Kate Martinson’s diary provides an insight into life in the late nineteenth century that is usually unseen. Entries are written almost every year and are often poignant and descriptive. Kate Emily Anderson Emerson Martinson is a complete contrast to our perceptions of the nineteenth century woman. Not only does she feel restricted and a failure for not fulfilling the perception of a true woman, but she seems to fulfil the roles of both husband and wife within her marriage. She is responsible for both the families’ moral and economical wellbeing, and initiates a divorce and an independent life when her husband reveals he has another family. This essay argues that Kate Martinson is atypical, and challenges our original interpretations of a nineteenth century woman.
Originally named Kate Emily Anderson , she was born to parents Gabriel A. Anderson and Mary Partridge in Rockford, Illinois on the Sixteenth of October 1858 . Kate moved to Dickinson County, Iowa aged nine accompanied by her parents and her three siblings: Sid, Will and Mate , where she attended Spirit Lake Institution . In Dickinson County she met her first husband George E. Emerson . Married at nineteen years of age on the July 4th 1877 , Kate appears to have fulfilled the concept of true “womanhood”; however she appears within her diary dissatisfied with marriage and her husband. She produced three living children: Karl Emerson (born April 13th 1877) , Ethel Emerson (born in 1884) and Asa Emerson (born Januray 19th 1890) , and one unnamed baby born April 22nd 1883, who died May 2nd 1883 within her first marriage. Kate remained within Iowa with her three children, whilst her husband George travelled between Arkansas, California and Kansas City to find carpentry work...
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...ct of hindsight within the diary. As entries are written almost every year, the purpose both to document and reflect, many events that were particularly memorable or significant may have been written differently due to hindsight. Kate has the ability to assess events that have happened within each year relatively soon after they have occurred; twelve months arguably is not as extensive a period to reflect upon. She writes with excellent clarity and detail, her attention specifically to dates suggests that she keeps record throughout the year of events that have particular importance or impact for her, and uses the diary to reflect upon these and summarise. It must be noted however that Kate may overlook specific occasions that have transpired due to their lack of personal importance to her, but these may have some influence in our interpretation of women’s history.
“Deborah Sampson, the daughter of a poor Massachusetts farmer, disguised herself as a man and in 1782, at age twenty-one, enlisted in the Continental army. Ultimately, her commanding officer discovered her secret but kept it to himself, and she was honorably discharged at the end of the war.” She was one of the few women who fought in the Revolution. This example pictured the figure of women fighting alongside men. This encouraged the expansion of wife’s opportunities. Deborah, after the Revolution along with other known female figures, reinforced the ideology of Republican Motherhood which saw the marriage as a “voluntary union held together by affection and mutual dependency rather than male authority.” (Foner, p. 190). This ideal of “companionate” marriage changed the structure of the whole family itself, the now called Modern Family in which workers, laborers and domestic servants are now not considered member of the family anymore. However even if women thought that after the war they would have been seen from the society in a different way it never happened. The revolution haven’t changed the perception of the woman and the emancipated ideal
In the nineteenth century the inequality of women was more than profound throughout society. Margaret Fuller and Fanny Fern both women of the century were much farther advanced in education and opinion than most women of the time. Fuller and Fern both harbored opinions and used their writing as a weapon against the conditions that were considered the norm in society for women. Margaret and Fuller were both influential in breaking the silence of women and criticizing the harsh confinement and burden of marriage to a nineteenth century man. Taking into consideration Woman in he Nineteenth Century by Fuller, Aunt Hetty on Matrimony, and The Working-Girls of New York by Fern, the reader can clearly identify the different tones and choice of content, but their purposes are moving towards the same cause. Regardless of their differences in writing, both Fern and Fuller wrote passionately in order to make an impact for their conviction, which was all too similar.
This novel revolves around the rise and the fall of the aristocratic 19th century Southern Compsons that advocated conventional Southern values. In that dynamism and the muting family norms, the rival upsurge was the changing role of men and women. This is true, as men used to enjoy their authority, dominance, power, masculinity, valiancy, virtuous strength, determination, and courtliness over women and in the society while the role played by the women was similar to putting a showpiece in the form of feminine purity, elegance, and chastity. Women’s role was subjected to mere child bearing and continuing the family name.1
The industrialization of the nineteenth century was a tremendous social change in which Britain initially took the lead on. This meant for the middle class a new opening for change which has been continuing on for generations. Sex and gender roles have become one of the main focuses for many people in this Victorian period. Sarah Stickney Ellis was a writer who argued that it was the religious duty of women to improve society. Ellis felt domestic duties were not the only duties women should be focusing on and thus wrote a book entitled “The Women of England.” The primary document of Sarah Stickney Ellis’s “The Women of England” examines how a change in attitude is greatly needed for the way women were perceived during the nineteenth century. Today women have the freedom to have an education, and make their own career choice. She discusses a range of topics to help her female readers to cultivate their “highest attributes” as pillars of family life#. While looking at Sarah Stickney Ellis as a writer and by also looking at women of the nineteenth century, we will be able to understand the duties of women throughout this century. Throughout this paper I will discuss the duties which Ellis refers to and why she wanted a great change.
Peterson, M. Jeanne. "The Victorian Governess: Status Incongruence in Family and Society." Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age. Ed. Martha Vicinus. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973.
