Feminist Criticism In The Chaser

Early on, Elizabeth is confronted with the issue of a struggling marriage. She and her husband John find that their relationship is rather strained because Elizabeth

The story keeps on demonstrating that Alan is persuaded independent from anyone else love by his ability to seek after affection through guile. The setting of the story fits giving the inclination that something misleading is going to happen. He goes into an old working to work with an un-named old man. Collier gives the inclination that Austen is in a spot where he ought not be. The anonymous old man offers a mixture that Alan can provide for Diana without her taking note.

The feminist lens best applies to “The Story of an Hour”, it shows Mrs. Mallard who didn’t do what people thought she should do after her husband died In Mrs. Mallard’s relationship she felt controlled. The story shows she felt this way by what she was saying. Mr. Mallard over spoke Mrs. Mallard and didn’t really care for what she thought. Mr. Mallard made her live for him. She even knew that “... she would live for herself,” Said the Kate Chopin on page 158.

, Austen’s utilisation of dramatic irony makes it clear to readers that Emma was wrong about Mr. Elton’s feelings for Harriet. Her employment of Emma playing a matchmaker and hurting Harriet in the process just for her benefit and entertainment affirms the idea that women don’t have boundaries and are constantly sticking their noses in other people’s business.

This is when we discover how the men believe the women should be treated. It is also shown at the end when Kate makes her speech about how a wife should be submissive to her man. Such duty as the subject owes the prince/ Even such a woman oweth to her husband;/ And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,/ And not obedient to his honest will,/ What is she but a foul contending rebel (V.ii.7). In this quote, Kate compares wives to subjects of a prince.

These words give the novel a certain pace and sense of urgency. Self-deception signifies one of the main themes of the plot. To portray this Austen creates conflict between Catherine and the General. Catherine is ignorant to the workings of English society and comparable to the novels she reads visualises the General as a typical Gothic villain, who has murdered his wife, and she has paranoid assumptions that everything he does, relates to his guilty

As the novel progresses we get to see her flaws, her positive attributes and how she deals with discovering new things about herself. She hates Darcy for being so prideful, but then she begins to question if maybe she was just too prejudice. Aside from having this ability, so she thinks, to know people she also knew she was different than her society which plays a big role in how she sees herself. The society they live in pressures girls to get married for the status and the money.

Furthermore, Feminist Criticism provides a better view of literature because it shows that women can be powerful. When Emilia finds out that her husband has been plotting an evil plan she says,” Tis proper I obey him, but not now”(Othello V.2.195). Emilia refuses to help her husband after she finds the cruel intentions he has despite the expectation of women always being submissive to their husbands. Women also have a voice and feelings, they are capable of defying their husbands commands when they know what he expects is simply wrong. In a literary article,The Role of Women in Othello: A Feminist Reading states that,” Society weighs heavily on the shoulders of women; they feel that they must support the men and defer to them, even if the actions of the men are questionable” (Literary Articles).

Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” is set in the late 1800s – a time when women were considered inferior to men. Women had traditional roles as wives and mothers. In this 19th century patriarchal society, Chopin shows us Louise Mallard, the main character, who does not comply with the female gender norms of the Victorian period. When Louise learns about the death of her husband, her reaction and the reaction of her sister and the doctor tell us a great deal about gender stereotyping during this time. Louise Mallard is described to us as “firm” and “fair.

This is the opening line of Pride and Prejudice; a romance novel written by Jane Austen and published on the 28th of January 1813 by an anonymous author – the same pseudonymous that she had previously used to publish Sense and Sensibility -. Jane Austen was born in 1775 in England (Stevenson, Hampshire) and it is thought that by the age of 16 had already written many different novels, even though it was not until 1811 when she was able to publish her first novel. The novel brings up many relevant topics that reflect the British life and customs characteristic of the eighteenth century. Austen makes a critic on these topics in a subtle -almost unnoticeable- way, the characters personify the British old-fashioned values that the author rejects, giving the reader freedom to judge the situation, while guiding them to

She “appeared confident in innocence and did not tremble” (Shelley 68), which is an admirable quality of female who accepts her fate. Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine are ironically described in these submissive and objectifying terms in order to support the ideal that women were inferior and insignificant to

It is evident from reading Austen’s novel; Pride and Prejudice, that she possess a certain sense of empathy towards the female population and the roles they played in society. From the way in which the narrator speaks of the different female characters and how the female characters interact and develop throughout the plot, the women in this novel convey Austen’s distaste for the position women had in society during that period of time. In this essay I will discuss how the female characters view women and their roles in society and how they discuss topics such as; marriage, the ways in which a “proper” lady should behave, the roles of women in the family and finally how Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine in this story, portrays Austen’s subtle notion of rebellion towards these social constructs to which these women are tied to.

Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook.

The author tells about how young people leave their families for a wealthy man/woman, marriage is the goal. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, 5) Pride and Prejudice is a courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth; this novel is one of the most honorable love stories in the English language. In this love story they have to overcome many obstacles just as any normal couple would. Elizabeth has pride that makes her miss judge Darcy on their first time meeting, but Darcy’s prejudice which makes him misjudge Elizabeth because of her poor society standings.

Kate Chopin was an independent woman even while being married to her husband she walked alone through the city of New Orleans, and she argued with others about politics and social problems which were also not normal for a woman to do around the 1880’s. Her husband later died and though she mourned his death she embraced this independence even more. Chopin wrote about the life and the people of Louisiana (since she moved there after her husband 's death) and focused most of her writings on love, marriage, women, and independence. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” Chopin introduces the themes of freedom/Independence, the oppressiveness of marriage, and mortality through these three themes Chopin depicts the struggle of women during the 1880’s.