Main Female Characters Essays

  • Compare and contrast the main female characters in The Withered Arm

    2233 Words  | 5 Pages

    Compare and contrast the main female characters in The Withered Arm and Turned. You should also refer to the position of women at the times these stories were written. The position of women has changed greatly over time, but women were, and still are seen as the weaker more inferior sex. ‘The Withered Arm’ was written in the 19th century by Thomas Hardy, and the story is set in the English countryside. The story reflects the different attitudes expressed against women in the biased society

  • Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure

    2174 Words  | 5 Pages

    Compromising Female Characters in Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure The novels of Thomas Hardy are intricate and complicated works whose plots seem to be completely planned before the first word is ever actually formed on paper. Though I have no proof of Hardy’s method of writing, it is clear that he focuses more on plot development than characterization in the novels Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The advantages

  • Comparing Female Identity in To The Lighthouse, Heat of the Day and Under the Net

    3211 Words  | 7 Pages

    Female Identity in Virginia Woolf’s, To The Lighthouse, Elizabeth Bowen’s, Heat of the Day and Iris Murdoch’s, Under the Net After reading Virginia Woolf’s, “To The Lighthouse”, readers are left with the disturbing reality of the role of a woman during this time period.  The characters of Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe portray these demeaning roles.   However, instead of completely giving in to the domination of men, they are starting the woman’s movement of resistance in the period of the beginning

  • Comparing Relationships in Susan Glaspell's Trifles and Cherrie Moraga's Giving Up the Ghost

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    Female Relationships in Susan Glaspell's Trifles and Cherrie Moraga's Giving Up the Ghost The plays Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, and Giving Up the Ghost, by Cherrie Moraga, focus on women's interaction in various contexts. Despite the seventy-eight years between their performance dates and the drastic difference in settings and narrative content, the main female characters are comparable, as Mrs. Hale, in Trifles, points out, "We all go through the same things -- it's just a different kind of

  • Woman’s Search for Identity in Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    Woman’s Search for Identity in Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee and Their Eyes Were Watching God. The main female characters of Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Seraph on the Suwanee, move from oppression to liberation throughout the course of the novel. Their journey to find their own “niche” in life occurs via their relationships with men. For Janie, her relationships with dominant male figures stifle her identity as well as her ability to achieve self-actualization. For Arvay Meserve, her

  • Romeo and Juliet versus West Side Story

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    Juliet, Maria, and Thisbe one could see that the characters were from different periods. The Hispanic name Maria symbolizes the great influx of Puerto Rican immigrants into NYC. Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are more closely related, because of the conflict between these two plays is between the two true families. Whereas in West Side Story the two main lovers Tony and Maria there only known families are their gang families. Main Male Characters: Tony, Romeo and Pyramus all die in the end

  • Is Bridget jones nothing more than Pride and Prejudice in modern dress?

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    between the two yet they are set in different eras. Despite this, the young women in both texts have to deal with family and people in their social circles pressurising them to meet the ideal man or love interest. Each story revolves around the main female characters, Bridget Jones and Elizabeth Bennet. In pride prejudice, the financial status of the women was more of an issue when it came to finding an ideal partner, than it was in Bridget Jones’ Diary. The Bennets were not very financially secure, so

  • Evolution of the Modern Woman in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    the evolution of the modern woman. The two main female characters in the novel, Mrs Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, both represent different views on life and follow different paths on their search for meaning. Lily Briscoe transcends the traditional female gender roles embodied by Mrs Ramsay; by coming into her own as an independent and modern woman, she symbolises the advent of modernism and rejection of traditional Victorian values. The traditional female gender roles of passivity and submission are

  • The Perfect Couple in Woman in White

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    romantic plot. The reader is left to wonder which characters are well suited for each other. We are given the choices of the gentlemanly Walter and the feminine Laura or Laura and the deceitful Sir Percival. It seems to this reader that the author gave us the answer to the puzzling perfect couple question; only, the perfect couple is really a perfect trio- Walter, Laura, and Marian. Walter did not have to make a choice between the two main female characters because they made it for him. It is obvious that

  • Free Essays on A Doll's House: Money Matters

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    years old his family went bankrupt, and they lost their status in society. Ibsen knew how the issue of money could destroy a person’s reputation in no time at all. Perhaps that is how he makes the characters in his play, A Doll's House , so believable. Nora and Mrs. Linde, the two main female characters in the play, have had the issues of money and forgery ruin their lives. Nora forged her dead father’s signature to get a loan. The play revolves around her struggle with her fear of being found out

