The cultural attitudes of 1960s North America towards gender roles and marriage are typified in the characters of the ‘office virgins’ Marian works with at Seymour Surveys. They are all, as their nickname implies, virgins, who believe that sex belongs only in marriage. Lucie fears what people would say, while Emmy, the “office hypochondriac” (16), thinks it would make her sick. Their life plans are all similar: to travel, get married, settle down and quit their jobs. As Rebecca Goldblatt explains in her essay "Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists," these women are typical of the time period in which The Edible Woman was written and can be assumed to take place. They are "young women blissfully building their trousseaus and imagining a paradise of silver bells and picket fences" (275). Goldblatt continues, "these women search for a male figure, imagining a refuge. Caught up in the romantic stereotypes that assign and perpetuate gender roles, each girl does not doubt that a man is the solution to her problems” (276). The other women in the novel also experience these patriarchy-influenced attitudes towards the institution of marriage, although they deal with them in different ways. Marian, in particular, experiences significant difficulties in her encounter with her boyfriend Peter.
The exchanges that occur between the Marian and Peter reveal a great deal about the imbalance of power associated with male and female gender roles in the novel. Atwood creates associations between femininity and victimization in Marian’s mind, as becomes apparent via Peter’s discourse at the bar of the Park Place hotel involving a hunting story told to Len. Peter recounts the tale, telling how he “let her off and Wham. One shot, right through...
... middle of paper ...
...o avoid becoming a victim. On a symbolic level, Marian’s eating disorder can be seen as an attempt to detach herself from this cycle in order to avoid being processed or digested by society. In her mind, if she does not take in the raw materials, she cannot be consumed by society and turned into something she doesn’t want to become.
Marian’s creation of the cake-woman, the inspiration behind the book’s title, symbolically unites the various elements of her struggle. Firstly, it makes explicit the connections between femininity and victimization. The cake-woman is the ultimate victim; she is literally consumable. And secondly, it serves as a definitive statement of her rebellion against societal pressures to conform to patriarchy-influenced gender roles. Marian ices the cake with a red dress, much the same as the red dress that signaled her surrender to Peter.
The concern of this paper is the “happy ending,” typical in Women’s Fiction according to Harris (46), present in A New England Tale, in which Jane Elton sacrifices her autonomous self through marrying Mr. Lloyd. I will critique this ending by applying several of the points Harris makes, including the conflict between theme and structure, the “extended quest for autonomy” (50), and the issue of the self-willing and “socially determined self” (54); also, I will discuss the sexual and religious politics Jane faces, as well as the importance of her role as educator. Readers can understand the autonomous self to which I refer in a nineteenth-century context: this do...
Mina clearly demonstrates her awareness and knowledge of the New Woman movement; whereby she exhibits her familiarity of the debate by referring to the term “New Woman” twice in her journal entries. Grant Allen’s “purity school” New Woman consisted of female characters that expressed particular interest in social problems while still maintaining their propriety. This sense of knowledge is exhibited when Mina attempts to reassure the oversensitive Lucy as they stopped for a “severe tea” (Stoker 141): “I believe we should have shocked the ‘New Woman’ with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless them!” (Stoker 141). The New Woman was a common subject of controversy in journalism and fiction (Senf 34). Mina’s preliminary reference merely characterized her as a well-informed young woman of the 1890s. Mina remains neutral and simply suggests her familiarization with the New Woman’s assertion on greater freedom and physical activity. Bicycle riding, badminton playing and bloomer wearing women may have shocked certain conservative people of the 1890s, but they were not enough to worry Stoker’s heroine (Senf 34). Nor was it a shock to her that the New Woman was often characterized as a professional woman who was capable of financially supporting herself. After all, Mina easily fell under this category of the New Woman; her career was not an archetypal Victorian housewife. She was often “overwhelmed with work […] [because] the life of an assistant schoolmistress [was] sometimes trying” (Stoker 83). Mina is able to support herself and by using her note-taking talents she is also able to support her husband too, outside of her domestic role. This notion was revolutionary at the time. Gail Cunningham notes that while independence and in...
The female characters in Young Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are, stereotypically, satiric and parodic renditions of oppressed or emotionally unstable feminine personalities. The theme of the treatment of women is not only played out in the external relationships the women interact within but also in the basic mentality and roles they embody within their personality. The women of Young Frankenstein add a comical element to the film which a direct contrast to the insignificance of the female in Mary Shelley’s novel. The women of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are either almost terrifying when thinking of the potential evil lurking just beneath the surface or effectual props in the healing of those who need it.
The twentieth century was filled with many advances which brought a variety of changes to the world. However, these rapid advances brought confusion to almost all realms of life; including gender roles, a topic which was previously untouched became a topic of discourse. Many authors of the time chose to weigh in on the colloquy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, gender role confusion, characteristic of modernist literature, is seen in Nick Carraway and Edna Pontillier as they are the focal points in the exploration of what it means to be a man or a woman, their purpose, place, and behavior in society.
