First Main Point: Women who violate the norms and values of the religious society of Deptford are judged harshly and are subjected to cruel punishment.
Sub-point 1: The narrow minded views of the townspeople make them quick to judge women who are “different” .
Mary Dempster is an excellent example of someone who is different and does not embody the values of Deptford society. She is the young, light-hearted wife of the Baptist preacher. She is considered to be somewhat simple-minded and unsuitable as a minister’s wife because she lacks interest and aptitude for housekeeping and cooking and laughs like a girl at her own failures when she tries do such things. Also, her generous nature makes her incapable of living within her husband’s income. Instead of being thrifty, she is more interested in giving things away. On one occasion, she gives away an ornamental vase that the Church had provided as part of the furnishings of their house. This action causes a big uproar because the villagers view this as stealing from her husband’s Church. Mary Dempster’s kindness and generosity of spirit are definitely viewed by them as major character flaws.
Also, as noted by the Bookrags study guide, Mary’s refusal to take her husband’s fears and securities seriously and her positive attidude and faith that life will work out for the best are not looked upon favourably by the villagers. They believe she is too simple and silly to understand her husband’s fears.
When breast-feeding her infant, Mary is not concerned about covering up. Thus she is viewed as having no sense, and “opinion grew that [she] was simple.” (p. 27)
Sub-point 2: Women who violate the moral law are ostracized and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
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...expand, he realizes that marrying the prettiest girl in town is not such a valuable trophy after all. Although Leola has beauty, she lacks the social graces necessary for her to be the wife of the prominent man like Boy Staunton. Despite his efforts to improve her by making her take tennis lessons, play bridge, reform her speech and grammar, she is not able to live up to the expectations. Boy develops a high standard for her because he treats her like an object: “his idea of a wife for himself would have had the beauty and demeanour of Lady Diana Manners coupled with the wit of Margot Asquith” (p. 154).
Leola’s complete devotion to Boy combines with her weak character to make her ineffective in dealing with Boy’s domination of her. When Boy sees that she cannot ever be what he wants her to be, he neglects her and is unfaithful.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, most of the female character are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited. Mary Shelly repeatedly shows women in a victimized position exhibiting to the audience how things should not be. In conclusion, Mary Shelly’s novel is a reflection of how women were treated in the 1800’s.
The author’s development of Dunstan as a protagonist is useful in pushing the plot forward. “After a few weeks during which I was miserable because of the village talk, I sneaked over there on day and peeped in the window” (46) Although the town frowned upon Mary Dempster after her incident at the gravel pit, Dunstan continues to visit Mary, sharing the latest gossip of the town, because she is not allowed the daily newspaper. Dunstan is a very modest character, “Where Boy lived high, I lived – well, not low, but on in the way congenial to myself.” (111), he is happy with the bare necessities in life and asks for nothing more.
Mary is shown as the leader of the pack , and the matriarch of the family. Mary’s personality was confident , charisamiatic and compassionate. The members’ of Jesus’ family didn’t completely understand his position in the family. Mark showed that Jesus reset the limitations of family involvement. He displayed how Jesus was trying to get his teachings to more and more individuals. He accepted several individuals into his ‘family’ . Mark was indiciating that members of communities need to operate as tight knit families , and work with eachother instead of against. Women were clearly a part of the new version of famiy that Jesus proposed.
Imagine Kirsty and Marc, a young couple who resort to robbing a house in a desperate attempt to make money. They are caught, charged with the same crime and given the same sentence, except for one thing: the male dominant world we live in does not stop at the courtroom door. Marc is sent to a medium security prison one hour from his family with every opportunity to earn his way into a minimum-security facility. He spends his days learning to cook in the kitchenette and has access to basic necessities like aftershave or hairspray. Meanwhile, Kirsty walks into her frigid six-by-ten foot cell with bars for a door, a toilet in plain view and not a trace of sunlight. She is twelve hours from home with no hope of changing location since there is nowhere else to go. The stories of rapes, beatings and riots told by her new neighbours are endless. Kirsty realizes that the only way for her to survive this place is to oppose nature and forget what it is to feel. This is discrimination against women as they are penalized more severely than men for committing less crime. How can women strive for equality when they cannot attain justice in the justice system itself? The controversy over the gender bias goes beyond the "too-few-to-count" syndrome as Sally Armstrong calls it, it is a question of women's constitutional right to be treated equally.
