Virginia Woolf’s novels portray a lot of distressed women who feel sad, alone and subjugated in this male-dominated society. Patriarchal society forces them to become loyal, devoted, meek, and submissive. Virginia Woolf wants that women must denounce these so called patriarchal values. Virginia Woolf welcomes ‘androgyny’- the blending and balancing of intellect and emotion. Equal balance of the feminine and masculine traits can end this debate.
The most prominent point of The Second Sex is to illustrate how women are segregated from society by men, something which happens a lot in Heart of Darkness. De Beauvoir explains to the audience that men and women often do not understand one other and because men hold a higher social status in a patriarchal society, they have made women the ‘Other’ group in society. This is made evident by De Beauvoir’s following quote: “To pose Woman is to pose the absolute Other, without reciprocity, denying against all experience that she is a subject, a fellow human being.” (De Beauvoir 1266). As a consequence of not understanding women, De Beauvoir explains, men use this false sense of mystery as an excuse not to understand women or their problems. In Heart of Darkness the narrator Marlow believes that women live in their own naïve little world and that they should not interfere with the affairs of men, which he states in the following
Sadly, women are taught that they must rely on men because they are too weak to be independent. This creates gender inequality which can be described as unequal power relations, which leads to discrimination based on gender. Gender inequality has made it possible for gender-based violence to exist and persist. Thus, concluding that our society
Wicked Woman by Jack London that has been published in 1906 is a typical short story for its time. Different kind of social obligations were part of people’s everyday lives, life was very formal, and social roles were strict – there was given a certain model how to behave, women and men had their own rules. In the short story, these rules can easily be seen and that makes a clear gender bias between women and men. The typical layout between gender’s power relationships are the ones that are highlighted in the short story. Especially the fragility and weakness of women is exaggerated – women would not be capable enough to live their own lives, choose their husband, make their own decisions, or even express themselves properly.
In the books The Awakening by Kate Chopin and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez are both in a different time period and both have a different view towards women in their society. The Awakening goes against women and who they are and thinks of them poorly. Women struggle for freedom and are presented as weak individuals. But 100 Years of Solitude portrays men and women to be equal, both women and men have an important role in their society and are both highly needed because of what they both have to offer. The Awakening by Kate Chopin was during a time when society viewed women as weak individuals.
The God of Small Things (1997) extensively includes certain aspects, shades and themes typical of feminism among other things. The sense of a woman’s peripheral yet invested position within a male-dominated culture has led Arundhati Roy to make thematic and stylistic experimentations and innovations in the novel. The novel strikes a balance between feminism and feminine ways of describing the incongruities in society; and resorts to many of the conventional devices such as irony, exaggeration, sarcasm, wit, humour etc. The focus in this novel is on the irrationalities and injustices of typical patriarchy in domestic and social life; how assertion of women for identity and freedom of choice are burdened and crushed under the sway of male chauvinism and social norms. Before having a critical journey into the various aspects of the novel depicting shades of feminist hue and cry it is rather imperative to have a brief plunge into the realm of feminist world as a
“And woman should stand beside man as the comrade of his soul, not the servant of his body.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman Gilman has depicted fine portraits of a variety of characters struggling between the two worlds Herland (the world which entirely consists of women) and United States of America (from where the boys have come which is a world full of corruption, violence, jealousy, competition, wars). As a feminist novel about the isolated society/country of women, the novel serves an idealistic viewpoint. Though it is a utopian novel but there is a touch of reality. The imaginary world is related to the contemporary world and has a realistic touch. Although it is an imaginary world yet there is so much to learn from them.
Male writers always dealt with heavy themes and works of women were not being appreciated. This prejudice comes because women writers are used to write on domestic violence, domestic space, sufferings and conflicts of women in men centric society as a female point of views. The majority of the novels by women portray the psychological suffering of the frustrated housewife; however such themes become lower and artificial when compared to the depiction of the repressed and oppressed lives of women who
Gender discrimination a common practice when both men and women are trying to show their sovereignty and show the desire of altering their duties without giving importance to each other. Men and women both can face gender discrimination but women are more vulnerable due to delicacy and fragile looks. Examples of Gender discrimination include discrimination in family law, discrimination at workplace, discrimination in education, social restrictions etc. gender discrimination in education is the most prevalent issue in many developing countries such as Nigeria, Iran , Bangladesh, India. In education, most women experience differential treatment from their families and the society.
In society people with lower economic status always remain under the burden of hatred feeling. They are treated as baseless identities in comparison to individuals who have higher economic place in the society. In her novel The Sari Shop Bajwa also shows the contrast between the economically secure and educated women like Mrs. Sandhu, Mrs. Gupta, Mrs. Bhandari and Mrs. Kapoor who occupy upper sections of society with the economically weaker counterparts like Kamla wife of Chander who belongs to lower stratum of society. The upper class women spend their daily life in gossiping and match making. They have high aspirations and fulfilled dreams.