Female Sexuality in Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd and Lawrence's The Virgin And The Gypsy
'Is Lawrence really a liberator of sex? Does he grant more
independence to the women in his novels than his predecessors or just
a little more freedom within confines of established expectations.'[1]
The same question could be asked of Thomas Hardy, who is believed by
some critics such as Rosemarie Morgan, to use female sexuality in a
way that is liberating and arguably revolutionary. 'The Virgin And The
Gypsy' by D.H.Lawrence, and 'Far From The Madding Crowd' by Thomas
Hardy, show a likeness in the fact that both men present sexuality
through controversial female protagonists and question the moralities
and social expectations of their time.
Whilst the two novels were written over thirty years apart, their
female protagonists are comparatively alike. Lawrence's protagonist,
Yvette, faces a restrictive society that was only just beginning to
accept the changing attitudes in female sexuality. Hardy shows a
female repressed by society although, the nineteenth century was
somewhat more constrained than the mellowing 'roaring twenties.' 'The
nineteenth century woman was defined by her adherence to submission
and resistance to sexuality. By emphasizing the physical aspect of
femininity in [Hardy's] unorthodox representation of the female, Hardy
threatens the Victorian model of women.'[2] Hardy's female characters
are sexual and passionate; this is especially evident in Bathsheba
Everdene, when she and Troy become 'lovers,' her passion described as:
'The blood beating into her face, [setting] her stinging as if aflame
to the very hollows of he...
... middle of paper ...
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[2] Heather Dugan/Thomas Valeo- Passionate Heroine / Gettysburg
college- 1997
[3] www.lindyhopping.com/ Carol Nolan - Women's Fashion History
[4] www.educeth.com
[5] www.educeth.com
[6] www.educeth.com
[7] Rosemarie Morgan
[8] Rosemarie Morgan
[9] Rachel Fuller- The Virgin And The Gypsy / Hitchinbrooke school
-2000
[10] Rachel Fuller- The Virgin And The Gypsy / Hitchingbrooke
school-2000
[11] J. D.Chandler - bread and butter or cake: the male characters in
D.H.Lawrences The Virgin and the Gypsy. / Bantam books, New York -1970
[12] Heather Dugan/ Thomas Valeo- Passionate Heroine / Gettysburg
college- 1997
[13] www.educeth.com
[14] Carol Dix
[15] Heather Dugan/ Thomas Valeo- Passionate Heroine / Gettysburg
college 1997
[16] www.homepage.usask.ca/Lawrence
The women in both Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness are seemingly presented with traditional feminine qualities of inferiority, weakness and sexual objectification. However, the power that they hold in male-female relationships, and their embodiment of traditional male roles, contests the chauvinistic views of society during Conrad and Hardy’s era. While Conrad presents powerful female characters through their influences over men, the reversal of traditional gender roles is exemplified more by Hardy’s character, Tess, yet both authors present revolutionary ideas of feminism, and enlighten readers to challenge the patriarchal views of society towards women.
James Joyce uses sexuality throughout his works to establish an intimate and relatable bond between the reader and the characters in his works. All of Joyce’s works address issues in sexuality, which presents the idea that sexuality was of upmost importance to him. Given that sex is a large part of human existence, it is a good way to get the attention of the reader. A substantial amount of characters throughout Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man are driven by sexual desire. In fact, there is so much sex throughout in Ulysses that “early publishers and critics refused to publish it because of its vulgarity; the sexuality featured in Ulysses was part of the claims that the novel was obscene” (Ivie). Sex is a wonderful way to connect the reader to the character, and Joyce is talented in being able to bring the reader right into the sexually suggestive minds of the characters. Each character in all of Joyce’s works are defined by their sexuality and are in search of some type of self-identity, and through that idea is how Joyce best portrays that sexuality itself may be defined by adultery, prostitution, and masturbation and other bodily functions.
A querying of normative gender behaviour and sexuality pervades the 19th century gothic fiction text. What does this reveal about the cultural context within the tale exists?
Their sexual objects are members of both sexes. Like homosexuality, bisexuality triggers negative social reactions; thus bisexuals are outcasts and socially isolated. Both homosexual and heterosexual communities are inimical to them, so bisexuals have to cope with ‘double marginality’ (Weinberg, Williams and Pryor 190). And it seems no great stretch to consider the androgyny and homoeroticism (or pan-eroticism) present in much recent vampire literature as evidence of Rice`s profound influence. (Leonard 1999). Emphasize on the homosexual theme, suppressed women not just in literature, but also in the current American standard of beauty. The most beautiful runway models (and vampires) have a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics.
The years between 1890 and 1930 witnessed fundamental changes in sexual mores and practices, the reorientation of marriage toward companionate relationships, the emergence of distinct sexual taxonomies, and a shift from Victorian silence about the body and sexuality to the emergence of a new psychological language about sex. Despite the prevailing social attitude of sexual repression in the Victorian era, the movement towards sexual emancipation began towards the end of the nineteenth century and brought with it profound shifts in the attitudes towards women’s sexuality, homosexuality, pre-marital sexuality and the freedom of sexual expression. New norms of pleasure exposed a rhetoric of regulatory conceptual frameworks posited by “sexologists” who delivered psycho-medicalized sexuality to the masses of largely uninformed readers, thirsty for information and explanation. Men and women, reading the work of sex theorists such as Havelock Ellis and Sigmund Freud had different views on sex than had their parents before them. Victorian sexual counterculture contributed to the awareness of radical change that became the social matrix of sexual liberalism. Sexual liberation, then, can be seen as an outgrowth of a process which witnessed the significant loss of power by the values of early nineteenth century moral tradition, and the rise of a more socially and sexually permissive society. Tolerant attitudes of greater sexual freedom and experimentation spread, and were captured in the concept of modernization.
