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Gender roles of women in literature
Gender roles of women in literature
Gender roles in Literature
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Fantasy and Reality in D.H. Hwang’s, M. Butterfly
A person may search their whole life for love. Some are lucky enough to find the perfect someone, and some are not. The one’s who are not as lucky can sometimes create their own idea of their ideal partner, but never actually find them. In D.H. Hwang’s play M. Butterfly, a man by the name of Gallimard creates his own idea of the perfect partner. He falls in love with a woman by the name of Song, who turns out to be not what he expected. Song is actuality a Chinese spy disguised as a woman. Hwang illustrates in the play M. Butterfly, people are not always who they perceive to be. Through Gallimards love for song, his portrayal for the East and West, and Gallimards obsession with power, M. Butterfly, demonstrates the different views of power and weakness that symbolized masculinity and femininity.
Gallimard does not find out that Song is indeed a man until the end of the play. By this time, Gallimard is already completely in love with Song, yet he knows that his love is too good to be true. In Gallimards mind, he creates this image of what he believes to be his “perfect woman.” Song portrays this image in Gallimards’ mind. He declares that he was “once loved, and was loved by very simply, the Perfect Woman” (77). In spite of knowing that Song is actually a man, Gallimard continues to fantasize about his once “perfect woman.” After learning that Song is a man,
“Song covers Gallimard’s eyes with one hand. With th...
In every story, there is a protagonist and an antagonist, good and evil, love and hatred, one the antithesis of the other. To preserve children’s innocence, literature usually emphasizes on the notion that love is insurmountable and that it is the most beautiful and powerful force the world knows of, yet Gen’s and Carmen’s love, ever glorious, never prevails. They each have dreams of a future together, “he takes Carmen’s hand and leads her out the gate at the end of the front walkway… together they… simply walk out into the capital city of the host country. Nobody knows to stop them. They are not famous and nobody cares. They go to an airport and find a flight back to Japan and they live there, together, happily and forever” in which their love is the only matter that holds significance (261). The china
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
During this first unit of language arts, we studied ways in which justice was served. We looked at excerpts from writers like Linda J. Collier who talked about youth criminals whose treatment was split between as a youth or as an adult due to their actions. These criminals were protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but they committed crimes that made them worthy of being treated as adults. Prior to this first unit, I was much uninformed about how youth was treated under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but now I am a very familiar with the YCJA, I have a new stance towards how youths are treated, and my stance is now reinforced after learning more about youth criminals.
Who is stronger? The East or the West? Do the Oriental people truly succumb to the threats of the western white man? Based on the views of the non-oriental people, the Oriental people secretly want to get dominated by a stronger force, comparing them to a woman, or just simply calling their race feminine. The show M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is able to express different issues regarding the theory of Orientalism by hiding it amongst several conversations between characters. The play can be seen as highly political because of topics it chooses to discuss despite the fact that the lead character is a diplomat. Though somewhat unrelated; M. Butterfly can even have a certain Brecht-esque quality to it. Because it contains several moments that can make the audience member question what is going on and the story itself, Brecht would be happy. The show can confuse the audience and make them think. Gallimard and Song also talk to the audience directly at certain points which in a way can distance them from the story because it can make it known that they are, indeed watching a play. M. Butterfly holds many political and Brechtian qualities that prove many issues that go on today. Seeing these representations of foreign races views on one another can hopefully help to get the countries to realize their harsh judgments.
The issue of cultural stereotypes and misconceptions thematically runs throughout David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. The play is inspired by a 1986 newspaper story about a former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, who turns out to be a spy and a man. Hwang used the newspaper story and deconstructed it into Madame Butterfly to help breakdown the stereotypes that are present between the East and the West. Hwang’s play overall breaks down the sexist and racist clichés that the East-West have against each other that reaffirm the Western male culture ideas. The stereotypes presented in the play revolve around the two main characters, Gallimard and Song. The play itself begins in the present with Gallimard, a French diplomat who has been incarcerated in a Beijing prison. He relives his fantasies for the past with his perfect woman and shares his experience with the readers throughout the remainder of the play. Upon Gallimard’s arrival in China, he attends the opera and meets Song, and Gallimard immediately describes Song as his “butterfly”. Gallimard falls in love with the “delicate Oriental woman” that Song portrays (22). He then buys into the Western male stereotype that Eastern women need protection by strong, masculine Western men. Gallimard ends up falling in love with Song and has an affair with her to fulfill the stereotypical idea of a dominant Western male controlling an Eastern woman. Throughout Gallimard’s relationship with Song, the readers discover that Song is in reality a male spy for the Chinese government. Song had manipulated his looks and actions to mirror those of the ideal Chinese woman in order to earn Gallimard’s affection. M. Butterfly’s main issue arises from the cultural stereotypes of the masculin...
Deceiving and irrational, love can be a challenging emotion to endure. It can be difficult to find happiness in love, and on the journey to find that happiness, love can influence one’s thought process. Shakespeare uses specific wording in his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to poke fun while exploring the individual’s quest for love. The desire to find love and a happy ending with a lover is so strong in the foundation of mankind, that people will not accept a life without it. In fact, they would rather give up their attribute of rationality than their opportunity to find a significant other. The heart’s control of the mind can make a foolish man.
