In Colette’s Chéri, the main character Léa is a lustful middle-aged woman who has become lovers with a younger fellow named Chéri. At the beginning of the novel, their relationship is portrayed as being thick with devotion and seems likely to endure forever. But by the end, the two have split indefinitely, leaving Léa with unanswered passion from Chéri. What could have caused this relationship to crumble to the point of extinction, even while their love was so strong for each other? Léa’s increasing overconfidence toward her relationship with Chéri leads to her hopeless state of naïvety. She becomes so encompassed with thoughts of only Chéri and that she would do anything for Chéri, that he ends up taking advantage of her; in the process, however, he also robs Léa of her freedom to love someone else passionately.
Since Léa is a respectable amount of years older than Chéri, she believes that it is her duty to have Chéri taken care of physically and emotionally. For one, the age difference between her and her lover secures her in this thought. She becomes so confident in retaining Chéri under her wing for six years, that she is bold enough to liken their relationship to “an adoption” (7). Léa, at times, even views Chéri as her son and herself as the mother, and the distinction in their age clearly supports her theory. She recognizes though, and is even embarrassed to admit, that their relationship has gone on longer than it should have, longer than any she has ever had (7). Here, time alone contributes to Cheri’s emerging dominance.
This blind sense of power that Léa experiences, however, leads her mind to return to a state of naïvety. Léa is once again an adolescent but Chéri is no longer her bachelor, rather, he takes on the role of her parent. At the moment that she feels as if the relationship is in her control, Léa unknowingly grants Chéri the leadership to their love. When Léa is finally secure enough to admit that their love might actually last and that she is confident in keeping the controls, this is the point where she looses her hold on Chéri, and he is instead dominant over her.
Although Léa’s naïvety leads to Chéri’s supremacy, it is also due to Chéri’s realization that he is a man capable of controlling women, especially vulnerable, older women that leads to Chéri’s dominion. Since Chéri is the younger of the two l...
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...at his youthful charm has done the trick once more.
Chéri’s sudden departure for his wedding and at the end of the novel clearly shows his ability to control Léa. He is so powerful, in fact, that Léa is no longer able to love someone else passionately. At Chéri’s primary departure for his wedding, Léa even has to lie about having a new lover; the love that she possesses for Chériwas simply too strong for her to ignore, although she doesn’t mind lying to others to show a seemingly transitory recovery. She simply doesn’t want people to know that Chéri has affected her, a courtesan. She wants to prove to others, though distorting it to herself, that she is capable of terminating her feelings for Chéri just like he is capable of denying her as well.
Léa’s strength is clearly also her weakness: although she possesses the ability to be confident and firm, her relationship with Chéri has brought her confidence and willingness to the point of excess, and the boldness she once showed to others has in turn backfired. She is no longer dominant over Chéri in the relationship, but only realizes this after he is gone from her life. She finally understands that he will be the last of her lovers.
Celie is a victim of mistreatment and isolation in a world that considers women inferior to men. To instill fear and obedience in women, men conduct themselves in a hostile manner towards women. They manage women similar to slaves and sexually dominate them. When Celie is barely fourteen her stepfather, causing her to become pregnant twice, violates her multiple times. In a letter to God, Celie writes “I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it” (Walker 11). Intended merely to satisfy Pa, Celie...
In the movie, with time you could actually see her deep depression. Which cause her to become obsessed with love? She seems to have a very emotional pain, and attempts to heal the pain with drugs, alcohol, and sex. With t...
