Women's Role In The Victorian Era Oppression Of Women

Today women in developed countries enjoy many freedoms from social stigmas and oppressions in the work force, although, they are still not completely equal to their male counterpart. There are still women being paid less than men doing the same job and there is the idea that prices for female products are raised slightly higher than it is for men for the same products; however, this does not compare to the kind of oppression women went through in the 1890s. Charlotte Perkins Gilman embodied the oppression of females in the 1890s in her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which depicts a mother and wife going through postpartum depression while struggling with her male physicians and husband over her treatment plan. Critic Frances Baskerville sums Gilman’s intention for her story stating, “Her [Gilman’s] fiction was intended as a vehicle for her feminist and socialist themes, a means of persuading a general audience” (Baskerville line 2). Although one of the issues of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is dealing with postpartum depression, one of the main themes of the short story is female oppression and what everyday life was like for women in her time.

Hard Times helps in illustrating the progress as well as the depression experienced by both men and women in the society. The role of the women in the Victorian society can be categorized in social and economic roles as shown from the various duties played by the women in the story. Most of the women in the Victorian society are associated with some stereotypical traits such as being transparent and being sensitive and that develops further to create a story which highlights the various importance of women in the society. Dickens views on femininity are shown from hard times and that helps in showing the various economic roles and the social roles played by the women in the buildup of the story. The study is aimed towards the elaboration of the roles of women economically and socially in relation to the plot and characterization shown in the story.

In John Osborne 's 1956 piece, Look Back in Anger, housewife Alison Porter is faced with the difficult decision of remaining in a toxic marriage or returning to live with her parents. Indeed, Alison is the archetype of the 1950s British woman, as depicted in both academic and popular discourse—meek, miserable and resigned to her fate as mother and housewife. While such a paradigm of the 1950s woman has long remained unchallenged, historians have begun to suggest that this stereotype is inaccurate and misleading, and overlooks the complexity of female gender roles during Britain of this era. When reviewing the literature on this topic, what emerges as a clear point of tension between academics is whether the 1950s was a static or a dynamic

I have to let the readers know how I stumbled upon this topic to introduce where I get my ideas from. It all started in the archive located on the second floor of the library in a dark corner behind a clear glass doors at the Hunter College. I have been attending Hunter College for four years and never have I stumbled on such an amazing place full of live history. I say live history because all the documents and books that are held in the archive are all preserved originals, which fascinated me. Thinking how people who lived more than century ago wrote and read the same things I’m writing and reading about excited me to my very soul. Archive research though fascinating is not an easy task that can be done in within fifteen minutes like how researches are done these days using convenient technologies at hand.

For a long time, America has been at a standstill, a period where the citizens, government, and states failed to recognize the desires of the oppressed. America was prosperous and patriotic, yet failed to acknowledge minorities groups suffering to be included. The oppressed groups, such as women, African Americans, and immigrants were often left with the crumbs that tyrants left in society. The oppressed had a dream, envisioned a life where their children could one day make it in this world. America was supposed to be that dreamland, the melting pot where people, of different ethnicities, had the chance to thrive. A place where women did not have to worry about being limited to certain roles and individuals with dissimilar racial status would

Women in the early 1900s did not have any rights and were oppressed and held against their will to many things, such as housecleaning or taking care of the children, however, they started to protest for, and eventually gain, the rights that were due long ago. Due to the traditional family structure, prevalent throughout the 20th century, women were oppressed and not considered full, independent human beings. Furthermore, the existing literature suggests that all of these accusations held against the government were true and woman were, in fact, oppressed. They protested for their simple rights such as, the right to vote or the right to work. Back then, it was known men held a higher position on the social scale rather than women, however,

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

“The… sea… [was] inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (Chopin 189). The only way this character felt they could be free from the oppression and pressure from her husband and society was by setting her soul free into the ocean. Oppression of women in the 1800’s led to their rights being limited, literature revealing men’s perception of women, and the idea of a mother-woman. Due to men continuously misinterpreting women in their literary work (“Feminist criticism and literary history”), women started reading their work and analyzed how the women were being perceived. According to the “Feminist Literary Criticism” article by Cantrell, women authors write their books in contrast to how women are perceived in men’s literature.

Today women everyday throughout the world are scene as being the weaker, lesser gender. Women are seen as fragile, powerless, or delicate. Every day between media or simply walking around in society we hear statements like “well you are JUST a girl” or “you need to hurry up and find a good husband to take care of you” because women cannot take care of themselves. In the Victorian Era, women faced similar situation but the gender role was beginning to shift. Sexism was brought to light in this Era, and feminism begin towards the end of the Victorian Era.

The oppression of women was immensely noticeable in the 19th century. The oppression these women suffered wast not only present in their duties at home, but made its way into womens health that caused horrific medical issues to go untreated. In that century, women was constantly misdiagnosed. They suffered from postpartum depression, and postpartum, like any other woman's disease, was treated as “illness of the womb”. Gilmar's story reaffirms the unfair medical treatment these women received, which in the end, costed her sanity and resulted in the protagonist going mad. By the end of the story the narrator was very mentally ill. She stripped off all the wallpaper in the room, “set the women free”, and started creeping around.“I've got out at

The Victorian rich women wore scarves, and nice things. Some rich women even wear pearls, and nice things in there hair. The pearls are good size and they are white, brown, and pink typically are those colors. Even though women were rich they still had to follow the rules and ware a very nice skirt, or long dress. They had to were very nice black shiny high heels. They sometimes wore top hats, and like nice straw hats. The top hats are very tall and there always black.

man or had a single sexual liaison with another man, her husband had legal grounds to divorce her, keep any money she brought into the wedding, and

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

What is the difference between a 21st century woman and a Victorian woman? Most women in the 21st century are exhilarating, lively, intelligent, passionate, and full of life, but who is to say that Victorian women were not? It is said that the typical Victorian woman must have “inherent qualities of femininity [such as:] emotion, passivity, submission, dependence, and selflessness” (Historical). Most of the Victorian women abode by these social standards and therefore could not speak their true thoughts or emotions. This is because they “were dominated by their sexuality, and were expected to fall silently into the social mold crafted by men, since they were regarded as irrational, sensitive, and dutiful” (Historical). A famous writer from that era, Charlotte Bronte, defied these social standards by creating characters and explaining, through them, her own thoughts and beliefs. The protagonist, Jane Eyre, was created to exemplify Bronte’s powerful emotions that would have been looked down upon in society. In Charlotte Bronte’s Victorian novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte uses constant description of fire to symbolize Jane’s emotions and her thoughts that could not have been expressed aloud. Bronte also uses fire to demonstrate the emotional aspect of Jane’s personal development throughout the novel. Overall, Bronte creates this symbol of fire to defy the social standards of typical and suppressed Victorian women by demonstrating their true passion and exuberant emotions.

The Victorian Age was defined by Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901. In the 19th century, England became the first industrializes nation. During this period education and literacy became extremely important, one reason being that Queen Victoria was pro women’s education. With literacy becoming an integral part of this era, poetry began to grow. This era began prose of controversial debates and uncounted poems and events involved beauty and emotions. Educating children and women became very crucial in this period. Numerous writers such as Tennyson, husband, and wife Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Christina Rossetti and brother Dante Rossetti had risen during this time and brought poetry and writing in a new light. I wanted to dissect the society’s view of fallen women during this era by using Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”, Dante Rossetti’s “Jenny”, and Anonymous’ “The Great Social Evil”.