Comparing the Ways in Which Susan Hill and Thomas Hardy Present the Woman in Black and the Withered Arm
Vampires have been a popular figure in literary works for almost 200 years; from John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), the figure of the vampire has changed and developed over time but still remains popular and recognisable throughout literary history. The figure of the vampire is often used to represent ‘the other’, or as a manifestation of social anxieties at the time of writing. This is why it is interesting to study the how the tropes found within vampire fiction differ between texts, and the reasons behind these differences or transformations in the figure of the vampire. I will look at a range of texts to study how sexuality
In the novel She and in the stories of The Arabian Nights, both Haggard and Haddawy explore the expanding gender roles of women within the nineteenth century. At a time that focused on the New Woman Question, traditional gender roles were shifted to produce greater rights and responsibilities for women. Both Ayesha, from Haggard’s novel She, and Shahrazad, from Haddawy’s translation of The Arabian Nights, transgress the traditional roles of women as they are being portrayed as strong and educated females, unwilling to yield to men’s commands. While She (Ayesha) takes her power to the extreme (i.e. embodying the femme fatale), Shahrazad offers a counterpart to She (i.e. she is strong yet selfless and concerned with the welfare of others). Thus, from the two characters emerge the idea of a woman who does not abide by the constraints of nineteenth century gender roles and, instead, symbolizes the New Woman.
Shakespeare, Browning and Duffy all create four very similar characters female characters which are considered to be disturbed. This is due to the fact that they all went against the expectations of society in their respected eras. The speaker in ‘The Laboratory’ as well as Havisham and Medusa in Duffy’s monologues are all considered to be “disturbed” because of their common motives: jealousy and revenge. Despite these similarities, Lady Macbeth’s main motive is her hunger for power. This subverted expectations of females as they were supposed to be loyal to their male partners and shouldn’t want to take their power. In this essay I will talk about their desire for power and revenge, and why this has lead them to be portrayed in such a disturbed manner and how this goes against people’s expectations.
In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's One flew over the cuckoo's nest and Tennessee Williams A street car named desire? In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' and Tennessee Williams 'A street car named desire'?
...lass and sexuality by including papers like Stead's which brought middle-class readers in touch with the events of working-class London and provided workers with middle-class representations of themselves. City of Dreadful Delight is an assortment of cross-cultural contact and negotiation between class and sexuality in Victorian era London. Walkowitz's analysis emphasizes distinct “classes,” and the impact of events on each group. Through close social and cultural analysis of the explosion of discourses proceeding and surrounding Jack the Ripper, Walkowitz has demonstrated the historical importance of narratives of sexual danger particularly in the lens of sexuality and class. She explicitly demonstrated the conflicted nature of these discourses, outright showing the women marginalized by male discursive dominance, whose struggles continue to even generations later.
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 into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
To begin, Thomas Hardy always seems to incorporate a dominant main character, normally a young beautiful female, in his novels, who changes drastically throughout the story from a number of things including love. In Far from the Madding Crowd specifically, Bathsheba changes in her personality and beliefs continuously due to her uncertain feelings and the dramatic love circle she becomes tangled in. At first, Bathsheba portrays “a vain ...
Everyday the North American media sends millions of sexually provocative images through the airwaves and onto television screens. According to a recent study, an overwhelming 56% of all television programs contain sexual content (Vieth, 2). Our society has become so immune to the representation of sex that, for the most part, it goes unnoticed. Although concerns regarding sexuality still remain, society's tolerance level has changed dramatically over time. The history of attitudes toward sex and sexuality is a cultural process that can be seen through the literature of an era. The Awakening was the first piece of American fiction to blatantly attack the nineteenth century notion that marriage, emotional intimacy and sexual intimacy were inextricably bound together. Chopin's novel was advanced in theme over other nineteenth century works. Her piece more closely reflects the modern novel. Chopin gives her readers the story of a married woman, Edna Pontellier, as she explores her sexuality and need for emotional intimacy outside her marriage. Edna's need for extramarital relationships challenged the nineteenth century ideas of femininity and propriety.
D. H. Lawrence was from a working class background and was always conscious of his status as an outsider because of his class. In his writing he focused on the idea of transgressing modern class systems in the search of new experiences. This is where the idea of rebellion becomes predominant in his writing. In The Virgin and the Gypsy (1930) he tells the story of a family ruled by a stern powerful Mater and the two young women eager for new experiences. The youngest daughter Yvette is the virgin of the title and it is through her encounters with the gypsy of the title (whose name is only revealed on the last page as Joe) and a soon to be divorcee and her young lover that she goes through a sexual awakening.