Lyndall not only disperses her feminist visions to Em, but also to her friend Waldo, who is one of the very few males in the novel. Lyndall tells Waldo of the corrupt world that females live in, the corruption being induced by the male dominated world. Waldo listens as Lyndall tells him about the burden she suffers:
“Look at this little chin of mine, Waldo, with the dimple in it. It is but a small part of my person; but though I had a knowledge of all things under the sun, and the wisdom to use it, and the deep loving heart of an angel, it would not stead me through life like this little chin. I can win money with it, I can win love; I can win power with it, I can win fame. What would knowledge help me? The less a woman has in her head the
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With this passage, Schreiner depicts the patriarchal world’s focus on beauty. Women who are intellectual do not gain anything from it, they are not given more opportunities, they are not asked for their advice, and in most cases, they would be shunned for trying to learn, as that is obviously a sphere just for men. However, as Lyndall points out, beauty is the only characteristic that gets a woman anywhere. It is the only trait that is valued. Nobody cares about a woman “who knows everything under the sun”, they only care about the cute little chin with the dimple in it (188). Women have no incentive to grow as a person when their only worth and salt in the world is her attractiveness. Valuing beauty is effective in keeping women subordinate to men, as well as maintaining them as an ignorant and decorative sex. Schreiner argues that buying into this traditional gender value you are subjecting women to a life where their significance is based on suppressing themselves into the mold of society’s expectations, “chaffing against the bandages” of their small lives to fit around their men, and suppress their own …show more content…
The criticism increases when the attention is drawn towards marriage and the role women serve in it:
“A little care of our advantages, and then some man will say – ‘Come, be my wife!’ With good looks and youth marriage is easy to attain. There are men enough; but a woman who has sold herself, for a ring and a new name, need hold her skirt aside for no creature in the street. They both earn their bread in one way. Marriage for love is the beautifullest external symbol of the union of souls; marriage without it is the uncleanliest traffic that defiles the world” (Schreiner
In the end, readers are unsure whether to laugh or cry at the union of Carol and Howard, two people most undoubtedly not in love. Detailed character developments of the confused young adults combined with the brisk, businesslike tone used to describe this disastrous marriage effectively highlight the gap between marrying for love and marrying for ?reason.? As a piece written in the 1950s, when women still belonged to their husbands? households and marriages remained arranged for class and money?s sake, Gallant?s short story excerpt successfully utilizes fictional characters to point out a bigger picture: no human being ought to repress his or her own desires for love in exchange for just an adequate home and a tolerable spouse. May everyone find their own wild passions instead of merely settling for the security and banality of that ?Other Paris.?
It is human nature to look for happiness. Some people find it in material possessions, some find it in money, but most of us find it in love. To find true love is a difficult task especially now in the times of cell phones and Jaguars. Money and power play a big role in today’s society, and some people would rather have those things than a love of another human being. In some rare cases it is not even a person’s decision who she (almost every time it’s a woman who is being given away) will marry. Although it does not happen very often, there are still cases where a woman is being married off to a man by an arrangement made by her parents, to insure stability and security of that woman. The standing in the community means a great deal, just like Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God illustrates.
Mary Astell’s essay “Some Reflections Upon Marriage” criticized the institution of marriage so harshly, it seemed to suggest, if not state outright, that no woman with even the smallest semblance of an education would even consider marriage as a viable optio...
Warren Farrell is a well educated man who focuses his attention on gender. In his essay “Men as Success Objects,” he writes about gender roles in male-female relationships. He begins, “for thousands of years, marriages were about economic security and survival” (Farrell 185). The key word in that statement is were. This implies the fact that marriage has changed in the last century. He relates the fact that post 1950s, marriage was more about what the male and female were getting out of the relationship rather than just the security of being married. Divorce rates grew and added to the tension of which gender held the supremacy and which role the individuals were supposed to accept. “Inequality in the workplace” covered up all of the conflicts involved with the “inequality in the homeplace”(Farrell). Farrell brings to attention all ...
Individuals in society try to avoid conflict, despite knowing they cannot survive without it. Disagreements or contradictory opinions between individuals can either gradually breakdown, or unite new relations. Similar circumstances are present between the characters in the novel On Beauty written by Zadie Smith. Several characters in the novel face struggles as they learn to deal with others, themselves, and society. First of all, Britain born Howard Belsey leads a fictional war against Monty Kipps, whom he considers his lifelong professional and cultural nemesis.
