Comparing William Dean Howells's Editha And Henry James Daisy Miller

In the 19th century women begun to rise up against gender roles and social expectations that have had oppressed women throughout history, women yearned to be just as equal as men. Authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist author during the 19th century, would create characters and stories that would get her message across as shown in one of Gilman’s most famous stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” which touches upon a woman’s mental and physical health as well as the main character’s oppression which holded her back for a long time.

The texts ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ (1845) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ (1926). Both explore the universal values of idealised love, limitation of time and hope of restoration. As such inherently reflected through their relevant contexts of the Victorian Era and 1920’s Jazz age value systems. Even though the text share similar themes their interpretation completely differ influenced by diverse historical context, personal experiences and human values.

In her essay “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”, Barbara Welter discusses the expected roles and characteristics that women were supposed to exhibit in accordance with the extreme patriarchy of the nineteenth-century America. The unnamed narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is seen to conform and ultimately suffer from this patriarchal construct that Welter labels the Cult of True Womanhood. The narrator falls victim to this life of captivity by exhibiting several of the fundamental characteristics that Welter claims define what a woman was told she ought to be. She has been brainwashed by the patriarchal society of her time to worship the man, her husband, and perform her duties and daily rituals as a means to please him. Welter outlines several characteristics that constitute the perfect or true woman; however, the most crucial and detrimental so-called “virtues” exhibited by Gilman`s the narrator are her submissiveness and domesticity. Although the artistic narrator clearly has her own desires to be free and write as she pleases, her desire to satisfy the patriarchal construct of the household by attending

As with all theories, this feminist approach to Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” does not come without its flaws. While it can be argued that this poem criticizes the performativity of feminine gender roles in a patriarchal society, this cannot be proven definitively without knowing the author’s original intentions. Furthermore, the poem does not give its readers enough information to conclude that the society the women live in is in fact a patriarchal society. This becomes evident, as there is no reference to any masculine figure – so any assumptions about the masculine-dominant culture are purely speculative. It is possible that Halfe wrote this poem in an attempt to challenge the gender binary, however one stands to question how successfully she is in doing so. In Butler’s theory, she introduces the idea that each woman’s feminism is her

Edith Wharton born in 1862 became a world known writer. Focusing mainly on class structure and women’s roles, Wharton portrayed to the world the lives of people during the 20th century. Gender inequality, as well as moral and ethical dilemma was a prominent issue not only in society but, became evident throughout Wharton’s writing. Determined to share her experiences with the world Wharton disguised moral and economic situations in literature that allowed readers to connect mentally. During an era where social class and wealth defined a person’s entity, Wharton seemed to focus mainly on the higher class structure. The House of Mirth, written in 1905 is an exemplary novel narrated through the eyes of an upper class woman. Through

In the award winning article, “Passages in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards a Feminist Figure of Humanity?” Cynthia Pon addresses masculinity and feminism in terms of conventions, ideals, and practices (Pon, 33). She focused on whether Mary Shelly's work as a writer opened the way to a feminist figure of humanity like Donna Haraway argued. The article has a pre-notion that the audience has read Frankenstein and Haraway's article. Pon has a slight bias, due to her passion as a feminist writer. It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

“The air was thick with war feeling, like the electricity of a storm which has not yet burst” (Howells 1491). This quote from William Dean Howells’ Editha represents the atmosphere of America leading up to and during the Spanish-American War. America was split by differing views of imperialism, and ultimately ended up fighting a war for the wrong reasons. An atmosphere of blind patriotism, corrupted by yellow journalism and jingoism, consumed America during the years of the Spanish American War, which can be seen in the characters of William Dean Howells’ Editha.

Examine how either text represents either class or gender. Are these representations problematic or contradictory? How do they relate to the plot and structure of the novel?

