ipl-logo

Gender Role In Ariel Dorfman's 'Death And The Maiden'

1506 Words7 Pages

Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden” is a work of drama that aims to provide a social commentary on the social after effects of a post dictatorial regime. Dealing with gender roles, the ambiguity of the truth, and the role of justice - Dorfman provides an outlet for victims of war crimes to question their own experiences, as well as forcing an entire society to ponder questions that seem unanswerable. Through the use of the motif of light, contrasting scene choice and an important final dialogue, Dorfman creates a moving work that leads the spectator to wonder: viewing Paulina as a victim of a patriarchal society, do her strifes and emotional conviction make us more or less sure of the authenticity of her accusations? A pivotal part of …show more content…

The psychological impacts of a patriarchal society are seen throughout the production. Paulina is not only the victim of a crime, but also the victim of a society that has acted in a misogynistic way toward her. An interesting idea that Dorfman explores is whether this victimisation has served Paulina a significant disadvantage. Gender inequality seems prevalent throughout the play, particularly demonstrated through the relationship between Gerardo and Paulina. When Gerardo returns home in the first act, Paulina questions him regarding the truth commission leading to the revelation Gerardo has accepted a job that deals directly with the assault she faced without asking her beforehand. This conversation sheds light on the strict gender roles within the society. As Gerardo is symbolic of the stereotypical male, he is the breadwinner and dominant figure. The inference made here is that he need not consult his wife whose opinion is largely irrelevant due to her inherent insignificance as a woman, despite the fact that this new job title deals with events that affected her life so incredibly. This depiction of gender roles shows the disparity of power. Dorfman uses this issue as a dramatic technique to angle the audience in a sympathetic way towards Paulina, whilst subtly asking them to contemplate whether the disparity between men and women is fair or not. The shift in gender roles confuses the audience and forces them to potentially realign their sympathies - considering whether gender matters when evaluating abusive or unacceptable

Show More
Related
616 Words | 3 Pages

Orson Scott Card has written countless novels during his career, filled with excitement and sci-fi themes. Card has implied many western stereotypes throughout his reign of the sci-fi entertainment business. Arguably his most famous of those being Ender’s Game. Throughout the book Ender must go through training to become a commander in the war against buggers while Earth was going through a worldwide crisis. The book introduced minimal realistic male and female characters, of which followed close traditional stereotypes.

Read More
1667 Words | 7 Pages

This stubbornness attitude to be the one who works is absurd especially considering that his wife had studied to become a secretary and could have had made more money than he did working in a restaurant. The macho in himself is reluctant to engage in frank discussion of any important problem, because if he risks expressing an opinion, he must literally be ready to fight for it (Stevens 58). This attitude creates a void in his relation with his wife with whom he is afraid to communicate his deepest feeling. In addition, we can see his sexist attitude toward his wife when he unintentionally describes her as his possession. In his research on gender roles, one of the Jered Pigeon’s respondents describes his wife as such: “When I got with my wife I thought of her like the animals that I have owned.”

Read More
865 Words | 4 Pages

In comparison to the movie, the play undermines male dominance by focusing on women’s efforts to solve their own problems. First of all, there aren’t even men in the cast of the play,

Read More
960 Words | 4 Pages

Overtime, the patriarchal system has been challenged and the defined gender roles are in the process of being eradicated. By presenting the plays protagonist Loureen, as an abuse victim that finds her voice and stands up against her battery, Lynn brilliantly illustrates that

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

INTRO - "An Act of Vengeance" by Isabel Allende is a latin-american piece of literature. - According to feminists critics, literature adapted to this patriarchal society we have, and the feminist author, Isabel Allende, has exposed how men and women are in the society through her characters Dulce Rosa Orellano and Tadeo Cespedes. - The feminism theory is the outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide. It recognizes and critiques male supremacy combined with the efforts to change this patriarchic view.