In The Lover, Duras tells the largely autobiographical story of a fifteen-year-old French girl’s amazing love affair with an older Chinese man in Vietnam, the place colonized by France during the 1930s. “She” was just a young girl attending a boarding school, living with an abnormal family, which had a life poor as beggars and violent as gangsters; “he” is the son of a Chinese millionaire, and settled in the colonies as one of “the financiers of Chinese origin who own all the working-class housing” (Duras 33). They meet each other on the ferry crossing the Mekong and on that day they start an unusual relationship. Such plot sounds like an ordinary love story—“She” is fragile and helpless while “he” is the symbol of power and wealth and has a strong sense of protecting her. They fall in love at the first sight and look forward to their everyday meeting. Then how could “The Lover” become an exception from the general standard love relationship? The phenomenon of cross-racial dating is too superficial to make the story rebellious, but the real consciousness behind the race—which known as stereotype—works.
Edmond Rostand, a very distinguished and illustrious French author, is renowned to be an accomplished writer on culture and society, particularly the way culture plays a key role in how characters live their lives, and how society and societal ideals ultimately determine the fate of the characters. An audience can best observe Rostand’s abilities in his most famous play, Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897. Through the characters and their interactions in this play, Rostand sheds light on the realities of love, the dangers of deception, and the perception of inner and outer beauty. Love is a powerful word, deception is a quick way to gain little things and lose big things, and beauty is not always something the is visible to the eyes.
While true love is treasured when achieved, its rarity can be attributed to the multitude of obstacles lovers must face. Couples often have trouble expressing their love for one another or may face challenges within the marriages. Whether it be disagreements, affection of surroundings, friendships lost, or jealousy, the quest for true love has its consequences. This concept is expressed several times in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, in the cases of many of the lovers. However, it can be argued that although complications ensue, true love is worth a life of trouble.
They are perhaps not truly in love, but after Guigemar notes the invisible wound of love he says “it has its source in nature” (Marie de France 49). By nature, humans have been known to be driven by a constant pursuit of what the desire, for by succeeding in this pursuit they are happy. Love brings happiness to Guigemar and the queen, but their happiness comes by a greater cause than true love. The lovers were convenient for their own pursuits. Guigemar served the queen as a commodity by giving her a value of freedom, and the queen gave Guigemar freedom from pain. In the end, Guigemar runs off with the queen after defending her from Meriaduc concluding the end of his troubles. Desire is thus a selfish inclination toward love, for its foundation is whatever suits a person’s liking. The queen and Guigemar are suited for each other, yet they are not suited to be in love with each
In England, conforming to the Civitas’s Crime report Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010) the youngest age that someone can be prosecuted is as young as ten years old. It is also mentioned that trailing, patrolling and applying penalties on young offenders costs almost four billion pounds annually. The numbers of first time offences committed by a young person has decrease over the years; according to the Youth Justice Statistics (2014) youth crime is down by 63% since 2002. In regards to the offences themselves, nearly every offence category has decreased in reoccurrence with exception to drug offences declares Civitas’s Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010). The same report states that theft and handling remains the highest volume category taking up 21% of all youth crime. It is shortly followed by violence against a person, 19.5%, and criminal damage, 11.9%. It can be concluded from both aforementioned reports that crime in the UK is decreasing. Contrariwise to this, youth reoffending rates are soaring concludes Civitas’s Youth Crime in England and Wales (2010).
...ce of outside forces. However, the male-female love still exists in the world because the world in reality is a play where each being can write their script. In poetry reality holds no limitations. Even though the lover’s love is not true, it exists in the world because of the human being’s fight to preserve it. True love may only be able to exist in the female-friendship as shown in the play, but love in relationships still exists because the world allows any being willing to become a poet to be one. Any person can preserve a dream of false love and turn it into true love is they are willing to believe it possible. True love can only exist without penetration, domination, desire, or loss of identity, which exist in male-female love. However, love exists in this relationship because poetry has the ability to transfer this love away from a dream and into existance.
Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...
There are different disciplines within the humanities, but there is one that I feel that has influenced my cultural identity the most…music. I say music because from the start music told my culture’s history; informed others about deeds or events that had taken place, also, music was and continues to be important in comforting, healing, and during labor. “African American music has evolved through various eras and styles; the powerful melodic lines and the rhythm (the all-important rhythm) remained prominent and influential” (Powell, 2007, p.1).
Daily Mail (2012) claims that offenders under the age of 18 commit a quarter of all crimes, accounting for more than a million in a single year. The Home Office found that juveniles were responsible for half of the robberies, 32 per cent of burglaries, 31 per cent of vehicle crimes and 28 per cent of criminal damage offences (Daily Mail, 2012). Moreover, the warning alert is that there is a chance of reoffending by the young criminal. As stated by Daily Mail (2012), about three quarters of young criminals return to crime within a year. With regard to the evidence provided it could be stated that youth crime is a serious issue with the possibility of developing into a severe problem in the UK and the significance of emphasizing the issue of juvenile delinquency, therefore, is crucial. This essay will outline and review the causes, effects and possible solutions to such an ominous subject as you...