Mildred Montag's Representation Of Women In Fahrenheit 451

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Amidst the after war facade of happiness the conventional 1950s woman was created. As exemplified by the writings of Fahrenheit 451 the feminist approach undervalues women. Mildred Montag, a conventional wife in the story is parallel to the ideal woman that was portrayed on television during the 1950s. This is mostly the reason because of the time at which the story was written. Mildred fits this stereotype because she is naive, and expressions the frustrations of a woman at this time. Feminist Literary Theory exposes negative attitudes towards women and exposing the undervaluing of women in literature.

Mildred depicts a conventional 1950s woman in the aspect of being completely naive and oversimplified as a character. According to ‘Essential …show more content…

As stated in the ‘Roles of Women in the 1950s, by a home economics textbook published in 1954,’ This time called for… “loving wives who supported their husbands emotionally. Divorce was cause for shame, even though not every couple was happy. Pressure to conform (for men to be good “company men” and women to be perfect housekeepers and mothers) caused stress for both sexes.” Mildred may be seen as happy however if we further analyze the text she may not be. In the first part of the story it seems odd that Mildred, although a complete airhead could down 30 sleeping pills and had no idea that she did. This again as discussed in the Feminist Literary Theory makes a woman in literature seem less intelligent than their counterpart. However it could be argued that Mildred popped these pills unhappy but has no way to show it. In this dystopian society as well as the 1950s when the book was written is was a woman's job to be happy or at least pretend to be. In the story she states that she is proud of the life she has with her husband and that she is satisfied. Now just like in the 1950s the ideal woman would be there too smile and welcome her husband home from a long day at work, Mildred is the ideal woman in her society as well. Lastly, the plumbers when ‘fixing’ Mildred after she downed all the pills said this happens all the time, we

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