Miss Ivors: A Feminist Analysis

Examining the text from a feminist view point shows the narrative is a phallocentric text, concerned wholly with Gabriel’s perspective and his role as master of ceremonies at the party, presenting Gabriel as a stereotypical male; part of the dominant patriarchal culture of that time. As aforementioned, the conventional syntagmatic structure is that the novella is in three parts, and in each part Gabriel makes a mistake which has a profound effect on his sense of self with a woman; Lily and her bitter dismissal, Miss Ivors ' humiliation of him, and Gretta’s revelation. With each woman Gabriel is shown to be condescending, dismissive and guilty of underestimating all three, perhaps, it can be argued, because they are female.
However, in each of these three interactions, the women as a whole do not respond in the way women of that time may have been expected to, their actions disturb Gabriel’s poise and wound his self-image and are representative of women challenging the traditional male supremacy. …show more content…
Gabriel attempts to mask his error with fatherly interest, generosity and the time of year however it can be interpreted as Gabriel attempting to exert male dominance and display his masculinity. Lily sees through this mask and is offended. She is aware of the rules of social niceties despite her lesser status in Gabriel’s eyes and recognises Gabriel’s