One of the most fascinating elements that female authors bring to light is their use of perspective—something that’s most commonly illustrated through the eyes of a man, a male author, or, more often than not, both. Women writers offer a different voice than their male counterparts, even if it’s simply by the subtle inclusion of their own experiences within the narrative of the central character. With that in mind, the question must be asked—how do these female authors present their male characters? It’s common for male authors to stick to stereotypes and caricatures of the women they include in their works; but do female authors choose to follow this style as well? How do they represent the “modern man” within their texts? Through Woolf’s …show more content…
One of the most poignant examples of male entitlement is within Doris Lessing’s A Woman on a Roof, in which one of the central characters believes that, because he finds a beautiful woman attractive, he automatically has earned the right to her heart. Throughout the piece, Lessing illustrates this belief effectively; almost immediately, once Tom first sees this woman, he finds himself attempting to call her his own. When his coworkers have him report what’s happened with her, he lies to them because “[h]e wanted to keep what he had seen to himself” (Lessing 238). We see this escalate throughout the story as well—when lying to Stanley with their other coworker, Harry, about whether the woman is up on the roof or not, “Tom [held] devout conviction that he was there to protect the woman from Stanley” (241); Lessing even blatantly states that “[Tom] felt she was more his when the other men couldn’t see her” (242). The author hits the nail on the head by illustrating this misplaced desire and attraction through Tom’s dreaming about this woman who tans where he can spy on her. Because he’s imagined her being kind and loving and gentle towards him, he immediately feels a connection to her that’s strong enough for him to feel betrayal (242) when she doesn’t appear in the same place she usually goes. While the other men don’t necessarily feel this same connection when this happens, …show more content…
It’s not something one really expects to find in a male character; and yet, it’s always accurate in representing a three-dimensional character? We see more than just the surface stereotypical masculinity that male authors always like to paint their men in—yet, more often than not, female authors will offer that shred of femininity in order to fully flesh-out the male’s existence. One of the most significant examples of this is within Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. Mr. Ramsay, one of the more disliked characters in the novel (due to, in part, the excessive masculinity that’s heavily present in his personality,) is flawed in that he desperately needs validation from his wife. It’s referenced heavily in book one, which, though mostly told through the eyes of Mrs. Ramsay, still manages to completely characterize him in the most effective manner possible. The reader sees this in the paragraph on page#, where the interaction between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay is both verbal and mental, the narrative going into both of their thoughts and letting the reader know that neither of them are happy with the position that they’re in. “He wanted sympathy. He was a failure, he said. Mrs. Ramsay flashed her needles. Mr. Ramsay repeated, never taking his eyes from her face, that he was a failure […] it was sympathy he wanted, to be assured of his genius […] [h]e must be assured that he too lived
A great example of this is Mrs. Allen. Mrs. Allen is a stereotype of what women “should” be. In this case, materialistic, submissive, and a wife that dotes on her husband. This is shown when Mrs. Allen first enters Bath and has met her acquaintance, Mrs. Thorpe. The narrator observes that Mrs. Allen is never satisfied unless she is beside Mrs. Thorpe, and having a somewhat conversation that did not involve an “exchange of opinion” but only of discussing children and gowns. While at the ball, Henry Tilney is having a conversation with Catherine. Mrs. Allen then interrupts by mentioning that a pin has torn a whole in her dress. This then allows Henry to join in on this conversation and to use jargon and discuss how he buys his own cravats, and how he is an excellent judge as his sister has often trusted him before. After his reply, the narration says “Mrs. Allen was quite struck by his genius”. (Austen, J. 2003. Northanger Abbey. Pp. 16-16) Mrs. Allen’s vacancy of mind allows her to interact with the opposite sex by allowing men, such as Henry Tilney, because it allowed him to showcase his knowledge and to teach the naïve
Although neither take a significant role in the novel, Jack and Leon Tallis are critical starting points to understanding the expectations of masculinity. Beginning with Jack Tallis, we are not told outright, but it seems masculinity includes being the provider for the family, even if that means long nights away from the home. Emily has come to expect the “phone call from the department to say that Mr. Tallis had to work late and had to stay up in town” (96). But, this also implies Jack Tallis is having an affair, suggesting being involved with multiple women and sexual superiority is a right of those claiming masculinity. From the example set forth by Leon, readers can also assume the “gift of avoiding responsibility” and the ability to “float free” is also bestowed upon men if they so desire it as an option (96). From this limited view of masculinity readers are shown both freedom and power as key
In chapter two of A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf introduces the reader to the uncomfortable conditions existing between men and women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Woolf’s character, Mary Beton, surveys books about women at the British Museum and discovers that nearly all of them are written by men. What’s more, the books that she does find express negative sentiments about women, leading Beton to believe that men are expressing “anger that had gone underground and mixed itself with all kinds of other emotions” (32). She links this repressed anger to man’s need to feel superior over women, and, wondering how and why men have cause to be angry with the female sex, she has every right to be angry with men.
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.
Women, in the past decades, have undergone a revolution. They have earned the right to vote and the right to be a man’s equal under the law. They have confronted the obsolete values of male superiority. They have even manage to destabilize the firm belief that only men could be in power. Despite these accomplishments, women have also made a point that we are not equal, simply, men aren’t superior to any women.
conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the
Society set a standard many years ago that in a relationship, the woman depends on the man. In The House on Mango Street, woman tend to trust and not have power in relationships. Sandra Cisneros develops the theme that women are inferior to men. This is based on men’s view on power and women accepting their role through the motif of gender roles throughout the novella The House on Mango Street.
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
Sandra M.Gilbert and Susan Gubar, authors of the Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1979) assert that the male voice has for too long been dominant. Because males have also had the power of the pen and therefore the press, they have been able to ...
“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.
Woolf essay claims that neither sex is to blame for the marginalization of women writers and ultimately the goal of a writer is to transcend gender with their texts. However in their essays When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision and In Search of Our Mother’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
Doris Lessing’s "A Woman on a Roof" allows us to understand how some men view woman: as mere objects for display and possession. Lessing shows how each of the male characters reacts and deals with rejection from a woman sunbathing on a nearby rooftop. We discover how three men’s preoccupation with sex keeps them unaware of how their advances may be unwanted and ignorant of their action’s possible consequences.
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.