Feminism in American Literature-Final Paper

Feminism and gender roles have been a common theme in many of the texts we have read.  In the first three stories (“Yellow Wallpaper,” “The Revolt of Mother,” and “Trifles) I have chosen to analyze, the women are portrayed in stereotypical roles in a patriarchal society; but there are events that occur in the each story that create an insight for each woman that allows them to “break free” from the male domination.  In last narrative of this critique  (“Flowering Judas”) the author depicts two very different types of women and shows how their different approaches to life affect how men treat them and how they reciprocate those feelings. 

There are many parallels between the life of Charlotte Gilman and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.  “Despite her unease about becoming a wife and mother”(203), Gilman married and had a child.  Some of her true feelings about being a woman are reflected in her writing of “Yellow Wallpaper,” such as her obvious disdain for the conventions of marriage and the subordinate position she feels marriage places a women in.  In the story, a woman and her husband are staying at a house in the country while she recovers from a mental breakdown.  The husband is, “a physician of high standing,”(205) and he believes that the woman is not sick; that her illness is just nerves and she just needs to rest and is “absolutely forbidden to work”(205).  In response to his diagnosis she tells the reader, “Personally, I disagree with [his] ideas.  Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good.  But what is one to do?” (205).  Gilman shows how the male’s dominance and his belief that his superior intellect and wisdom, lead him to misjudge what the true problem is with his wife.  She writes in her journal but “he hates to have her write a word”(207), so she is restricted in her mental freedom as well as the physical limitations they have given her.  Gilman is painting a picture of a prison where this woman cannot be allowed to escape physically or even in a world created in her mind.  The ultimate insanity the woman in the story will suffer, is a product of the repression to adequately express herself and inability to be make her own decisions.  Gilman uses this woman as a symbol to women everywhere to enable them to let their voices be heard from under the domination of men.

Similar to Gilman, Mary Wilkins Freeman uses a background that is familiar to her own in writing “The Revolt of Mother.”  She grew up in a religious home with a family that each fit into their respective “roles.”  Freeman illustrates men’s domination in a different light in her story.  The father has promised the mother a new home since the day they were married but she has never mentioned it since, expecting him to keep his promise.  She had fulfilled all of her duties as a wife and never spent more money than was necessary so they could build the house; but when they were at last able to build the home, he began building a barn.  The authority of men isn’t as overt in this story because the father’s character is very quiet and doesn’t communicate with the mother, yet that lack of communication is how Freeman demonstrates the secondhand role that women play in this particular society.  The mother asks her son if he knew what the father was planning when he was going to build the farm in place of the house and when he responds positively, she asked why he didn’t tell her.  He replied, “Didn’t think ‘twould do no good”(147).  In excluding the wife and confiding in his son, the idea has been passed along to the son  that women don’t need to be involved or troubled with things of importance.  However, one of the great things that Freeman allows the reader to see, is how her character experiences an enlightenment along with a moment of courage and how this event changes her family’s life.  When the minister came over after the  mother had moved the family into the barn the speaker states, “her eyes showed the spirit that her meek front had covered for a lifetime”(156); she had found who she really was and didn’t feel the need to mask her emotions, as she felt she had needed to do before just because she was a woman.

 In “Trifles,” Susan Glaspell uses one event to show how differently the minds of men and women work.  When the various men and women enter the home of the Wright’s to inspect the murder they each start picking up on various clues.  One of the most telling scenes between the different ideas of the men and the women is in the kitchen, when the county attorney washes his hands and there aren’t any clean towels.  “Not much of a housekeeper would you say, ladies?” Mrs. Hale, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm . . .those towels get dirty awful quick.  Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.”  County Attorney, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see”(434).  This scene sets the tone for the rest of the story.  As the women begin to look around the kitchen they begin to feel sympathetic for the terrible situation Mrs. Wright was in,  as her husband was obviously oppressive and smothered the “lively”(435) girl she used to be.  They observe the quilt she was working on and the poor stitching; from the stitches they can tell that she was nervous about something.  Mrs. Hale decides to fix some of the stitching on the quilt.  When she goes to the thread box to gather more thread she encounters a dead bird, who was killed by it's neck being broken; much the same as Mr. Wright’s.  The women both know that it couldn’t have been Mrs. Wright who killed the bird, but it was most likely the doing of Mr. Wright.  As the men are trying to search for concrete evidence against Mrs. Wright the women hide the bird to protect Mrs. Wright.  They begin to think about all of the things they could have done to help her, to befriend her and in turn they feel as if they had committed a crime.  Glaspell shows how most are typically more sympathetic, and these women show this by trying to blame themselves for the murder that was committed.  Their feelings of guilt add to their lack of desire to tell the men what they know.   Though the women believe she may have committed the murder, in the end they do not tell the men what they know.  The women believed the greater crime was in the man who took the life and spirit from her.   The men and the women in this narrative both see the story from different perspectives, taking sides with their own sex.  Because of this gender bias, the story never has an official conclusion. 

