Her first and most prominent work, The Book of the City of Ladies, tackles the issues of misogyny and sexism head-on by acknowledging women’s contribution in history, providing an alternative to the dominant narrative (which was largely written by males). In The Book of the City of Ladies, three allegorical figures—Lady Reason, Rectitude, and Justice—appear before Christine, where they discuss the oppression of women and the misogynistic subject matter used by contemporary male writers. Under the guidance of the Ladies, Christine then goes on to construct the City of Ladies, a place of refuge for all good and noble women, impenetrable by the malicious attacks of sexist male writers. Through the celebration of women and their achievements throughout history, de Pizan was able to counter the negative stereotypes associated with the female sex since antiquity. Ultimately, de Pizan argued that women, like men, are capable of adopting virtuous behaviour and following intellectual pursuits.
In the play, “Othello”, the character of Desdemona portrays a modern view of feminist criticism. Most of her words and actions support this view. In the tragedy, Desdemona is one of the most tragic characters. The character of Desdemona is the wife of Othello, daughter of Brabantio, and Emilia’s mistress. In the beginning of the play, we learn that Othello and Desdemona secretly got married.
Hook learns to talk back and discover her whole self through a bold stand to examine the way in which she was raise. For example Hook explain how language “carry a scent of the oppressor” can be used as a place of struggle but also as a place of a new start. To conclude, the writing of Bell Hook in “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” is an audacious act by underlining the problem of woman and reveal Hooks path of rediscovery. Hook took a stand in revealing the ugly truth as woman struggle to move from object to being subject. Hook not only took a stand for woman but she help to acknowledge that woman of color are simply invisible in some cases in society because they are not representing accurately by
Elizabeth The book Pride and Prejudice is a story of an empowered woman named Elizabeth living in a misogynistic world. The excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Women (AVOTROW) focuses on the misogynistic world that Elizabeth lives in and challenges it, much like Elizabeth. During that time, Elizabeth would have been considered a feminist, she did not fit into the social constructs given to her sex. She focused her energy into strengthening her mind, and she believed in marrying for love instead of money which was revolutionary. The Vindication of the Rights of Women state that at the time, women were unequal to men intellectually because they are women, and the only way for them to have a future is to marry for profit.
In his article, Listening to Guinevere: Female Agency and the Politics of Chivalry in Tennyson’s Idylls, Stephen Ahern examines the treatment of women in the poems, specifically the character of Guinevere in relation to her male counterpart Arthur, and provides a complex view of Tennyson’s underlying message as a critique on the Victorian social constructs of his time rather than a simple representation of it. Ahern builds a solid argument for Guinevere’s treatment as the victim in the story ultimately signifying that she was being used as a model of the wrongs of the standard Victorian expectation of femininity. This complex analysis of the text gives a different, more modern perspective of the poems. The key features of his argument cite
The Reality of Edna’s Awakening Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was a dramatic novella that was based on society and how Edna was treated, love and independence of finding her true self. The author inputs the theme in a numerous amount of literary devices that include round character, irony and a metaphor to exaggerate the theme. This shows how Edna has two sides to herself; the one that tries to fit into society and another side that the public can see as a swell mother. First of all, Edna wanted to break her place in society as she was part of the “mother- woman” status. Chopin used round character to describe Edna’s dramatic change throughout the novel as she has the “ability to publicly flirt” and go with other men, even though she was originally
In her essay Adeline Mowbray: Diverting the Libertine Gaze Roxanne Eberle also confirms that the novel is inspired on Wollstonecraft and Godwin’s relationship, but she goes a little further and suggests that more than a replica of the two “Jacobin” philosophers ‘lives the novel is a counteraction to Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. As an early admirer of Mary Wollstonecraft Opie could not accept the abhorrent position in which the Memoirs had placed her, so she wrote a novel that “examines the confusion which ensues when a women’s philosophical beliefs conflict with society’s notion about female sexuality”(1994: 123), and how that transgressive women is converted into a sexual object by a conservative society. For Patricia Mathew, more than a critique to Godwin’s concepts, the novel exhibits the impracticalities of those theories when applied to women in the late eighteenth century. Her analysis unfolds around the idea that Adeline Mowbray “takes its central theme from Wollstonecraft’s experiment in marriage with Godwin”(2007: 390) and arguments that Opie sets the basis for her fiction by using Wollstonecraft’s
Through this story, Gilman speaks of the imprisonment and psychological struggles placed on women by society. In her mind, gender roles must be removed from the social order for women to ever be free. By using feminist criticism, readers can analyze stories like Frankenstein and “The Yellow Wallpaper” and many others, both old/forgotten and new, through symbols (the wallpaper) and get a better understanding of the characters on how the women attempt to overpower the men. Women have a tendency to value their lives while, at the same time, find themselves conflicted and driven to insanity by the men around them. Men have always been the dominate gender in the past but as the years go by, women learn to speak up for themselves; to do things in order to break free of their entrapment and live as free and independent
This is very important to how the play is construed because it is practically a show of opposition to this movement. This play is like a warning of what the playwright believed that the 1920s women’s empowerment movement would lead to. Lilith has an interesting mix of ideas and points that seemed both controversial and relevant to the time period. For one thing, in relation to the theme of sexuality, it does not outright say that women's sexuality is bad, however it condones women for being lustful and driven by that lust. It also condones women for tempting men.
Hamlet Essay Feminist theory by definition is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse, aiming to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women 's social roles, experiences, interests, and feminist politics in a variety of fields. Shakespeare criticizes misogyny within the play Hamlet by using the monarchy to emotionally strip the female characters of their power; this lack of voice ties directly to sanity and stability, or lack thereof. Laertes is instructing his sister, Ophelia, to be wary of Hamlet because he may not have the best intentions when it comes to her well being. Instead of Laertes treating his sister with the familial geniality that can often be found between siblings, he views