Feminism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Women were confined to the home, the household became the only outlet to express themselves and exercise their voices in decision making. For example, “their fashions, etiquette, domestic furnishings, social engagements, religious devotion, and charitable activity all served to delineate a universe within which women could demonstrate their power” (Conrad). Women took pride in various parts of their life,since it was the only way that they could express themselves. They made sure to put value in religion, charity, engagements, and fashions to represent themselves and family. Afterall , women did not have vast options to express themselves, they used available methods that were in their hands to separate themselves from each

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, one of the main characters of the story, is concerned about acting ‘like a girl’. Scout says, “I was not sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with” (Lee, 60). Scout learns that being a girl is inferior because her brother tells her to stop acting like one, and that being a boy is the superior gender. Society has taught Scout that being a boy is much better than being a girl, because she observes boys having more freedom, and girls having to fulfill and be restricted to certain roles. She also realized that ‘people hated’ girls because they always assumed things because they did not have the capacity to understand the problems that were happening in the world. This force Scout to separate from the rest of girls because she didn't wanted to seem weak, instead she wanted to have freedom and independence and the only way she could do it was by acting and pretending to be like ‘a boy’. Scout adapts to the social norms that rule her behavior as a girl, realizing she will have

In the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw describes a English woman who is looked down upon by society because of her dialect and occupation. As Higgins and Pickering are trying to talk Eliza (the main character, also known as the flower girl), she starts to feel different on the way they were treating her. Eliza describes that “Well, I feel a bit tired. It's been a long day. The garden party, a dinner party, and the opera! Rather too much of a good thing. But you've won your bet, Higgins. Eliza did the trick, and something to spare, eh?” (Shaw, ) Higgins and Pickering talk about her as if she was a pet or a performing animal. Eliza gets treated as a component of an experiment. They are rude to her and short-tempered with her. Higgins and Pickering impatience are not directed at anything she does or does not do, but at her mere mortality.They find her a source of entertainment, they also treated her as an experiment rather then a person. They often bring her down because she is not educated or ‘smart’ but in reality she learns fast and its able to understand and learn new things easily. “ELIZA. “Oh! if I only COULD go back to my flower basket! I should be independent of both you and father and all the world! Why did you take my independence from me? Why did I give it up? I'm a slave now, for all my fine clothes”