Chelsea, the daughter of Ethel and Norman, is at a very difficult stage in her life. She has divorced already and is back in the dating game, this time her partner is a dentist named Bill who has a 13 year old son, Billy. Billy stays with her parents while her and Bill travel around Europe, and elope in Brussels, consequently causing her boyfriend’s son to become her step son. Step parent/step children families are becoming increasingly commonplace now. Divorce and remarriage rates are higher now than ever in the past, and with that comes a rise in the blended family. The relationship between Billy and his step mother, Chelsea, seems quite amiable. Though she is an adult now, her father’s acceptance is something that Chelsea has always craved. After returning from Europe, much to her delight and dismay, she learns of how well Billy and her father got on while she was away, despite the initial
While conversing with the naive Janie, Nanny declares, “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (15). By referring to Janie as “baby,” Hurston utilizes a childish connotation to exaggerate Janie’s ignorance of marriage. Preparing for the potentially disastrous future, Nanny impregnates security as a top priority for Janie instilling that a prudent marriage will lead to love. Accommodating to her grandmother’s desires, Janie marries Logan. Through this union, Janie assumes an emotional attraction will coincide; however, Janie’s perception of love depreciates as Nanny equates affection to material wealth explaining how Logan “got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road... Dis
Clemencia doesn’t want to take the place of Megan, or of any other fooled white woman but instead accepts the fact that she will never be the wife, but always the mistress in contrast to an anglo lady and she is...
With a heart-full of advice and wisdom, Dinah maturates from a simple- minded young girl to a valiant independent individual. “For a moment I weighed the idea of keeping my secret and remaining a girl, the thought passes quickly. I could only be what I was. And that was a woman” (170). This act of puberty is not only her initiation into womanhood but the red tent as well. She is no longer just an observer of stories, she is one of them, part of their community now. On account of this event, Dinah’s sensuality begins to blossom and she is able to conceive the notion of true love.
...n be seen as her overcoming his total control over her life. She was now taking control, almost taking over the role that he had previously occupied.
Victoria’s early childhood was a very sheltered and reserved one, her best friends growing up was her nanny’s a...
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
In the play Hamlet, Ophelia’s downfall is dependent on love. Being one of the two women in the play, Ophelia lives in a very male dominated society. When the ties are broken between her relationships with the significant men in her life, it breaks Ophelia to
Her selfishness lies within the reality that she married Linton for the things he could have provided for her. Nothing parted Catherine and Heathcliff. Not God, nor Satan, it was Catherine herself – Catherine was the cause of her broken heart. Along with breaking her heart, she also broke Heathcliff’s, which led him to loathe and yearn for vengeance against what Heathcliff thought was the cause of Catherine’s death – her daughter.
The power that Lavinia has is not like Tamora’s, which is traditionally masculine. Lavinia’s power is in her femininity. She is able to attract the attention of many men, including Demetrius and Chiron, Tamora’s sons. At one point, Chiron is begging Demetrius to let him have Lavinia saying that he will “plead my passions for Lavinia’s love” (2.1.36). It does not matter to these two men that Lavinia is married; she is still just as attractive to them. Lavinia has the power to attract these men to her by her femininity, but she is not able to ward off their attack because her power is limited to being feminine, not being strong and convincing, like
She has had two babies by him already, and he’s taken both of them away right after they were born. She thinks at first he might have killed one of them, but later finds out that he sold them to a couple in town. Celie doesn’t do anything about her situation, because she’s used to being treated like that. She’s scared, and she fears for her sister Nettie too, when her Pa starts looking at her the same way. Eventually, a man referred to as Mr. ______ comes along and wants to marry Nettie, but he’s too old for her, and ends up marrying Celie. He takes a couple of months to think it over, but goes ahead and marries her because he needs someone to watch over his kids, and besides, she will bring the cow she was raising along. It’s not so much he wants a relationship, he just wants someone to take care of things for him so he doesn’t have to do much, and he wants something else when he wants it. Her father even tells Mr. ____ that “She ugly... But she ain’t no stranger to hard work. And she clean. And God fixed her. You can do everything just like you want to and she ain’t gonna make you feed it or clothe it.” (9)
Walkers’ book has been known to be criticized on the feminist side. The male dominance in this story between the violence and gender roles Celie goes through. She is very passive when it comes to being told what to do. Main reason she decides to not fight back is because she believes it will keep her alive longer. Celie not only had been taken advantage multiple times, but from her early chil...