Read More
1410 Words | 6 Pages

Priestly depicts gender stereotypes to emphasise gender in a capitalistic, misogynistic and patriarchal society, in his play 'An Inspector Calls'. Priestly portrays women as emotional, commodified, materialistic and irresponsible to highlight the way that a misogynistic capitalist society operates. In a similar manner, Priestly presents men as arrogant, ambitious, dominant, and strong. By doing this Priestly aims to critique capitalism and the underlying implications and undercurrent of problems which capitalism brings to provoke a reaction in the audience to promote socialism. Priestly presents women as weak, emotional and irresponsible throughout the entire play by using Sheila to show the 'pink and intimate' safety bubble and facade which her family lives in.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

The prejudice that the author brings forward strongly is the notion of feminism. The author’s main purpose of writing this novel is to examine the role of women played around

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

Ariel Dorfman’s story, Widows challenges the idea of nationalism in his story of European widows challenging the government in protest for their extermination of their village’s husbands, fathers and sons. Anti-nationalism is defined as the view against identifying yourself by only a single community, whether it is a town, a province, though most of the time a nation; encouraging a peaceful outlook onto the world where all humans do not divide themselves against each other and look at humanity as a singular unit. It is an idealist view which sponsors against classism and sexism, being in contradiction of the use of military aggression and chauvinism. This message is encouraged throughout the novel, from the expository preface to the ambiguous ending. It is not just to the story and the characters, it is even the disjointed narrative style which encourages the principles Anti-nationalism.

Read More
823 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1441 Words | 6 Pages

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a satirical novel written by esteemed Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. Originally written in Spanish, the novel was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa in 1982. The novel, set in 1950s Colombia, outlines the events surrounding the Vicario brothers’ murder of Santiago Nasar, a man accused of taking the virginity of their sister, Angela Vicario. The novel is written in a pseudo-journalistic, non-sequential reconstruction of events by the narrator. The narrator is a journalist and old friend of Santiago Nasar returning to the small town in which the events of the novel take place, intending to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder.

Read More
1737 Words | 7 Pages

Although being written centuries apart, the limited expectations of women presented in ‘Othello’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ differ little from each other. The female characters are confined by society’s expectations of male dominance, female purity and virginity, and the many passive roles of women. Despite the differing legalities surrounding the position of women between the centuries in which the plays were written, both plays explore the impact of how societal conventions confine women and the ways they must comply to be safe in a patriarchal society. The behaviours and treatments of Desdemona, Blanche and Stella illustrate the attitudes enforced on and the behaviours of women throughout both periods in time and it is these attitudes and behaviours that impact the plays to the greatest extent. When characters in either plays defy their norms, or demonstrate a lack of compliance they induce negative consequences, such as the murder of Desdemona and the institutionalisation of Blanche.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

Ever wonder about gender roles in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew? In Taming of the Shrew, the gender roles affect the characters in a rather negative way, and when they surface in the play, it’s rather shocking. This essay will discuss how gender roles affect the characters in what I believe is a negative way, and how they surface in the play. In this play, the men appear to have a particular idea on how all women should behave.

Read More
1408 Words | 6 Pages

In today’s world, gender expectations and roles of men and women are a highly debated topic. However, the reconsidering of these expectations is not a new phenomenon. Set in Verona, Italy, the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare explores the reversal and fluidity of characteristics usually assigned to a specific gender. In this play, two young people fall in love and end up tragically taking their lives as a result of their forbidden love. Shakespeare suggests that men are not necessarily masculine, women are not necessarily feminine, and that when people are forced by society to act the way their gender is “supposed” to, problems will arise.

Read More
1360 Words | 6 Pages

A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions

Read More
845 Words | 4 Pages

The feminization of Adam continues to develop throughout the play and it is a key element to understand the submissive role of the character who is subject to objectification and manipulation. Another aspect in the play that allows the reader to identify Adam as a victim of Evelyn is the element of

Read More

More about Gender Role In Ariel Dorfman's 'Death And The Maiden'

Open Document