Forced Domestic Submission: A Struggle Against Gender Stereotypes
Why can’t life be more like a Jane Austen novel? Where are the strong-willed, independent women, who reigned over their suitors with sharp wit and ever-present stratagems of “hard-to-get”. Throughout history, women have been expected to exemplify a very specific type of woman. She must be at the disposal of patriarchal society and succumb to designated gender roles, without complaint--an apron around her waist and a smile on her face. Four works of great female literature-- “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, “She rose to His Requirement – dropt,” by Emily Dickinson, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston --epitomize this perpetuated …show more content…
Young women were “set in the market-place to sell ”(Hurston 90). They were at the expense of their father’s wealth, though they were not allowed to hold it in their own hands. Childhood ended early as women “dropt/ The playthings of [their lives]” and assumed the responsibilities of marriage (Dickinson 2-3). In the play Trifles, Glaspell emphasizes the transition of women from cheerful young girls to discontented wives: “she was…real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery. How--she--did--change” (Glaspell 11). This describes Mrs. Wright when she married a withdrawn man, unable to bear children to break the silence between them. Dickinson illustrates this silence further in her poem stating, “It lay unmentioned--as/ the Sea/ Develope Pearl, and Weed” (Dickinson 13-15). The Pearl and the weed depict women in their daily struggles. The pearl, being their hospitable facade, in contrast to the weed that represents the growing hostility existing within them. No matter how hard Mrs. Wright tried to hold up this image of the pearl, her house could not become a place of comfort. It could only serve as the bounds of her
Why can’t life be more like a Jane Austen novel? Where are the strong-willed, independent women, who reigned over their suitors with sharp wit and ever-present stratagems of “hard-to-get”. Throughout history, women have been expected to exemplify a very specific type of woman. She must be at the disposal of patriarchal society and succumb to designated gender roles, without complaint--an apron around her waist and a smile on her face. Four works of great female literature-- “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, “She rose to His Requirement – dropt,” by Emily Dickinson, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston --epitomize this perpetuated …show more content…
Young women were “set in the market-place to sell ”(Hurston 90). They were at the expense of their father’s wealth, though they were not allowed to hold it in their own hands. Childhood ended early as women “dropt/ The playthings of [their lives]” and assumed the responsibilities of marriage (Dickinson 2-3). In the play Trifles, Glaspell emphasizes the transition of women from cheerful young girls to discontented wives: “she was…real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery. How--she--did--change” (Glaspell 11). This describes Mrs. Wright when she married a withdrawn man, unable to bear children to break the silence between them. Dickinson illustrates this silence further in her poem stating, “It lay unmentioned--as/ the Sea/ Develope Pearl, and Weed” (Dickinson 13-15). The Pearl and the weed depict women in their daily struggles. The pearl, being their hospitable facade, in contrast to the weed that represents the growing hostility existing within them. No matter how hard Mrs. Wright tried to hold up this image of the pearl, her house could not become a place of comfort. It could only serve as the bounds of her