Patriarchy

Women’s Inconstancy “Inconstancy is a most commendable and cleanly quality; and women in this quality are far more absolute than the heavens, than the stars, than moon, or anything beneath it, for long observation hath picked certainty out of this mutability.” From this excerpt of the text, it is certainly epitomized by John Donne, on his opinion of all the women of the world. The author saw women as amazing creatures on this earth, and through his writing in Paradoxes, he exemplified women’s…

The shift in societal views following the First World War towards gender roles and identity influenced the writings and beliefs of Ernest Hemingway. One of the major changes occurs in the horrors and destruction found in trench warfare which damage the masculine “ideal of the autonomous, heroic warrior” (Bonds 1). Likewise, changes occur when women assume the jobs of men and abandon old ideals where women care for the house. Such shifts challenge the thinking of many, including Hemingway who…

The Awakening by Chopin contains many aesthetic elements of the modern bildungsroman. The main character of this novel is in fact a women; and this is an important twist on the modern bildungsroman because normally the protagonist would be male.By getting the other perspective Chopin allows herself space to critque a patriarchal Victorian society incapable of giving female artists not only the kind of respct they desrve but a livlihood as well. The Awakening breaks from the tradition of the…

Can a society truly function without the social normative of gender? Lois Lowry begins to explore this idea in her text The Giver. This fictional society contains binary oppositions which paradoxically reinforce and redefine gender. Gender is reinforced by the visual manifestations of girls and boys, assumption of gender based on sex and alternative treatment towards a specific gender. In opposition of these elements, gender is redefined by the fulfilment of occupational roles of individuals in…

Society is autonomous and incapable of being controlled; it oppresses some and shows favor to others. It manipulates the ways of the world and appointed men to be the slave drivers over women. Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers centralizes on the idea of inequality between the two genders and the silent yet powerful female opposition to it. The use of the name Minnie Foster, also referred to as Mrs. Wright, signifies the how her individuality is minimized, the equivalence of her name, through…

Through centuries of patriarchal rules dominating societies, socially constructed male gender roles of power and control have been ingrained in the minds of individuals. Though the desire of authority can be beneficial for personal growth and achievements, oppression and subjugation can ensue when those individual aspirations are enforced upon involuntary third parties. Clarice Lispector in The Hour of the Star, and Gene Luen Yang, in American Born Chinese, comment on this idea as they depict…

Language has the power to marginalize people Humans are creatures seeking to gain power in every possible way and so forth even in their use of language. In today’s society a common strategy to gain authority and power is to dehumanize, denigrate and to make a person or group feel less cofident. The pronouns ”girl”, ”woman”, ”female” etc are frequently used and referred to in a condescending way, for example to claim that someone is a bad runner: ”you run like a girl” or a bad driver ”you drive…

Next, this different justice is the modification within the standing of women and also the validating of patriarchy. The only real purpose of the previous revenge ethic was to defend the holiness of the filial bond, clearly declared by the Furies once they catch up with Orestes at Athena's shrine: "Every mortal who outraged god or guest or loving parent: / each receives the pain his pains exact" (Eumenides, 269-70). Clytemnestra does not invite the wrath of the Furies for killing Agamemnon, for"…

Kate Chopin is a renowned female American author during the late nineteenth century. She started writing stories and novels after the death of her husband and mother for consolation in the state of Louisiana, a place where she gained most of her inspiration (Jones 3). Throughout Chopin’s works, she repeatedly addresses the concerns of females over their social obligation, individual desires for freedom, and unequal relationship within marriages. By utilizing the literary elements of conflict,…

The period after the Second World War witnessed a struggle of women’s rights. Although women were very appreciated during the war, the return of the patriarchal society rejected the idea of women working. Such contempt for women is expressed in Plath’s poem, ‘The Applicant’. The poem may first appear humorous but its underlining context of the objectification of women turns it bitter. This is evident in the title. The word “Applicant”, itself is dehumanising, is associated with jobs, employers…