The political and suffering conditions of women all over the world can be summed up in the words of Elizabeth Cady Stanton "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman" (Freedman 136- 37). Thus, starting from 1960s and 1970s feminists began to actively use language and literature to achieve their political awakening (Freedman 356). Therefore, Literature became the way that female writers turned to in order to encourage other women to speak up about their suffering and pain and to no longer just endure in silence. The dominant purpose of most novels that were written in relation to Feminism was to shed light on the horrors that women must bear all their lives such as sexual assaults, abortions, and verbal and physical abuses. Among the recurring themes in this literature were pictures of gender and class discriminations (Freedman 363-64).
Louisa May Alcott was one of the America 's best-known writers of young people fiction. Alcott showed the lives of four sisters and their dreams Louisa May Alcott 's in Little Women showed the difficulties that are communicated with the gender roles between women and men during the Civil War in America. The civil war was a clear metaphor for internal conflict of four little women grils.The story was based on the childhood experiences Alcott shared with her real-life sisters, Anna, May and Elizabeth. According to “Nicola Watson” the publication of little women in 1868 that talks about a founding myth of American girlhood. The story of a family of four girls and how they grow up during the American Civil War.
The novel "Little Women " portraits the difficult journey from childhood to adulthood from four teenaged sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy called the March girls, and how they survive growing up in a difficult time highlighting the inferiority of women as compared to men with the ideas explored throughout the novel being women 's strive between familial duty and personal maturation, the menace of gender labeling, and the need of work. As the novel develops it is fascinating that Louisa May Alcott writes "Little Women," reflecting on her own life and many of the experience of growing up during the nineteenth century. Jo 's character is a replication of Alcott herself with her speaking directly through the protagonist. Social expectations played a important role for women with the idea in which you had to marry young and create a new family which Meg does; be submissive and devoted to one’s guardians and own family, that Beth is; focus on one’s art, pleasure, and people, as Amy does at first; and struggle to live both a dedicated family life and a significant accomplished life, as Jo does. Both Beth and Meg obey to society’s expectations of the role that women should play, Amy and Jo at first try to get away from these limitations and grow their uniqueness.
Thomas Hardy, who was born in 1840, spent most of his life and composed his novels in the century which saw the social position and inequality among the woman. The so- called woman question and the beginnings of the women’s movement were soon seen in fiction, “Over and over again in the 19th century novels, fictional women act out the conflict between their ideological preparation for inclusion in social project, and their actual experience”. This contributed to the creation of extraordinary woman characters in Hardy’s fiction among the others. Hardy’s woman characters found to be strong and unconventional and spend much of their lives struggling against the restrictions imposed on them by society. The struggle for liberation brought the solid response from the individuals who has been in power thus far.
These women showed that they wanted more from life and had different aspirations than what was give to them at the time. This can be seen clearly in two different stories that were written in the 19th century; "The Story of an Hour" written by Kate Chopin a prominent female writer of that time, and "The Necklace" written by Guy de Maupassant a male writer of that time. In both these stories ana analysis is done on the role of women and
For the longevity of world history, women have been forced to take on many roles and occupations. In recent years, women have broken standard gender roles and crafted a life that is one hundred percent their own. However, in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, published in 1866, women are making lives of their own and becoming the providers in their households. Dostoyevsky crafted female characters that make sacrifices to provide for their loved ones. Dostoyevsky’s characters, especially Sonia, have broken many gender roles, and the men of the story have become dependent on Sonia due to her actions.
The inspiring story of Nora Helmer in the play A Doll’s House uncovers the strict roles of women in society and explains how those stereotypes should be broken. Throughout the story multiple themes are present. In the late 1870s the roles of women in society were very strict and Ibsen made that one of the main themes in the play. In the beginning of the play Nora talks with an old friend. As the two catch up Nora says, “...a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him” (Ibsen, Act One).
Although feminism in literature began in early 1960’s, there were many writers who had been preparing for it since long. In English fiction the first few names that come to mind in that respect are Bronte sisters who gave much more power to the woman characters than known earlier. This aspect of their writing has not been explored fully by the critics and scholars. This paper is focused on the elements of feminism in their fiction which paved way for later generation authors and inspired them to present the women characters in more meaningful ways in their literary works. Key words: Feminism, Bronte Sisters, Victorian literature, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte “This has always been man’s world”1 laments Simone de Beavouir.
The New Women were not only middle-class female radicals, but also factory and office workers. As Sally Ledger rote: many years later because o her words in the March 1894 North American Review that had inspired a vehement response from fellow woman. writer Ouida, who called the New Woman a menace to humankind…with her fierce vanity, her undigested knowledge, her over-weening estimate of her own value and her fatal want of all sense of the ridiculous.” It is because of this essay that is recognized as the ignition point for the New Woman debate worldwide , which then preoccupied British and American societies in periodicals, novels, and plays through at least the end of the century and spread its wings worldwide due to the values presented throughout . At the end of the nineteenth century, New Woman ideology began to play a very important and a
And one of the most significant contributions has been the unearthing and reinterpretation of “lost” works by women writers, and the documentation of their lives and careers. She, in the book therefore, undertakes a similar task, which according to her was impossible in the past due to the overemphasis on the elite groups of women writers who were valorized. She points out that a similar need was recognized by Virginia