Medea The Proto-Feminist Essay

Money, power, and success have blinded people into thinking they are in love and it has led to these women being oppressed. Tom and Gatsby in this book are what is called the patriarchy. According to Revise Sociology, the patriarchy is “The systematic domination of women by men in some or all of society’s spheres and institutions.” In Tom and Daisy’s marriage; they are both having an affair, Tom wasn’t at his child’s birth, and he oppresses Daisy physically, maybe by accident, and socially, by not allowing her to go wherever she wants to go. In Tom and Myrtle’s affair; they are both married, yet they have this affair, she is dependent on him because he oppresses her economically and psychologically, and he also oppresses her physically when he broke her nose.

Women had one role in society to please their husband, take care of the children and handle the financial assets of the home and to think otherwise was ridiculous. Not only are women looked down upon they are treated horribly. We see this though the character Calonice in Lysistrata when she says "Suppose they grab us, drag us into bed" (159) Calonice was scared to stand up to her husband fearing he would rape her. Women we were seen as sex objects and we obliged to do whatever is told to them. In Lysistrata, the roles of women are reversed.

This in turn jokes on the entire foundation of the character and nature of women. In the end of The Importance of Being Earnest, both Gwendolyn and Cecily claim to be furious with their men and that they won’t be speaking to them. Then, they proceed to speak to them any ways. After Algernon and Jack present their case, which is clearly fake, the girls immediately take them back and forget their anger and how they had been mistreated. They demolished everything they claimed they stood for just because they received an insincere apology.

Women through history struggled to fit in a life were men have the most important roles and the whole world in their hands. The battle for a woman to be seen as a person in her own privilege, characterized her own terms, by her own judgment and achievements, wishing the same open doors as men have and practice. There is no role for women in the society back then even in marriage, she can’t choose whom to marry, and basically women role is forgotten in the society at the Restoration era. So in this research paper I will discuss one of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s poem Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband. In which a woman blamed for infidelity lashes out against her glaringly double-crossing spouse, against the patriarchal lawful framework that permits

Ibsen was merciless in his quest to uncover negative sides of society: hypocrisy, manipulative behavior and use of public opinion to suppress individuals. The play is not only a picture of an innocent nineteenth century woman struggling to achieve self-definition but also a devastating portrayal of a marriage between two people who lack awareness of themselves and who have differing views of right and wrong. Torvald unquestioningly accepts society’s dicta of the husband as a jobholder and moral authority, but Nora’s attempt to conform as the submissive wife forces her into lies and deception. Both care about what people think and neither consciously considers opposing society’s morals. Consequently, the play may be considered an attack upon traditional family values which changed the way the western world viewed

As we move through the passage, we see Adriana shift her emotions of depression away from her husband and towards her naïve sister. Adriana becomes so enraged with her sister’s comments, that she refers to Luciana’s mentality as “servant like” (2.1.26). Since servants were treated as the lowest members of society, it is clear that Adriana feels as though Luciana is making a fool out of herself. Shakespeare portrays Luciana in a manner that would suggest that she is an expert on marriage, which is contradictory in itself as Luciana is not yet married. Her tone, while initially understanding and compassionate, quickly turns into one of arrogance and righteousness.

‘Sigh No More Ladies’ by Shakespeare, and ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’ by Dorothy Molloy are both poems reflecting the misogynist and stereotypical views that men place upon women. ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’ focuses on the inescapable transition that women face after marriage- from having authority in the relationship to becoming powerless, whilst the speaker in ‘Sigh No More Ladies’ embodies the belief that men in relationships cannot be tamed and will never settle down. Dorothy Molloy opens the fourth stanza with a volta to convey both the narrator 's loss in power and the speakers husband 's gain in power, as well as the negative aspects of both in the poem ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’. This is illustrated in “But after I was wedded, bedded”.

