When looking at women over the past two centuries, and comparing them to the modern women of today, it becomes obvious that major changes have occurred. Changes such as the Industrial Revolution; where women were brought into the working force and the Women's Rights Movement; which began and increased voting among women. This eventually led to the opportunity for women to hold a position in the government and eventually the independence of a woman as well as a greater equality within society. Today women have the opportunity to run for president, raise a family on their own as a single mother, and hold a high-status position in a company. The representation of women in "The Witches" is seen in three different views in which reflect upon women in today's society. Roald Dahl empowers these women through; an independent, wise and nurturing woman revealed in the grandmother; a vindictive, compassionless power-hungry woman reflected upon the witches; and last a prissy, prudish and sophisticated woman embodied in Mrs. Jenkins. The stereotypical aspects shown through these women demonstrate how they can be viewed as women of today's society. In comparing these three forms of women Roald Dahl displays in the story, one can also notice that some similarities arise whether or not the outcome or consequences differ.
An exceptionally independent woman who is extremely protective of the things she loves. The grandmother is depicted as a very empowered, wise, and loving woman who-as Dahl points out- shows this through the acceptance of her grandson whom she takes in, no questions asked, "He has asked me to take care of you for as long as I live, but he has also asked that I take you back to your own house in England..." (Dahl, pg.34...
... middle of paper ...
...l, if it hadn't been for the Industrial Revolution, The Women's Right's Movement and feminine power; Roald Dahl would not have been able to accomplish representing these women with such empowerment throughout the narrative. Despite the differences these women detained in "The Witches", minor similarities were also perceptible. In regards to this, women are now able to live a life of equality and with many opportunities in the 21st century regardless of how prudish, wealthy, powerful, compassionless or wise one may be.
Work Cited
o Dahl, Roald. The Witches. 375 Hudson Street New York New York 10014, 1983
o http://www.rosadoc.be/site/maineng/pdf/06.PDF
http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/crusoe/summ2.html
The grandmother is the central character. She is round and static. She is static because her basic unchanging trait is that “the grandmother is a figure of grace and dignity.” The grandmother is polite to strangers and sympathetic to the poor” (Hendricks). An example of the grandmother's actions that show that she is trying to convince the Misfit to live a conventional life is when she says, “Think how wonderful it would be to settle down and live a comfortable life and not having to think about somebody chasing you all the time” (Hendricks).
The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her
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.
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David Allen Cook says in hi...
...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).
Women were perceived as either being a housewife, a nurturer, or a person for company. They did not have the right to vote till later on, work, and if they had an opinion that a male do not agree with, women are considered “wicked”; not savvy, not prudent but wicked to the core. It is unfair, unethical, atrocious, but through it all there was one female who dared to challenge the mind of men and the notion that women can be more than what men perceive them as being. Her name is Margaret Fuller. The goals of Margaret Fuller were precise. Men should realize that women are not an epitome of a statue but human beings, just as men, women can achieve full adulthood and citizenship, but most vitally Margaret aimed to change the assumptions about
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.
It takes a creative imagination for a women of the 21st century to realize what their life would have been if they were born 150 years ago. In today’s society, almost any woman could have the career of their dream if they apply themselves. They can choose to marry or not to marry, or choose whether they want children or not; Women have the option to be independent individuals. However, in the 19th century none of those were choices for women. Women weren’t allowed high educations or careers, they had to marry men for social and economic purposes, have children and be housewives. The women of Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice appear to have no exception; both texts show women to be dependent because of their gender, birthright and social class.
...literature I couldn’t help but compare my lifestyle to the woman in the stories. Women today are no longer looked upon only to supervise over their home and family, they are not forced into marriages, and they are not blamed for all the world’s problems. Today’s society is not a patriarchal one; in fact today men and woman appear to be equal to one another.
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex, weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more than their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a woman can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are oppressed because the fundamental concept of equality that America is based on undermines gender equality.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley characterizes the female characters as passive, disposable and serving an utilitarian function. Women such as Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters throughout the novel. Meaning, the events and actions acted by them or happen to them are usually for the sake of the male character gaining new knowledge or sparking an emotion. Each of Shelley’s women serves an important role by way of plot progression are otherwise marginal characters. Yet, this almost absence of women is exactly the reason why they are important. This use of the female character introduces a concept of feminism; here, female politics exists due to the vacancy of a “role model.” Women such as Justine, Agatha, Elizabeth and Margaret in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein play a key role, whether it’s for mere plot progression or by their absence.
“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 literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
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