Human beings are not isolated individuals. We do not wander through a landscape of trees and dunes alone, reveling in our own thoughts. Rather, we need relationships with other human beings to give us a sense of support and guidance. We are social beings, who need talk and company almost as much as we need food and sleep. We need others so much, that we have developed a custom that will insure company: marriage. Marriage assures each of us of company and association, even if it is not always positive and helpful. Unfortunately, the great majority of marriages are not paragons of support. Instead, they hold danger and barbs for both members. Only the best marriages improve both partners. So when we look at all three of Janie’s marriages, only her marriage to Teacake shows the support, guidance, and love.
Lady Chudleighs’s “To the Ladies” exhibits a remorseful stance on the concept of joining holy matrimony. Chudleigh’s usage of metaphoric context and condescending tone discloses her negative attitude towards the roles of a wife once she is married. It is evident that Mary Chudleigh represents the speaker of the poem and her writing serves a purpose to warn single women not go get married and a regretful choice to women who are.
In the essay “What Meets the Eye”, Daniel Akst explains scientific facts about the beauty of men and women matters to people. He argues that attractive individuals receive attention, great social status, marries, and gets paid more on a job. One can disagree with Akst’s argument because anyone with the skills and knowledge, despite the appearance, can gain a decent relationship and can get paid well. Akst looks at beauty as if it can lead individuals to an amazing and successful life, but he is wrong. Nancy Mairs’ and Alice Walker’s views on beauty are explained internally and through self-confidence. Both women’s and Akst’s arguments on beauty share some similarities and differences in many ways, and an
Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999). Web. 29 June 2015.
“Our matriarchs had an interesting advantage over today 's western women. Matriarchs didn 't begin their marriage with love. Instead, they were taught how to love. They entered marriage with an earnest determination to grow a love that would sustain their marriage for a life-time” (Zenhabe). Love is a universal virtue that is found in the sacred bond of marriage. Arranged marriage is a unique practice that changes the perspective of marriage from a bond that blossomed from love to a seed that uses love to blossom. The practice of arranged marriage is dwindling as society evolves but there are still many parts of the world that hold firm to the tradition. Although the success of the sacred sacrament of marriage is a practice that cannot
The con of marriage is equal for women and men as one cannot merely live without the other. Marriage had a different meaning for men and women almost six decades ago. Women cannot bear heavy lifting, as that is a man’s job. Men don’t appreciate cleaning and don’t want to be seen doing it, as it is women’s work. During the nineteen-hundreds, marriage remained a necessity for women as they could not work for themselves, as a result, women needed to marry into a wealthy family. The man she marries needs to have money. Therefore, she knows that she will be well taken care of, and inherit the solid earnings of her beloved. Men need sex, and women need
In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen shows examples of how most marriages were not always for love but more as a formal agreement arranged by the two families. Marriage was seen a holy matrimony for two people but living happil...
...choose between their femininity and the material world. She also criticizes the way women have had to stand on other women’s backs in order to get a little higher in a male dominated society.
Marriage is by no stretch of the imagination a static institution. It is dynamic, which is to say that is always changing or evolving. The idea of marrying for romantic love is a relatively new phenomenon, or at least the resurgence of an ancient one. Anthropologists tell us that the earliest form of civilization, hunter-gatherer societies, seemed to have married for love much like western societies do today (Fisher, 2004). However, this practice did not last long. With the accumulation of wealth and possessions came the need to secure and control those assets. Therefore marriage became an economic consideration in agrarian societies. It was an arranged i...
There are many misconceptions about beauty and its importance, in todays society. In a time when physical beauty can be of utter importance, we seem to be at a loss of it. What is beauty and where can it be found? Can we see it in the air we breathe, the brilliant oceans, in the striking sunsets, or even in one another? With the weight of beauty in today's society, the common use of expressions used to describe life's brilliance is expected. The many expressions used to discuss beauty such as "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder" and "beauty runs only skin deep" all stimulate different opinions and create controversy, but the most notorious of all, being that "beauty doesn't last forever." Sheri S. Tepper's Beauty reinstates the many questions regarding beauty and it's value, regardless of the time in which it is present. As time goes on, all that is beautiful and magical in the world will eventually become extinct. In her web review of the novel, Amanda Holland-Minkley, a professor at Cornell University, argues that the guiding theme throughout the novel is "the presence of magic and beauty in the world, and the risk we run of allowing them to disappear." As Beauty lives through the 20th century, her new experiences cause her to view life from a different perspective. Her once peaceful and simple life in the 14th century at Westfaire was now changed into a life where famine, drugs, violence, disease, overpopulation, and pain were all too common. In this world, beauty and magic are non-existent, so much so that the standards of beauty have minimized to almost nothing. Beauty says, "The worst part of living here is that nothing is beautiful. Magic doesn't work" (101). The time in which Beauty is living through is completely voi...