A Wicked Woman is a short story written by the famous author Jack London. It is a story about an unconfident young lady named Loretta and how her life is mostly decided by the men around her; in fact the whole story reflects a strong male dominance. The whole story and especially the language in the dialogues follow the gender stereotypes of men and women.
Loretta is depicted with the characteristics of a “typical” woman: delicate, sensitive, cute and not that intelligent as Alice Hemingway says, “Loretta was so innocent a young thing that were it not for her sweet guilelessness she would be positively stupid.” This seems to be a very common way to think about all women, which is sexist. Loretta also displays characteristics that …show more content…
Loretta does not want to leave her older sister Daisy, who is very brilliant, which often left Loretta in her shadow. Still Daisy’s husband’s, Captain Kitt’s opinion was that Daisy could not handle all the housework alone and so needed Loretta’s help. This centuries old idea that women are supposed to stay home and take care of the house is a very big indication of gender bias. If Loretta got married she could not help, so Captain Kitt did not want Loretta to marry anybody . Without revealing his true reasons, he sends Loretta to a matchmaker in Saint Clara,. This seems very odd at first because the matchmaker would just pair Loretta up with someone else; Captain Kitt, however, is sure that the matchmaker, Alice Hemingway, can not pair Loretta up with anyone. Owing to his male authority, Captain Kitt gets his way, undisputed, and Loretta goes to Saint Clara . The fact that Captain Kitt believes that his own wife is too weak to take care of the house alone and that a woman matchmaker is bad at her job is degrading and sexist because that implies that women are not good …show more content…
He has been heartbroken a few times in the past and has let those women make a bad name for all womankind; all women are fake and untruthful, even Loretta could not change that. They went on to have a nice relationship where Ned was the dominant. There are many indicators of this. Apparently Ned speaks on behalf of Loretta, as Mr. and Mrs. Hemingway look to him for answers when Loretta was sad, “They glanced to him for explanation, but he shook his head.” And apparently he is a better problem solver, as men are known to be, than Mrs. Hemingway since he decided to fix Loretta's problem before Alice even got the chance to. The most remarkable sign of his dominance, however, can be observed from Ned and Loretta’s dialogue.
Research shows that men and women express themselves in different ways in accordance with cultural norms that teach and reinforce differentiated gender roles; men strive to control situations and women tend to have less power. This is clear in the text too as Ned clearly controls the situation. He demands to know why Loretta is crying, he does not ask politely, “Tell me about it”, he spoke very firmly. “You must tell me all of it.” And also demanding that Loretta marry
Loretta is depicted with the characteristics of a “typical” woman: delicate, sensitive, cute and not that intelligent as Alice Hemingway says, “Loretta was so innocent a young thing that were it not for her sweet guilelessness she would be positively stupid.” This seems to be a very common way to think about all women, which is sexist. Loretta also displays characteristics that …show more content…
Loretta does not want to leave her older sister Daisy, who is very brilliant, which often left Loretta in her shadow. Still Daisy’s husband’s, Captain Kitt’s opinion was that Daisy could not handle all the housework alone and so needed Loretta’s help. This centuries old idea that women are supposed to stay home and take care of the house is a very big indication of gender bias. If Loretta got married she could not help, so Captain Kitt did not want Loretta to marry anybody . Without revealing his true reasons, he sends Loretta to a matchmaker in Saint Clara,. This seems very odd at first because the matchmaker would just pair Loretta up with someone else; Captain Kitt, however, is sure that the matchmaker, Alice Hemingway, can not pair Loretta up with anyone. Owing to his male authority, Captain Kitt gets his way, undisputed, and Loretta goes to Saint Clara . The fact that Captain Kitt believes that his own wife is too weak to take care of the house alone and that a woman matchmaker is bad at her job is degrading and sexist because that implies that women are not good …show more content…
He has been heartbroken a few times in the past and has let those women make a bad name for all womankind; all women are fake and untruthful, even Loretta could not change that. They went on to have a nice relationship where Ned was the dominant. There are many indicators of this. Apparently Ned speaks on behalf of Loretta, as Mr. and Mrs. Hemingway look to him for answers when Loretta was sad, “They glanced to him for explanation, but he shook his head.” And apparently he is a better problem solver, as men are known to be, than Mrs. Hemingway since he decided to fix Loretta's problem before Alice even got the chance to. The most remarkable sign of his dominance, however, can be observed from Ned and Loretta’s dialogue.
Research shows that men and women express themselves in different ways in accordance with cultural norms that teach and reinforce differentiated gender roles; men strive to control situations and women tend to have less power. This is clear in the text too as Ned clearly controls the situation. He demands to know why Loretta is crying, he does not ask politely, “Tell me about it”, he spoke very firmly. “You must tell me all of it.” And also demanding that Loretta marry