Feminist Elements Essays

  • Gothic and Feminist Elements of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gothic and Feminist Elements of The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been interpreted in many ways over the years. Modernist critics have applied depth psychology to the story and written about the symbolism of sexual repression in the nursery bars, the chained-down bed, and the wallpaper. Genre critics have discussed the story as an example of supernatural gothic fiction, in which a ghost actually haunts the narrator. But most importantly, feminist critics

  • Analysis Of Feminist Elements In Torru Dutt Writings

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    The present paper deals with “Feminist Elements in Toru Dutt Writings” She placed her country, and was among the first to do so, on the international map of letters. She, nevertheless, was not slow to realize that her own oriental background of literature was so precious that she would have to commingle it with her earlier abundant knowledge of French and English. She soon began to educate herself, with her father’s help, in Sanskrit. It is to observe that the first generation of women writers like

  • Misguided Feminist Reaction to A Streetcar Named Desire

    2020 Words  | 5 Pages

    Misguided Feminist Reaction to A Streetcar Named Desire The dramatic climax of A Streetcar Named Desire, clearly illustrates the mastery of author Tennessee Williams. The brilliantly constructed text, with its tragic story and enticing characters, propels the reader to a point in which he becomes emotionally involved in the dynamics of Williams’ world. Unfortunately, many feminists are negatively affected by Williams’ captivating writing style. In turn, feminists have developed an array of very

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream - The Feminist Subtext

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Feminist Subtext of A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's works have persistently influenced humanity for the past four hundred years. Quotations from his plays are used in many other works of literature and some common phrases have even become integrated into the English language. Most high schoolers have been unsuccessful in avoidance of him and college students are rarely afforded the luxury of choice when it comes to studying the bard. Many aspects of Shakespeare's works have been

  • Sex and Gender

    2188 Words  | 5 Pages

    differences between the sexes" (Microsoft Bookshelf). In her statement we see a cultural feminist response to the dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s. Liberal feminism de-emphasized gender differences, claiming that women were the equals of men and that this would be obvious if only they were offered the same opportunities as men with no special privileges necessary. On the other hand, cultural feminists such as Stassinopoulos claimed that women's unique perspective and talents must be valued

  • Feminism in Sor Juana

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Trambley’s play Sor Juana the main character Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was considered to be one of the earliest feminists. Sor Juana’s eternal struggles to study and unshakable craving for knowledge and wisdom, from whatever source it may be, support this attribute. In my opinion however, there are also significant elements of the play that suggest that Sor Juana would not be considered a true feminist. Of these reasons, there are three major ones that I will analyze. The first reason is that Sor Juana gave

  • Comparing Feminist Poetry by Plath and Sexton

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Comparing Feminist Poetry by Plath and Sexton Poetry "should be a shock to the senses. It should also hurt" Anne Sexton believed (Baym 2703), and evidence of this maxim's implications echoes loudly through the writing of Sexton as well as through the work of her friend and contemporary Sylvia Plath. Plath and Sexton's lifetimes spanned a period of remarkable change in the social role of women in America, and both are obviously feminist poets caught somewhere between the submissive pasts of

  • Feminist Refutation Of The Deconstruction Of The True Confessions

    1582 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Feminist Refutation of the Deconstruction of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle   As Captain Jaggery’s ostensibly moral imperative from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle implores, we the readers “protect the natural order of the world” through our disbelief in our heroine as reflected in our intuitive reflection upon and deconstructionalist critique of the book.    In fact, it is likely that our disbelief of Charlotte’s story is as much a comment on our attitudes towards

  • A Feminist Journey through Beethoven's Musical Structure

    3005 Words  | 7 Pages

    A Feminist Journey through Beethoven's Musical Structure Traditional analysis of Beethoven's use of Sonata Allegro form tends to focus on harmonic or melodic movement and key relationships. This study stretches such investigations to include questions of historical context and philosophic motivations that drive a composer to structure music in a certain way. Ultimately this leads to an inquiry about how these traditions affect us as listeners, and more specifically how they relate to gender

  • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Anti-Feminist Beliefs in Miller's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anti-Feminist Beliefs in The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale feature two characters that, though they may appear to be different, are actually very similar. They both seem to confirm the anti-feminine beliefs that existed at the time Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales. However, they go about it in different ways. Alison, the woman in The Miller's Tale, tries to hide the fact that she has a passion for men other than her husband, and keep

