Portrayal of Women in One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits
The portrayal of women in the novels One Hundred years of Solitude
and The House of the Spirits differs greatly. In One Hundred Years of
Solitude empowerment comes only through age, for instance Ursula Iguaran,
the matriarch of the Buendia family and to some extent Macondo, or through
strength of sexuality, for instance Pilara Tenera the 'sexual matriarch' of
Macondo. This is in contrast with The House of the Spirits where
empowerment comes also through force of conviction, as seen with Nivea, and
also through commercial enterprise as seen with Transito Soto. These women
represent Allende's own brand of feminism Furthermore those women who
accept a traditional role of subservience and remain staunch in their
conservatism are shown to finish their days alone and mostly forgotten as
is seen with Ferula and Nana.
As the novels were set in first half of the
twentieth century in Latin America, the role of women in the social
hierarchy of this backdrop is worthy of consideration. This was a
patriarchal society where men of whatever age were always superior in
standing to women. As a woman aged, her position in the social hierarchy
would increase. Furthermore women had few career choices; all were linked
to some form of domestic service whether solely as a wife and mother or as
a nanny or a combination. Religion played a very important role in this
predominantly catholic area. The role of women as portrayed by the church
was somewhat of a paradox, simultaneously acknowledging and praising women
for the gift of child bearing and yet depicting them as the root of all sin,
as the temptress inducing thoughts of fornication as well as causing the
original sin, that being Adam eating the fruit in the 'Garden of Eden'.
Despite Marquez's well documented anticlericalism this idea in
church ideology of the temptress is paralleled in One Hundred Years of
Solitude albeit the figure of Eve in her roles is split between the
matriarchs of Macondo namely Pilar Tenera and Ursula Iguaran. In the
beginning of One hundred years of solitude: "The world was so recent that
many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to
quilts. Maggie gives in and says that Dee may have the quilts because she is
Throughout history, women were not always well regarded by men. Because of this, most societies treated their women as second class citizens. The stories from, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, illustrate how the portrayal of women affected Muslim society in the Ninth century. Sometimes women were seen as mischievous, unfaithful temptresses. Other times they were depicted as obedient, simple minded slaves looking to please their master. With the use of charm, sex and trickery, they used the labels that they were put in, to their advantage; demonstrating that women during this century were clever, smart, and sly.
Women and men are not equal. Never have been, and it is hard to believe that they ever will be. Sexism permeates the lives of women from the day they are born. Women are either trying to fit into the “Act Like a Lady” box, they are actively resisting the same box, or sometimes both. The experience of fitting in the box and resisting the box can be observed in two plays: Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House”. In Hansberry’s play, initially, Beneatha seems uncontrolled and independent, but by the end she is controlled and dependent; whereas, in Ibsen’s play Nora seems controlled and dependent at the beginning of the play, but by the end she is independent and free.
Maggie is introduced as someone who was shy and walked like “a lame animal” sidling up to someone who “was ignorant enough to be kind” (156). This is partly because of her self-consciousness of the scar scattering her arms and legs. Dee, by comparison, is the picture of confidence. She walks and speaks as if the world owes her everything she ever asks for. She feels powerful for getting away from what she saw as a prison. While Maggie is humble and kind, Dee will not hesitate to demand things and is ruthless in her pursuit. At least, Dee is ruthless in her pursuits, in Mama’...
...big yard, and the characters are all symbols that have gotten the theme across that you must always cherish your heritage. Dee will go back to the city and support her more broad perspective of all blacks as Mama will stick to her tighter confines of family history. The one young lady (Maggie) that has yet to be engulfed by others opinions will be the one to press on both histories as one:
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.
Feminism is approached by various meanings. As noted by a Salvadoran feminist activist Gloria Guzman, “It is a proposal for a change in the relations of power between people, men over women, and the relations of power expressed in the different realms of life” (Shayne, 2007).
The quilts were pieced together by Mama, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee symbolizing a long line of relatives. The quilts made from scraps of dresses worn by Grandma Dee, Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts, and Great Grandpa Ezra’s Civil War uniform represented the family heritage and values, and had been promised to Mama to Maggie when she married. However, Dee does not understand the love put into the making of the quilts, neither does she understand the significance of the quilts as part of her family heritage. It is evident she does not understand the significance of the quilt, having been offered one when went away to college declaring them “as old-fashioned” and “out of style”. She does not care about the value of the quilts to her family, rather she sees it as a work of art, valuable as an African heritage but not as a family heirloom. She wants the quilts because they are handmade, not stitched with around the borders. She tells Mama, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use… But, they’re priceless!.. Maggie would put them on her the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” (317). The quilt signifies the family pride and history, which is important to Mama. She makes the decision to give the quilt to Maggie who will appreciate it more than Dee, to whom she says, “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex, weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more than their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a woman can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are oppressed because the fundamental concept of equality that America is based on undermines gender equality.
In a society where the focus on equality amongst different races, religions and sexes continues to grow, it is no surprise that literature has begun to follow suit. Publishers have seen a rise in strong, capable female protagonists who overcome a variety of struggles to save themselves or others and both teens and adults alike rush to get their hands on this material. With such popular literary works to choose from, it seems strange that many schools continue to rely on somewhat archaic material that mistreats and degrades so many women. In John Steinbeck 's Of Mice and Men, for example, the only female character the reader interacts with is treated like a lower-class prostitute who is ultimately killed off due to her seductive behavior. Though Steinbeck 's treatment of women comes mainly from classic gender roles, his portrayal of female characters in Of Mice and Men is
Comparing the Roles of Women in Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Look Back in Anger
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
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.