Katherine Anne Porter depicts two primary female characters in “Flowering Judas,” who have extremely contradictory personalities.  In the 1920’s when this story was published, there were several major advances happening in the women’s right movement.  Porter incorporates these societal changes by demonstrating how the personalities of women were beginning to change.  The protagonist is Laura, who has come to Mexico to support a romantic ideal she has of the Mexican revolution.  She avoids any emotional commitment or true involvement in anything in her life.  Laura is disgusted by Braggioni, as well as other men’s attempts to romance her.  She cares little for her teaching, is struggling with her once firm Catholic beliefs and is not participating in the revolution because of conviction, but simply because she has no where else to go.  “Denying everything, she may walk anywhere in safety, she looks at everything without amazement,”(553) and allowing nothing to stir her emotions.  Laura is an independent woman who doesn’t show her fear or a need for others.

Porter then shows the opposite type of woman, what would be a more stereotypical woman of the time before women's rights- Braggioni’s wife.  She is supportive of Braggioni and, “organizes unions . . . walks in picket lines, even speaks at meetings” (555), and then “employs her leisure lying on the floor weeping because there are so many women in the world, and only one husband for her” (555).  Though in public she is liberal, in private she is still very much in the past.   Braggioni insists on his wife being “virtuous” and faithful, but allowing him his freedom and when she doesn’t stop crying over the issue, he leaves her.  She is totally devoted to Braggioni, in need of love and attention and when he is absent she grieves.  The ultimate form of her love for him is when he returns and there is a moment of reconciliation.  She asks for his forgiveness and she washes his feet.  Mrs. Braggioni’s worship of her husband is the antithesis of Laura’s outlook on everything in life.  By showing these two extremes Porter shows that both behaviors have their dangers.  The outcome of Braggioni’s wife if she continues on in her ways is fairly straightforward, and unfortunately many women suffer from being in a male-dominated society and do not see any other way to function.  However, it may be worse to end up like Laura;  unable to connect people or things that would bring happiness in order to keep one’s independence and solidarity.
Feminism and gender is one of the greatest binaries written about in literature; and it will continue to be as people are constantly trying to understand why men and women do what they do. 

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Steven's "Sunday Morning" was definitely overwhelming the first time I read it.  I had to go over it a few times take each section one by one to get any real meaning out of it; and then to really appreciate it-or to fully appreciate any text- I think it helps to put it into context by knowing about the author so I went back and read the biography again about Stevens.  In going back and reading more about Stevens, I was able to put together a few more things in the poem that hadn't stood out as much before. 

The major opposition in, "Sunday Morning" is substituting nature or paganism for Christianity or a natural religion for a supernatural religion.  The poem begins with a woman enjoying a "late/coffee and oranges in a sunny chair"(lines 1-2) or the more materialistic things in the world, before she begins to contemplate what the reader assumes is her recent separation from religion.  

Stevens stated, "In the absence of a belief in God, the mind turns to its own creations and examines them, not alone from the aesthetic point of view, but for what they reveal, for what they validate and invalidate"(417).  Stevens expresses these same sentiments in different words in section V of the poem when the women says, "But in contentment I still feel/The need for some imperishable bliss"(lines 62-61).  One can see throughout the poem the conflict the woman is having within herself over what the truth really is but in section VI it sounds as if she is having a revelation that paradise isn’t as incredible as people make it sound.  Paradise is “like our earth”( line 79) but “unchanging”( line 79), but she realizes that change is what makes things beautiful.  It is with change that things have the ability to reach their full potential.  She believes that because paradise is stagnant and unchanging it would be miserable.  In VII she has made her decision and it is about pagan worship and those thoughts are further extended into section VIII as she talks about “[living] in an old chaos of the sun/or old dependency of day and night” (lines 110-111) suggesting she has freed herself from her religious ties. 

