An Unmarried Woman

The man owned the woman, and therefore the woman was under the control of the man. Even girls had to learn how to take care of the household at an early age. The women would teach the girls how to become a good mother and wife when the time came. They would also make sure that the home…

The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in literature in the late nineteenth century and continued to have a profound impact on twentieth century literature. Kate Chopin’s novel, the Awakening, and Virginia Woolf’s novel, To the Lighthouse, contained characters heavily influenced by New Woman ideals. Edna Ponteiller and Lily Briscoe are “unlike the odd woman, celibate, sexually repressed, and easily pitied or patronized as the flotsam and jetsam of the matrimonial tide” (Showalter 38).…

The commissioner expresses his emotional struggle with his son and wife, the prosecutor is dealing with the loss of his wife, and the doctor’s living an unmarried and childless life. The mystery here isn’t only about finding the dead body, but it is prominently about the existence of the men themselves. The driver, Arab, also emotes to the doctor about how dissatisfying and frustrating his job has been. The…

voice is not necessarily that of anger, but rather one that is both worried and hurt by the perceived adulterous acts committed by her husband. If his tardiness has developed into a pattern, Adriana may feel that she is losing her husband to another woman. Here, we not only see women in a larger role, but we also see the raw emotions of a wife who fears that her husband has been unfaithful. Oftentimes in plays, we only see the husband's side of the affair; Shakespeare is attempting to humanize…

Gertrude appears content to remain stagnant in her social position, Lady Macbeth attempts to forcefully take control of her destiny to become queen by manipulating Macbeth into fulfilling their plan to murder King Duncan. However, such ambition by a woman was considered unnatural during Shakespeare’s time (Greenblatt 18)—an idea clearly articulated by Macbeth when he remarks that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (1.7.73–74). Consequently, Lady Macbeth acknowledges that she…

Landlord Paranjoti Udayar rapes her and continues to exploit her sexually .Thangam is compelled to accept a fifty-year-old, upper caste, rich master's "lustful assaults".(57).This demonstrates existential angst of a dalit woman .Caste hierarchy and vulnerability owing to gender constraints facilitate Thangam's sexual exploitation. The violence which is perpetrated on Thangam's body by Udayar’s brothers-in-law portrays caste violence and sexploitation of a Dalit woman’s body…

two choices, one man or the other. The option never exists for her to simply not be with a man, to not conform to the societal expectation of women. The Awakening presents Edna Pontellier, a wife and a mother, transforming from the ideal picture of woman to pursuing her own desires. Women’s desire is not only shown from the plot, the lives of Eliza and Edna, but also rhetoric. This rhetoric of female desire is shown throughout the text, not only from the women characters, but through the male…

Unmarried women in these societies were mainly judged on either the status of her parents or based on the status she held herself to. Mannarelli defines it as, “according to the prevailing morality, female honor arose from a woman’s retiring nature, virtue…

creating likable characters and stress that their inherent goals are not directly affected. For onna-bugeisha, the bushidō code required a woman to give herself completely to her clan and shogun. Kikiyo’s love for InuYasha clouds her judgement and inevitably gets in the way of her position as the guardian of the shikon jewel. Miko were usually young, unmarried, and preferably virgin women that did not take lovers. Being seduced by a demon’s tama or spirit was, needless to say, frowned upon in…

Europe undoubtedly gave a great amount of empowerment to women and allowed them to contribute considerably more towards the economy than they had previously. Many women recognized this liberation that came when they were widowed and chose to remain unmarried. Although the majority of women were still dependent on men in some form due to their ability to trade solely relying on the fact that they are widowed it was still a great amount of independence. “Widows who had inherited money or property…