Charlotte Brontë

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” -Lewis Caroll. However, the speaker of the poem “Ironing Their Clothes” by Julia Alvarez believed that imagination will create a reality. The speaker lacks affection from her family members since their lives are too busy for love. She uses her duty to connect with her father, mother, and sister by replacing them with their clothing. She believes that she can not only express her love for them through this, but also mend all of their…

for women to be dominated by men. In literature, during the 19th century, women were often portrayed as submissives to men. During this time period women were controlled by “superiors” like their husbands or fathers. “ The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an excellent example of literature that portrays the submissions of women toward men. “ The Yellow Wallpaper” is an accurate ,useful description of the process of a woman's descent into madness through oppression. Hysteria…

Freedom of thought hasn't always been accessible for women. In the 19th century women were belittled and restricted from expressing their thoughts and feelings. And when a woman did express any form of emotion other than obedience, she was labeled as insane. Ernest Hemingway gave a reporter a perfect response of sexism over a friend's breakup, ¨But why couldn’t he have told her to go to hell? Because she was sick. It’s being sick makes them act so bloody awful usually and it’s because they’re…

Susan Glaspell, born in 1876 was an American play writer, novelist, journalist, and actress. In her time, she wrote many short stories and plays which began appearing in magazines and journals. One of Glaspell’s best works was a one-act play called Trifles written and performed in 1916. While working as a journalist for Des Monines Daily News, she covered the 1900 murder of John Hossack which is where she received the inspiration for the loosely based play and in 1917 was turned into a short…

A Man With All His F-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s Intact J.D. Salinger is an author with a complicated past of misogyny, pedophilia, and abusing his female spouses. Former lover of Salinger’s, though she prefers not to be remembered that way, and author, Joyce Maynard, has said, “The vision that emerges of Salinger’s relationships with women… is a bleak one, suggesting a man who spent his life fixated on a fantasy of youthful innocence while refusing to contend with the realities of day-to-day domestic…

If you do not stand up for yourself you will never be free. Freedom is essential for a happy life, but basic rights are so often taken from people. Amel Benaboura illustrates this issue in her short story ‘Only a Woman’ which depicts a young woman facing oppression in a patriarchal society. Benaboura uses metaphors, anecdotes and word choice to emphasise her key idea about fighting for your rights. Yamina is a young woman who has grown up in Algeria, a patriarchal society, where violence…

The title “My Last Duchess” starts with a possessive pronoun “my”, it shows men domination. Robert in this poem wants to draw the attention to women struggling at the Victorian era. Where the society was a patriarchy domination. Men play the major role while women only stay at home to offer what her husband and children need. women at that time were treated as an object. The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara, a powerful man who his family run Ferrara for many years. The poem started when the duke…

She is the inner sorrow of Savitri’s mind. Savitri goes beyond, to reach and listen to her mind and in the real world of sorrow. Savitri is in her way towards a complete transformation. She is in her inner suffering that leads her towards the mental change of her psychic soul. As she recounts her the various forms in which she works is not only the way she leads her life but she is the ordinary mind of human suffering; an ordinary lady of the world with full of sorrow and pain. Also the Mother…

“The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is a story about a strong woman named Elisa, who is limited to live her full self. Although the two key men in the story are less interesting and talented than she, their lives are far more fulfilling and busy. The author conveys to the audiences the picture of inequality society in gender through characters, conflicts, point of view, and settings of the story. Steinbeck has done a great job at describing characters by juxtaposing different genders. Henry…

Writing often reflects an author’s own experiences. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman does this by showing the shortcomings of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell’s rest treatment through Jane, the narrator of the story. She reveals how this treatment leads to mental deterioration and eventual insanity. Gilman further reinforces this idea through her response to her short story, titled “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’” which gives evidence that Gilman uses the narrator…