The women in the novel, Great Expectations, are not given the ample opportunities that they would have liked in order to live out their lifelong dreams and hopes. Instead, they have some type of devastating impact that has been brought upon them through a situation that they themselves cannot help. This is evident in the lives of Mrs. Joe, a mere teenager who is forced to raise her brother in a time that is hard to support herself, and Miss Havisham, an elderly woman who’s dreams were torn away when she was left at the altar. Dickens’ female characters do not fit into the ideals of Victorian society as a wife and mother, which causes them to be destructive to themselves and/or men.
Mrs. Joe, a character in the novel, Great Expectations, is a prime example of how a woman should not have acted during the Victorian time period. Mrs. Joe does not have the appearance that a Victorian woman was supposed to portray. In fact, “Far from being described as buxom, or maternal, she is tall and bony” (Ayes 1). Throughout the novel, Mrs. Joe is conveyed as taking over the masculine power in the relationship with her husband, Joe, and that he has portrayed the sense of the feminine part. Instead of being called by her Christian name, which is never revealed, she is called Mrs. Joe in order to show readers that her masculinity is present by her taking Joe’s name for herself. Not only does she let off a sense of masculinity this way, but she is also the one who does the disciplining of Pip in the novel. Pip acknowledges her authority by explaining that she has “…a hard and heavy hand and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand” (Dickens 5)...
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...land, yet lived on the property with their husband. A woman in this time period would have not used their child to get back at the opposite sex, fulfilling their own dreams instead of letting their child have their own great expectations for life. These two women in Great Expectations just show how they were not portrayed as the typical housewife and mother that would have been expected for this time period.
Works Cited
Ayres, Brenda. Dissenting Women in Dickens' Novels: the Subversion of Domestic Ideology. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. 86-88. Print.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2001. Print
Houston, Gail Turley. "`Pip' and `Property': The (re)production of the self in Great
Expectations." Studies in the Novel 24.1 (1992): 13. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.
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Gender roles in the Victorian Era were strict and well-defined. A typical female was seen as “weak, frail, and hysterical” (Stearns 2012). The ideal woman was seen as an angel of the house, one in which would perfect domestic duties and constantly be placed under the patriarchal nature of society, while also being weak, frail, and hysterical. Authors Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens both challenge this traditional view of women in society. Collins and Dickens do not adhere to representing strictly construed gender roles. However, the ways in which the two authors challenge these roles differ. Collin’s challenges society’s definition of an ideal woman by his character Marian Halcombe, a strong female character who portrays typically male traits for the Victorian Era. Dickens also challenges the Victorian ideal woman, but challenges it by placing value in his character Nancy, a prostitute with an extremely positive moral value.
A woman’s need to pursue society’s expectations of her can corrupt her entire view on relationships and human interactions. In the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, suggests that an individuals desire to achieve a standard of perfection in society can demoralize them into engrossing only what is best for themselves during conflict. Daisy is the epitome of a woman during the 1920’s, she wants nothing more than the appearance of a perfect family life, so when her future is indefinite she hides behind Tom’s wealth, and certainty to achieve her desires.
When looking at Dickens writings such as Great Expectations (1860) and Our Mutual Friend (1865), you see why many have made the claim that the male is supreme and the woman is simply a worker. Dickens had a certain idea about domestic ideology. I...
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Charles Dickens was a man of many talents, he could perform, he could write, and he could charm; all very valuable attributes. However, it would seem that Charles Dickens had become quite the misogynist, and he used those attributes to accentuate this woman demeaning characteristic. As a misogynist, Dickens had a very clear view on what he expected a woman to look like, act like, and do, and he reflected this in most of his writing. “Dickens wrote as if he believed a woman’s place was mostly in the home, doing domestic things and supporting her husband” (Scheckner. 240.) It would be logical to say that this is how most people thought in the Victorian Era. However, Dickens ideas begin to get a little odd. Scheckner continues saying, “Mrs. Joe
12. Oldham, R. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times: Romantic Tragedy of Proletariat Propaganda [Online]. Available: http://www.pillowrock.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Within this extended essay, the subject chosen to study and formulate a question from was English Literature, in particular the portrayal of women during the 19th and 20th centuries, where the following novels 'The Great Gatsby' written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' were set in and originated the basis from. The question is as follows 'How does Jane Austen and F Scott Fitzgerald portray gender inequalities in both lower and upper class relationships particularly through love and marriage within the novels 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'The Great Gatsby' from the different era's it was written in?' This particular topic was chosen reflecting the morality and social class during the two different era's and determining whether there was change in the characteristics of women as well as men and how their behaviour was depicted through the two completely different stories, as they both reflect the same ethical principles in terms of love and marriage. The two novels were chosen in particular to view their differences as well as their similarities in terms of gender inequality through love and marriage, as the different era's it was set in gives a broader view in context about how society behaved and what each author was trying to portray through their different circumstances, bringing forward a similar message in both novels.
