The New Woman

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What is a New Woman and what did it mean during the Victorian period for a woman to consider herself as one? The New Woman during the Victorian age is described in “Manliness and masculinities” as being asserted and rejecting protection from man and refusing to live her life according to patriarchal rules. (Tosh 118) Sue appears to fit in with the description of the new women; she in actuality does not have all the qualities of one. She has education, and works for her own living but depended on Phillotson and Jude instead of being independent and solving her problems by herself she runs to either men looking for comfort.
When she attempts to be express herself as independent and in control of her life she act the way that most women were supposed to act according to society. Society says that they are supposed to be impulsive and emotional, that was how Sue was when she did not obey authority. Hardy demonstrates Sue’s attempts to be the new type of woman and fails to be perceived as one after she buys two nude figures; right after she bought the nude figures she thought they were treasures, but soon begins to wish she had not bought the figures for they seemed “very large and so very naked” and starts to shake and grow very nervous after buying them. (Hardy 92-93) She becomes nervous because she focuses on what the authority in her household will say about the sculptures, when she should not be worried about the opinions of those around her. Though, Jude does portray her as being the new woman a she wanted to be.
Jude once described her as, “believing that she was [you are] as innocent as she was [you are] unconventional. (Hardy 145) She seems to have a different view on certain aspects of life, compared to other woman becaus...

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...s controlled by society and her husband, even though she does make the decision herself she is giving the man the authority and responsibility over herself and her actions.

Works Cited

Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. New York: New American Library, 2009.Print
Milgram, Stanley. “The Perils of Obedience.” The New Millenium Reader. 4th ed. Ed. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005: 653-663. Print.
Pinker, Steven. “The Moral Instinct.” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. Ed. Nancy Peterson, et al. New York: W.W.Norton, 2012: 321-328. Print.
Tosh. John. Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth-Century Britain. London: Pearson
Longman, 2005. Print.
Wheelwright, Phillip. "The Meaning of Ethics." The New Millennium Reader. 4th ed. Ed Stuart
Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005: 629-633. Print.

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