  • Feminist Theory - There is No One Definition of Woman

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feminist Theory - There is No One Definition of Woman When posed with the question “What is woman?” it seems a daunting task to lay an umbrella statement to describe an entire gender. Upon further reflection, however, it seems that this overwhelming inability to answer the question, may in fact, be the answer to the question itself. Within the past two decades Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, Caroline Whitbeck, Geraldine Finn, and Helene Cixous have addressed the meaning of woman. There

  • Hellen Nellie Mcclung: A Canadian Feminist

    1507 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hellen Nellie McClung: A Canadian Feminist Helen "Nellie" Laetitia Mooney was born October 20, 1873 in a log cabin on Garafraxa Road, two kilometers from Chatsworth, Ontario. She and her family moved to Manitoba when she was six years old. One of Nellie's best influences was her mother. Her family's influence was no doubt the reason she became an activist. Her mother thought that every child had the right to an education, and her whole family encouraged her to learn all she could. (9, Wright) Nellie

  • The Feminist Movement and Adrienne Rich's Power

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Feminist Movement and Adrienne Rich's Power "Power," which was written in 1978 by Adrienne Rich, parallels the Feminist Movement that went into full swing roughly ten years earlier. The poem asks that we revise the traditions regarding the roles of women and relates it to Marie Curie, a famous scientist who preceded the Feminist Movement by about 100 years. The bottle and earth described in the first six lines parallel the struggle for women's rights and those who were refusing to accept

  • The Political, Feminist, and Religious view of Frances E.W. Harper, Phllis Wheatley, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson

    2655 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Political, Feminist, and Religious view of Frances E.W. Harper, Phllis Wheatley, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson Phillis Wheatley, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Francis E. W. Harper were all groundbreaking and poignant authors whose works have remained influential throughout time. Feminism, politics, and religion are three aspects evident in their personal lives an d literature. Wheatley was considered a feminist icon because she was the first published African American female poet. However, her writing

  • MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE: forgotten feminist

    2544 Words  | 6 Pages

    MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE: forgotten feminist Introduced by Susan B. Anthony at the International Council of Women in 1888, Matilda Josyln Gage began her speech with a brief sketch of her early entry into the suffrage movement: I have frequently been asked what first turned by thoughts towards woman's rights. I think I was born with a hatred of oppression, and, too, in my father's house, I was trained in the anti-slavery ranks, for it was one of the stations on the underground railway, and a home of

  • Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar - Feminist Thought

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bell Jar  - Feminist Thought The Bell Jar   This autobiographical novel by Sylvia Plath follows the story of Esther Greenwood, a third year college student who spends her summer at a lady's fashion magazine in Manhattan. But despite her high expectations, Esther becomes bored with her work and uncertain about her own future. She even grows estranged from her traditional-minded boyfriend, Buddy Willard, a medical student later diagnosed with TB. Upon returning to her hometown New England suburb

  • Creative Writing in the Composition Classroom

    3568 Words  | 8 Pages

    ìMuddying Boundaries: Mixing Genres with Five Paragraphs.î English Journal 90 (Sept. 2000): 53-56. Elbow, Peter.Everyone Can Write.Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Univ. P, 2000. Flynn, Elizabeth.ìStrategic, Counter-Strategic, and Reactive Resistance in the Feminist Classroom.îInsurrections: Approaches to Resistance in Composition Studies. Ed. Andrea Greenbaum.Albany, NY: SUNY P, 2001. Fox, Dana L. and Cathy Fleischer.ìBeginning Words: Teaching and Writing Across Traditional Boundaries in English Education

  • Bell Hooks' Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black

    4086 Words  | 9 Pages

    In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices: Another important issue for me has been that each student participates in classroom discussion, that each student has a voice.This is a practice I think is important not because every student has something

  • Lady Mary Wroth as Proto-Feminist

    3171 Words  | 7 Pages

    Lady Mary Wroth as Proto-Feminist Lady Mary Wroth is one of very few canonized woman poets in the 17th century canon (Strickland lect. Oct 11 94.). This fact alone lends a type of importance to Wroth that sets her off from her male contemporaries. Wroth wrote poems at about the same time that Robert Herrick, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, and Sir Philip Sidney (to name a few) wrote their courtly lyrics. Wroth wasn't the only woman writer from the time, instead, she was simply one of very few that

  • Disney’s Pocahontas: Selling Lies as the Truth

    3001 Words  | 7 Pages

    filled with blatant falsities. The producers, who claimed to eradicate politically incorrect statements found in past films with the highly anticipated 1995 Pocahontas, found themselves at the center of criticisms from many vocal activist groups. Feminists, Native Americans, and religiously based Christian groups found the movie to completely overlook the true essence and spirit of the Powhatan Indian princess. In an attempt to curb many of its criticisms and appease angry minorities, Disney produced