In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson, is faced with challenges that leave her no choice but to find a way to escape the internal struggle of loneliness created by her own actions, leading to self-inflicted destruction. Looking in on the surface, the female character is imprisoned by the repressiveness of her father. While he played a huge role in causing Emily’s mental state to deteriorate, it was ultimately the consequences of her own self-control that confined her mind. Because of her poor choices, Emily lives in misery instead of rescuing herself from such damaging chains of sorrow. Throughout the text, it is evident that the overall conflict in “A Rose for Emily” was driven by self-deprecation
The woman gives up trying to convince her husband that she is sick giving in to his authority and sense of superiority entwining her further into the social norms and gender roles dictated by society. In fact, there are instances throughout The Yellow Wallpaper where the woman gives up her rights and wants to the authority of her husband because both think that, since he is a man, he is right “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened onto the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it” (Gilman 549). The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper gave up trying to convince her husband that she did not want to stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper further giving into the social ideology of the
Elaine recognizes that her individuality and creativity are violated by her inconsiderate husband, who himself is a painter. As a result, the readers can see how male artists are indifferent towards female artists due to their gender-biased attitude. As she comes to know about his extra-marital affair, Elaine’s life with Jon destroys. Undeniably, Jon’s betrayal is a devastating blow to her because her two male relationships have added to her victimization (Mehta 189). Neeru Tandon and Anshul Chandra in their book Margaret Atwood argue that this novel questions and challenges the gender prejudice of male art history which condemns a woman painter to a passive character on account of her femininity (159).
Virginia Woolf 's extended essay, A Room of One 's Own explores the social implications of gender and authorship. Through her partially fictionalized narrative, Woolf examines the spaces for women in fiction - both historical and contemporary - to move the reader through a succession of images meant to focus their attention on women 's potential in the creative sphere. Despite the fact that Woolf 's A Room of One 's Own was published in the wake of women 's suffrage and thus embodies contemporary cultural concerns surrounding gender, it was not considered an inherently feminist text by herself or her critics. And yet, the legacy of Woolf 's essay has allowed it to stand in as a touchstone of feminist literary criticism for almost a century. Officially published in 1929, A Room of One 's Own was built out of a series of lectures on women in writing presented to audiences at Newnham College and Girton College -
This internal conflict contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole because it illustrates the theme of breaking social norms based on gender roles in society. Edna is very unhappy with her marriage. Her husband, Leonce, does not treat her well and just wants to put on a show for everyone else. He is what society would think to be a “good husband”, however, there is no true love in their marriage. Enda likes her new friend, Robert, instead of her husband.
Perhaps he has convinced himself of the immorality of bringing a life into a world where such suffering would lay and wait for the daughter. If there is a daughter, she is suffering from mental abuse from her father. These following lines will dictate whether the father is mistreating his daughter “Bride of a syphilitic or a fool.” (Kess, 384 lines 12). Considering he wanted her to marry a sick man or a fool, what kind of father would do that to her daughter? He would go on and continue to talk down to his daughter “because he sees nothing but betrayal and suffering in his vision of the future.” (Loudon, 1).
The main themes that can be clearly seen and felt are society, class and marriage. Another common theme is women's morality and sensuality. Before the publication of Jane Eyre, women were simple supposed to live under the expectations of society. After this novel was published, the "new woman" became predominant who was based on the main character, Jane, who was independent, strong, forward, and radical in the sense of marriage and contraception opinions. The theme of sex scandal goes along with women's morality and sensuality because it also went against the prior conservative social expectations and beliefs for women.
You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make you so. ” Even though marrying him would prevent the man to inherit her family’s estate after her father dies in this passage the main character explains that she can’t marry Collins because they do not love each other. She also rejects Darcy’s first proposal even though that also would have accommodated and ameliorated her family situation. At the end she accepts Darcy’s proposal after she felt in love with him and he respected her. Additionally, Elizabeth defies gender roles by educating herself by reading, even though women in early nineteenth-century could not go into higher education.
Literature has always been a handy tool in exploring the gender relations and several differences. Humanist feminist criticism objects to the exclusion of women from these definitions because they tend towards an inaccurate account of the subjectivity of women rather than a historically reconstructed ideology. Today re-reading of literature assumes an important aspect of any critical project for it would help in the reconstitution of the idea of female subjectivity. Thus a more meaningful subject for literary writings focuses on the idea of psychic fragmentation of the weaker sex rather than on the theme of social oppression which assumes a secondary position. Psychotic rupture is perhaps the worst and most regressive aspect of female subjectivity.
One noticeable thing about the play is how the Surname of Mrs Kashikar is never shown. Mrs Kashikar, the wife, is shown as a lady oppressed by her husband. The way how she is only referred to as Mrs Kashikar shows how the patriarchal society discards the importance of women once they are married. This is further emphasised by how Mr Kashikar continuously puts her down, treating her in a downwardly manner. Mr Kashikar, on the other hand, is shown to be the chairman of the group.