The worst bearing of both Rowlandson and Equiano has to face was being separated from their own love ones. Rowlandson was separated from her family and relations when her village was attacked then eventually lost her only child that was with her. Nevertheless, Equiano also endured tormented pain when he was parted from his sister while she was the only comfort to him at once. He was a young boy in a fearful atmosphere with nothing to convey a positive perspective. “It was vain that [they] besought than not to part us; she was torn from [him], and immediately carried away, while [he] was left in a state of distraction not to be describe”. Considering both Rowlandson and Equiano experiences their feelings contributed to each personal

Margret Atwood’s short story “Lusus Naturae” is known as a work of fiction in which a monster uncommonly plays the role of the protagonist. Discussing character dynamics, it is interesting to examine the symbolic meaning behind the girl as a monster in this story. Is this text simply a fantasy created with the goal to serve solely as a horror story with a typical ending, or does this tale have a deeper meaning encompassing the treatment of women and their sexuality throughout history. Through close reading of “Lusus Naturae,” I plan to use evidence from the text to illustrate symbolic parallels between the unusual protagonist and the known historical role women held in society.

Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James, who was a great fan of George Eliot as he was impressed by her looking into the minds as well the souls of her characters. James’s novels mostly explore the moral dilemmas of people who are compelled to deal with cultural displacement. He is famous for his psychological realism. The purpose of writing this essay is to see the role of psychological realism in Daisy Miller. Though Daisy Miller is written by a man and preoccupied with male protagonists but the writer has used a subtle technique of psychological realism in order to portray the complex moral as well as sexual challenges faced by American woman abroad in Europe. Daisy Miller short novel is based on conflict that arises from interaction between artless American tourists and sophisticated Europeans. It is a story of a young American girl, Daisy who refuses to follow the status quo in Europe. In order to understand the role of psychological realism in the very novella it is important to understand what psychological realism really is? Well, the novels which grow out of psychological realism are thought to be character driven and they put special focus on the interior lives of protagonists and the views of other characters (Potter). In such novels the plot is arisen from the fears, motives and reactions of the characters to the dilemmas that confront them. In Daisy Miller the role of psychological realism is

This particular extract may be found about mid-way to nearing the end of the story of Verga’s L’Amante di Gramigna. Peppa, a woman who has abandoned a life of unthinkable fortune in marrying her fiancé, Finu, in pursuit of infamous bandit, Gramigna, who, has taken refuge among the cacti of Palagonia. Peppa has been left at the ravine as Gramigna, warned in advance by the howls of a pack of hunter dogs, attempts to flee an onslaught of bullets. Appearing again is Gramigna, dragging his fatally wounded body, declaring defeat at the hands of his hunters’ rifles. The preceding passage also details the dutiful nature of Peppa to Gramigna, along with the violence she endured while romantically inclined towards him, and the time she spent with him as he flees incarceration. The preceding events act as a justification of the ultimate fates for both parties, perpetuating the pessimistic climate of the text, as well as maintaining the functions of verismo. It is interesting if one is to consider the life of luxury Peppa might have indulged in, had she not sought out Gramigna, and the unfortunate downward spiral that occurs as a result.

“Writing was the world of each woman. In a world of exaltation of his imagination, feminine inscription seems single and sudden” . With the right for an education they gained skills which they used for their talent. Many social reforms led by suffragettes and their awareness of the situation in which they were, gave women writers an audience and a form in which they manifested their opinion. Women writers such as Emily Dickinson, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Kate Chopin, Gail Hamilton and many others wrote poetry, novels, letters, essays, articles in which they portrayed the often conflicting expectations imposed on them by

In 1880s, women in America were trapped by their family because of the culture that they were living in. They loved their family and husband, but meanwhile, they had hard time suffering in same patterns that women in United States always had. With their limited rights, women hoped liberation from their family because they were entirely complaisant to their husband. Therefore, women were in conflicting directions by two compelling forces, their responsibility and pressure. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen uses metaphors of a doll’s house and irony conversation between Nora and Torvald to emphasize reality versus appearance in order to convey that the Victorian Era women were discriminated because of gender and forced to make irrational decision by inequity society.

In conclusion, these characters in this novel were selected consciously and judiciously by Virginia Woolf. There were more female characters in the novel than male because she sought to contrast the women to the men’s life. They had various values whose qualities were given from the life of the authoress because she also fought against the issues as the gender equality, women’s equality because she has also experienced the women’s restriction (a woman could not to school, could not publish her works etc.) She unflinchingly fought against the social norms created by men. She was forced to escape into her own imagination and with her novels, he tried to fight against to this issue. The feminism is still an obscure question that influences other writers to deal