The nineteenth century saw rapid development and reform across the whole of the country; with the Industrial Revolution transforming life in Britain. For working class women life was an endless struggle of passivity and labour; as soon as they were old enough they worked on farms, in factories or as servants to the middle classes (Lambert, 2009). For women in general, life was oppressive; constantly overshadowed by the male gender who were considered dominant leaders. In a Victorian household, the male was head of the family; his wife and children respected him and obeyed him without question. This critical analysis of two nineteenth century novels - Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, will discuss the representation of the two female protagonists in the context of the Victorian period and question whether they do indeed portray an endless struggle for survival and independence.
All three of these women authors have, by their literary works, voiced their strong unfavorable feelings about the patriarchal society in which they lived. These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries. These women authors have impacted a male dominated society by reflecting on the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvere Monod. A Norton Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. 5-222
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane is an orphan who is often mistreated by the family and other people who surround her. Faced with constant abuse from her aunt and her cousins, Jane at a young age questions the treatment she receives: "All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sister’s proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always brow-beaten, always accused, forever condemned?" (27; ch. 2). Despite her early suffering, as the novel progresses Jane is cared for and surrounded by various women who act as a sort of "substitute mother" in the way they guide, comfort, and inspire her. By looking into Charlotte Bronte’s own childhood and family background, as well as discovering aspects of Victorian motherhood in the mid-nineteenth century, one may be enlightened as to why so many substitute mothers are present to Jane throughout the novel. The substitute mothers, although a starting point for Jane’s emotional redemption, do not prove to fulfill what a mother in the Mid-Victorian era would be.
In the novel ‘Great Expectations’ there are three women who Dickens portrays differently to his contemporary’s, writers such as Austen and Bronté, and to the typical 19th century woman. These three women go by the name of Mrs Joe (Pips sister), Miss Havisham, and Estella. Mrs Joe who is Pips sister and Mr Joe’s wife is very controlling and aggressive towards Pip and Mr Joe. ‘In knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand’. This shows Dickens has given Mrs Joe very masculine qualities, which is very unusual for a 19th century woman. Mr Joe has a very contrasting appearance and personality to Mrs Joe. ‘Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own whites.’ In many ways Dickens has swapped the stereo type appearances and personalities of 19th century men and women. Dickens portrays Miss Havisham to be rich but lonely women. ‘I should acquit myself under that lady’s roof’. This shows Miss Havisham owns her own property which is Satis House. This woul...
Throughout Dickens’s Great Expectations, It is clear that most of the women are portrayed as being heartless, revengeful or violent. Thus this doesn’t give a impression of women, and shows that Dickens could have been gender bias, like most men were in the 19th and early 20th century. However this could have not been Dickens’s intension at all, as he also created very evil male characters such as Dolge Orlick.
Women, in all classes, were still living in a world which was misogynistic and male-dominated. Their purpose in life was to produce male heirs and maintain the home by hiring and overseeing servants. It was also taboo for one to marry significantly below one’s social class. This is one reason that Jane is not a conventional heroine for the society of her time. Although, as a governess, she is not considered to be as low as a housemaid, she is still part of the hired help in the house. This is why it is unconventional for her and Mr Rochester to be in a relationship. Yet this is not as peculiar as how Jane Eyre ends their relationship due to her sense of betrayal. It would have been considered extremely foolish for a working-woman’s sense of betrayal to end and turn down a man of great wealth.
Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, demonstrates a social criticism on women’s power to control their own fate and the ideal women in the nineteenth century. Specifically in Lyn Pykett’s, Changing the Names: The Two Catherines, a strong feminist perspective is explored. In her criticism she goes through many different analyses of Catherine Earnshaw-Linton and her daughter Cathy and what they represent in regard to a women’s power and social expectations in the nineteenth century. Pykett says that the two Catherines represent women’s true nature according to Brontë. Catherine Earnshaw-Linton is faced with the choice between two men but chooses based on what is accepted in her society, the man that can provide her economically, not the man whom she loves. This marriage to Edgar instead of Heathcliff is the source of Catherine’s problems and ultimately her demise. It causes one to question whether it is right to marry for the social aspect or for true love. Young Cathy seems to face the problem her mother has as well but she finds a way to be true to her nature and fight the tyrann...