The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one explores the difference between gender roles. Glaspell exerts the repression of women in the 1900s. During that time, women were highly looked down upon by men, and were only seen as the housekeepers and child bearers. This example is displayed throughout the play with the men, however, the women in this play prove that the stereotypes of gender roles held against them are completely wrong, which is shown through the characters, set design, and symbolism.

(Fuch, 1999 ). Through the way in which Esther embodies these values, she is seen as a woman who can only follow orders. Scholar Bea Wyler state sthat “Queen Esther remains bound to the decrees of men... She has no influence to bring to bear on this state of affairs for herself or for other women, due to her blindness about her situation as a woman; at the single moment when power is concentrated in her feminine hand, she hands it all over to Mordecai (Brenner-Idan, 1995). Through this Esther is not seen as a role model as she doesn’t stand up against the patriarchal

Nana is the mother of Mariam and the mistress of Jalil, a wealthy upper-class Afghani man. Nana was portrayed as the elder woman, who is unsatisfied with her life and resents men for their treatment of women. Through Nana’s banishment from Jalil’s house by Jalil’s wives after she was impregnated by him, Hosseini demonstrated that it was socially and culturally acceptable for men to have several wives but the blame will be put upon the woman if she was to have an affair. Jalil defends himself by accusing Nana of forcing it on him, which led to Nana stating that “Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman” (Hosseini 7). This statement is of significance because later on in the novel, various situations that is relatable to this statement occur.

Both the article Oppression by Marilyn Frye and the article Feminism is for everybody that includes men by Katherine Fritz both talk about the way women are demoralized by society on what society assumes about the person not what they know about the individual. That just because a woman dresses sexy does not mean she is sexually easy or deserves to be called derogatory names or harassed or worse raped. There should also not be one set of rules for men and another set for women. If a man has multiple sexual partners, he is labeled a stud and if a woman has the same number of sexual partners, she is labeled a whore or slut. Society attaches labels to us since birth, which is where female oppression starts.

In The Medea, Medea definitely breaks out of her traditionally feminine role as mother and wife, killing her children to avenge her desertion at Jason’s hands. In breaking out of her role as a submissive female, Medea challenges the order of Greek society the gods seem to have ordained, committing evil upon evil, ostensibly horrible because she is not obeying the seemingly god-decreed social customs. In The Medea, though, Euripides questions the very order that condemns Medea. Although Medea commits horrendous evils, Euripides casts doubt on the idea that the gods call into place the dominant Greek culture; he asks his audience to question its assumptions about Medea’s revenge. By calling into question the very line to the gods men purportedly

Upon first reading this play, emotions of anger, disappointment, and relief swirled to the surface. The fact that Medea was to escape without any consequences angered me so much, but as I thought about it more, my emotions began to shift. It wasn’t as if Medea murdering her children was something she wanted to do. She had to have gone through so much to push her to that point. How can I better justify her actions and relate it to a 21st century audience?

This is an ironic statement as Medea is actually planning to kill her children, a fact which the audience does not yet know about. Jason uses another form of rhetorical stretching, which includes his plea that leaving his wife and children was a ‘wise move’, and that the decision was made with Medea’s best interests at heart, as much an attempt to convince himself as much as the audience. The chorus is quick to point out that ‘You have betrayed your wife and are acting badly.’ The Nurse is our first instance of anagnorisis during the play. Though an ancient Greek audience would well be in tune with the stories in Greek mythology, the Nurse’s role would still have proved important, as she was a tool Euripides used to transport the audience

Medea portrays the consequence of a rebellious being’s response to a hostile society through vengeance, passion, and deceitfulness. It also gives the reader a unique perspective on the roles of women that were considered taboo, and still are, at least in the western culture. At the beginning of her relationship with Jason, Medea was strengthen by love to do the unimaginable. Her clever and crafty style were her frequent methods of overcoming obstacles and getting what she wanted. She tricked the daughters of Pelias to boil him alive when he refused to give Jason the throne.