During the 1960’s the middle-class women of America were experiencing discontent and unfulfillment in their lives partially due to the constrictions of tradition patriarchal marriage and this 1960’s phenomenon began to be known as ‘the problem without a name’. Betty Friedan in The Feminist Mystique described the problem as “[The problem] lay buried, unspoken for many years in the mind of the American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered…[Afraid to ask herself] is this all?” (Friedan,15). Friedan’s quote shows that married middle-class women were all going through the same problem and were left questioning what was missing in their lives and their purpose as well. Both Mrs. Robinson in …show more content…
Robinson can not find happiness in her life because her life lacks purpose. During the pivotal scene where Mrs. Robinson and Ben actually have a meaningful conversation in the hotel room, Mrs. Robinson reveals to Ben that she use to be an art major in college (Nichols). That degree would let her have a career and let her have a purpose in life rather than just being another housewife. The normal middle-class women during the 1960’s would not have jobs. In the screenplay of the same scene, Mrs. Robinson reveals to Ben that she goes shopping and reads novels in her free time (Henry, 53). She does menial things in her life and she can not even find happiness in those things. When Ben asks her what novel she is reading she tells him, that she can not remember (Henry, 53). The only thing that seems to bring some sort of purpose to her life is her affair with Ben. Mrs. Robinson has the affair with Ben because she sees a part of herself inside of Ben. Ben is similar to the women of the 1960’s in the way that they know they have a problem, but they can not pinpoint the exact hole in their life. During the opening of the film, the audience can see the darkness of Ben’s eyes while he sitting on the airplane and also by the “The Song of Silence” playing non-diegetically in the background (Audio Commentary) (he’s before sitting). The darkness of Ben’s eyes shows that he lives in darkness and he does not see the light until he meets Elaine (Audio Commentary). The darkness that Ben is surrounded by in the film is also surrounded by Mrs. Robinson (Audio Commentary). The darkness represents the emptiness in her life. Mrs. Robinson is attracted to Ben because he is broken just like her and that brokenness allows for Ben to be easily persuaded into having an affair with Mrs. Robinson. The audience can infer that Mrs. Robinson partakes in the affair because Ben and she are similar people, and having someone that she can connect with makes her life more bearable. Mrs. Robinson
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
The film reflects the class difference from beginning through the end, especially between Annie and Helen. Annie is a single woman in her late 30s without saving or boyfriend. She had a terrible failure in her bakery shop, which leads her to work as a sale clerk in a jewelry store. When Annie arrived Lillian’s engagement party,
Her vanity and fear of ending up alone embody societal views toward spinsters as women pining away in some dingy corner. Similarly, Howard also has the same pride as men today. His sister's caution and unwelcome prediction that he will soon be just "a person who fills in at dinner" mortifies the usually quiet and pragmatic Howard. He dislikes the "picture" of himself as an unwanted old bachelor and sets out to remedy the problem. The fact that he does not love Carol, whom he has known for less than three weeks, does not faze him in the least.
Janie who continually finds her being defined by other people rather than by herself never feels loved, either by her parents or by anybody else. Her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth to her. All she had was her grandmother, Nanny, who protected and looked after her when she was a child. But that was it. She was even unaware that she is black until, at age six, she saw a photograph of herself. Her Nanny who was enslaved most of her lifetime only told her that a woman can only be happy when she marries someone who can provide wealth, property, and security to his wife. Nanny knew nothing about love since she never experienced it. She regarded that matter as unnecessary for her as well as for Janie. And for that reason, when Janie was about to enter her womanhood in searching for that love, Nanny forced her to marry Mr. Logan Killicks, a much older man that can offer Janie the protection and security, plus a sixty-acre potato farm. Although Janie in her heart never approves what her Nanny forced her to do, she did it anyway. She convinced herself that by the time she became Mrs. Killick, she would get that love, which turned out to be wrong.
For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.
It was expected of women to get married, have children, buy a suburban home and do housework. The video, “A Word to the Wives” displays what Betty Friedan calls, “the feminine mystique”. The video presents the dilemma of a woman who is not happy because she does not have the newest house. Her friend has all the new “necessities” in order to successfully complete housework. Women were defined by what they had, not by who they were. Friedan’s research found that despite fulfilling the “feminine mystique”, when women were questioned they realized they were not truly satisfied with their life. The woman in the video would not of been fulfilled by buying a new house, or object. Women were deprived of the need to put their skills and talents to a purpose. The video, “Are You Popular” also shows the expectations of women.. It promotes that appearance, serving others, and rewarding men with “women” gifts such as baking is how to be popular. It condones girls for “parking in cars” but accepts men who do the same thing. Women must earn the approval of men, and men must earn women by doing thing women are “incapable” of. The repression of women in the 50’s is what eventually causes the “outbreak” of feminism in the 60’s. The idolism of the “female mystique” covered the sexism against women in the
Robinson delights in an intense "undifferentiated attentiveness to all the details" (82). The ordinary is given added significance and, as a result, the pace of the novel is slowed considerably. While supplying a layer of added realism, these mundane, fragmentary domestic details serve as an important thematic strategy to Robinson. The reader's attention becomes focussed on the passing of each moment in time. Ruth is initially frustrated with the seeming discontinuity of her own existence and tries to assign some order to it. "What are all these fragments for if not to be knit up finally?" (92). She yearns for a time when there "would be a general reclaiming" of the various seemingly meaningless fragments of human existence, a moment when "time...
