Exposing the Role of Women in The Madwoman in the Attic
In their book The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar address the issue of literary potential for women in a world shaped by and for men. Specifically, Gilbert and Gubar are concerned with the nineteenth century woman and how her role was based on her association with the symbols of angels, monsters, or sometimes both. Because the role of angel was ideally passive and the role of monster was naturally evil, both limited a woman’s behavior into quiet content, with few words to object.
Women in the nineteenth century, Gilbert and Gubar claim, lived quiet and passive lives, embodying the ideals of the “Eternal Feminine” vision in Goethe’s Faust. Passivity led to a belief that women were more spiritual than men, meant to contemplate rather than act. “It is just because women are defined as wholly passive, completely void of generative power that they become numinous to male artists,” they write on page 599. It was this celestial quality that separated them from earthly men capable of lives of action, and thus, capable of handling the pen. Lives without action, of course, were hardly worth recording, so the passive woman had no story to tell, no book to write. According to our two authors, a woman without her own story became an angel in the house, one who heard others’ stories but never told her own. Women were encouraged to live along these descriptions, to be the eternal silent feminine, content only in pleasing society instead of herself. “For in the metaphysical emptiness their ‘purity’ signifies they are, of course, self-less,” write Gilbert and Gubar on page 599.
As self-less beings, women were left without voices, destined to a life...
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...s like Irene and Clare is crucial in discovering our power to transcend beyond the discrimination of the society we live in, creating literature that helps change culture for the better. Only when we recognize the struggle between angel and monster can we free ourselves from both.
Works Cited
Fetterly, Judith. “On the Politics of Literature.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998.
Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. “The Madwoman in the Attic.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York, NY: Penguin Books: 1997.
Said, Edward. “Orientalism.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder basically means that you care only about yourself and no one else but they usually have low self esteem. (Groopman)
While examining nineteenth-century female monster, Susanne Beacker reveals that she remains a mere idea, a “voiceless textual object” in women’s gothic texts whose happy endings close to the retribution and exorcism of the monstrous woman and the entrapment of the heroine in the patriarchal system (72). In this context, DeLamotte contends that:
According to Webber, narcissists are normal people victimized by “an overused label”; in fact, narcissists have healthy egos who “happen to indulge in the occasional selfie, and talk about their accomplishments” (Webber 54). She strategically organizes the quotes of many experts to give a more favourable sense of the word, clarifying that narcissism not only makes people feel good about themselves, but it also boosts confidence and helps individuals “take risks, like seeking a promotion or asking out an attractive stranger” (Webber 55). She also makes the persuasive point that individuals are more narcissistic in their earlier years of adulthood, making an ethical observation that “young adulthood is a time when people are largely free of responsibilities, either to their family of origin or the family they will eventually establish” (Webber 60, 61). These are the times when people are free to pursue an independent life and make independent decisions without the restraints of family to hold them back. Although narcissism is a natural part of an individual’s personality, Webber does point out that, too much of it can become a
According to the Mayo Clinic, narcissistic personality disorder “is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others.” Generally people that suffer from narcissistic personality disorder
Angela Carter’s ” The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories” is a collection of short stories written in the style of traditional fairy tales. The thrust of these stories is the objectification of women. Carter uses the fairy tale style as a way of exploring female power, desire and sexuality and adeptly uses the fantasy framework to explore feminist ideas.
For centuries women have been perceived as overshadowed figures who remain in a separate sphere from men. The term “separate spheres” refers to the distinct, conventional characteristics associated with gender differences. The public sphere of men is associated with commerce whereas the domestic sphere for women is linked with the household. However, there is more than just one perspective on feminism. The feminist view is influenced by three main voices: the French, American, and British. French feminists focus their attention on language; American feminists analyze the literary aspects; and British feminists examine the historical processes (Murfin 296-299). Using these perspectives, we can see the oppression of women conveyed in many different texts throughout literature and in history. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for instance, exhibits not only a feminist view in the text, but also in society during Shelley’s time period as displayed by her negotiations with the separate spheres. Voltaire’s Candide also conveys powerful gender differences and reveals the oppression of women throughout the novel. Therefore, a correlation can be seen between the view of women in the two novels and how it reflects the culture and time period in which the novels were written.
“Narcissistic Personality Disorder.” Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. N.P., 20 May 2005. Web. 19 May 2010.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Gubar, Susan. "Horror's Twin: Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve." The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. 213-247.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
1. Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Micheal. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein grew up in the early 1800’s with her father, a radical philosopher that believed in the equality of the sexes, and her mother, a vindicator of women’s rights. Shelley followed the footsteps of her parents and became a strong feminist advocate, and supporter of gender equality. The development of her novel granted her with the opportunity to express her feminist ideologies in a subtle, and realistic way, unlike any other authors during her time period. Thus, in the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley incorporates her feminist beliefs with the purpose of portraying the realities of a woman’s life during the early 1800’s.
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
Roberts, Edgar V., Jacobs, Henry E. “Literature.” The Lesson. 470-475. Toni Cade Bambara. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 2001
Angela Carter was a writer in the 1970s during the third wave of feminism that influenced and encouraged personal and social views in her writing. This is demonstrated through her own interpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber. She combines realism and fantasy to create ‘magic realism’ whilst also challenging conventions of stereotypical gender roles.
Have you ever had the pleasure of working with an individual who was completely full of themselves? This person loved to be the center of attention and the topic of every subject, had extravagant dreams and considered themselves to be a person of many talents. This same person believed that they were a better leader than you would ever be and had no problem telling you that. He or she thought that the best way to gain the admiration of others and receive confirmation of their authority was by “talking down” to those who threaten them. The qualities that I mentioned are all common traits of a narcissist. Narcissist tend to think that they are better leaders than what they actually are according to their peers and coworkers. Proverbs 29:2 says "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn" (King James Bible Online, 2015).