Throughout the their lifespans many authors receive criticism on every work of theirs, whether it be good or bad. Criticism can be received from all sorts of people. Every literary work has the potential to be broken down into multiple schools of thought, but when it is done professionally by a literary critic the criticism is generally specialized into a certain school of philosophy. One particular work by the author/playwright Lillian Hellman is “The Little Foxes”. “The Little Foxes” can be characterized by the feminist school of criticism. The feminist school of criticism pertains to the ideas of how the oppression of gender affects a literary work. “The Little Foxes” is perfect for the feminist school of criticism because of the many different …show more content…
The most noticeable element added is irony. There are multiple cases of irony in this play. The first case is with the juxtapositioning of Regina and Birdie. They are both women during 1900 and they belong to the same family, but they are still so different. The irony is that Birdie was originally from a family of aristocracy and “nobility” in a sense and now she is very poorly treated. Regina, on the other hand, wasn’t of any special background but she will soon be treated like a queen and she will have the wealth of the elite class. Another case of irony is again with Regina. However, this time it involves Alexandra as well. Regina is a woman that is more than capable by herself and doesn’t believe she has to listen to anybody. But, after Horace dies she tries to make her daughter, Alexandra, do what she says. She wants Alexandra to come live with her in Chicago after they make their fortune. Ironically, Regina tried to do to her daughter what she didn’t want to be done to her. Regina’s efforts have failed as Alexandra matures and realizes that she must escape the Hubbards and her mother (Hellman Act 3). In conclusion, criticism can be applied to literary works through many schools of thought. Given, Lillian Hellman's personality her feminine ideals are expressed through her works. Her ideas were and are integral part of history for not only women, but society as a whole. In order to express her ideas more clearly and add to the plot Hellman uses literary devices such as
The prejudice that the author brings forward strongly is the notion of feminism. The author’s main purpose of writing this novel is to examine the role of women played around
In the poem, To a Mouse, Robert Burns states, “The best laid schemes of mice and men/ Go often askew/ And leave us nothing but grief and pain” (Burns). Burns wrote about an incident where he accidentally ruined a mouse’s home while plowing a field. During the early 1900s, the Great Depression, one of the biggest economic slumps in the history of the United States, was taking place. It resulted in many people being unemployed, lonely, and stuck in poverty.
They show the harsh and cruel reality of the surrounding environment that women live in without framing that reality in beautiful frame. This is obvious in William Dean Howells’s “Editha” and Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”. Both Editha and Daisy share the same characteristic of the New Woman. These two women redefine the feminine ideology of women who suffer from following the social norms of their culture. They believe that women should have freedom as well as men, and they are responsible for making decisions in their lives without under
In the beginning of the story, the narrator believes she is free to become who she wants. As the story advances, her female role models, quickly ignore what she wants –for example working with the foxes– and set expectations for her to ‘act like a lady’, thus forcing the narrator to become a new highly feminized version of herself. Since the story is written in the 1950s, the mistreatment of women is permitted. The narrator’s society is extremely sexist. When
In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, Claudette, Mirabella, and Jeanette is taken to a foreign place to adapt to human nature. They are taken through the process of 5 stages of becoming human. Claudette, the speaker of the story, is stuck between two faces, the human and the wolf face. While Claudette is in between these two worlds, she has fully conformed from wolf to human. She has completed the transformation from wolf to human because her own mother doesn 't recognize her, trying to make herself seem more like human, and not even caring about her own fellow wolf mates anymore.
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.
People who endure dislocation feel out of place and have many mixed emotions. Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” tells the story of a group of girls who suffer from lycanthropy including Jeanette, Claudette, and Mirabella. The “pack” of girls go through many stages to rehabilitate to their human identity. The girls experience culture shock and have to work as they progress through the stage.
Throughout history, women have made a name for themselves. By rising up and fighting for something that they believed in, the Mirabal sisters made a name for themselves in the Dominican Republic and in Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies. By applying a theory to a novel, readers can relate the book to the world they are living in today (Davidson). Feminism can be defined as a dynamic philosophy and social movement that advocates for human rights and gender equality (“Feminism”). Feminist Theory involves looking at how women in novels are portrayed, how female characters are reinforcing stereotypes or undermining them, and the challenges that female characters face (Davidson).
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,
Of Mice and Men; A Literary Analysis “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that 's why,” says George in the book Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck wrote this book about two boys who took care of each other mentally and physically throughout. They endure many journeys together and are able to suffice over very little. They show the strength in friendships in many dissimilar ways and make diligent decisions that some may never be able to make. Of Mice and Men is not only about two friends and their journey together, but as well as giving one a deeper meaning of the book, such as showing the nature of their dreams, the characters as archetypes, and if the killing of Lennie is justified in the end.
Gilman incorporates the literary techniques of tone and diction to provide the reader with a clear understanding of how the narrator falls into the beliefs of society, while she is confined and oppressed by her husband’s diagnosis of her being “Nervously Depressed”. Gilman’s use of both techniques allows the work to come together as a whole, and demonstrates the idea that women are content with living in a world were men is seen as more intelligent, able-minded and higher in standard than woman,
Feminist Criticism allows to understand the meaning and importance of literature when relating to the male-female power
" Adversely, the story doesn't leave much for the reader to decide how to feel, it almost tells one how to feel because the detail is so engaging. That was just the point that Glaspell was trying to make though when she decided to turn the play into a story. It was the story, rather than her play, that drove her message home; the pursuit of justice for women in a man's
It can be said that society has always been quite judgmental, and at times misguided when it comes to women. The negative perceptions that society has towards females are often times directly related toward her actions. What a female does seems to degrade her identity and capabilities in the eyes of some men. In the poems “The Lady’s Dressing Room” and The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, we can see both authors use of tone, form and style to develop their works. These poems are mainly driven by men’s attitudes towards women.
It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.