world.

For every Attachment, when indulg'd, will engross too much of a female Mind, and leave too little Room for domestick cares: It becomes improper, when best placed, if it breaks out in tiresome Solicitudes and ill tim'd Fondness. I would likewise prohibit all vain Attempts at being foremost in the best of Qualities: For I declare, that in a Woman of Common Sense, can be neither the finest, the best dress'd, the politest, the wisest, the wittiest, or the most religious Woman; She can only be the best Sort of Woman. (8-1) Women had to have a certain degree of standard in order for them to be

Purity was no less important than piety. Women were warned men would try to steal their purity, but they must be strong and resist the temptation. Thomas Branagan threatened women a horrible fate if they did not remain pure in the 1808 publication, The Excellency of the Female Character Vindicated, “You will be left in silent sadness to bewail your credulity, imbecility, duplicity, and premature prostitution” (Welter 103). Women of the Nineteenth Century were taught to believe the contradiction that purity before marriage brought happiness, until it was time to be married and all innocence is lost. Without proper preparation to deal with the moral dilemma women were expected to deal with this severe change in their lives without questions (Welter 104).

“The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romances, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver, or their eyes” (Wakefield.) This quote shows how women were looked at in the nineteenth century. This goes back to the concept during that time that women can not have an urge to have sex. If they so happened to have an urge to have sex they were compared to as prostitutes. In this quote they compared a virgin to the highest of things but the next sentence goes along with making her husband and children happy. Women are always looked at as a caretaker or someone there to make their husbands happy. Never

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.

Thesis: A “true women” in the 19th Century was one who was domestic, religious, and chaste. These were virtues established by men but enforced and taught by other women. Women were also told that they were inferior to men and they should accept it and be grateful that someone just loved them.

“Women’s honor, something altogether else: virginity chastity, fidelity to a husband. Honesty in women has not been considered important. We have been depicted as generically whimsical, deceitful, subtle, vacillating, and we have been rewarded for lying.” 413.

She says, “A knowing woman’s work is never done / To get a lover if she hasn’t one” (282). Through this statement, she implies that a woman needs a man, or at least needs to be able to seduce a man. However, the woman does not depend on a man to fulfill her and make her complete, as was a common concept; but rather, the woman dominates the man and takes advantage of the relationship.

Most women were tied to the home in the 18th Century. Modesty had become an important part of family and society life. Women were considered to have a natural maternal instinct and a natural devotion to family. Attempting to leave this role of motherhood was seen as monstrous and unwomanly by society (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011) Women expected to stay in the private sphere. This hiding from the outside world was an attempt to protect the purity of women reiterating that women are the weaker sex and must be protected. This philosophy is exemplified in an 18th century metaphor, “Women is a plant which in it’s own green house seclusion will put forth all its brilliant

Therefore thought it not in the least a Fault to put in practice a little Whim which came immediately into her Head, to dress herself as near as she cou'd in the Fashion of those Women who make sale of their Favours, and set herself in the Way of being accosted as such a one, having at that Time no other Aim, than the Gratification of an innocent Curiosity (2).

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”