Women and Literature
Women authors, since the early nineteen sixties, were inclined to portray women in their book as either being submissive and oppressed people or rebellious and stubborn. The authors endeavored to showcase the female gender as being a weaker sex as compared to men, and in the end, they would advocate gender equality. Some of the early female authors include; Margaret Atwood, Virginia Woolf, Susan Gubar, and Maya Angelou ( Nair, 56). Modern female authors have also tried to portray women as strong and independent people who can vocally advocate for what they deem fair and deserving to them. Some of the modern Female authors include; Chimamanda Adichie, Toni Morrison, and Mallory Farrugla. This paper seeks to address women in literature and how women have been envisioned in different books by the authors.
Several things can be observed from the writings of the different authors of their feministic perspective and how their writings portrayed women in society. Some writings were a revelation of the life the authors had to undergo in order to be the people they are today. Other authors wanted to be an inspiration to the rest of the female gender by encouraging them to set their different affiliations aside and work together for the betterment of their (Nair, 46). One of the factors that drove some of the writers to write is the misogynistic nature of the male-dominated society that viewed women as objects that satisfied their wanton desires and childbearing people rather than men’s equals as seen in Chimamanda’s writings. The African American female authors in their writings aim at discussing gender equality and racial discrimination and how it has affected their political, cultural, and career lives.
Virginia Woolf is termed as the radical and mother of feminism of all time. In her writings, she strives to portray women as strong and independent women of the society who can stand up and fight for their rights and against oppression in a male-dominated society. Her works have been quoted in hundreds of the twentieth-century literature due to her feministic criticisms. She analyzed and sought to describe how literature portrays the never-ending narrative of male domination by exploring the economic, social, and political forces embedded in it ( Woolf, 63). One of her notable criticisms is observed when she acknowledged that female authors portrayed women as either very pure angelic creatures who obeyed and always did what right or rebellious people were. She encouraged other female authors to be creative and use literature to portray the female gender from different perspectives rather than the obvious ones. She encouraged the appreciation of the criticisms to analyze the writings from a perspective that created awareness of the sexual politics of the distinct styles and language used by the writers.
In her writing, Mrs. Dalloway of 1925, she talks about a middle-aged lady who tries to put up with her psychologically disturbed soldier- husband. She used literature as a way of draining her miseries as she lost her mother, father, and close sister, who acted as her mother when her mother passed away, which is similar to what Mrs. Dalloway was going through (Woolf, 45). She was in distress and strived to achieve a stable life with her mentally disturbed husband, who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which was what Virginia Woolf was undergoing a significant part of her life. She was diagnosed to be bipolar and was institutionalized several times to combat her mental illnesses. Virginia Woolf was able to view literature away from the everyday norm that women were fragile creatures who needed dependence on men to survive, and they are subordinated to the male gender in society.
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in their work, “The Madwoman in the Attic.” which was published in 1979, discusses the grievances of a woman who was forcefully restrained in her attic by her husband. Sandra critics the notion by female writers that women can only be two options in their writings; either a good and submissive woman or a rebellious madwoman who did not conform to the expectations of the society of how a woman should behave. They attributed this tendency of writers portraying women in a particular aspect to the male writers who subjected women to conform to the dichotomy society set for them ( Gilbert & Gubar, 301). Susan and Sandra align themselves to Virginia’s Woolf perspective that it is prudent for female writers to get rid of the notion that women in books are to be viewed as either pure or rebellious nature which is not correct and accurate as women and female authors are limited to the two aspects of how women should be.
Their work was characterized to increase gender equality, political franchise, and ability to exercise their political rights to the optimum. Their work took place during the second wave of feminism in the 1960s that advocated for women to vote, take part in their political rights such as campaign and vie for positions ( Gilbert & Gubar, 239). Suffrage was a gradual process that took place since the effect of the first wave of feminist activity had not met its full effect as gender equality had not yet been achieved and was still a menace. The second wave aimed at creating awareness of the issues that affected women in their daily lives such as sexuality, discrimination at their occupation areas, at home in their families, reproductive rights which included their right to family planning and the domestic violence that took place in the marriages in the early nineteen sixties’ and eighties’.
