Literary Criticism In Dorothy Parker's A Telephone Call

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“Dorothy Parker was one of the most influential women writers of her era.” (Bengstsson) When Dorothy was growing up, women’s rights was a galvanizing issue of the day. Working women went on strike for months and the suffrage movement was advocating voting rights for women. In October of 1917, thousands of women marched in a New York City suffrage parade. In June of 1919, Congress passed the 15th amendment, which (finally) granted women the right to vote. “This was the world into which Parker was born into, and from which she drew her inspiration.” (Contemporary Literary Criticism) In her male dominated world, women fell into the shadows of a restrictive society that expected them to be passive and obedient, prohibiting them from being independent. One work in which Parker advocates for women is in her short story, “A Telephone Call.” The main character of the story is a woman who is infatuated with a man. She waits in anticipation of him calling her as he has promised to do. The story follows the anxiety she faces as she waits for the call. Parker exposes obsession and gives the work a voice by revealing the deep feelings of a woman experiencing an infatuation. The language use and tone help keep a high-paced unstable feeling throughout the story. Point of view focuses on the thoughts and agitations of the crazed woman. The woman repeats the short hopeless phrase "Please, God" numerous times and usually follows it with frantic condemning or pathetic begging. The obsessive woman uses aggressive and almost violent language toward the telephone and even the man she adores. (Contemporary Literary Criticism) Confronted by society’s constraints, Dorothy Parker’s characters are forced to realize that expectations often lead to disappo... ... middle of paper ... ...her to be leaves her permanently damaged and exhausted, proven by her suicide. She never fulfilled her unconscious longings. (Contemporary Literary Criticism) “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” In Dorothy Parker's world, women were always looked at as being less. Not just less than men, less employable, less representative, less intelligent, less valuable. The mediocre expectations that society limited them to prohibited them from reaching their full potentials. In order to lead fulfilling their lives, Parker believed that women needed to be more independent .Dorothy Parker was a survivor facing many hardships throughout her life. She was one of the most troubled women you could think of, yet one of the most successful. (Bengtsson) She looked at her experiences and troubles as inspiration and channeled that energy into writing captivating stories.

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