Written in 1898, The Turn of The Screw is set in Victorian-era England and influenced by the “sharply defined” gender roles of the day (Hughes 1). Unlike in previous centuries and places where middle to upper-class women could work in some capacity, in Victorian-era England, men and women’s duties did not overlap at all, meaning that there was only one acceptable path for each gender and a clear division between the two.
In the upper and middle classes, men went out and worked while women, including daughters, wives, and sisters, stayed at home in order to oversee domestic duties, including motherhood; a bodily process that simultaneously put women on a pedestal as they could create life and referred to as the weaker sex. To make the matter
...re involved in the male’s productive task. It was the mother’s role to teach her children how they should behave, the cultural trends and social values. Women taught their young ones the social skills and cultural forms and norms in order to get along with society and guided them on how should they behave not only in the household but in the larger community. Women brought up the children who represented the future of the household and society.
During the late nineteenth century, the notion of ?separate spheres? dictated that the women?s world was limited to the home, taking care of domestic concerns. Women were considered to be in the private sphere of society. Men on the other hand were assigned the role of the public sphere, consisting in the participation of politics, law and economics. Women in the meantime were to preserve religious and moral ideals within the home, placing children on the proper path while applying valuable influence on men. The idea was that the typical middle class woman would teach children middle class values so that they too will enjoy the luxuries and benefits in the future that the middle class has to offer (Lecture, 10/17).
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
Men have a broader, more masculine figure compared to women, being less manly and more feminine-built. These physical disadvantages are the reason why women stayed home to care for their family because it was thought of as too dangerous to be doing the hard “men’s work.” Women were also considered to have been less intelligent, more emotional and less decisive than men. Women had low social status and fewer rights than the men. History states that women are the child bearers who nurse infants which led to the assumption that women hold the responsibilities around the household, while men went out long distances to do the tough work....
In conclusion, the evidence clearly points to the fact that the governess is not quite right in the head when looked at from an analytical perspective and looking at James’ writing techniques and the pressure of Victorian era women only firmly cements what is going on at the manor for most. However, after over a century of debates, it is pretty clear that there will never be a definite answer to the questions that have plagued scholars and readers since the publication of The Turn of the Screw.
In a criticism on Henry James’s story The Turn of the Screw, Strother Purdy suggests that large amounts of sexual passion may be assumed to exist underneath the surface of the narrative. Purdy says that under a Freudian interpretation of the story, the sexual element is easily recognized and is used as the whole source of the action. According to this theory, the governess wishes to impress her master because she is in love with him and, therefore, exceeeding her authority with the children. Although the governess only sees her master twice, Purdy refers back to what Douglas had said,” it was the beauty of her passion.” Since the master is not impressed by her initial and ordinary course of governessing, she must make up some life-threatening danger to the children so she can rescue them and win the masters love and affection. She figures the danger must be terrible because he told her he did not want to be bothered with matters dealing with the children. He basically tells her he cares nothing for the children. Purdy suggests the governess is unconscious in doing this because she is sexually repressed and cannot admit her sexual motives to herself
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
Though women were subordinates by both the eye of the church and the government, women found ways to express authority both intentionally and unintentionally. Women began to act independently in patriarchal society. In 17th century Euro-America Puritan society believed that men played a patriarchal role upon women, and that this role was instituted by God and nature. The seniority of men over women lay within both the household and the public sphere. The household, immediate family living in the same dwelling was subject to the male as head figure of the house. The public sphere also known as the social life within the Puritan community consisted of two echelons. These echelons consisted of formal and informal public. The formal public consisted of woman and indentured servants. Women were to stay within the informal public and stay in the shadows of the men.
Charlotte Bront’s Jane Eyre entails a social criticism of the oppressive social ideas and practices of nineteenth-century Victorian society. The presentation of male and female relationships emphasizes men’s dominance and perceived superiority over women. Jane Eyre is a reflection of Bront’s own observation on gender roles of the Victorian era, from the vantage point of her position as governess, much like Jane’s. Margaret Atwood’s novel was written during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized ‘the excesses of the sexual revolution.’ Where Bront’s Jane Eyre is a clear depiction of the subjugation of women by men in nineteenth-century Western culture, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights by men.
This essay aims to focus on the inequalities that exist in the family household and the labour market with the purpose of analysing how men and women’s roles in society have been affected by them. When an individual is born they are given a sex, male or female. This is an ascribed status an individual has no control over. Gender is a social status, man or woman. This is given to an individual by society and decrees the traditional stereotypical qualities associated with the specific gender. Traditionally a man is known to be dominant, strong, and competitive where as a woman is known to be caring, giving, and compassionate.
Women were a nurturing part of the household and therefore it was seen as their job to take care of the children. For example, the editor of the McGuffey’s states, “the middle-class...
Henry James's Turn of the Screw was written in a time when open sexuality was looked down upon. On the surface, the story is simply about a governess taking care of two children who are haunted by two ghosts. However, the subtext of the story is about the governess focusing on the children's innocence, and the governess trying to find her own sexual identity. Priscilla L. Walton wrote a gender criticism themed essay about the Turn of the Screw, which retells certain parts of the story and touches on the significance they provide for the sexually explicit theme. Walton's essay is accurate because James purposely put an undertone of sexuality and identity confusion in the Turn of the Screw.
As previously stated, the ideology behind separation of spheres focuses on the fact that women had no choice in adhering to their responsibilities – it was simply required for family stability and maintenance. Similarly, the implicit reference to the second shift emphasized the intensive responsibility for women, as men did not consider it their given duty to take care of domestic labour and child-rearing. Men’s responsibility hardly changes, if at all; if men do help out, it is in occasional and voluntary manner, never because they need to. Moreover, both of these concepts have a patriarchal connotation and reflect rising inequality of women, since men are somehow superior in the choices they are given/willing to take. This perception renders back to when the separation of spheres begun, as previously men shared housework and responsibility of nurturing the children. The allocation of duties implied a control-obey relationship between man and woman, where the man chose his priorities and the woman did not have a choice. This ideology passed through the years, even when the second shift was introduced. Even when women operated in competitive fields alongside men, they were expected to go back to their homes and fulfill their duties of a
For a long time women were seen as being either a mother, a wife, or both. A woman who decided she wanted a role outside the home was looked upon as “consciously [choosing] a life” which was unacceptable to most people (Harris, McNamara 173). The wife or mother was bound to the house. Her main jobs were to make sure the house was cleaned, the children were fed, and her husband was happy (Brady 361). She never contemplated on doing anything more. She had no place in the outside world. It was not that the female was dumb, but that she was not up to date when it came to the outside world. For decades the woman was oppressed and seen as inferior compared to men. Their so called delicate bodies were only built for child bearing. Their minds were not fluid enough to retain the instruction that went along with the processes that lead to working. To the men, women were not anatomically built for such pressures. But the twenty-first century women had something to prove.