Social Issues In Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse

The study is designed to understand the different social issues related to different characters in the novel To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It focuses on the Victorian and Modern marriages and highlights how the female characters are different from one another. Similarly, there are a lot of religious doubt, degrading women, and an unclear vision in the novel by one of the characters. However, there are deaths in the novel too. Similarly, it will focus on the two central women in the story.

Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century. Penning many stories that demonstrate her opinions on the social issues of the era,

There 's little discussion of the war it 's self simply that these women residence of this era.   The most fascinating biography of this book was of Angelina Grimke and her sister Sarah.   Angelina Grimke 's story is one that needs to be read by anyone interested in the

Throughout history, women have had to fight against stigma and stereotypes in society. In every era, from the ancient world to present day, females have been persecuted and taken advantage of due to their gender. In our previous set of readings, the female protagonists were strong characters who defied weak stereotypes, but were still viewed as lesser beings than men. In our second group of readings, where were written more recently, women saw a slight increase in their sovereignty. All depict women as powerful figures who use their wits to make a better life for themselves.

After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published.

The beginning of the feminist movement in the 1900’s, sparked much attention from those who lived at this time. The changes in attitude brought forth from the feminist movement made many men feel threatened and uncomfortable. In 1899, Kate Chopin published the feminist novel, The Awakening, which created much controversy. The protagonist of the story, Edna Pontellier, emerges from her own “awakening,” and gains her own independence from breaking away from society. However, her struggle with herself and society overtakes her and Edna’s sudden awakening ends in tragedy.

Most of her novels depict families struggling to survive on a low income. Another idea Smith explores in her novels is what part women should take in the world. In Smith’s lifetime, women were granted the right to vote and other significant rights that many did not agree on. In her books she created strong female leads that defy the bubble women were placed in at the time. Smith’s novels became highly popular with many Americans because she depicted the struggles of life in poverty that many people could relate to.

Gender stereotypes have been around for hundreds of years and still are today. The stereotypes for women are strict in regards to jobs and homelife, behavior, and even attire. They keep a firm hold on women 's daily life, so whenever women get the opportunity for power, they will take it. Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, strongly features the stereotypes of women and, adversely, women in power; Kesey displays his opinion that women in power will abuse their status to manipulate men. One aspect of Kesey’s display of his distaste for influential women, is displayed through the character, Nurse Ratched (Big Nurse).

In older societies, many women felt trapped in their place in society and marriage, so who was a voice for them? Kate Chopin was one of the many influential voices for women in her time about women. Chopin wrote many stories that were influenced by experiences she has had in her life. Kate Chopin rebelled against the social roles of women and wrote many stories such as “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour” that she used to express her own feminist views. First of all, Kate Chopin rebelled against the social roles of women.

Anne Bradstreet (1612 – 1672) has been a long-lasting leading figure in the American literature who embodied a myriad of identities; she was a Puritan, poet, feminist, woman, wife, and mother. Bradstreet’s poetry was a presence of an erudite voice that animadverted the patriarchal constraints on women in the seventeenth century. In a society where women were deprived of their voices, Bradstreet tried to search for their identities. When the new settlers came to America, they struggled considerably in defining their identities. However, the women’s struggles were twice than of these new settlers; because they wanted to ascertain their identities in a new environment, and in a masculine society.

Abigail Williams was a very intense character in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, but according to historical documents, she may be a bit more of a nuisance than anticipated from the book. The age, things she did, and who she “loved” is all different. Some things were the same, but there have been a lot of differences. The Crucible portrayed Abigail Williams as a seventeen year old girl who was a servant for the Proctors.

Life can be a rollacoster ride. In the film “Bird by Bird: A Portrait of a Writer” by Anne Lamott, an American writer and a political activist. She depicts many struggler and hardships of life, focusing her to use her outstanding writer abilities to write about some negatives and positives things that occurred in her life time. In the film, Anne Lamott has a lot of struggles that she had to overcome …… The three things that sticks out to me and that I can reflect on is the abortion, LGBT, and the financial struggles.

“The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm” by Kate Chopin is the representative stories and these stories are about the struggling between reality and inside desires of female. The two different protagonists were married and seem to lose their

Throughout history women have struggled to be recognized as equals. Women had been denied their rights and were considered slave to men. This discrimination, over the years, has been the cause of many uprisings. Now many have amended their beliefs and women have earned their well deserved respect but there are still those of conservative thoughts and practices. Women, to this day, face unequal job opportunities, dowry, and harassment etc.

There is no question that women have struggled over many years to be seen as equals by their male counterparts. Years of struggle and oppression continued throughout time, but the oppression took different forms over the course of history. Susan Glaspell wrote, “Trifles” which explores a woman’s status in society during the 1920s and the political leanings that perverted society at the time. The play demonstrates how women were subjected to mental abuse and viewed as intellectually inferior as dictated by American society and politics. “Trifles” exposes how political leanings in the government favored and enabled a patriarchal society as well as displaying how the Women’s Rights movement was beginning to combat these prejudices.