The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

2189 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Evolution of the role of women in British and American literature

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination "And the lady of the house was seen only as she appears in each room, according to the nature of the lord of the room. None saw the whole of her, none but herself. For the light which she was was both her mirror and her body. None could tell the whole of her, none but herself" (Laura Riding qtd. by Gilbert & Gubar, 3). Beginning Gibert and Gubar’s piece about the position of female writers during the nineteenth century, this passage conjures up images of women as transient forms, bodiless and indefinite. It seems such a being could never possess enough agency to pick up a pen and write herself into history. Still, this woman, however incomprehensible by others, has the ability to know herself. This chapter of The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, titled “The Queen’s Looking Glass,” discusses how the external, and particularly male, representations of a woman can affect her so much that the image she sees in the mirror is no longer her own. Thus, female writers are left with a problem. As Gibert and Gubar state, “the woman writer’s self-contemplation may be said to have begun with a searching glance into the mirror of the male-inscribed literary text. There she would see at first only those eternal lineaments fixed on her like a mask…” (Gilbert & Gubar, 15). In Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, the narrator and heroine Lucy Snowe is faced with a great deal of “reflections” which could influence her self-image and become detrimental to her writing. However, she is aware that the mirrors she finds, whether the literal mirror of the looking glass or her reflection in other characters’ ... ... middle of paper ... ... authors insisted that they are” (43). However, instead of doing “fiery and suicidal tarantellas out of the looking glass,” (44) Lucy Snowe decides to ignore the inaccurate representations in the mirrors around her and focus her energies toward constructing a mirror of her own – the “circular mirror of crystal” she is always searching for but that can only be found in the text itself. The line Gilbert and Gubar apply to Brontë and other successful women writers is also valid for Lucy. “The old silent dance of death became a dance of triumph, a dance into speech, a dance of authority” (44). Works Cited Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. O’Dea, Gregory. “Narrator and Reader in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette.” South Atlantic Review 53.1 (1988): 41-57.

Show More
Related

  • Jane Elton's Identity Conflict in Catherine Maria Sedgwick’s A New England Tale

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    Harris, Susan K.. "'But is it any good?': Evaluating Nineteenth-Century American Women's Fiction." American Literature 63 (March 1991): 42-61.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome Gender Roles

    1598 Words  | 4 Pages

    Time and time again, women have consistently been cheated when it comes to being represented fairly in literature. Throughout countless literary works, many female characters are portrayed in stereotypical and submissive roles. Three literary works that break from this trend are Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. These works examine themes of beauty and marriage, and feature female characters in prominent roles. But what influenced how male and female characters are portrayed in these pieces of literature? Examining Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, and Shaw’s Pygmalion from a feminist perspective reveals how gender characterization, author perspectives, and gender

    Read More

  • The History of Feminine Fiction:Exploring Laura Runge’s Article, Gendered Strategies in the Criticism of Early Fiction

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gendered strategies, in the criticism of early fiction, made feminine fiction incapable of excellence. By using conventional heterosexual relationships in their prefaces, authors only succeed in supporting the masculine control over fiction. The appraisals women gained only reinforced their inferior status. "Criticism placed female authors in a specific and confined critical sphere, while it located male authors in an other, more respected field" (375). By aligning their works with popular male literature, women inadvertently strengthened male authority. Women were only granted recognition in terms of their limited social stature. It is these gendered values and strategies that makes the history of the novel and feminine achievement difficult to assess.

    Read More

  • A Women's Quest in The Odyssey, A Room Of One's Own, and Northanger Abbey

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Delany, Sheila. Writing Women: Women Writers and Women in Literature: Medieval to Modern. New York: Schocken, 1983.

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre

    3143 Words  | 7 Pages

    ...Bronte was able to do: she took the old character of the lovemad woman, who can be seen as the prototype for the weak, dependent female, and made her to be an object of rebellion. She used this madness to show that women have feelings worth showing, and that if they do show their true emotions, they too can have the happy ending.

    Read More

  • Gender, Language and Silence in "The Tragedy of Mariam"

    2312 Words  | 5 Pages

    `Plays and Poetry by early modern women are primarily concerned with negotiating a position from which women could speak. A concern for ideas of gender, language and silence is, therefore, central, though its expression is sometimes open, sometimes covert.' Discuss with reference to Aemilia Lanyer and / or Elizabeth Cary.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper: Women’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979)

    Read More

  • Vision of Heaven in the Poetry of Dickinson

    2078 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.

    Read More

  • Hollowness in Emily Dickinson’s Poetic Discourse

    3878 Words  | 8 Pages

    Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the 19th Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Men and Women: Jane Eyre and The Handmaid's Tale

    1786 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gilbert, S., Gubar, S. (2000) The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination Yale University Press

    Read More

  • The Madwoman In The Attic: The Woman Writer, By Susan Stoker

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    To look at Stoker's female characters, one has to take into account the Victorian ideas of gender performance. An age named after its long-reigning female ruler Queen Victoria, the Victorian period was anything but a women's world (Abrams 1). Queen Victoria may have been the figurehead of the nation and the era, but that did not mean that the rest of the public sphere was a welcoming place for women in general (Abrams 1). A woman's place was in the domestic sphere (Abrams 3). She was the so-called angel of the house as Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar point out in their work The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the

    Read More

  • How Did Charlotte Bronte Make Lucy Snowe Transgressive

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    When Charlotte Bronte created Lucy Snowe’s character in Villette, she made her as a woman that transgressed society’s deemed role in the Victorian Era (Peel, 231). Bronte was a women who personally endured and witnessed the lack of rights and equalities offered women in the Victorian Era and by creating Lucy Snowe’s “transgressive” character she displayed her thoughts and rebellions against society’s standards. Women novelist were not very common in this time period due to the belief by men that it was not right. “The female writer posed a threat to men who described women as weak and submissive creatures” (ARAS, 499). Instead it was thought that women should write poems only, and because of this most women novelist used a “male pseudonym” for their books so that they did not receive ridicule and criticism (ARAS, 499). Charlotte Bronte did not let this fear stop her from expressing her beliefs about the mistreatment and societal abuse of women by men, but instead created Villette which transcended the idea that women were dependent to men for their own happiness.

    Read More

  • Mothers in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gilbert, Susan, and Sandra Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1979.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of the Role of Women in British and American Literature

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: Women and Fiction

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

Open Document