When Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker wrote their Roaring Girl in 1611, they based it loosely on Mary Frith, who was frequenting taverns and playhouses in men’s clothing in London and had to appear in front of the court. Moll is the name of half the prostitutes in London and in their play; we meet Moll Cutpurse, the Roaring Girl. Dekker and Middleton use the unusual girl to criticize the London society. Moll goes between classes to evaluate the people in London as is shown when she talks to Sir Thomas and Lord Noland, stating When next, my lord, you spy any of one of those, So he be in his art a scholar, question him, Tempt him with gold to open the large book Of his close villainies; and you yourself shall cant Better than poor Moll can, and know more laws Of cheaters, lifters, nips, foists, puggards, curbers, Withal the devil’s black guard, than it is fit Should be discovered to a noble wit (5.1. 304-311). Audiences in the playhouses can understand that Moll is criticizing not only the London lower class, but the upper class as well. She might also warn the lord that a good thief could teach him so much, that the lord will be more knowledgeable than Moll, which might not be the best thing for a lord. Moll is the outcast woman that is, however, able to move between the social classes to serve as a nexus that connects and shows the similarities of the upper and the lower classes in the playhouses. Moving between classes is made possible with the help of monetary funds: “Tempt him with gold to open the large book” (5.1.306). Moll shows the audience that this underworld in London is for sale. Money plays a large role in the play, especially since in the global London many exotic goods are for sale, such as tobacco and... ... middle of paper ... ...talism is the great equalizer and that there is a beginning mobility in the classes. Everything has its price and can be purchased, including the bodies of females. Upper classes can have access with the help of money to the lower classes and lower classes can buy their access to the rich, therefore new kinds of identities are emerging, including empowered women, which the booming city of London and the mercantile class help to make possible. Works Cited "cant, v.3." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 12 March 2014. Middleton, Thomas, Thomas Dekker, and Jennifer Panek. The Roaring Girl: A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 2011. Print. "rogue, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 11 March 2014. "scholar, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 12 March 2014.
Themes: One of the main themes of the text is gender roles. According to Boydston, gender spheres were put into place in response to chaotic changes occurring in society (143). Work outside of the home (man 's work) was very seasonal and inconsistent and therefore a man 's "manhood" was always being challenged. Women were placed into their specific roles in order to offset that challenge to manhood, and when a women entered the wage-earning world (and worked for less than a man at that) she was challenging the manhood. Women also faced challenges to their roles as time went on. Household roles changed and women 's work became less valued over time, and
...found that the book gave perspective to each of the individual classes, rather than covering only the bourgeois or the proletariat. Today you will scarcely find a job or institution were women are not allowed, had I not read this chapter it would have been very difficult for me to understand what women at this time went through.
A work of literature often subtlety alludes to a situation in society that the author finds particularly significant. Susan Glaspell incorporates social commentary into her play Trifles. By doing so, she highlights the gender stratification that exists even in the most basic interactions and presents a way to use this social barrier to an acceptable end. Despite being written almost a century before present day, Glaspell’s findings and resulting solution are still valid in a modern context. Trifles demonstrates the roles of men and women in their everyday behaviour and interaction. The women use their ascribed positions to accomplish what the men cannot and have the ability to deliberately choose not to help the men with their newfound knowledge.
Marxist criticism leaves society thinking that dominant classes overpower social order. However, its goal is to present ideas of changing social realities, so future generations will know all people are important and equal. During the Victorian period, a Governess was faced with contradictory burdens leaving them uneasy with status imbalance. The governess is uncomfortable with the fact that she could be similar to the servants/ghosts, because she still feels that she is above them socially. Her desire to break out of the class structure, yet her inability to do so, shows her dependence on the structure. From her first moments at Bly or the “castle of romance”, she instantly feels the conflict between her emotional...