Even if a person has never struggled with the same religious doubts as the character in the poem, I think Stevens has written a poem that everyone can relate to. Most people at some point in their life find themselves needing to do some introspection or “soul-searching” like the woman in this poem did, and can relate to the struggle she is going through as she searches for enlightenment.  

Midterm-Feminism

Feminism and gender roles have been a common theme in many of the texts we have read.  In the stories I have chosen to analyze, the women are portrayed in a stereotypical roles in a patriarchal society; but there is something that occurs in the story that creates insight for them that allows them to “break free” from the male domination.  The three stories I chose to analyze are: “Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Revolt of Mother by Mary Wilkins Greenman and Trifles by Susan Glaspell; because the women in each story are in very different circumstances, yet the dynamics in relationships between men and women are similarly illustrated. 

There are many parallels between the life of Charlotte Gilman and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.  “Despite her unease about becoming a wife and mother”(203), Gilman married and had a child.  Some of her true feelings are reflected in her writing of “Yellow Wallpaper,” such as her obvious disdain for the conventions of marriage and the subordinate position she feels marriage places women in.  In the story, the woman and her husband are staying at a house in the country while she recovers from a mental breakdown.  He is, “a physician of high standing,”(205) and he believes that she is not sick; that it is just nerves and she just needs to rest and is “absolutely forbidden to work”(205).  In response to his diagnosis she tells the reader, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas.  Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good.  But what is one to do?” (205).  Gilman shows how the male’s dominance and his belief that his superior intellect and wisdom, lead him to misjudge what the true problem is with his wife.  She writes in her journal but “he hates to have her write a word”(207), so she is restricted in her mental freedom as well.  Gilman is painting a picture of a prison where this woman cannot be allowed to escape physically or even in a world created in her mind.  Her ultimate insanity is a product of the repression to adequately express herself and inability to be free.  Gilman uses this woman as a symbol to women everywhere to enable them to let their voices be heard from under the domination of men.

Similar to Gilman, Freeman uses a background that is familiar to her in writing “The Revolt of Mother.”  She grew up in a religious home with a family that fit into their respective “roles.”  Freeman illustrates men’s domination in a different light in her story.  The father has promised the mother a new home since the day they got married and she had never complained, had fulfilled all of her duties as a wife and never spent more than she had to so they could build the house; but when they were able to build it, he began building a barn instead.  The authority of men isn’t as overt in this story because the father’s character is very quiet and doesn’t really communicate with the mother, yet that lack of communication is how Freeman demonstrates the secondhand role that women play in this particular society.  The mother asks her son if he knew what the father was planning when he was going to build the farm and when he responds positively, she asked why he didn’t tell her.  He replied, “Didn’t think ‘twould do no good”(147).  The father feels that the son can be confided in about the matter, but the idea has been passed along to the son as well that women don’t need to be involved or troubled with things like that.  One of the great things that Freeman allows the reader to see, is how her character experiences an enlightenment along with a moment of courage and how this event changes her family’s life.  When the minister came over after mother had moved the family into the barn the speaker states, “her eyes showed the spirit that her meek front had covered for a lifetime”(156); she had found who she really was and didn’t feel the need to mask her emotions, as she felt she had needed to do before as a woman.  However, just because she had a newfound liberation, didn’t mean that she still didn’t feel respect and love for her husband.

In the last story, "Trifles," Glaspell uses one event to show how differently the minds of men and women work.  When the various men and women enter the home of the Wright’s to inspect the murder they start picking up on various clues.  One of the most telling scenes is in the kitchen when the county attorney washes his hands, and there aren’t any clean towels.  “Not much of a housekeeper would you say, ladies?” Mrs. Hale, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm . . .those towels get dirty awful quick.  Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.”  County Attorney, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see”(434).  This scene can set the tone for the rest of the story.  As the women begin to look around the kitchen start to feel sympathetic for the terrible situation Mrs. Wright was in as her husband was obviously oppressive, and smothered what “lively”(435) girl she used to be.  Though the women believe she may have committed the murder, in the end they do not tell the men what they know, because they believed the greater crime was in the man who took the life and spirit from her.