Feminism In The Driver's Seat By Muriel Spark

Alice is considered a feminist heroine because she manages to break the rules from society, like getting married or being told what to do. She rejects the female expectations and becomes a strong, confident and independent woman. We can see that Alice is oppressed, for example, when dancing with Hamish, she is delighted by her “visions” and he told her to “keep her visions to herself” or “when in doubt remain silent”. Alice has an “inner voice” that asks her for freedom and liberation. What stereotypes can you identify in this version?

This proves that even after death Lady Macbeth still had an influence over Macbeth and his actions. Lady Macbeth is responsible because she has the gender power of being the wife over Macbeth. By using this power, she exhorted Macbeth to murder King Duncan. A clear example of this is when Lady Macbeth says “What beast was ’t, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man;” (63).

At the very beginning, Aristophanes introduces the idea that “[...] Greece by women.”(Lysistrata 2) The idea itself may bring to mind a fight, and surely the women did fight; not with spears and swords but with psychology. Although the women took over the Acropolis and in a few instances offered threats( insert quote from book here), they did not physically fight. The movement itself was based off of lust and how it filled the men with need, causing them to do whatever the women asked of

This also demonstrated the different levels of self control and intellect between Emilia and Othello. Although Emilia was not left without emotions upon hearing the accusations, she did not let her emotions overwhelm her in any measurable way. Emilia recognized that men are threatened by strong females, she theorized that this is the reason men target weak females: “is’t frailty that thus errs”(IV.3.95). Desdemona recognized that she has some power over Othello early on in the play when Cassio asked her to convince Othello that he has only, “love and service”(III.3.18). She explained to Cassio: “If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it to the last article; my lord shall never rest; I’ll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience”(III.3.21-23).

If I were a juror in this case, I would find Janice Leidholm guilty of first degree murder. In order to meet the criteria of first degree murder, premeditation and deliberation must be needed. Although she was abused by her husband, it is not considered as self-defense because he was sleeping when she killed him. However, is she actually deserves to be found guilty of first degree murder? She did kill her husband so she has to be punished.

In Act 2 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth can be characterized as determined, by using any method to kill Duncan - even if it’s in his sleep, and also by doing whatever she has to do to cover up the very bloody evidence of the murder. Lady Macbeth shows she is determined to kill Duncan, even if it means murdering him while he is sleeping, which to her is cowardly. After Duncan goes to sleep, Lady Macbeth proceeds to start making plans on how to kill him, saying, “Alack, I am afraid they have not awakened, and tis not done. Th’ attempt and not the deed confounds us. Hark!-I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss em.

This historical perspective defines the feminist approach to the abuses that women endured under the power of the Genji in the royal court. In 20th century feminist theory, the view of Murasaki’s authorship of the Tale of the Genji tends to reveal the suffering and horrific experiences of women under male authority. This perspective interprets Murasaki as being a voice for women during the predominantly patriarchal monarchy of the Heian period. In this context, modern feminist theory has suggested that Murasaki was expressing her own condemnation of the Genji’s immoral behavior when she was taken as his concubine, and eventually, his

From a young age, Queen Cersei started her evil off with the jealousy that fueled her to push her best friend into a well, ultimately killing her. Hereafter, Cersei continued to murder if necessary to the point where redemption is out of the question. Which is comparable to Macbeth in the way he plotted clandestine deaths of the people around him and killed to achieve his only desire; the throne. Queen Cersei could not escape the evil that fixated itself on her, or in other words, all the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten her little hand just like Lady Macbeth. Regardless, Lady Macbeth brought up an interesting topic if evil can really be taken away from a person.

On many occasions she rules her husband and dictates his actions. Although near the end of the play Lady Macbeth’s personality and strength begins to deteriorate. Later committing suicide after having many detailed memories and thoughts from the murder. Shakespeare not only shows how guilt can change a person’s personality but he also portrays untraditional gender roles. After the vision of the three witches, Lady Macbeth had persuaded Macbeth to go against fate and kill Duncan.

This shows Lady Macbeth going through lengths just to become royalty and this shows she is ruthless because she is only thinking about herself. Besides, the idea of dashing out the brains of a child deliberately shows Lady Macbeth is willing to killing her own blood, which is cold because usually mothers have a stronger and more intimate bond with their babies. Therefore, Lady Macbeth is shown as a ruthless person, who is very controlling, however there is a shift in her character at the end of the play, she becomes weaker. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth into doing things he didn’t want to do, by targeting is insecurities (his masculinity). But, now her persuasion no longer works on Macbeth, for example at banquet Macbeth was acting crazy and Lady Macbeth challenging his manhood by asking him if he were a man.

With this in mind, if a man couldn’t do something a woman can, he was a disgrace; Lady Macbeth is taunting Macbeth with the gender gap, which makes him want to prove he’s more masculine and can keep it together. Even though, Lady Macbeth is viewed as a manipulative character, towards the end, she changes and shows signs of remorse/regret, which is not like her character. Lady Macbeth begins to feel remorseful because she has made an outright killing machine out of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts to ask herself “The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?

She wants to be queen above all else, which drives her to commit murder. Fred Alford’s theory is exemplified in Lady Macbeth, because it was her lust for power that led to her evil doings. While Lady Macbeth wishes to get rid of the world’s perspective of evil, she is driven to insanity by her guilty conscience. Thus, Lady Macbeth held a perspective of evil that was consistent with society’s

At the start of the play, she is very ambitious and plans on killing king Duncan and taking over as queen with her husband as king.We can see her lust for power and how that she has a more stronger personality at the start than her husband Macbeth does. She seems very okay with the idea of murdering the king. She really wants to go through with it and wants Macbeth to kill the king to go through with her plans as being queen. she immediately see’s how that her husband Macbeth isn 't as ambitious and strong minded as she is

This is why Lady Macbeth acts not only as Macbeth 's confidant, but also his controller. Consumed by her desire to become Queen, Lady Macbeth herself plots the murder of Duncan and when Macbeth questions the idea of regicide, she manipulates him with her powerful soliloquies. This is done by condemning her husband’s biggest insecurity; his manhood. She states that Macbeth would be “So much more the man.” (Shakespeare, trans. 2012, 1.7.58 if he were to follow through with the plan.

Sacrifice happens throughout the novel, yet an important scene in the novel is when Laila stops her husband, Rasheed, from beating his first wife, Mariam, which puts her at risk of getting beaten, “Rasheed raised the belt again and this time has come at Mariam. Then an astonishing thing happened: The girl lunged at him. She grabbed his arm with both hands and tried to drag him down” (Hosseini 241). Laila shows how she cares about Mariam and does not want to see her hurt. Eventually, later on Mariam risks her freedom and life by killing the violent and abusive husband, Rasheed, when he goes to beat Laila Mariam kills him with a shovel ending his life to protect Laila and her children, “And, with that, Mariam brought down the shovel.