It is now a known fact that throughout time women have been represented in a sort of negative light. Much of the literature of the past has given women a minimal role. It was not until around the turn of the twentieth century that the role of women has evolved. This is when women characters started becoming more powerful as they were now being seen as the hero. The literary images of women have changed dramatically over centuries to reach where they currently are. One story that can provide a window for the reader to view how women were portrayed is the Brothers Grimm adaptation of “Cinderella”. One must first put aside their own assumptions about women and step into the mind of a 19th century writer. Cinderella is a story of a woman who
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History has long been changed as women have turbulently gained positions of power. In the past century society has made strides to level the field for both sexes as woman’s suffrage and title IX concepts have become the norm. For the first time, women could actually be expected to be independent and ambitious for their own goals. In the story “The Art of Cooking and Serving” by Margaret Atwood the reader finds a girl who is in a trapped situation as well. Throughout this story she is forced to take on much of the housewife type duties for her incapacitated pregnant mother. The storyline makes it clear that she does not enjoy her work and that she grows weary of it. Most of her spite grows when her baby sister was born because she too also had to play the role of the mother at only age 12. This tension had finally broke and unlike the stories of the past had defied her position. “Why should I...She’s not my baby, I didn’t have her. You did” (Atwood 310). This climax can be considered one of the strongest points in a feminist perspective. For a 18th century writer this could be seen as taboo. The chains that her mother put on her were broken “free” by her own power alone (Atwood 310). Here is a girl who is not even a woman yet taking the reins of her life and directing her own destiny. A refreshing difference to the cynical images women have endured in past
History has long been changed as women have turbulently gained positions of power. In the past century society has made strides to level the field for both sexes as woman’s suffrage and title IX concepts have become the norm. For the first time, women could actually be expected to be independent and ambitious for their own goals. In the story “The Art of Cooking and Serving” by Margaret Atwood the reader finds a girl who is in a trapped situation as well. Throughout this story she is forced to take on much of the housewife type duties for her incapacitated pregnant mother. The storyline makes it clear that she does not enjoy her work and that she grows weary of it. Most of her spite grows when her baby sister was born because she too also had to play the role of the mother at only age 12. This tension had finally broke and unlike the stories of the past had defied her position. “Why should I...She’s not my baby, I didn’t have her. You did” (Atwood 310). This climax can be considered one of the strongest points in a feminist perspective. For a 18th century writer this could be seen as taboo. The chains that her mother put on her were broken “free” by her own power alone (Atwood 310). Here is a girl who is not even a woman yet taking the reins of her life and directing her own destiny. A refreshing difference to the cynical images women have endured in past