In their writings, Gilbert and Gubar advocated for female writers to move away from the double perspective that existed and creates a new dimension of how women and women writers viewed and portrayed women. They encouraged writers to identify themselves differently in their work as well as being autonomous in how they present their ideas and write from a feminist perspective. They further discuss that one of the reasons that female writers have not created a fresh perspective of how women have been envisioned in society and books was a lack of good role models in writing for them. Gilbert and Gubar find that the nineteenth-century writers lack developed writers to provide mentorship to them of how well they can diversify their writings and exercise an autonomous way of expressing their narrative in a developed and distinct way far from the conventional view ( Gilbert & Gubar, 450). It is quite notable that the lack of good mentors in writing played a role in the slow development of female writers and feminism in society.
Another piece of literature that has been of great essence in the unit is Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin that was published in the early eighteen ninety. The short story involved a woman who was adopted by two French parents and took care of her for all her life, Desiree. Desiree is involved in a romantic relationship with a well-known, wealthy French family, Armand, and they end up getting married and are blessed with a child. The child possesses a different skin color, unexpected to both parents, and she is African American ( Chopin, 98). Armand accused Desiree of being black since she was quite aware that he had a dislike for the black people and could not stand them. She denied the allegation saying she was not black as she did not possess any features that identified her as being African American, and her ancestry was unknown to her and her adopted parents. Out of anger, Armand forces Desiree to leave his house and return to her home as he cannot accommodate her with her daughter because of their ancestral heritage. He destroys and burns all of Desiree’s belongings as well as their child’s belongings among the letters they wrote to each other when they were dating. Unknown to him, he burns a letter from his mother to his father, disclosing that Armand was partly black because of his mother’s ancestry.
In her work, Kate Chopin aimed at addressing the issue of gender equality in society and how women are viewed to be the one at fault and not the men. In the short story, it did not occur to Armand that he possessed African ancestry, and all were pinned on Desiree’s for their child’s skin complexion. The woman is viewed as a victim who is submissive and subordinate to the male gender in society and is not permitted to be vocal and stand their ground. Desiree, in the book, suffers and goes through hardships that are beyond her ability to control ( Chopin, 54). She takes her belongings and leaves her husband’s house to get away from domestic abuse and suffering as well as to protect her child. She is not portrayed as a rebellious and ‘madwoman’ as termed by Gilbert and Gubar.
Desiree’s Baby also portrays the aspect of racial discrimination against black women in society. In the early eighteen seventy, it is crucial to note that racial discrimination was quite prevalent in the world as well as gender inequality; therefore, a black woman was subjected to both gender and racial discrimination on aspects that were beyond their control. In the book, it depicted the afflictions of the woman of color and how the white community treated them to be less deserving and unworthy of being respected and treated with dignity. Her portrayal of women has been discouraged by Virginia Woolf as well as Gilbert and Gubar since it falls under the familiar dichotomy that women are either pure angelic human beings who follow what the men in the society say and the rebellious women who stand up for their beliefs and values to their oppressors ( Chopin, 67). Desiree did not stand up to Armand, leading to her not getting to the root cause of whose ancestry is of African heritage. She left home never to be seen again since Armand instructed her to do so. It was also clear that a fault on the child was to be pinned on the woman and not the man as the women in the society was the less disadvantaged, and therefore any wrong cause was to be blamed on them.
The book Desiree’s Baby was of great significance in this course, women and literature, as I was able to appreciate the female writers who advocated for women’s rights and place in the society without being rouge and disrespectful in their narrative. It is also observed that they used hidden styles and literacy to convey their message to avoid stirring war between the male and female gender. Kate Chopin was one of the female writers that led the revolution in South California in the early nineteenth century that gave a platform for other female writers to share their feminist perspective through writing ( Chopin, 156). The book also addressed the issue of racial discrimination and gender inequality among black women and how it affects their current and future lives. It is important to note that gender inequality and racial discrimination among black women in the 21st century are still prominent, and it is for this reason that female writers are still writing about gender and race discrimination.
Women in literature and literature about women is an ancient phenomenon that existed in order to fight for the rights and place of women in the society subtly. The literature was also a mechanism to portray how women are viewed in society and the conformities that the society has in place for them of what they can and can not be. The paper has also addressed how female writers encourage each to find a different perspective of how women can be classified in their writing to avoid the standard dichotomy the society has set. The paper has addressed adequately how female writers depict women in their work and what impact it has on the society on the status of women as seen in Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin.
Works cited