  • Differences between Beatrice and Hero in Much Ado about Nothing

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    Differences between Beatrice and Hero in the early scenes of Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ has two main female characters, Beatrice and Hero, who are cousins. Both appear to be completely different in the beginning of the play but, as things progress and their characters develop, there are also some very obvious similarities between them. Hero and Beatrice have a very close relationship; they are best friends. Leonato is Hero’s father but

  • The Treatment of Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Treatment of Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula In reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, I find the treatment of the two main female characters-- Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker-- especially intriguing. These two women are two opposite archetypes created by a society of threatened men trying to protect themselves. Lucy is the Medusa archetype. She is physically attractive, and wins the heart of any man who comes near her (e.g. Arthur, Quincey, Jack, and Van Helsing). Her chief quality is sensual beauty

  • Essay Contrasing Gertrude and Ophelia of Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1803 Words  | 4 Pages

    Contrast of Gertrude and Ophelia in Hamlet Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, the main female characters in Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy Hamlet, have a variety of contrasting or dissimilar personal qualities and experiences. This essay, with the help of literary critics, will explore these differences. John Dover Wilson in his book, What Happens in Hamlet, discusses what is perhaps the greatest dissimilarity between Ophelia and Gertrude – their morality: His [Hamlet’s] mother is a criminal

  • Free Handmaid's Tale Essays: The Struggle of Women

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    birth to the offspring of their Commander, whose wife is infertile. The main character in the book is Offred, one of these unfortunate servants whose only right to exist depends on her ovaries’ productivity. She lives with the Commander and his wife in a highly supervised centre. Unlike men, women have been facing unique problems for centuries, and often women experience harassment and discrimination. In today's society, females are trying to combat their tribulations through lawsuits and protest rallies

  • Comparing the Escape Theme in Raise the Red Lantern, Handmaid's Tale, and Doll's House

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    system.  Three important literary works illustrate that it has not always been possible for women to strike back. In Raise the Red Lantern, The Handmaid's Tale, and A Doll's House, the main female characters find ways to escape their situations rather than directly confronting the problem. Songlian, the main character in the foreign film Raise the Red Lantern, finds unusual ways of dealing with her oppression. For example, Songlian often takes her stress out on her maid, Yan'er. Whenever Songlian feels

  • A Feminist Reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    the women characters seem to have little substance compared to the male characters. This may have been caused by the time period in which she wrote: one in which females were considered inferior to males. This difference between the sexes can be looked at using a variety of different perspectives. Johanna M. Smith, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, discusses this issue using feminist eyes in her essay entitled "'Cooped up': Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein." The main points in

  • The Portrayal of Female Athletes Athletes in Film

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Portrayal of Female Athletes in Film Images of women in sport, and the cultural ideals of women have moved somewhat synchronously through time. As notions of women's roles and perceptions of women change, so too did the portrayal of female athletes, and the acceptance of female athleticism into cultural norms. Likewise, as women began breaking the gender barriers in sport, the perceptions of women's roles changed and the change in portrayal and perception, led to increased acceptance of

  • Anime

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    situations. This cinematic genre is a fast growing trend in the west and can now possibly be considered the most popular phenomenon among children, considering the success of the much-in-demand anime series "Pokémon". Anime art is known for it's characters' big round eyes, abnormal shaped hair, and it's unique exaggeration of physical reality. Since anime is basically movies translated into animation, it contains as many subgenres as there are actual genres. However, the majority of anime contains

  • Women and Maturity in Eschenbach's Parzival

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    becomes abundantly clear that the main characters, Parzival and Gawan, must attain some level of maturity or growth before they will be able to persevere in their personal quests. While their paths to maturity involve a great deal of combat and contests of knightly skill, it is their encounters with noble women that truly redefine their characters. Parzival is undeniably a romance. It contains all the typical components of an early romance: extravagant characters, remote and exotic places, highly

  • The Negative Portrayal of Mothers in Disney Films

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    figure that everyone boasts about. Let us start with the films where the main character fails to have a mother mentioned or seen at all. In the classic movie Aladdin, neither Aladdin nor Princess Jasmine had a motherly figure. However, Aladdin did have the Genie, who was male, and Jasmine had her father, who was also male. Beauty and the Beast is another Disney film where there is a male figure, and yet again, the loss of a female role model. Belle is raised by only her father, and there is no word about