The 1920s were years of great change, in all aspects of society. Women were gaining rights that many thought were impossible to attain just a generation earlier. Despite the feeling of great change that pervaded the world, especially Ireland, women were still frozen within a system of patriarchy that would allow them to do little to express their personal freedom or their ability to think critically and complexly. In Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September, Bowen explores internal conflicts in relation to the external forces that oppress the characters. One of the most pervasive of these external forces is traditional society and the history of patriarchy and misogyny that it represents. The Last September is a story that subverts and disrupts the Irish patriarchal society by referencing feminist ideals and challenging patriarchal expectations.
Bowen once said, when praising Jane Austen’s prose, “the constraints of polite behavior” only serve to “store up” the character’s “energies” (Glendinning 81) She said that life with the “lid off” is not “necessarily more interesting than life with the lid on” (81). While this was said in praise of another author’s work, the idea that the constrained behavior of the characters hides inner turmoil can be seen in The Last September. Much of the action in the novel occurs internally, and it is through these internal conflicts that the traditional patriarchal structure is subverted. It is through subtle relationships and conversations among characters that the traditional ideals of society are challenged.
In The Irish Women’s Movement: From Revolution to Devolution, Connolly described three distinct waves of feminism in Ireland. The novel takes place in the first phase, the “suffragette ...
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...are where she goes, as long as it is far away from the War and as long as it is far away from where she is now, because she knows she will never feel real there.
The Last September works as a text that challenges society’s traditional views on women and on women’s lives. Bowen does this by demonstrating the idiosyncrasies of many of these traditional practices and by including characters whose thoughts and actions exhibit feminist ideals.
Works Cited
Bowen, Elizabeth. The Last September. New York: Anchor Books, 2000. Print.
Connolly, Linda. The Irish Women's Movement: From Revolution to Devolution. 1st.
New York: Palgrave, 2002. Print.
Glendinning, Victoria. Elizabeth Bowen. 1st. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978. Print.
Paxton, Nancy L. "George Eliot and the City." Trans. Array Women Writers and the City.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984. Print.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. Print.
Nineteenth-century society was an era that was defined by one ideology: “separate spheres.” Resting on preconceived notions of male and female characteristics, men, being the strongest of the species, were expected to work, while the women-with well-credited rectitude over their male counterparts-were expected to care for the home and raise their army of children to lead their family tree into world domination and carry on the misogynistic line of male hierarchy. Edna’s life is parallel to this Victorian era philosophy of the “separate spheres,” and it is these exact demands that that finally push her to find herself. The main source of this awakening does not just come from her somewhat backward love connection to Robert Lebrun, but from the
Canadian feminist author, Margaret Atwood, has written many novels, short stories, and poems reflecting the difficulties women have faced throughout the late 1900s. By creating characters that portray the new woman, Atwood’s relatable yet surprising plots demonstrate the struggles women have gone through to earn their standings in society. Now, in the twenty-first century, women have earned a nearly equal status to men in many important areas. Some of these areas include occupation, education, and intelligence. As women become more successful, the importance of certain female traits become emphasized. Atwood creates female characters that embody the image of the ideal new woman. In addition to her female characters, Atwood develops characters that pose as representations of the past. The characters that are the most relatable to readers are the ones who tackle the difficult roles of being a wife, a mother, and a woman in a predominantly male-run civilization. In Margret Atwood’s The Edible Woman, The Handmaid’s Tail, and Surfacing, female characters confront the challenges of developing their role in a marriage, escaping oppression from society, and accepting the value of fertility.
A Day Without Feminism, By Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards (2000). I agree with the author; feminism has changed the lives of women. I think without feminism, women will still be invisible and they would have amount to anything in life. I find this article interesting, because it displays that women and feminism have come along since when things were limited for women to do, or have. Feminism open gates for women that presents a new world for them. “as a divorcee, she may be regarded as a family disgrace or as easy sexual prey.” (page 36). This fact has encouraged me to respect Women’s Rights even more. It is truly a blessing, that women can get a divorce in today’s society without being considered as an easy sexual prey.
Largely throughout the history of the United States of America, women have been intimately oppressed by their spouses in collusion with a patriarchal society. The Realist literary period saw no exception to this oppression of women. The Realist period, which lasted approximately from 1865-1910, involved many injustices on women, women’s rights, and equality. Males were supreme to females throughout this period, and women were denied many basic freedoms, including the right to vote. Women were regarded as frail, unequal, and inferior. However, the marginalization of women in this period did not go without protest. Women began to have an active voice on issues pertaining to their own rights as the end of the Realist period neared. Headways into women’s rights were made in this period around the turn of the century. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman chronicles the oppression and deteriorating sanity of Jane, who is being confined in a room by her physician and husband. This story is critical in telling of the oppression and subordination of women to their husbands throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin depicts a frail woman, who dies after a fright from her husband, who she believed was dead. The Awakening by Kate Chopin details the life of Edna Pontellier, who seeks individualism and life away from the control of men. Edna Pontellier assists in representing the audible and vociferous women’s rights movement that arose towards the end of the 19th century. American women in the Realist literary period encountered three elements that defined their societal status: oppression, inequality, and activism.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the 19th Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Literature. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, xi-xxiv. Print.
Evelyn Cunningham once said, “Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors.” For thousands of years women have been oppressed, not in the bondage of slavery but in the bondage that comes from a lack of education and a dependence on men for their livelihood. Women have been subjected to scrutiny and ostracization, belittling and disparaging comments, and even at times they have been feared by men. Women themselves have even taken on the beliefs that they require a man in their life to be taken care of and have a satisfying life although some women and even some men have seen that the differences between the sexes is purely physical. This oppression, as well as the enlightenment of some, is well noted in many literary works. Literature has often been an arena for the examination of the “woman question,” as it was termed in the Victorian age. Four works that examine the role or view of women in society are John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women, T.S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and Carol Ann Duffy’s “Medusa.” Although each work examines a side of the woman question in its own way with a variety of views on the question, all of the works examine the fear that women incite in men, the idea that women are dependent on men, and the idea that women are separate from men in some way and each piece works to show that there is actually an interdependence between men and women that is often not expressed.
These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. (There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries). These women authors have impacted a male dominated society into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
What I have discussed are two women authors that have faced trials in their lifetimes pertaining to feminism that society had forced upon them. We are given insight into the ways and values of their time and how these experiences influenced their writings. In conclusion, we can see how societal issues concerning the roles of women have differed in principles, but remain the same in the way that there is an unbroken tradition regarding how men and women differ in their roles as well as their perceived rights. Female writers and advocates of women’s rights show these influences with Mary Wollstonecraft using her strong personality and direct writings and Virginia Woolf using her narratives, and both giving us insight to the struggles of an ongoing debate.