The Characters in The Young Housewife, Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady, and Caddy Compson in The Sound and the Fury

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The Role of Women Reflected in Literature During the Early 20th

Century

At the turn of the 20th century America was going through many

changes. This time in America was known as the Progressive Era.

Economic growth and social reform prompted the roles of many people to

change. The roles of Americans also changed due to two significant

events in history. These events were World War I, and the women’s

suffrage movement that started before the Progressive Era and

culminated on August 26, 1920 with the 19th Amendment, the woman’s

right to vote. The Great War opened the door for women to get jobs

that only men had done before. The existing feminine role in society

was clearly changing. The “flapper” was born and women had freedoms

and expectations they had never been able to experience in the past.

The writers and authors of the day saw this occurring change and

documented it by putting their characters in these new roles for women

in society. The characters of the young housewife in the poem “The

Young Housewife”, Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady, and Caddy Compson

in The Sound and the Fury depict a few of these new roles for women.

Each one of the three characters represents a new and different role

that women in the early 20th century confronted.

The young housewife in “The Young Housewife” seems to live a life that

does not allow her to change with the times. Her life reflects the

way things once were, but her actions suggest that she may be aroused

and intrigued by the thought of freedom. She is shown in the role of

the new woman trapped in past by marital or social constraints. The

woman in fact may live a great life but she lives under, what seems to

be, the confinement of her husband and her marriage. “Behind the

wooden walls of her husband’s house,” is the way her solitary days are

described. The emphasis on the house being his property shows that he

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