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Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
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The role gender holds in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not one many were familiar with at the time it was written. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. This idea is depicted throughout the entire novel, affecting almost every character introduced. This novel essentially questions and challenges the accepted beliefs on the roles of gender in the society at that time, showing how things would be if roles were different. With this, through a description of the characters, you can see who was empowered by Baum and who held an inferior role.
In this novel, the women and the men have very different roles. Baum created strong and powerful women, but needy and inferior men. The main women in the novel, such as Dorothy, the Stork, the Queen of Mice and Glinda, all handled things on their own as well as did things to help the men in the novel. On the other hand, the main men in the novel, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion and the Wizard, all were unable to do things completely on their own and needed help, usually from the women. This clearly shows that the empowered characters in the novel were the main women characters.
Dorothy, the main character, was highly empowered by Baum. Just the idea that a woman was the main role in a novel was shocking enough, but the way she acted throughout pulled it all together. When Dorothy ended up in Oz after the cyclone she knew she had to get back home to her Aunt and Uncle. Even though she was scared at first to make the journey to the Wizard, to find out how to get home, she took initiative to do it on her own, “”Come along, Toto” she said. “We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how t...
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... Wizards mistake and Dorothy was able to get home, one final reminder of the inferiority of men in the novel and the empowerment of women.
Baum took a different approach on gender than many did in this time period. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. Throughout the novel are a number of examples of a woman helping a man through a problem, and a woman getting through her problems on her own. This novel was one of the first signs of feminism, putting the woman into power. As Baum said, “Never give up. No one knows what’s going to happen next” (www.goodreads.com).
Works Cited
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. N.p.: Rise of Douai, 2013. Print.
"L. Frank Baum Quotes." L. Frank Baum Quotes (Author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.
Modern-day feminists state that there are many repressed attitudes and fears which keep women in a kind of half-light, forcing them to subconsciously retreat from the full use of their minds and creativity (Dowling, 595). The archetypal Cinderella is often criticized by feminist critics for waiting for something external to transform her life (Abel, 192). Contrary to this assumption, passivity is not prevalent in the original Brothers’ Grimm tale. However, actions performed by women in the tale are often associated with darkness. It is this overpowering association with the color black and its implications that truly keep women in a “half-light” in the tale.
In 1939, Victor Fleming made a film version of L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” However, both the novel and the film focuses or touches on the same moral, it features the protagonist Dorothy who resides in Kansas the farm, along with her aunt Em and uncle Henry as well as her dog Toto. Both Baum’s novel and Fleming’s 1939 film adaptation the setting is in Kansas which is described as a small farm which Dorothy lives in which in Baum’s novel is picturized as gloomy, grey and dull. Throughout Fleming’s adaptation of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” there are a number of differences which presents itself in a direct manner on screen as well as similarities. The variety of changes in the film’s adaptation tends to take away from the meaning of L. Frank Baum’s depiction in his novel to a certain level and extent.
In total, the female characters are always victimized because of their qualities and gender. In conclusion, by destroying the female characters, Mary Shelly alludes to the idea that women are always in victimized positions in society. In conclusion, most of the female characters are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited.
L. Frank Baum shared an imaginary tale to the world when she wrote the “The Wonderful Land of Oz”. His passion and reasoning for writing this story was “written solely to pleasure the children of today”. Although not everyone agreed with this reason and thought otherwise. Quentin P. Taylor believed the “The Wonderful land of Oz” was a political symbolism and even thought that it was a populist allegory. Taylor accused the author of this imaginary tale that he was putting hidden messages or meaning in his story. Not only was Taylor accusing Mr. Baum of these actions but used different examples to prove his point. The biggest and most iconic example was the shoes Dorothy wore. In the movie “The Wizard of Oz” Dorothy wore shiny red ruby slippers but in Baum story Dorothy wears a pair of silver slippers. Taylor believe that not only was the slippers an issue but the yellow brick road with attaching the silver slippers was an Populist platform in which it demanded “ free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver”.
Baum was very close with his mother-in-law, who was an influential suffragist who had worked with woman such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Baum had also been the secretary of his local women’s suffrage club. Knowing this some would say that some feminism aspects had found its way into the story of The Wizard of Oz, the men in this story have no real power and are lacking some sort of aspects such as a heart, brain, courage. Though, the woman such as Dorothy and the witches have great power and are not lacking in any
...man and Baumgarten stress, which spoke volumes, is that these women did not empower themselves; it was the men of the Jewish society who empowered them.
