The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

The girls find St. Lucy’s home an exciting, new environment and have fun for the most part. They are ultimately unhappy. This is evident when the girls spray “exuberant yellow streams all over” (225). Everything for the girls is sudden and chaotic. The narrator, Claudette, says their “noses ached beneath an invisible assault” (Russell 227-228).

In this essay I will discuss and analyze the social forces that influenced American women writers of the period of 1865 to 1912. I will describe the specific roles female authors played in this period and explain how the perspectives of female authors differed from their male contemporaries.

The mirror on the bedroom wall examines the public perception of her private life. Looking only at its reflection, the audience cannot tell the room is in a mess; the rosebush and the dirt trail are not apparent to the audience. In the mirror, only the back of woman’s head is evident. Her face and her emotions are hidden from the mirror. It appears as if she is doing an ordinary task; she could very well be sitting on the bed, reading a book. She turns her back to the mirror and denies it a true reflection.

Laertes displays more concern for their name and reputation tarnishing rather than Ophelia’s feelings. Like Ophelia, When Lucy acted very much like her friend Mina, who acted like a “good Victorian women” and suppresses her urge for sexuality and “anticipate dependence and submission when they are joined with the masculine.”(Howes 109)

This image of Lucretia is not that of some mythological or religious origin, say, of a venus, for example, part of whose appeal is the depiction of nudity without social repercussion. With respect to the time which bore this painting, it is not unlikely that this inclination to experiment with the female nude was in part sublimated by means of this historical subject matter, however, so say that Lucretia’s nudity is illustrated only on account of what would amount to the privilege of moral impunity is perhaps too simple an explanation. It seems much more reasonable to posit that Lucretia’s own nudity, especially in conjunction with her opulent, indeed, what is surely very expensive clothing (other depictions of Lucretia typically omit the inclusion of clothes altogether), is employed by Cleve to highlight Lucretia’s shame—amid her wealth and regal lifestyle, her clothes have been cleaved open, and she had been irrevocable hurt and humiliated. Whether intended by the artist, this awkward parting of Lucretia’s garments over her left shoulder and down through her abdomen adds greatly to the desolation and pity associated with her historical figure. Ultimately, this compositional decision serves to augment the paintings emotional

Two-hundred years is a sizeable gap of time that allows plenty of room for change. American society had been rapidly changing from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, but despite this, the roles and rights of women have remained locked in place. There were many factors to consider as to why women were not allowed to flourish in their time and exceed these boundaries, and while some accepted it, there were many that opposed and faced these difficulties head on. Two female authors, one from colonial times, and one from nineteenth century America, have written about the obstacles and misogyny they’ve overcome in a male dominated literary career. Despite the two-hundred-year gap between the lives of Margaret Fuller and Anne Bradstreet, they both face issues regarding the static stereotype that women are literarily inferior and subservient handmaids to men.

At the very end of the novel, Granger says they must build a mirror factory to take a take a long look at themselves. This remark recalls Montag’s description of Clarisse as a mirror in “ The Hearth and the Salamander.”

In representing female subjects, both Pablo Picasso’s oil painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) manipulate the formal techniques of composition and perspective to create new ways of seeing their subject, emulating their contemporary society’s shifting views of women and the individual. Les Demoiselles depicts five naked prostitutes, flaunting their bodies, and some wearing tribal masks. In comparison, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère represents a female, who may also be a prostitute, tending a bar. The depiction of previously ‘hidden’ female subjects alone was an innovation of the perception of the artist, however, the formal treatment in representing these subjects was an important break from tradition.

The mirror itself challenges the link between representation and truth‹the images January sees are reconstructions/reflections, rather than the women themselves. Furthermore, the mirror is not even real. It is the poet's metaphor, itself another kind of reconstruction, and so the reader becomes twice removed from these women who are being represented. January bases his non-visual assessment of these women not on direct interaction but on hearsay; it is their reputation among the people that determines what he thinks of their characters (ll. 1591-2). The mirror becomes a metaphorical space in which January can appraise

Some of the most influential women authors of all time lived in the 19th century. These women expressed their inner most thoughts and ideas through their writings. They helped to change society, perhaps without knowing it, through poetry, novels, and articles. Emily Dickinson, Harriet Jacobs, Kate Chopin, Louisa May Alcott, and Elizabeth Oakes Smith are the best-known controversial and expressive women authors of their time.

Lucy is clearly the most sexual female of the female characters and this description leads to the reader understanding the inappropriateness of the women being overtly sexual and in some ways them understanding the threats the ‘New Women’ possess. When dying Lucy is described as having a “voluptuous mouth” and her body to be “withering and quivering” once again the ‘New Woman’ is referred to as being very sexual and confident,

Woolf demonstrates how women writers have often failed in this because of our frustration and bitterness with a world that presented to us and our writing not welcome, or even indifference, but hostility (41). She makes it clear that if there is ever going to be a “Shakespeare’s sister,” we must---at least while we are writing---swallow that sense of having been wronged, for it stands as an impediment to our creativity. This is the mental freedom that women writers must attain.

Woolf supports this claim by focusing on the anonymous writer named “Anon” (anonymous), that we as readers have seen so many times in literature. Could this “Anon” have been a woman, this “Anon” that has written so many poems and ballads? From Woolf’s point of view, “whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination” (54). She does not reach a conclusion as to the lack of women writers before the 18th century, she can only make assumptions on the time period and enlighten her audience to make sure that women are able to express their creativity without any constraints issued by society.

Many female writers see themselves as advocates for other creative females to help find their voice as a woman. Although this may be true, writer Virginia Woolf made her life mission to help women find their voice as a writer, no gender attached. She believed women had the creativity and power to write, not better than men, but as equals. Yet throughout history, women have been neglected in a sense, and Woolf attempted to find them. In her essay, A Room of One’s Own, she focuses on what is meant by connecting the terms, women and fiction. Woolf divided this thought into three categories: what women are like throughout history, women and the fiction they write, and women and the fiction written about them. When one thinks of women and

The role of women in the society is always questioned and for centuries, they have struggled to find their place in a world that is predominantly male oriented. The treatment of women was extremely negative; they were expected to stay home and fulfill domestic duties. Literature of that time embodies and mirrors social issues of women in society (Lecture on the Puritans). But, slowly and gradually, situation being changed: “During the first half of the 19th century, women 's roles in society evolved in the areas of occupational, moral, and social reform. Through efforts such as factory movements, social reform, and women 's rights, their aims were realized and foundations for further reform were established” (Lauter 1406). Feminist poets like Emily Dickinson and Anne Bradstreet talked substantially about feminism in different lights in the past two centuries. They were very vocal and assertive about their rights and the ‘rights for women’ in general. While they might have been successful at making a good attempt to obliterate gender biases but still there are lot of disparities between the two genders. Nevertheless, their poetry reflects a deep angst.