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Comparing Women In Goblin Market By Elizabeth Gaskell And Christina Rossetti

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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

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During this period, many women authors came about. Therefore we see many works that include the struggles of gender roles in society. According to Stereotypes and Gender Roles, “Gender roles refer to the role or behaviors learned by a person as appropriate to their gender and are determined by the dominant cultural norms”(Worthy et al.). At this time women took on the expectation of early marriage and motherhood while men took on the expectation of working and providing for the family.

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The texts Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, explore the tensions between individual desires and social or institutional regulations. All three of the texts suggest that societies use regulations to protect individuals, from their own desires that may be harmful to them. The first example of this can be seen in the Goblin Market, with the character Laura. Laura’s desire to eat the goblin fruit, although forbidden, endangers her life and well being. Laura’s sister tries to prevent her from eating the fruit, yet Laura does not head this advice and eats the fruit anyway.

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Furthermore, this era was an era where women were seen inferior to their male counterparts. For example, women were not allowed to work the same jobs, or hold the same positions as men. This was essentially because women were told to marry young, bare children, and

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It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

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American Literature has certainly changed over the years, but women will always be a key element to literature. As a woman’s role in society changed, so did the way they were discussed in American Literature. In the beginning women were controlled, as well as not treated equally. With events, such as Women’s suffrage, equal rights were made possible. Although there were many constants that showed up throughout American Literature, the subject of women struck me as a very important topic.

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Not only did men see women as unintelligent, they also saw them as weak and compliant. What made this worse was that women of higher status would have a lot of free time since they had servants to do everything. They would spend their time strolling around or doing ‘feminine hobbies’; this affirmed mens’ notion that that women were idle and did not do much, so they treated them this way. To see how dire their situation was, one must must only have to read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While fictitious, this story does show one bit of truth, the way women were being treated during this era.

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Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak. Women living in this time period had to have their fathers choose their husbands.

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Firstly, what was the women, in particular, in the eyes of husbands and fathers in the family? In early modern Europe, many people believe in that, the most appropriate place for women was the family which gives them certain responsibilities like obedient daughters, wives, and widows. Many books and theories included that women should marry and constitute their own family. These kinds of thoughts were strengthened by medical assessment about '' the biological nature of women, who were thought to be at risk of severe physical and mental illness if they did not engage in regular sexual relations.'' General belief in that time was that women were sexually more greedy, which came in sight in ribald

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What Happiness Is In the essay “What Happiness Is,” Eduardo Porter states that happiness is a slippery concept. He believes that happiness doesn’t have a specific definition, it means different things to each person. In the essay happiness is broken down into 3 parts: satisfaction, positive feelings, and the absence of negative feelings. Porter says that most people think that money and economic stability will bring them happiness and because of that they will push themselves to do better at their jobs.

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The corruption women faced in the olden times were the social norm, and men were possibly unaware of any other way to treat women. In today’s times, it is a law that not only women, but everybody must be treated with respect without discrimination or racial injustices. While women face inequality at times, it is not normalized to treat women with disrespect. They are often misinterpreted and underestimated, but in the 1700s, women were expected to do one thing and only one thing: please the men.

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Clearly, most men in this time viewed women as lesser peoples, disposable, yet solely responsible for their household and upbringing of their

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Christina Rossetti, an English writer born in 1830, emphasizes the issue of gender, feminism, and the roles that women and men played in society during the Victorian era. In the poem “Goblin Market,” Rossetti suggests that women and men are great contributors to society and the market economy. However, through the Victorian era, men are seen and treated differently than women. “Goblin Market” seeks to define the power that men have in Victorian society, whereas women during the Victorian era were seen as weak, innocent and powerless human beings. Throughout the poem, however Rossetti characterizes women as strong, brave, hardworking and great contributors to society.

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Temptation in the Market The poem “Goblin Market” tells the story of two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, and their experience with goblins. The goblins are always trying to sell their fruits to the girls, but they always try and ignore them. One day, Laura gives into the goblins calls and buys some fruit from them. After Laura tastes the fruit she keeps on wanting more but can no longer hear the goblins call and starts to waste away.

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'Goblin Market ' by Christina Rossetti is centered heavily around the Christian faith. Rossetti makes many parallels between the characters and circumstances in the poem with stories and people of the Bible. Rossetti uses the characters Laura and Lizzie as representations of Eve, a sinner, and Jesus Christ. 'Goblin Market ' shows parallels with multiple parts of the Bible throughout the entire poem. The introduction of the allegory begins when two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, are tempted to buy wicked fruit by a clan of male goblins.

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