Frank Baum had a specific purpose, some were used to set up the tone and setting for different parts of the novel such as the colors used to describe Kansas and Oz. Colors were also used to represent the different people in Oz, not everyone in Oz were alike and were different from the way they acted, lived or the characteristic which defined them. This use of color also helped to set up an underlying theme of corruption and greed represented by the journey and the group of travelers headed up by Dorothy, who when she reaches Oz is driven by self interest as opposed to later when she wants to make sure that everyone benefits from the death of the wicked witch. Finally colors where used as representation of ideas from representing joy, death, and danger, whenever a color was used to describe something it represented that character or setting tying together the underlying themes of greed, corruption and social
Starting in the 1870’s - 1880’s the United States experienced a depression that cut the prices of agricultural related good and led to the eviction of many farmers. Since farmers were at the bottom of the totem pole socioeconomically they were faced with high railroad fees and unsurmountable debt due to the fact that they had to take out loans to be pay for their crop harvesting and planting. This was partially due to the sharecropping system which would ignite a system of perpetual debt for poor farmers. Ultimately, the farmers would rise up and unite to what would be known as a populist movement; in retribution to what they claimed was the source of their problems. These events and time period heavily influenced Lyman Frank Baum in regards to the production and underlying political message in the Wizard of Oz. Author Henry Littlefield of “The Wizard of Oz: Parable of Populism” makes a compelling argument that indeed The Wizard of Oz was a political work, this can be linked to the many different life experiences of Baum that are mentioned throughout the article. Littlefield introduces the reader to whom Baum was during the first two pages, it becomes apparent that Baum views start to change as the Populist movement grows in strength and becomes accustomed to South Dakota frontier, once he moved there. It is stated in the article “The stark reality of the dry, open plains the acceptance of man’s Darwinian subservience to his environment served to crush Romantic idealism.”(Culmsee) Baum romantic view of benign nature had disappeared. The way Baum described where he lived and nature would serve as an allegory for the where Dorothy lived in The Wizard of Oz. “When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing ...
relevant to texts that are not commenting directly on gender (such as Huck Finn). Overall, Myra
In conclusion, the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz Dorothy Gale, is initially unsatisfied with her life on her Aunt and Uncle’s farm and dreams of a foreign land over the rainbow, where there are no worries or disasters. Although as the story progresses, Victor Fleming incorporates a wide range of
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.
Picture a child sitting in front of a television watching the Wizard of Oz. To them, it is an assortment of magical beings, a land filled with wonderful places, with varieties of different colors. They do not picture it as something with far more meaning than just a plain fairytale. On the other hand, gender/feminist critics have been able to analyze the Wizard of Oz as well as Wicked, in order to find a more elaborate meaning behind the story itself. They have discussed what lies behind the story when it comes to the issue of sexism and masculinity towards the book itself as well as the characters. There are many concepts as well that help to further explain feminism and gender criticism. The four concepts that will be discussed later on are gender, feminist writings, patriarchal society, and gynocriticism. These concepts will then be reviewed as to how they play a part in the book Wicked.
Social factors have always encouraged the idea that men embody masculinity and women embody femininity and, thus, certain gender-norms are expected accordingly. In the past, such expectations were traditional and to go against them was frowned upon by the general public. Contemporarily speaking, there is more freedom to avail oneself of today than there was once upon a time. Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s fairytale adaptation of ‘Beauty and The Beast’ was published in 1740. During this time, men and women were compelled by the social conventions associated with their gender. When analyzing the literary work, the reader can grasp what gender roles are eminent in the characters identity and motives. By exploring the choice of language being
...n by naming the title of the movie after the main female protagonists. Just look at the Little Mermaid, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and even Beauty and the Beast. All are movies about the females being damsels in distress and having a male come to their rescue. Charles Perrault’s original version portrays the perfect version that children all around the world should be watching. Children are already very impressionable and what they watch when they are younger is how they eventually will act. How they grow up rests on the children movies and books of that generation. Those movies and books are what form the future leaders of our countries and for one very impressionable company, such as Disney, to be favoring one gender more than the other can result in chaos. Overall, Charles Perrault’s feminist lens in his story can lead girls to an empowering high self-esteem.
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.