Kate Chopin was born February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. She was raised by a single woman; this impacted her views in the family at an early age. She began her own family at a young age; Kate had a different method compare too many women in her time. As time progressed, she developed a bad habit of dressing inappropriately. Soon she started to publish stories about the experiences and stories of her interests such as women’s individuality and miserable
Growing up in St. Louis, Kate rarely moved during her life, from St. Louis Kate and her husband Oscar moved to New Orleans where they raised six kids. Although Kate loved her kids, she hated getting caught up in motherly activities. Often times she would travel to familiar places such as Grand Isle and St. Louis as a miniature escape from reality. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin the main character Edna Pontellier married her husband and moved to New Orleans just as Kate did with Oscar. Edna and Leonce would vacation on Grand Isle during the summer, which was a very familiar place to Chopin seeing as she would also go there with her family for their little vacations. Edna was not a very good mother and did not pay much attention to her children, she was always out of the house and giving her responsibilities to the nurse. Unlike Edna Adele Ratignolle, one of her friends, was “... the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm. If her husband did not adore her, he was a brute, deserving of death by slow torture.” (?) She was a typical housewife during the nineteenth centu...
The late nineteenth century was a critical time in reshaping the rights of women. Commonly this era is considered to be the beginning of what is know to western feminists as “first-wave feminism.” First-wave feminism predominately fought for legal rights such as suffrage, and property rights. A major hallmark of first-wave feminism is the concept of the “New Woman.” The phrase New Woman described educated, independent, career oriented women who stood in response to the idea of the “Cult of Domesticity,” that is the idea that women are meant to be domestic and submissive (Stevens 27). Though the concept of the New Woman was empowering to many, some women did not want to give up their roles as housewives. These women felt there was a great dignity in the lifestyle of the housewife, and that raising children was not a job to scoff at. Mary Freeman's short story “The Revolt of 'Mother',” tells the story of such a domestic woman, Sarah, who has no interest in leaving her position as mother, but still wishes to have her voice heard in the private sphere of her home. Freeman's “Revolt of Mother,” illustrates an alternative means of resistance for women who rejected the oppression of patriarchy without a withdrawal from the domestic lifestyle.
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children
Back in the late nineteenth century, when World War II was just over, women in the labor force were not as many as we have now. Women were considered domestic caregivers, with sole responsibility for the home and child rearing, while men were considered to work to support the family. Written in the last decade of the nineteenth century, when the tenacious stereotype about women’s gender role was changing, Michael Cunningham’s The Hours demonstrates the struggle a woman, particularly Laura Brown, had during the post-war era. She seems to have a content life with her generous husband and adoring three-year-old son. However, she subconsciously constructs her identity around the image of the “ideal woman” and is actually having a constrained life.
First, the 1900’s is a time where women are trying to put away the homemaker image and obtain work. This causes many hardships between husbands and wives. Jane is on the verge of beginning to leave her homemaker image and begin a career in writing. “I am sitting by the window now, up in the atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing much as I please, save lack of strength” (Gilman, 1599). Jane is starting to recognize that she is loosing her feminism. John recognizes this and tries to do everything he can to stop Jane. John knows that Jane is putting aside her role as being a wife, homemaker and mother. In these times, husbands’ do not believe that women could balance both home and work responsibilities. Jane decides to oppose the homemaker life and branch out into writing. The feminist role is “The concept of "The New Woman," for example, began to circulate in the 1890s-1910s as women are pushing for broader roles outside the home-roles that could draw on women's intelligence and non-domestic skills and talents” (http:/...
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.
In John Mill 's’ essay, “The Subjection of Women”, Mill evaluates and analyses, the social differences between the sexes of the Victorian era. Mills raises some valid points about the subjection of women pertaining to the 19th century. Mills argues that during this time women are treated by their husbands as slaves to a master, not offered an equal opportunity in terms of employment, and their educational achievements aren’t recognized nearly as much as their male counterpart.
Throughout history women have been struggle about inequality in society, and most important in their marriage. From the 1960’s to present, women had fight for the oppressing and marginalization to become an essential element in society. The literature has influence women to speaking out and standing out for their rights. Kate Chopin was a recognizable American fiction writer for her feminist style focused about eroticism and adultery. The feminist theory has different approaches that two of them can be identify in Kate’s work; the main goal of feminist to promote women equality and the patriarchal ideology. Even though she was rise for her mother and grandmother and become widow, she was raise as a reclusive individual and observe the difficulties
Kate Brown is the typical middle class, attentive mother who dedicates her entire life to raising her children and being a supportive wife to her husband. She has been a mother for the vast majority of her life, and that is the only role she has known. “Her first child had been born at twenty-two. The last was born well before she was thirty” (Lessing, 18). This novel takes place when Kate is forty- five, so for 23 years, Kate has been a mother and a wife. This has been the basis of her existence. “Kate’s four children have structured her existence, as can be seen in her almost “maternal” responses to young people she encounters in her life” (Lee, 17). All Kate knows how to do is be a mother and take care of other people. This is apparent in her relationships with people at Global Food, (the place where she is hired to be a translator), and with both Jeffrey her younger lover) and Maureen, (her roommate). Her maternal instincts are extremely strong and at the beginning of the novel, it seems that is all that defines her. She comes to the realization that her younges...