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The portrayal of women in 19th century literature
Essay about the victorian era in literature
Gender roles in the Victorian era
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Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) explain that during the Victorian Era, women did not have the same rights as men. Women were not granted the right to vote until 1918, and married women were not permitted to own or handle their own property until the passage of the Married Women’s Property Acts (1870 – 1918). Men could divorce unfaithful wives, but wives could only divorce husbands committing adultery if their behavior included cruelty, bigamy, incest, or bestiality.
Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) describe how women had limited educational and employment opportunities. In 1837, women were not permitted to attend England’s universities. The majority of working women worked as servants. Unmarried middle class women worked as governesses but did so at low wages and lacked job security. Lower-class women had factory jobs and worked under dreadful conditions. Other women worked as field laborers, seamstresses, or maids. Some women turned to prostitution.
As Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) write, during this time, women writers were becoming major authors. Novels became the predominant type of Victorian literature. Victorian novels were representative of real life. Several female Victorian authors used their writing to bring attention to women’s rights, including the right to higher education, property, employment and suffrage.
Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) write that early Victorian writers responded to the social changes due to the shift from an agricultural to an industrial society and the decline of traditional religious beliefs. This era focused on artistic and creative literature. Authors scrutinized obstacles of forming a personal identity in a world in which traditional social structures were breaking down. Socia...
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...child relationship is pure agony and resentment. In the same way her master forced her to work he forced her to bear a child that she does not want. In response, she runs away from her master by running away to Pilgrim's Point. She runs away from her duties as a mother by killing her child.
The writings analyzed by Kate Chopin and Elizabeth Barrett Browning show bold and radical attitudes that were very uncommon and rare for their time. They, along with other writers of the Victorian Era, have given their literary gift that continues to captivate and inspire readers today. They have undoubtedly influenced many writers that came after their time.
References:
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899 Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the Major Authors. New York: Norton, 2006. Print.
middle of paper ... ... e Awakening." 1899. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Ed.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Short Stories of Kate Chopin. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Chopin, Kate. A. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1972.
The Second Industrial Revolution had a major impact on women's lives. After being controlled fro so long women were experiencing what it was like to live an independent life. In the late nineteenth century women were participating in a variety of experiences, such as social disabilities confronted by all women, new employment patterns, and working class poverty and prostitution. These experiences will show how women were perceived in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. Making Literature Matter. 5th edition. John Schilb and
Works Cited Franklin, R. F. "The Awakening and the Failure of the Psyche. " American Literature 56 (Summer 1984): 510-526. Platizky, R. "Chopin's Awakening. " Explicator 53 (Winter 1995): 99-102. Seyersted, P. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography.
Works Cited Chopin, Kate. A. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1972. Print.
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." 1899. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. 881-1000.
During late nineteenth century women were considered inferior and had fewer rights than men. The only two roles expected of her were to be a wife or a mother. Women could not own a property on their name at that time. Divorce laws and custody of children were mainly in favor of men. Women were restrained from going to universities and professional schools. In addition to the educational limitations, women challenged gender stereotypes from the scientists and philosophers. Some educated and professional men from the elite class feared that women will not play their traditional roles in the home and workplace after getting education. Prohibiting women from schools and universities hindered the social and economic advancement. However with the beginning of twentieth century, women started to fight for equal rights and changed the stereotypical views of their role in the society.
Kate Chopin was a woman and a writer far ahead of her time. She was a realistic fiction writer and one of the leaders and inspirational people in feminism. Her life was tragic and full of irregular events. In fact, this unusual life had an enormous effect on her writings and career. She depicted the lifestyle of her time in her works. In most of her stories, people would find an expansion of her life’s events. In her two stories “The Storm” and “The Story of One Hour” and some of her other works she denoted a lot of her life’s events. Kate Chopin is one of those writers who were influenced by their life and surrounded environment in their fiction writing, and this was very clear in most of her works.
In America, the 1890s were a decade of tension and social change. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s fiction was the independence of women. In Louisiana, most women were their husband’s property. The codes of Napoleon were still governing the matrimonial contract. Since Louisiana was a Catholic state, divorce was rare and scandalous. In any case, Edna Pontellier of Chopin had no legal rights for divorce, even though Léonce undoubtedly did. When Chopin gave life to a hero that tested freedom’s limits, she touched a nerve of the politic body. However, not Edna’s love, nor her artistic inner world, sex, or friendship can reconcile her personal growth, her creativity, her own sense of self and her expectations. It is a very particular academic fashion that has had Edna transformed into some sort of a feminist heroine. If she could have seen that her awakening in fact was a passion for Edna herself, then perhaps her suicide would have been avoided. Everyone was forced to observe, including the cynics that only because a young
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Heritage of American Literature. Ed. James E. Miller. Vol 2. Austin: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.487.Print.
Throughout the early 1800s, British women most often were relegated to a subordinate role in society by their institutionalized obligations, laws, and the more powerfully entrenched males. In that time, a young woman’s role was close to a life of servitude and slavery. Women were often controlled by the men in their lives, whether it was a father, brother or the eventual husband. Marriage during this time was often a gamble; one could either be in it for the right reasons, such as love, or for the wrong reasons, such as advancing social status. In 19th century Britain, laws were enacted to further suppress women and reflected the societal belief that women were supposed to do two things: marry and have children.