The Lady With The Pet Dog Literary Analysis

Patriarchy is a social system where men dominate and govern most of the world’s economical, educational, familial, health, political, and religious systems. This political social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior females, has been taking it toll on different demographics. To maintain dominance, men exude their sensitive, inferior “masculinity” through various forms of psychological control, manipulation, violence, and terrorism. The subservient role-playing woman has to orchestrate to patriarchal chime by being nurturing, obedient, passive, and weak

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

In order for a patriarch system to perpetuate male superiority, they must first create a space for male domination. This is accomplished by instilling feelings of self-hatred and unworthiness in females so that they accept their inferiority. In a patriarch society that facilitates female inferiority it seems that unification of women is the only way to achieve liberation. In Cherrie Moraga’s Loving in the War Years, the chapter entitled “From a Long Line of Vendidas” teaches that patriarch society negatively influences the way women feel about themselves, thus influencing the way women relate to each other. This cultural environment perpetuates gender hierarchy by both ruining the self-image of women and placing women in discord,

For many years all around the world men dominate woman controlling every aspect of their life, even in today’s society, unfortunately this dominance in a way still present, Men are seen as providers and head of households while woman are simply viewed as nurturers. In the short stories “Virgins” by Danielle Evens and “Man and Wife” by Katie Chase demonstrates a culture of male dominance and the depreciation of woman.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

First, it is imperative that one knows what exactly patriarchy is: “a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favor men and withhold opportunity from women” (“Patriarchy”). Any social structure where men outrank women, where men are provided with an unequal increase in opportunities, or any system that instills stereotypical traits, or gender roles, falls under this category.

Humans have a natural ability to know what is right and just and what is wrong. However, people are tempted on a regular basis, and often times people choose to go against what is right for what they want at the moment. Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the struggle of one man with his personal temptations in the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. Through a trip into the woods on a dark, gloomy night, Young Goodman Brown battles between what he knows is right and what sparks his curiosity—what the others and doing in the woods—the same theme portrayed in Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog.” In this short story, Young Goodman Brown loses his faith in humanity’s ability to do good when he is convinced the great lie by the “dark one”.

I want to thank Professor Grigsby for the academic support by teaching me how to draw upon ideas from the book and emotional support by kindly talking with me about random things and making me feel more confident in writing. I want to thank Andrea Green for helping me brainstorm the prompt for my essay; without her helpful, it would be difficult to start. I also want to thank my dog Taozi for giving me reference and inspiration to write this piece and my brother for connecting the video chat with Taozi in China and me.

Oates begins the story depicting an image of Connie, the protagonist in the story, and her narcissism, how “she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other peoples faces, to make sure her own was all right.” (Kirszner 453). Connie’s mother is always getting on to her about being so artificial and comparing Connie to her older sister, age 24, June. June does not spend a lot of time on her looks, she holds a good job, cleans the house, and retains a good relationship with their mother. Connie, on the other hand, does not have a good relationship with her mother, and at one point she even wishes her mother dead as well as herself (Kirszner 453). The father works all the time and during the time he is home for dinner, he reads the newspaper and then goes to bed (Kirszner 453). The relationship with the father is almost

Throughout the short story of “Lady with a Dog” many characters drastically change. Personally, I believe that the person that shows the heavier amount of change is Gurov. Of course, both Gurov and Anna change, but Gurov takes things to a different level considering his past.

Throughout the history of the world, patriarchy has been rooted into the very essence of our lives, shaping our thoughts and actions. Patriarchy is present in virtually every society and unfortunately is the underlying problem to most violence in the world, particularly violence towards women. Patriarchy exemplifies the misogyny that has been ever-present since probably the beginning of every society. Whether it is discrimination towards women, lack of equal rights, or

Feminist theory analyzes the gender inequality that women have faced throughout the years due to a patriarchal society. Women were expected to fit the traditional female and conform to the gender norms that society has constructed. According to A Brief Introduction to Critical Theory, “Feminism embodies a way of reading that investigates the text’s investment in or reaction to the patriarchal power structures that have dominated Western culture” (227). Patriarchal power has oppressed women economically, socially, and politically. Women were associated more with domesticity than with politics and financial situations. They were not provided the same educational opportunities as men. These issues have been addressed by people, such as Mary

Patriarchy usually means a family that is male-dominated and headed by the father. It is a social construct in which men and masculine roles are considered to be absolutely superior to women and feminine roles. A society is considered patriarchal when it is male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified. Being a male-dominated culture means that positions of power and authority in the political, economic, legal, religious, domestic, educational, and military spheres are usually reserved only for men. Male-identification means that a culture’s ‘normal’ way of living is based on men and their lives. Male-dominance means that the culture has been shaped by men in a way that mostly serves male interests. Patriarchal societies are male-identified because their core ideals concerning what is morally right, desirable or normal are connected with how they think about masculinity or men in general. They are always male-centered, with the culture’s focus is

It is difficult to imagine living in a world without the patriarchal roles that are present in society and have been throughout history. In the article “Feminist Criticism,” by Lois Tyson, the idea of feminism and how society has affected feminism is the focus. These ideas are seen because men have more of a voice in nearly everything and the oppression of women is very common; a society set up like this can be described with the term patriarchy which is “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles,” where men are cast as “rational, strong, protective, and decisive,” and women are cast “as emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive” (Tyson, 1). This thought that men are strong and women weak is not uncommon in

More and more men are holding power over women. When this happens women feel afraid to be themselves and being very insecure and feel they have no purpose. Sadly this is happening more and more in society. This is also shown in Literature books as well, so society has learned and followed what authors have wrote and not it is happening more and more. In the novels, A Doll's House and The Great Gatsby we see that women in the books have strong relationships, but men believe they hold higher power, which can lead womens self esteem to go down, causing them to feel like they have no purpose.