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sexuality in litersture
female sexual roles in literature
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Throughout the novel, Martha Wolg is often referencing some aspect of sexuality, one way to interpret this is to assume that Martha lacks in confidence in her sexuality due to trauma associated with verbal abuse. Throughout this paper, I will prove this giving examples of how Martha was verbally abused, analyzing how her trauma influenced her in her dating life, and lastly by explaining how the trauama influences her relationship with her daughter’s sexuality. In the beginning of the novel, Kolmar writes about a flashback with Friedrich Wolg and his father teasing and criticizing Martha’s sexuality, which is the basis of her Martha’s immature understanding of sexuality. This point is evident in the beginning of the text when Martha’s late-husband, …show more content…
Having never fully developed emotionally, Martha believes that having a persona who is sexually available is equal to someone who is emotionally available, which Arnold comes to realize in part three of the novel while he and Martha are talking about his upcoming business trip, in which Martha responds unfavorably by walking in front of him, angry. Arnold tells her that he realized that she does not love him and that she was using him for sex due to the lack of emotionally intimacy occurring in their relationship. Arnold goes on to say “You are a whore. A prostitute, that’s all” (p. 146), implying that their love was artificial. By calling Martha these hurtful names, he is forcing her to confront her underdeveloped confidence in her …show more content…
On page 106 Martha describes herself as “. . . neither tender, nor attractive, neither voluptuous, not provocative - not at all gently lewd. More droll”. The descriptors she chooses to pick out to describe what she is not range from words such as “tender” and “attractive”, traditionally words that are used to describe a woman to words such as “voluptuous”, “gently lewd”, and “provocative” that are a more sexually erotic way of describing a woman. “Droll”, the one word used to describe Martha is defined as curious or unusual in a way that provoke dry amusement is starkly different from the aforementioned adjectives used to describe Ursula; specially related to the lack of strong and vivid imagery. From this, it can be interpreted that Martha felt the need to cherish her daughter’s sexuality to make up for not having someone close to her to cherish
Misogyny in this text is represented through many factors showing how women can only prove their dominance by removing the men’s sexuality and freedom of independence. It is also represented in the fact that Nurse Ratched is seen as perfect except for her breasts, her outward mark of being a woman. “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (6) The fear of women is usually stemmed from ...
With a heart-full of advice and wisdom, Dinah maturates from a simple- minded young girl to a valiant independent individual. “For a moment I weighed the idea of keeping my secret and remaining a girl, the thought passes quickly. I could only be what I was. And that was a woman” (170). This act of puberty is not only her initiation into womanhood but the red tent as well. She is no longer just an observer of stories, she is one of them, part of their community now. On account of this event, Dinah’s sensuality begins to blossom and she is able to conceive the notion of true love.
In struggling against the brutal dynamics of a system that simultaneously set before her ideals of a true woman, but refused to acknowledge her as a human being, Jacobs emerges scarred but victorious. Her rational powers and will to action facilitate her efforts to find strategies for dealing with sexual harassment from her master, for maintaining family unity, and in estab...
Mary Wollstonecraft was a British feminist writer and intellectual person from the eighteenth century (“Who Is Mary Wollstonecraft?”). Raised by a violent and physically abusive father after her mother's death, Mary eventually left home to pursue a better life (“Who Is Mary Wollstonecraft?”). Though not receiving much education herself, Mary established a school for girls with her sister Eliza and friend Fanny, but it was shut down a year later because of financial issues (“On National Education”). Then taking up a job as a governess, she realized that an existence revolving around domestic labor did not suit her (Tomaselli). She next took up a position as a translator and publisher, and ultimately became an author with books such
The author tells the reader story of the teenage girl, who’s suffering from difficulties in the relationship with surrounding her people, such as her friends and wax copy of the president Roosevelt, – “the only man who has ever called her pretty” (Coyle 366). Through all the story the reader can be a witness of the violence against the girl, for example, when Franklyn D. Roosevelt makes her cry for no reason (“She’s kneeling in a wax museum on her first date, crying…”), communicates in not appropriate way (“Send me a pic of ur boobs, says the third [message]”) (Coyle 366,368). In this case we can see not only typical violator’s behavior, but also the reaction, which majority of the women have: belief that “no one will ever love [her]” (Coyle
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
Martha's realization of the love and the power George has over her, gives her opportunity to change her ways. No more will George and Martha exist in a land of fantasy and make-believe. Martha fears the amount of reality involved in her life. She is afraid, and her being afraid of reality in her life, makes her want control. After this night, where their masks have been removed, they are now living in their reality, and there is no longer a need for one person to have control.
She tells the girl to “walk like a lady” (320), “hem a dress when you see the hem coming down”, and “behave in front of boys you don’t know very well” (321), so as not to “become the slut you are so bent on becoming” (320). The repetition of the word “slut” and the multitude of rules that must be obeyed so as not to be perceived as such, indicates that the suppression of sexual desire is a particularly important aspect of being a proper woman in a patriarchal society. The young girl in this poem must deny her sexual desires, a quality intrinsic to human nature, or she will be reprimanded for being a loose woman. These restrictions do not allow her to experience the freedom that her male counterparts
...aced with tremendous abuse and violence in various forms. However as she matured, her awareness of the specific racial violence, rampant throughout the region, grew as did her method of combating and resisting it. In the end, no matter which method she used to resist this violence, whether it be through ignoring it or actively fighting against it, it always found a way to impact her. Although, similar to the sources used for our second paper, Anne’s account of events in her life has never been fully verified and the fact that she can clearly remember events and dialog from such a young age can breed a lot of skepticism. This could also be seen as a sign of just how effected she was by the various forms of violence throughout her life, long after any physical scars had healed.
Want. This word seems to play a key role in the roles that the women play for our main characters. Jimmy Cross wants to be with Martha. He wants to be able to believe that she is in fact, a virgin. "Her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair." Jimmy touched that knee on the one date that he went on with Martha, and speaks about what he should have done that night. "He should've carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long" . Even in fantasy Jimmy seems to have respect for Martha, and her virginity. He speaks of touching her knee all night while most of the other men in Alpha company probably would have had a more R-rated version of the events had they u...
The character analysis of Mary Anne Bell in comparison and contrast to Martha and Elroy Berdahl implores the audience to consider the idea that gender is not inherent.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Dinah is born into a society where all women are expected to put their feelings aside to conform to and satisfy the man and his children. She is trapped from the very beginning in a chauvinistic and male-dominated worl...
Martha’s actions throughout the play can be seen as her attempt to act like a typical American female during 50s and 60s. During this time period, women were expected to have a child and to be good wives. However, Martha doesn’t have children. If a woman didn’t have children, she was ultimately a failure. She says, “I disgust me. I pass my life in crummy, totally pointless infidelities...” Martha thinks herself that she is a failure due to lack of reproduction. Martha created the story of a son because she truly wants a child. She also creates the story because she wants to fit into society. She wants to become a woman that society expects. Because she does not want to society to view her as an inadequate woman, she is tremendously irrational about her illusional son. Martha and George start to create a story of their son with precise details from Martha’s delivery, son’s physical appearance to his experiences at school and summer camp, with some contradictory details. Martha explains that her son is a balance between George’s weakness and her “necessary greater strength.” When George finally ann...
Stephen's relationship with the opposite sex begins to develop early in his life. Within the first few pages of the novel lie hints of the different roles women will...