The stone angel (1964) is a compelling journey seen through the eyes of a woman nearing the end of her life. Since her childhood, as the daughter of a respected merchant to her disruptive marriage, Hagar has fought a long battle for independence and respect. In the course of examining and trying to understand the shape her life has taken between her divided feelings about her husband and her passionate attachment to one son and neglect of another. So, she is sometimes regretful but rarely remorseful. Asking forgiveness from neither God nor those around her, she must still wrestle with her own nature.
On the first reading, the novel appears to be a story of an old woman consumed with pride. Margaret Laurence cites patriarchal society as a kind of instigating culprit for it and she argues that both men and women alike have been injured by the forces which lead to Hagar’s uncompromising pride which is raging towards freedom in the end. …show more content…
Hagar defines herself as her father’s daughter, raised in a tradition of patriarchal values. In order to resist the threat of death from which the image of her mother implies for her. As a result she dwells on the notion of the self made man as embodied by her father. As a self made person her father can deny his dependence on natural forces such as death. By adopting her father’s stern principles, Hagar attempts to become a “self made woman” independent of external forces.
In The Stone Angel male identity is synonymous with strength whereas female identity embodies weakness. Since Hagar defines herself as strong and independent, the gap between her own idea of herself and her female role seems to be unfeasible. Her difficulty in finding a fully-fledged identity originates in a manifest imbalance between traditionally male and female
On the first reading, the novel appears to be a story of an old woman consumed with pride. Margaret Laurence cites patriarchal society as a kind of instigating culprit for it and she argues that both men and women alike have been injured by the forces which lead to Hagar’s uncompromising pride which is raging towards freedom in the end. …show more content…
Hagar defines herself as her father’s daughter, raised in a tradition of patriarchal values. In order to resist the threat of death from which the image of her mother implies for her. As a result she dwells on the notion of the self made man as embodied by her father. As a self made person her father can deny his dependence on natural forces such as death. By adopting her father’s stern principles, Hagar attempts to become a “self made woman” independent of external forces.
In The Stone Angel male identity is synonymous with strength whereas female identity embodies weakness. Since Hagar defines herself as strong and independent, the gap between her own idea of herself and her female role seems to be unfeasible. Her difficulty in finding a fully-fledged identity originates in a manifest imbalance between traditionally male and female