Gender Roles In A Real Life By Alice Munro

In the story “A Real Life” by Alice Munro it is clearly evident that life for a woman in the past had very high standards that were meant to be followed. Women were seen as an object that were only there to cook for their husband, clean the house and raise the children. Thought there were some women who felt, by nature, that they did not “fit” in with the social requirements society had created for them. The conformities of gender roles affected, specifically women, in negative ways by either forcing them put all their desires aside or live unhappy lives. The story focuses mainly on a woman by the name of Dorrie Beck. She is a very masculine woman and is described as “[a woman with] remarkable strength…[and] could do a man’s job…she [has] heavy legs, chestnut-brown hair, a broad bashful face, and dark freckles like dots of velvet.” (Munro

It states in the story a hobby that Dorrie loved was hunting, especially hunting “rabbits and muskrats” (45), which is seen as a “manly” hobby. She lives in a house owned by her friend Millicent who is the complete opposite of Dorrie, as in she is married to a man named Porter and she has children (44). Millicent states that she had always wanted to destroy Dorrie’s house but doesn’t understand why she emotionally can go through with her plans (67). Meanwhile, Dorrie lived with her brother and acted like the “wife” of the house; cooking for her and her brother, cleaning the clothes and other tasks that wives would take part in. Once her brother died, the reader can interpret that Dorrie feels like she can do as she pleases, which is to hunt and take part in other “manly” hobbies. Millicent is the completely opposite and this can be seen through her personality, her beliefs and her opinion of women in the society. She followed the “traditional womanly duties” that were meant to be followed, which was to get married and have children and