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, was written in 1916, reflects the author’s concern with stereotypical concepts of gender and sex roles of that time period. As the title of the play implies, the concerns of women are often considered to be nothing more than unimportant issues that have little or no value to the true work of society, which is being performed by men. The men who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable to solve the mystery through their supposed superior knowledge. Instead, two women are able decipher evidence that the men overlook because all of the clues are entrenched in household items that are familiar mainly to women during this era. Glaspell expertly uses gender characterization, setting, a great deal of symbolism and both dramatic and verbal irony, to expose social divisions created by strict gender roles, specifically, that women were limited to the household and that their contributions went disregarded and underappreciated.
Literature. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym and Julia Reidhead. 17 ed. New York: W.W. Norton &
The title page offers an immediate insight into the patriarchal constraints placed on women in early modern England. Although The Tragedy of Mariam is the first known English play to be authored by a woman, the fact that Cary is unable to give her full name is indicative of the limitations on women writers of the period. This semi-anonymous authorship...
Susan Glaspell highlights the settings as theatrical metaphors for male dominated society in the early 20th century. “Trifles” begins with an investigation into the murder of Mr. Wright. The crime scene is taken at his farmhouse where clues are found that reveals Minnie Wright to be a suspect of murder. In the beginning of the play, it clearly embodies the problems of subordination of women. For example, there are two main characters in this play—Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who are brought along with the sheriff and attorney to find evidence for Mr. Wright’s murder. The men gather and work together at the stove and they talk with each other in familiarity while women “stand close together near the door behind men” (Glaspell 444). Perhaps the location of the women standing behind the men near the door reflects also their secondary or inferior social standing in the eyes of the men. Moreover, it seems that the wo...
"Trifles," a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. Mrs. Hale?s and Mrs. Peters?s treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of the powerless slot that has been made for them, manage to use their power in a way that gives them an edge. This power enables them to succeed in protecting Minnie, the accused. "Trifles" not only tells a story, it shows the demeaning view the men have for the women, the women?s reaction to man?s prejudice, and the women?s defiance of their powerless position.
One Victorian sentiment was that a civilized individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This notion was readily adopted by the upper classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the lower classes, who certainly appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may have (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lower-class status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal lower class. Although poverty could be found almost anywhere in Victorian London (one could walk along a street of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class Londoners, who tended to dwell in the West End, associated the East End with the lower class.
In the 1960’s women roles were changing they were getting more involved in the American society. While working as a journalist Susan Glaspell reported a case of a murder which influenced her to write the play Trifles. In the play, Trifles the women are being presented as weak and powerless, a murder has been committed by Minnie Wright. There are a total of five characters in the play, three of them are men and the other two are females. The males are the county attorney, sheriff, and a neighbor farmer. The women are Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale. The men are searching for clues to convict Minnie of the crime, while the women find the most important pieces to the crime. In the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, the author demonstrates feminist stereotypes, representations of genders during the era when women had less power.
In Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, a modernistic class-conscious theme develops around how several of the play’s characters manipulate sources of wealth in order to achieve social equality. The rise of international markets, readily available sources of credit, and the overall "commodification of English society" (Lecture, 9/3/03) had created a new commercial dynamic in Shakespeare’s era that gave form to a financial meritocracy never before possible in English history. Consequently, in Shakespeare’s play, the tension that results from the challenges presented to the status quo by the commercialization of society manifests itself through the exchange of gifts and debts between three principle relationships. In the characters of Antonio, Portia, and Shylock, Shakespeare illustrates that as a result of the commodification of society even the motivations for expressing generosity are now subject to a cost/benefit analysis. Variously stifled by the traditional limitations placed upon on them by their social positions, Shakespeare’s central characters in The Merchant of Venice seek to address their frustrations through an economic advantage, which in the end analysis, works to emphasize a connection between Shakespeare and the basis of modern class antagonisms.
The marxist lens reflects the gap between the rich and the poor during the 1920’s through the glass ceiling effect and female economic status. The glass ceiling is an unseen and unbreakable barrier that keeps one from rising to the upper class regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The different settings in the novel represent this effect: East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and
Elbert, Sarah. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 144. Print.
Stamper, Julie S. Female Characters as Role Models in Young Adult Literature. University of Tennessee.