Each play depicts a dutiful and loyal wife, Sarita and Nora. It justifies that a wife can do everything for her husband. But their husband cannot give even respect to his wife. It means that a woman remains a puppet from birth to death under her master --- sometimes in the form of father or brother or husband or son. It shows that our society is a male dominated society where female-voice is always denied by the male. Sarah Grimke aptly says:
Man has subjugated women to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasure, to be instrument in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could do to debase and enslave her mind. (Grimke, 10)
The life of Indian married women is totally based on various types of compulsions. Both plays raise certain cardinal questions regarding the value system of a modern man who is ready to sacrifice human values in the name of humanity itself. Vijay Tendulkar only highlights the condition of married woman but doesn’t give any suggestions or solutions. Henrik Ibsen provides a revolutionary key to women who wish to preserve their self-respect in the contemporary life of the English society. Kamala has a well-knit structure. It shows all the stages of plot- construction which makes the action of the play very lively. It is divided into two acts. Act I contains the
The Role of Women in Society In this essay, I will discuss the many roles women had throughout society in The Ramayana, Sundiata and Macbeth. Based on the assigned readings, women were described as manipulative and cut-throat individuals that were willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. With a goal in mind, they were able to exploit others into doing things their way and have favor in their eyes. The women would use their charm for good and evil, for whatever reason behind their calculated motives their actions had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the story. The Ramayana, is your basic love story “boy loves girl, girl loves boy”.
In the play Les Belles Soeurs written by Michael Tremblay, which takes place in Montreal, Quebec during the 1960s, the generation gap causes tension between the younger generation and the older generation. The younger generation goes against traditional values which causes the women to have very different opinions on many aspects in the play. There is constant tension between the women in the play as they all hold different values on a societal and religious level. This is portrayed throughout the play through gender norms, prestige and social status, and the Catholic religion. `
In both plays, the females characters — Evadne and Arethusa — assume a more masculine role as warriors in the fight for love. However, in order to demonstrate that Evadne and Arethusa do act as warriors, a focused analysis on the feminization of their male lovers is first necessary because it leads to the circumstances that prompt Evadne and Arethusa to take action against the king. In the opening scene of The Maid’s Tragedy, the audience is informed of the awkward situation between Amintor, Aspatia, and Evadne. Amintor’s relationship with Aspatia, who, at one time, “had [Amintor’s] promise” (1.1.138) to marry, is set aside not by Amintor himself, but by the figure of the King. It is the King who “made [Amintor] make the worthy change” (1.1.139)
The diction of the play helps to advance the plot and the theme of this play immensely. The word choice between the genders is different; the women sound more educated whenever the men aren’t around. This goes to show that women were only expected to speak if they didn’t sound nearly as intelligent as the men did. Glaspells use of this gives the reader the impression that the women don’t even want to be speaking properly, for fear of rebuke from their spouse. The author’s use of diction helps us to understand the women and their importance in the society at the time.
The relationships between gender and power in A Doll’s House and Lysistrata ‘One is not born, but, rather becomes a woman’. Lysistrata and A Doll’s House both present the disadvantaged position of women in their respective societies. The two plays present the relationship between gender and power and follow two women who go to extremes to become liberated from the restraints of their oppressive and dominating patriarchal society. Therefore, it is clear that both Nora and Lysistrata demonstrate the potential for women 's power and resistance in situations of male dominance in a hegemonic patriarchy. In order to prove this, it is important to look at the relationship between man and power, woman and power and the ways in which Nora and Lysistrata embody this power in the two plays.
Kamala was a major influence in Siddhartha’s life. She was what set Siddhartha onto the wrong path that was necessary for him to understand life. On his travels as a Samana, he encounters the beautiful woman known as Kamala and asks for her to become his teacher. In order to become her student in the art of love, Siddhartha must look rich and actually be wealthy in order to afford gifts for her (Hesse 54).
The one-act play, “Trifles,” by Susan Glaspell, has several themes that are incorporated within it. There are several dominant ideas such as female identity, patriarchal dominance, isolation, and justice are themes that are all reflected in different ways throughout the play; however, gender is the main theme of “Trifles.” There is a considerable difference between the roles of the men and the women in this play. The men are expected to act in a more controlling, dominant way, while the women are expected to act in the typical ‘housekeeper’ fashion. The theme of gender is brought out through the play in many dramatic elements such as character, tone, and dramatic irony.
There are many ways in this film where we see women dependent and subordinate to male authority. To begin with, in the beginning of the film Dadi explains about the process of how women are traded off as braids. The tradition in India is that women at young ages are traded off as wives. What happens is that men and their families arrange marriages for these young girls who have no say in whether or not they want to proceed with being married. Whichever wive the man and his family chooses he gets.
There is a transformation in the image of women characters in the last four decades. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of the famous contemporary Indian English writers. Her novels give
Lilith is a crazy well written play that incites a lot of complex emotions. This play has qualities that would cause a reader or audience to be entranced such as a strong emotional pull and passion, however the racism, sexism, and downright lack of respect for any type of life is somewhat disgusting. The moral of the play is how women use sexuality to manipulate men only gave a backdrop to the playwright to use to reinforce these prejudices. The inciting incident that occurs before the play is when Lillith goes to the dance with Harvey and decides to marry him for money.
The male roles in the family seem to be above females’ because they get to make decisions for girls. Men feel dominant to women, so the same behaviors as the women are acceptable for them. Along with these, the ladies are not expected to crave love and affection like the gentlemen do. The gender issue of men being dominant and women being submissive used in the drama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shows the differences in the roles, behaviors, and expectations appropriate for each gender and is an example of an outdated stereotype. Unlike the time frame of this literature, women in the present are valued equal to men.
This play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, focuses on women, especially in marriage and motherhood. Torvald is a character, who describes inequality between men and women and the women’s role in the society in that era. He believes that it is an important and the only duty of a woman to be a good wife and mother. As an individual, a woman, could not conduct or run a business of her own, she needs to ask her father or husband and they were only considered to be father’s or husband’s property. Women were not allowed to vote and divorce if they were allowed they would carry a heavy social shame and it was only available when both partners agreed.
Kate Chopin is the author of the most popular short story "The Story of an Hour". Chopin paints a bleak picture of marriage in this story. It is a short story focusing on a young married woman of the late nineteenth century as she reacts to the news that her husband has died in a train accident. The story was written in a time period when women did not really have right to express their feeling and desire. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of the family whereas the husbands went out to work.
Henrik Ibsen has written many significant plays about women in the 19th century. One of his most significant works is “Ghosts”. The play “Ghosts” talks about women and the idea of “duty”. The play talks about the idea of the “duty” of women as mothers and wives. The play also talks about how society in the 19th century are the ones that identifies the meaning of “duty” therefore they put women in a mold that they have to follow.
Domestic violence is one such important issue which has been taken as the main theme in many movies. Films are considered as cultural artefacts and therefore the directors find it the best medium of representing the social and cultural reality of the domestic life of women in most of the Indian households. Advait Chandan’s directorial debut, Hindi movie Secret Superstar is a realistic film which deals with the issues of domestic violence and oppressive patriarchy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the movie Secret Superstar from a feminist angle and explore the subtle nuances of a woman’s life which is best represented in the film by the two major characters Insia and Najma. The former is forced always to abide by the rules and regulations of the patriarchal society and the latter who even performs her womanly duties faithfully is the victim of