A turning point in the story is when the true character of the two girls is acknowledged by the author. Ruthie’s feelings are revealed when she says, “Lily and Nona, I think, enjoyed nothing except habit and familiarity” (Robinson 32). She is beginning
Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has no consequences for his actions against his wife and is never held accountable for treating the people around him poorly; this lasts until Blanche arrives. Blanche is an outwardly demure, but spirited young woman who after experiencing untold misfortune breaks mentally and decides to no longer care what others may think of her. She lives her life lavishly and foolishly by having dalliances with younger or richer men who shower her with gifts and attention to get sex from her all too willing form. Her effect on Stanley is one of temptation and challenge; she continually tries to convince her sister that she is too good for the man and in turn fosters a resentment for her in him. Stella acts as the antithesis of Stanley and Blanche’s extreme personalities. She is innocence and purity where they are the darkness that threatens to overtake her life. Throughout, Stella is a pawn that they both try to use against the other to no real avail as she is determined to make the best choice for herself. In th...
The first character we meet is Ruth Younger. Ruth is a hardworking mother who has had a thought life up until this point. The Writer opens up describing her by saying that “she was a pretty girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that life has been little that she expected, and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face.” (Pg. 1472) This description bears a strong resemblance to the line in Harlem, “Does it dry up, like a raison in the sun?” (Line 2) We immediately are thrown into the madness of her life. She wants desperately to have a happy family and is in constant disagreement with her husband’s ideas. We see how her living arrangements have made her believe that there will never be anything better in this world for her. The saddest part is that she believes that bringing another child into this sad existence is something she cannot do. When she makes the decision to visit the abortion doctor, it immediately brought me to the final line in the poem where Hughes states “Or does it explode?” (Line 11) There had to be an explosion of desperation for a w...
Warren Farrell is a well educated man who focuses his attention on gender. In his essay “Men as Success Objects,” he writes about gender roles in male-female relationships. He begins, “for thousands of years, marriages were about economic security and survival” (Farrell 185). The key word in that statement is were. This implies the fact that marriage has changed in the last century. He relates the fact that post 1950s, marriage was more about what the male and female were getting out of the relationship rather than just the security of being married. Divorce rates grew and added to the tension of which gender held the supremacy and which role the individuals were supposed to accept. “Inequality in the workplace” covered up all of the conflicts involved with the “inequality in the homeplace”(Farrell). Farrell brings to attention all ...
Through her three marriages, the death of her one true love, and proving her innocence in Tea Cake’s death, Janie learns to look within herself to find her hidden voice. Growing as a person from the many obstacles she has overcome during her forty years of life, Janie finally speaks her thoughts, feelings and opinions. From this, she finds what she has been searching for her whole life, happiness.
Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, explains the mind set of society in the 1960s. She writes that the women of the ‘60s were identified only as creatures looking for “sex, babies, and home” (Friedan 36). She goes on to say “The only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman [was] permitted [was] the pursuit of a man” (Friedan 36). This mind set, this “feminine mystique,” is clearly shown throughout the show Mad Men. The side effect of the feminine mystique hurt all the women of this time. Matthew Weiner shows how this conception of the “ideal woman” hurt all of his lead women. The consequences are shown in the two women who bought into the idea, Betty and Joan, and the one who re...
The antebellum period brought about many changes in American society. One of those changes was the manner in which American households were organized. Robert Max Jackson argues in his account on gender inequality that up to the 1820s a patriarchal ideology predominated the American household giving fathers absolute authority; they would rule their homes as “communal enterprises” in which husband and wife worked together in order to earn a living. However, from the 1820s onwards the economy rapidly expanded as a consequence of the industrial revolution and many men started to work away from home in industrial and commercial firms, leaving their wives at home to carry out the domestic duties. As a result of this “separation of spheres”, these wives, who no longer were under the constant observation and influence of their husbands, gained the new identity of a “true woman” in which they were supposed to “spent their time raising their children and managing their household” (Jackson 199). As Barbara Welter points out, a “Cult of True Womanhood” arose among the middle classes in which “true women” were to hold “the four cardinal virtues of piety, purity, submission and domesticity” (152). This ideology of domesticity, as opposed to the patriarchal ideology, prescribed women’s conduct throughout the nineteenth century.
The book was influenced by a questionnaire of two-hundred women at her college who seemed more fulfilled than those who did conform to the “role of women.” She was motivated to tell others that there was a diagnoses to the “problem with no name.” Friedan fought for and accomplished other issues including equal pay, equal job opportunities, and equal roles as parents. Many women at this time “felt impossibly trapped in their bodies and unfulfilled by their expected roles.” She claims “we can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: ‘I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.” Her ideas in her book were speaking to a percentage of the women in society; however, there were certainly women who were content to raise their children, be married, and be housewives. “Women who had once wanted careers were now making careers out of babies,” but not every women felt that way. Friedan targeted the middle-aged educated women while Pankhurst was fighting for the quality of all women, despite age, race, or