Jane Eyre Symbolism Essay

In Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, abuses of power are used to both challenge and uphold gender roles in a destructive way. The ghost of Beloved in Beloved uses her supernatural abilities to sexually exploit and emasculate Paul D. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commander abuses his societal standing to simultaneously take away power from and give power to Offred. The characters in each novel abuse their power to regain their own dignity and sense of self, both believing their actions are helpful rather than degrading. Morrison and Atwood create hierarchical abuses of power to expose the weight of gender roles in times of conflict and to reveal how society shapes identity and identity shapes actions, which therefore upholds unfair and unbalanced power structures. Morrison’s use of Beloved’s relationship with Paul D. in Beloved reveals a small portion of how racism and slavery can create so much pain that gender roles are challenged in a harmful way, creating a loss of identity.

Hegel’s master-slave is a reflection of social relations and the terms of the ‘unambitious nurse’ and the ‘great actress’ are bandied about, but this does not seem to be the emphasis of the movie. Persona psychologises the master-slave dialectic, showing both the slave and the master by turns as dependent and uneasy. There is even a physical scuffle that is a pretend fight-to-the-death. Sartre too talks about the master-slave in psychological terms. Popularised by the phrase ‘hell is the other person’ from No Exit, Sartre claims that dyadic relationships are designed for one to overpower the other, since its structure is that of two ‘freedoms’ trying to retain their autonomy.

In the novel, Miami Blues, Charles Willeford highlights Susan’s role in relationships to demonstrate the changing perceptions of her and the necessity to judge her purely based on one’s personal ideology. Willeford seems to be deliberately obscuring the strength of Susan’s character using the way she is introduced as a prostitute, her relationships with Junior and her brother, and her ultimate desertion of Junior. In this paper, I will argue that the ways in which Willeford presents Susan are purposefully inconsistent in order to stress the power of perception and opinion in regard to how one might weigh her influence as a major character and as a woman. This discussion will illustrate the value Willeford places on personal ideology in assessing

Therefore, Kaysen is critiquing mental institutions by highlighting the cruelty of mental illness, although she did display some symptoms of borderline personality disorder this was not recurrent. The question here is whether Kaysen deserved to be diagnosed in the first place remains unanswered. Hence, writing is a form of resistance for her as she documents her life in this universe and how It is a form of therapy to help her come to terms with her diagnosis which is something she keeps coming back to in the novel. Juliet Mitchell argues “feminism in initiating a system of thought…asserts…that there is a contradiction in the social relations between men and women”(Mitchell, 1984:79). As her book was published in 1966 it relates to some of the issues that Kaysen is highlighting in her novel.

Thus Lily develops a ‘double consciousness or masquerade that permits her to be aware of the main culture even though she is a marginalized character.When LIly places so much importance and preoccupation on maintaining a public persona or social mask, the mask starts to gains too much power. In his article “Disowning ‘Personality’: Privacy and Subjectivity in The House of Mirth” William E. Moddelmog argues: The “real Lily” for whom [Lily] searches turns out to be plural rather than singular. While burning the letters Lily at the moment imagines herself possessing two selves, a fact that complicates her ‘passionate desire to be understood’ and her desire that Selden ‘see her wholly.’ (Moddelmog 353). Lily tries to create a prominent, satisfying place for herself in society through commodification such as masking a social performance. She conflicted between feelings of “consumerist elation” and a desire to break free from the restraints of her society.

Arthur Conan Doyle 's short story The Adventures of the Speckled Band introduces a seemingly straightforward and traditional depiction of its treatment of gender by having a female victim and a male villain. In other words, the woman in the story, Helen Stoner, is a relatively young and vulnerable person who is in a inferior position to the man in question. In addition, Dr. Roylott 's lack of character development creates a character who 's main characteristics are lust for violence and greed for money. By the end of the story the vulnerable woman is saved from Dr. Roylott. Furthermore, this general gender divide in the story is further emphasised by having Stoner 's sister to be the first victim of Dr. Roylott.

Extracurricular Reading II Much Ado About Nothing analyzes how traditional gender roles shape behavior and actions in society. Many of the characters in the play, such as Benedick and Beatrice, actively attempt to defy the expectations placed upon them by virtue of their sex, while others nearly perfectly match the stereotypes- Hero and Claudio being prime examples. Benedick and Beatrice represent defiance of the norm- Beatrice repeatedly claims that she will avoid marriage at all costs, and Benedick doesn’t seem any more likely to place himself in a position to be cuckolded. The two of them engage in several bouts of cleverly written banter, each blow professing the gospel of celibacy. In this, if nothing else, they are in agreement- Benedick

The societal norm is that prisoners are not deserving of human courtesies. In fact, I would suggest that the bed being nailed down represents the denial of her sexuality and sensuality. Paula Treichler contributes to the notion of the nailed down bedstead as a form of imprisonment saying, “In “The Yellow Wallpaper” we see consequences of the “death sentence.” Woman is represented as childlike and dysfunctional. Her complaints are wholly circular, merely confirming the already spoken patriarchal diagnosis.” (71) Susan Lanser also touches on the point that instead of the bedstead symbolizing the narrator’s sexuality it is oppressing her sexuality. She writes, “In the contemporary feminist reading, on the other hand, sexual oppression is evident from the start: the

The argument for both text is gender discrimination and feminism because they both believe that women are not equal to men just because they are women. Both texts have the same argument, but tell it in different ways. Woolf’s story and Pollitt’s story have the same argument, but use different devices to make their argument clear. The two text don’t have similar

For instance, it is one of the only tales that revolves around men. There is mentioning of women, but as Kruger explains it, "... women are evoked only to be excluded" (129). The absence of women suggests infertility, and thus, projects literary barrenness. Moreover, Kruger believes that the relationship between the three men is a parody of the sworn brotherhood and heterosexual love triangles found in the Knight's Tale, which also disturbs the heterosexual model of writing. Chaucer, with this tale, intended to show the dangers of the attachment to the physical and the disregard for spiritual, allegorical interpretation.

In conclusion, MacDonald tends to illustrate these ambiguous and complicated scenes that are misinterpreted if not looked at carefully and in detail. Gender representations in the story help to provide readers with a better understanding of the differences between what is false and what is real, where James’ hints at patriarchy and male superiority capture his true identity, as a sexually dominating figure over women. Frances’ defiance of being a “proper” woman also affects the way other characters interpret her actions and Mercedes’ submission to being a traditional female limits her knowledge and ability to grasp the meaning behind various situations in the story. Thus, Fall On Your Knees highlights the idea that a person should never settle