Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Women and literature
Women and literature
How has the representation of women in literature evolved since 1900
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Women and literature
The Role of Women Reflected in Literature During the Early 20th
Century
At the turn of the 20th century America was going through many
changes. This time in America was known as the Progressive Era.
Economic growth and social reform prompted the roles of many people to
change. The roles of Americans also changed due to two significant
events in history. These events were World War I, and the women’s
suffrage movement that started before the Progressive Era and
culminated on August 26, 1920 with the 19th Amendment, the woman’s
right to vote. The Great War opened the door for women to get jobs
that only men had done before. The existing feminine role in society
was clearly changing. The “flapper” was born and women had freedoms
and expectations they had never been able to experience in the past.
The writers and authors of the day saw this occurring change and
documented it by putting their characters in these new roles for women
in society. The characters of the young housewife in the poem “The
Young Housewife”, Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady, and Caddy Compson
in The Sound and the Fury depict a few of these new roles for women.
Each one of the three characters represents a new and different role
that women in the early 20th century confronted.
The young housewife in “The Young Housewife” seems to live a life that
does not allow her to change with the times. Her life reflects the
way things once were, but her actions suggest that she may be aroused
and intrigued by the thought of freedom. She is shown in the role of
the new woman trapped in past by marital or social constraints. The
woman in fact may live a great life but she lives under, what seems to
be, the confinement of her husband and her marriage. “Behind the
wooden walls of her husband’s house,” is the way her solitary days are
described. The emphasis on the house being his property shows that he