The biggest irony of this book is not that the women described here fail, or remain at the bottom--sex discrimination within societal structure has already been doing that since the beginning of time. The most
Arthur Dimmesdale presented himself as an uncorrupted man by his social status. Inside he felt unworthy and corrupt form the sin he has committed. The town’s people looked up to Dimmesdale as a man who could commit no grand sin. “People say that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very seriously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.” (48). Little did they know that the scandal that Dimmesdale took to hear was the fornication that happened between Dimmesdale and adulteress Hester Prynne. His sinful ways was affecting his health greatly. “Some declared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough, that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet.” (106). The town’s people respected him so much so that they figured it was the world that is corrupt and not Dimmesdale.
From gender delegations, gender discrimination, and gender shaming the world is messed up place. From Scout, to the Flappers, to Leelah Alcorn nobody seemed to show any remorse towards the discrimination of any of them. Whether its society, the friends, or even the parents everyone seems to follows society’s gender guidelines and they beat up on who doesn’t no matter who they are, even if it drives them to the point of suicide. When society admits a gender rule everyone is pushed to follow this guideline and if they don’t well, from what it seems like they should just kill themselves unless they change. Similar to Scout, she was perfectly fine dressing like a boy, acting like a boy, and playing with boys until her Aunt installed these insecurities in her head to make her change her views and essentially herself. Society seems to always get it’s
For centuries women who have entered the justice system have been oppressed, because the system was and still is a system designed by a patriarchal society and implemented primarily to control wayward males. The witch hunts in 17th century New England, is the first of many examples in which society exerted control over women by labeling them 'witches,' yet leaving the men alone. The primary determinant of who was designated a witch was gender, in fact eighty percent of all those killed were women. Of those women, females who were spinsters or widows, rather than wives or mothers "were represented disproportionately among the witches." In the 1800's, imprisoned women suffered the same terrible...
“The only Mary story we talked about was the wedding story-the time she persuaded her son, practically against his will, to manufacture wine in the kitchen out of plain water.”
Mary Wilkins wrote her short story, “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” which mainly focused on a woman to stand up against an authoritarian husband. She wrote it during the time when woman had no voice and counted as a second citizen if not a slave. The writer realized that speaking out is the only chain breaker, especially for the character of Sara Penn to free herself and others from the cage in it since she was seen not as better than as the cow Mr. Adoniram had. He built a new bunny for his animals while his wife stayed in an old, wall-paper tear, and a roof issue home. More than that, she waited for about 40 years to have a new house expecting him to build her. However, instead of keeping his word, he built a bunny to his animals while his wife
...en she goes home to her family and friends, her attitude toward Indians in general changes greatly. At first, living with Indians is the most appalling thought that she could ever have. Over time, she realizes that she must somewhat befriend them in order to survive adequately. In the end, she even appreciates the Indians, and the experiences she has had with them. Her captivity also brings her closer to God, because during every hardship, she turns to her faith to help her through it. Her time with the Indians also gave her the affliction that she had always hoped for. Mary lived in prosperity before, and had too many comforts of the world around her. The journeys with the Indians give her a kind of reality check, because she sees that not everyone lives in prosperity as she did. The biggest lesson that she learns is to “look beyond present and smaller troubles, and be quieted under them, as Moses said, Exodus.xiv.13, Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”
Mary Rowlandson was a pretentious, bold and pious character. Her narrative did not make me feel sorry for her at all, which is strange since she really did go through a lot. During the war, the Narragansett Indians attacked Lancaster Massachusetts, and burned and pillaged the whole village. During the siege Mary and her six year old child were shot, she watched her sister and most of her village either burn or get shot. She was kept as a captive, along with her three children and taken with the Narragansett’s on their long retreat. The exposition of the story is set immediately. The reader is perfectly aware of Missus Rowlandson’s status and religious beliefs. She constantly refers to the Narragansetts in an incredibly condescending way, to the point that you know that she does not even consider them human. She paints them as purely evil pe...
Mary’s mother, Betty, was a poor example of what a mother should be. A prostitute by profession often abandoned Mary to perform sex acts. Unfortunately, Mary was not always abandoned and was brought into the sex acts, abused sexually, and used as a prop for Betty’s customers. Mary reported that she was forced to perform sex acts starting at the age of five at the bequest of her mother. Mary’ mother was physically abusive to her, reportedly choking her and attempting to kill her on multiple occasions. Even as a baby, Mary was not nurtured by Betty, treating her as an object rather than a child. Actually, Betty attempted to give Mary up for adoption, which was thwarted by Betty’s sister.
The area Mary struggled the most in was the comprehension of the stories. She could read the stories fairly easily, but when she had to answer questions about the content, she struggled to understand the connection to the story. When Mary would sound out words, that she was spelling, she would strugg...
The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.