Females are powerful creatures that are often overlooked and underestimated. Females are a force to be reckoned with. In literature, the inspiration that drives the creation of strong female characters often comes from the writer’s own experience and life. This essay will compare the female characters of The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins and Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time by Fanny Fern and the characters’ journey toward independence by referencing how the genres of literature and background of the authors feed the main ideas of the respective novels. Fanny Fern was born Sarah Payson Willis in July of 1811 in Maine and died in 1872 at the age of sixty-one. Her father was “Nathaniel Willis, a printer and founder of the …show more content…
Cummins life experiences lack in grief and struggle compared to Fern’s as well. An interesting issue in Cummin’s life however, is the fact that historians are not sure who Maria’s mother was. Her father was a well off man who began her education on his own and later enrolled her in “Mrs. Charles Sedgwick’s Young Ladies School…where she continued her adolescent studies” (“Cummins, Maria Susanna” 857). After her education at the young ladies school, Cummins wrote short fiction anonymously in periodicals throughout the New England area (857) before publishing The Lamplighter, her most successful work, in 1854. Unlike Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time and its existence as an autobiography of Fanny Fern, The Lamplighter, is a work of fiction. However, The Lamplighter does draw on some similar details of Cummins’ life. For example, the uncertain identity of Cummins’ mother is paralleled in the uncertain identity of Gertrude’s father for a majority of the novel. There is also the similarity of Cummins’ education at Mrs. Charles Sedgewick’s Young Ladies School with that of Gertrude’s position of employment at Mr. W’s school as a teacher …show more content…
The Lamplighter is full of emotion, rather than reason, that attacks the senses and the hearts of the readers. The connections that exist for a wide variety of readers aided to its popularity. “Domestic sales at the end of twenty days reached 20,000 copies; by year’s end the total had swelled to 73,000, and translations in French, German, Danish, and Italian followed suit, along with pirated editions in England (“Cummins, Maria Susanna” 857). Her writing style makes her work appealing to readers of different backgrounds and classes. While both The Lamplighter and Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time exhibit sentimental tropes, as June Howard concludes in her article entitled, “What is Sentimentality?”, it is impossible to “end discussion and produce a consensus for a single definition of sentimentality” (Howard 76). So both novels are sentimental because of the authors’ writing styles, but they can both be considered unsentimental as well, depending on the background of the reader, where the reader searches for examples of sentimentalism, and how the reader react to the novels themselves.
To examine these ideas more specifically, the reader should examine Emily Graham, of The Lamplighter, who is a rather interesting character. While she is reliant on the aid of others due to her blindness, she is strong willed and focused. She has an independent mind and a dependent body.
History has underrepresented females throughout countless centuries. In contrast, Hawthorne allows them to take on essential roles in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “and “The Birthmark.” The way he presents them distinguishes his stories from others at his time. He proves all of his female characters almost flawless, deeply connects the male protagonists to them, and uses them to reveal the males’ hidden sides.
White, Barbara A. "Fanny Fern (Sara Willis Parton) 1811-1872." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 2037-2038.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
In Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”, the struggle to secure and proclaim female freedom is constantly challenged by social normalcy. This clash between what the traditional female ideologies should be and those who challenge them, can be seen best in the character of Lily Brisco. She represents the rosy picture of a woman that ends up challenging social norms throughout the novel to effectively achieve a sense of freedom and individuality by the end. Woolf through out the novel shows Lily’s break from conventional female in multiply ways, from a comparison between her and Mrs.Ramsey, Lily’s own stream of consciousness, as well as her own painting.
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
In my mind, Sonny Carroll’s poem perfectly represents what an empowered woman should be; firm, determined and able to stand on her own feet. The characters of Nora and Antigone, from Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ and Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ respectively, completely fit my description of ‘the empowered woman’. As inspiring figures, they left me wondering how they maintained their identities even in their patriarchal societies. What touched my heart the most is the way they fight for what they feel is moral and just instead of following what society dictates. I believe that each and every woman possesses the qualities like ‘the empowered woman’ in Carroll’s poem. Through my essay, I’d like to show how females in both the plays, during the adversities and extremities of time, evolve into empowered women. I believe that the idea of female empowerment, through these characters, inspires fellow women to make names for themselves rather than being labeled or controlled by men.
Antonia Shimerda broke down the wall of female gender roles versus male gender roles whenever they were presented to her. She was not only strong in house chores, but strong in all of the “manly” labor as well. My Antonia, by Willa Cather, takes place during the Westward Expansion. During this time period, it was custom for women to cook, clean, and raise the children while the men worked on the farm. The author, Willa Cather, was one of few woman writers in the 1900’s. Popular literature was more often than not by male authors. This led me to pick gender roles as my topic for this project because I am inspired by how brave and strong Willa Cather was during a time when women were perceived to be inferior. She strongly relates to Antonia, and derived her character in the novel from her own
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a
For young gals everywhere, literary heroines have become symbols of inspiration, opportunity, and courage in a time where, in spite of how far society has progressed, girls are still undervalued. The characters who exhibit traits of capable leaders are those who these young women admire. It is characters like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter who influence girls is the zenith of exemplary characters in the literary universe.
Many female writers see themselves as advocates for other creative females to help find their voice as a woman. Although this may be true, writer Virginia Woolf made her life mission to help women find their voice as a writer, no gender attached. She believed women had the creativity and power to write, not better than men, but as equals. Yet throughout history, women have been neglected in a sense, and Woolf attempted to find them. In her essay, A Room of One’s Own, she focuses on what is meant by connecting the terms, women and fiction. Woolf divided this thought into three categories: what women are like throughout history, women and the fiction they write, and women and the fiction written about them. When one thinks of women and fiction, what they think of; Woolf tried to answer this question through the discovery of the female within literature in her writing.