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Feminism In The Oval Portrait

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Feminism is a social movement which has a great impact on literary criticism: the modern women movement began in the early eighteenth century and the feminist movement produced a large quantity of fiction in feminist version from then on, pushing the female which were in the marginal and inferior status into people's field of view. Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines with fiction, horror, death, and at times romance. The gothic as a genre can engages with issues of feminism and the division of gender in various ways. Some of the texts written in the nineteenth century have been concerned with issues of gender: "The Oval Portrait", a short story first published in 1842, is one of the earliest works of Edgar Allan Poe in which …show more content…

In the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator conforms to the instructions of her husband in an obedient manner and tries to be a docile family angle. However, living in an imprisonment and suppressed living context, the narrator finally turns crazy confronted by restricted ideas and behaviors. Along with the progressive disorder of wallpaper images, the narrator also escapes away from reality psychologically and even imagines the trapped female image behind the wallpaper. She finally goes into real hysterics, angrily crawling on the floor and trying to help the females behind the fence out by tearing down the yellow wallpaper in rage. “‘I've got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back’” (Gilman 656). Superficially, the story ends with the madness of the narrator. Yet, in fact, insanity here seems to free the wife and reflect her inner rebellion. It signals the refusal of females towards patriarchal cultural structure, imply the protest of females against subordinate status and self-constraint condition. In the same way, the death of the wife in “The Oval Portrait” also shows the accuse and criticism of Poe towards the brutal and apathy patriarchal image. The wife does not obtain the care of her husband even loses her life from beginning to

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