The Negative Effect of the Oppression of Women Women have been oppressed by men since the beginning of time. It is only now that society is doing something about this and realizing the negative effects this injustice has had. The maltreatment of women affects females in their day to day lives, since long ago, and still in present day. Characters from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and ‘Proem’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, will reveal how the oppression of women can affect people's lives in a negative way.
In the text The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, the protagonist, Lily Bart, is oppressed by society because she is a female. Lily needs to get married to become more accepted in the upper class of society, …show more content…
“He would work and struggle for her, he would shelter and defend her, – She should never leave him, never, till their eyes in death were dim.” This shows how just because a man protects a woman, or provides shelter or care for her, she is indebted to him forever, and expected to love him until the end of time. “Close, close he bound her, that she should leave him never; Weak still he kept her, lest she be strong to flee”. This shows how man persecutes woman and binds her in his rules and power, he keeps her weak so that he will remain in power over her. If woman is kept weak by having no place in society without a man, she will need to stay with him to keep her place. “And woman? He will hold her, –he will have her when he pleases–”. This reveals how women must bend to man's every will and command. If he has her when he pleases, sometimes she would have to have him when she does not want to. “Gone the friend and comrade of the day when life was younger, She who rests and comforts, she who helps and saves.” Woman has been mistreated so long that she is now a shell of her former self, and all she does are her duties that man has put upon her. “The ages of her sorrow have but taught her to forgive!” She has been tormented for so long that even after all the horrors Man has put her through, she still forgives him for his actions. Her compassion for him lasts because she knows that she will have no place without him, so she needs his love and companionship to have a place in the
In the text The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, the protagonist, Lily Bart, is oppressed by society because she is a female. Lily needs to get married to become more accepted in the upper class of society, …show more content…
“He would work and struggle for her, he would shelter and defend her, – She should never leave him, never, till their eyes in death were dim.” This shows how just because a man protects a woman, or provides shelter or care for her, she is indebted to him forever, and expected to love him until the end of time. “Close, close he bound her, that she should leave him never; Weak still he kept her, lest she be strong to flee”. This shows how man persecutes woman and binds her in his rules and power, he keeps her weak so that he will remain in power over her. If woman is kept weak by having no place in society without a man, she will need to stay with him to keep her place. “And woman? He will hold her, –he will have her when he pleases–”. This reveals how women must bend to man's every will and command. If he has her when he pleases, sometimes she would have to have him when she does not want to. “Gone the friend and comrade of the day when life was younger, She who rests and comforts, she who helps and saves.” Woman has been mistreated so long that she is now a shell of her former self, and all she does are her duties that man has put upon her. “The ages of her sorrow have but taught her to forgive!” She has been tormented for so long that even after all the horrors Man has put her through, she still forgives him for his actions. Her compassion for him lasts because she knows that she will have no place without him, so she needs his love and companionship to have a place in the