Martha Ballard; previously Martha Moore, was thought to be a highly depended on midwife and healer in her town of Hallowell, Maine. She dedicated the majority of her life to serving those around her, helping care for any aches, pains, and ailments her friends and family suffered with. Her community greatly depended on her for her knowledge and abilities to manufacture remedies and early medicines. The best evidence of the practical side of Martha’s education came from the diary itself. She documented her day to day activities and thankfully left behind a view into the world of a woman living during the eighteenth century.…
To what extent and in what ways do The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Goblin Market and Rebecca unsettle cultural definitions of gender and/or sexuality? Christina Rossetti, Daphne du Maurier and Angela Carter question and unsettle contemporary ideas of gender and sexuality respectively in Goblin Market, Rebecca and The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. Each author, writing at different periods in history and therefore different eras in terms of both the women’s rights movement and the evolution of the modern conceptualisation of gender and sexuality, chiefly concerns the focus of her work on examining the sexual journeys of women in patriarchal culture. Each has, because of this, been to differing extents hailed as feminist in their portrayal of women who, all of them in the liminal stage between childhood…
Women had started to develop ideas of their own individuality, but such theories often became labeled as some form of mental illness (Clark 343). Into such a similar climate comes Edna…
Women had no control over themselves during the 19th century in which The Yellow Wallpaper made its debut. Self-explanatory, Jane had no choice but to abide by what her husband wanted of her. Additionally, physicians’ (mostly men at the time) had vague knowledge and awareness of mental illnesses in this era,…
Treichler, Paula A.. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in "the Yellow Wallpaper"”. Tulsa Studies in Women 's Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61–77. Web... The same response was given to the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when her physician husband took her into isolation and slowly stripped away her…
Feminism in Literature (A detailed analysis of Feminism in, Story of an Hour; My Antonia; and Yellow Wallpaper) “In November 2015, Hillary Clinton (1947–)—former U.S. Secretary of State, former U.S. Senator, and former U.S. First Lady—was the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election of 2016, and was heavily favored to secure the nomination” (Collins Lines 1-3). In today’s world women are accepted into society as an equal of man, and of men of all color. For a women to run for President of the United States, it is not a big deal. This may seem as though a mindless assumption to many people in today’s society; however at one point in human history this could be seen as unacceptable.…
Hysteria As Demonstrated In The Crucible And 1950’s America In 1950’s America the war on communism had reached a high point and anti-communist feelings were overwhelmingly common. In response to the anti-communist hysteria occurring around him, Arthur Miller, a well known playwright, wrote The Crucible to demonstrate the hysteria surrounding the American citizens and their government. By analyzing the usage of the causes of hysteria and individual rationalization of actions that are commonplace in The Crucible, a reader can see how hysteria starts in a society and what prevents and keeps hysteria from occurring.…
Analytical Essay During the 1800’s, society was separated by race, socioeconomic conditions, and gender. The novel The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi portrays the struggle of a thirteen year old girl during her travels across the Atlantic Ocean in 1832. Avi discusses the themes of racism, classism, and sexism and shows how the protagonist Charlotte conquers each during her personal journey from a dependent child to an independent woman.…
What should be considered as the main theme of The Crucible by Arthur Miller? It can possibly be Reputation or Intolerance. Although the play presents numerous topics, there can only be one that fits the play’s purpose. The theme that led to the demise of innocent people in the community of Salem. The main theme of The Crucible should be seen as Hysteria because of the girls blaming everyone, overemphasized meaning of witchcraft, and religious belief.…
Hysterias begin where trust and friendships end. History shows that time and time again, people will lose trust in some of the most people because of ethnicity, race, or simple rumors. It starts, in America, with the witch hunts. After the hunting, random accusations would target certain groups because of worldwide events taking place or a simple way to get rid of humans. It eventually will target German Americans and German immigrants.…
In the time of stereotypical white picket fences and quaint little American families mental illness were shunned to keep the appearance of a desirable household. Within the large majority of families in the mid-20th century women were pressured by society to fit into the role of household wife. This forced many women to develop mental issues due to isolation and limiting their full potential. In response to these pressing nuances many took drugs in order to uphold appearance. In the story A Sorrowful Woman by Gail Godwin these stereotypes are present and push the wife to limit which tragically results in her death.…
Revolt By Going Insane? Can you imagine living in a society where coping with any mental illness is dealt by locking you inside a small room with nothing inside and nothing to do? Unfortunately, that was the case for most women in the 1800s. In the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator describes her experience with her mental illness and how she was forced inside a room that amplified her hysteria. Her story became a great novel that acknowledge women’s oppression in society and a piece of art that help engage the conversation for women empowerment.…
It is hard to say that the hysteric woman does not accept her femininity, because neither Freud nor the post-Freudians have ever supplied a clear definition of the masculine and feminine. On the one hand Freud says we are all partially masculine and partially feminine, but for him masculinity meant at the most being active and femininity being passive. From this point of view, the hysteric’s femininity is problematic because she or he refuses to be passive, insofar as she or he considers passivity equivalent of “being subjected to power” and activity equivalent of “exerting power”. For the hysteric, being a woman means being subjected to the power of the other; hence the rejection of this position. In this sense, as the film Hysteria indirectly…
The US sent soldiers to help train southern Vietnamese troops. A year later North Vietnam attacked the south and the conflict officially turned into a war. After two years of fighting a new aid to the communist part of Vietnam emerged, the Viet Kong. The Viet Kong were a group of guerrilla fighters that fought against the south and US forces in hopes of reuniting Vietnam. The Viet Kong saw the US as another foreign invader and were determined to do their best to evict them.…
Brave Women in Nervous Conditions “Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables." (15) One of the most significant quotes in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions sets the tone on how women are viewed and treated throughout this story.…