Women of the Victorian period in British culture and all over the world were oppressed in many ways. They were told to keep quiet and do what society expected of them. It took women in Britain longer to convince the world of their rights than any other nation, and because of these strict guidelines that women had to live by, women writers would often express their feelings and opinions through their work. Characters in their literature would speak on their behalf to get the point across. Two specific writers, Elizabeth Gaskell and Christina Rossetti, show two completely different sides of women’s roles in society and how women interacted with each other. In Rossetti’s story Goblin Market, the two sisters protect each other from the goblin men and are independent. In Gaskell’s work The Old Nurse’s Story, the sisters fight for the attention of a man and do not show true sisterhood. These stories depict how the two pairs of sisters are influenced by their relationship with men. …show more content…
This is because in this time period, and even in some cases today, men are seen as being superior to women. Women of this era were merely expected to find a husband and have children. They were anticipated to marry for the sake of starting a family, and for women to want marriage for sexual desires was scandalous and appalling. A woman’s chasteness in this time period was crucial; In fact, this was so serious that they were not even allowed to speak to a man unless a married woman was present in the room with them so that they would not be