The author’s intended audience is most likely to people who are experiencing the disorder or are interested in knowing more about eating disorders. When Lia was admitted to New Seasons, her rehabilitation facility, she relates her experience to someone who has gone through the struggles in that kind of facility. Lia was expected to be “a good girl [by not poking holes] or write depressing poetry and [eat and eat]” (Anderson 18). Her struggles in the facility allowed the audience who experienced this disorder to relate their experiences. In addition, people who choose to starve...
The female characters in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Pearl Tull, Delia Grinstead, and Jenny Grinstead, are women who specially thrives in the environment where unjust treatment is mostly apparent. The dysfunctional family dynamics in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant allows these female characters to manifest different aspects feminism. Feminism by itself is rather ambiguous, therefore, specific aspects of the Feminist Theories are applied. Liberal feminism, which advocates for individuals to freely develop their own talents and pursue their own interest, is primarily prominent in these novels. Anne Tyler promotes liberal feminism in Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant through
In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.
Margaret Atwood’s novel, Alias Grace, nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, depicts a young 16 year old girl who is found guilty of murdering her employer and his lover in conspiracy with James McDerrmott. James McDermott is put to death by hanging, but Grace is brought to prison because she is of the “weaker sex.” This is a reflection of the construction of femininity and masculinity of the mid and late nineteenth century. A social issue of the Victorian age was women being treated as subordinate to men. Queen Victoria says, “Victorian ideology of gender rested on the belief that women were both physically and intellectually the inferior sex”(YILDIRIM). Women were seen as highly susceptible to becoming mentally ill because of this belief. Women were subject to only be “housewives.” The novel, Alias Grace, accurately shows the construction of this gender identity through society, sexuality, and emotion while challenging it through Grace’s mother and Mrs. Humphrey.
The female characters are from various social classes and each of them has her own attitudes towards life and love. Lily, the caretaker's daughter is the first character to be introduced to us. In the story she is a representative from the labouring class. Comparily, Gabriel is a well-educated young man who seems to have a bright future. When he arrogantly greets her, "I suppose we'll be going to your wedding one of these fine days with your young man, eh?" (Joyce 123). The girl answers bitterly "The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you" (124). Then Gabriel "color" as if he has made a mistake when Lily becomes upset about the subject of men. This is because he never expects his self-conceited good intention will hurt her feelings so much. Instead of comforting Lily, he "without looking at her", kicks off his goloshes and flicks actively with his muffler at his patent-leather shoes. From this we can see he first chooes to avoid difficulty when the conflict between he and the ...
In conclusion, most of the female character 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. Mary Shelly repeatedly shows women in a victimized position exhibiting to the audience how things should not be. In conclusion, Mary Shelly’s novel is a reflection of how women were treated in the 1800’s.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
This is proven through the lines, "Oh, well," said Mrs. Hale's husband, with good-natured superiority, "women are used to worrying over trifles."The two women moved a little closer together. Neither of them spoke. The county attorney seemed suddenly to remember his manners--and think of his future."And yet," said he, with the gallantry of a young politician. "for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?" The lines stated above reveal that Mr. Henderson and Mr. Hale have a really general view of women. By Mr. Hale mentioning the trifles, one can see that they see women as something that belongs in the kitchen and believe that they worry about small things that prove to be of no utter importance. By the part of the quote stating, “ The women moved a little closer. Neither of them spoke”, it is clear to see the amount of intimidation and fear these women feel for their husbands. In addition, the oppressive tone can also be identified through the quote, “Do you suppose she was going to quilt it or just knot it?" The sheriff threw up his hands."They wonder whether she was going to quilt it or just knot it!"There was a laugh for the ways of women.” Once again, the men are being ignorant towards the important role of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. As it may seem that the two women are speaking of subjects that were
At the outset, Atwood gives the reader an exceedingly basic outline of a story with characters John and Mary in plotline A. As we move along to the subsequent plots she adds more detail and depth to the characters and their stories, although she refers back with “If you want a happy ending, try A” (p.327), while alluding that other endings may not be as happy, although possibly not as dull and foreseeable as they were in plot A. Each successive plot is a new telling of the same basic story line; labeled alphabetically A-F; the different plots describe how the character’s lives are lived with all stories ending as they did in A. The stories tell of love gained or of love lost; love given but not reciprocated. The characters experience heartache, suicide, sadness, humiliation, crimes of passion, even happiness; ultimately all ending in death regardless of “the stretch in between”. (p.329)
In the novel, women were affected by racism and gender role equality more than men. Pecola is one if the main characters, and she deals with the figure of a man who violates her. The female characters in the novel were apprehended by females roles that made them feel like they were non existent. Each character had their own personality. Claudia, another character in the novel escapes her suffering by pulling apart from Shirley Temple dolls. The expectations of theses women in the novel have been created through our society, and how we view our gender
The traditional role of women in the American society has transformed as society has trended towards sexual equality. In the past women were expected to be submissive to the man and were looked upon as homemakers rather then providers. Modern day women enjoy the freedom of individuality and are considered as capable as men in many regards. John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” portrays a woman’s struggle with accepting her life and role as a female (459). Through the protagonist-female character, Elisa Allen, and the symbolism of chrysanthemums, Steinbeck displays the gender roles that define past generations of women’s lives in the United States.