What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.
Within the 1800s the first convention to focus on the rights of women was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 and in 1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (Ann-Marie Imbornoni). Around the same time, the transcendentalist movement also took off causing many different scholars and writers to begin to writing essays and discussing ideas behind the movement. Both supported equal opportunities and rights for individuals. Although The Women’s Rights Movement was obviously more geared towards the equal rights of women, while the transcendentalist movement focused more on rights of everyone. The two movements did influence a lot of literature at the time and can explain many of the aspects in the scarlet
Hamlet Essay Feminist theory by definition is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse, aiming to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women 's social roles, experiences, interests, and feminist politics in a variety of fields. Shakespeare criticizes misogyny within the play Hamlet by using the monarchy to emotionally strip the female characters of their power; this lack of voice ties directly to sanity and stability, or lack thereof. Laertes is instructing his sister, Ophelia, to be wary of Hamlet because he may not have the best intentions when it comes to her well being. Instead of Laertes treating his sister with the familial geniality that can often be found between siblings, he views
Men will use words to discredit a women’s intelligence and make her sound that her own thought was not her own but came from someone else. Men will use something along the lines of “oh you are just saying that because, your (strong male figure) told you to think like that.” This silences anything else that woman may have had to say about the topic because now, she has to prove that that thought was not only her own but, she actually used her brain to form it. Stanley uses the example from Catherine MacKinnon article about how pornography silences women. Women who want to say and actually mean no are seen as saying yes to men.
It’s no surprise, that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was clearly constructed as a rebellion against femininity roles of the time. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to believe they were inferior to men since men obtained desired masculine qualities such as strength, and loyalty, whereas women were viewed as figures of hospitality (1; 6; 28-31). Obviously, not being tempted by the luxury of subservient women, William Shakespeare rebuked this twisted belief, applying that women deserve more respect than their kitchen tables.
John Updike’s “A&P” demonstrates through several methods the struggle that unwritten principle can place on women in their search for individuality and personal freedom from oppression. Sammy’s thoughts demonstrate this very concept, as well as Queenie’s actions as an independent woman, and the unfair and morally unjust establishment of a woman’s place by the oppressive male characters. With these ideas, Queenie is clearly represented as an innocent feminist who is ultimately shunned by her male oppressors. Sammy, the typical male totalitarian, is very much condescending towards the story’s female characters, automatically assuming ignorance on the part of them.
No women would to this. And she uses this info against Macbeth, trying to show him that if she would to worse, and she’s a women, Macbeth would be manipulated to to it. So she is definitly not the steriotypical women. Yet Macbeth shows a few more steriotypes than Lady Macbeth. He is easily swayed by women, imprisioned to do her will, like men usually are.
This dissertation includes a group of women, fictional or real, these women symbolize the female grotesque. Some of them carnivalized by their societies and others bring about the inversion, comedy, and tragedy of their play worlds. Some of these women have the capacity
A woman labeled with various nicknames by her husband may not seem like nothing to an outsider. Two women attempting to locate clues regarding their neighbor and a malicious crime is something that any friend would do. Both stories appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until these females decide to do what they feel is best and are antagonized for stepping foot in the direction of their choice rather than one that is laid out for them to follow. Nora, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are all women that appear as being feeble minded and docile as opposed to the male characters within the plays.
In Shakespeare 's Taming of the Shrew, the whole play centers around Petruchio trying to “tame” Katherine and forcing her to be the traditional submissive wife. Set in the Elizabethan era, the play also compares love versus economic value and how social status influences marriage in the 16th century. Bianca, quiet and innocent, plays the traditional role of a woman well, while Katherine rebels and refuses to be ordered around by any man. While both men and women in the play don 't always line up with traditional gender roles, it is the women (Katherine, specifically) are punished. In today 's society, Kate could be seen as an independent woman who doesn’t need a man but instead, Kate is depicted as a crusted, unmanageable shrew in which by the looks of it, will die alone if she doesn 't curb her attitude.
Susan Glaspell wrote the social satire, Trifles, in 1916. The play includes elements of what the women’s suffrage movement was all about and incorporates the mood of society during that time towards women; their social status was viewed beneath a male. It also shows the discriminatory mentality men had towards women that were commonly accepted. Trifles, described as something of little value or importance, is enlighten throughout the play. This new vision of the lack of roles for women during the 1800s, in which she wrote and lived, would influence her writing.