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Status In Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

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Gender Roles and Classification of Status Assumptions about how men and women are to behave were well portrayed during the 1900s and Daphne Du Maurier’s book, Rebecca, reflects the aspects of inequality between men in women through her exhilarating novel. There was a difference between the roles of men and women. A wife was to stay home and provide for the needs of a husband. While a husband was to dominantly suppress their needs towards their wife. These stereotypical expectations were portrayed through Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, published in 1938. Rebecca is about a young woman who marries a widower whose wife recently passed away. In this chilling novel the narrator falls in love with a man who upholds a dark secret about his dead …show more content…

This source of analysis presents an analytical perspective on the patriarchal hauntings within Rebecca. Pons’ connected villainy with the powerful positions within patriarchy. She proposes that “villainy in this novel is not exclusively linked to gender, and therefore, the victim and abuser statuses cannot be equated to femininity and masculinity” (69). Pon means to defend the idea that Daphne Du Maurier created a novel where we see both men and women desires to uphold a powerful position of status. This eventually leads to the characters in the story to commit acts of villainy. Rather than to blame a character for their villainy, Pon chooses to view the patriarchal system as the villain. Her perception is that the novel portrays the characters as unable to fulfil the expectation of gender roles from the patriarchal system therefore the characters are then led “towards hypocrisy, hysteria and crime” (71). Overall, Pons analysis is directed towards defending the idea that villainy in Rebecca is not directly related to gender, but instead it is connected with the desire to uphold a high position within terms of

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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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Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca has captivated audiences since its initial release in 1938. Upon its initial publication, the novel did not receive the kind of critical acclaim one might expect from a novel with the commercial success at the time of its first publication and with such lasting influence. Sally Beauman writes in the afterword to the novel that while “some critics acknowledged the book’s haunting power and its vice-like narrative grip, but — perhaps misled by the book’s presentation, or prejudiced by the gender of the author — they delved no deeper” (Beauman 431). The novel was not merely overlooked, however. With the novel following the “the archetypal scenario for all those mildly thrilling romantic encounters between a scowling Byronic hero (who owns a gloomy mansion) and a trembling heroine (who can’t quite figure out the mansion’s floorplan)” (Gilbert and Gubar 337), it was and often continues to be seen as a rewriting of Jane Eyre into a more modern timeframe.

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During the 1950s, gender roles were known as “stereotypical”, which they are compared to now. According to Life magazine in 1956, “The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared for her family, and kept herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her family’s suburban house and worked out on the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.” There are even newspapers about what women are supposed to do for their husbands,

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is set in the 1960’s, a time when men and women had specific and restrictive roles in society. Men were the ones to work and earn money for their families and women were expected to a caring and obedient homemakers. In many ways, those gender stereotypes are still very present today. The contrasting opinions of Atticus Finch and Aunt Alexandra provide the reader with the different views on how men and women should be raised, which in turn, affects the readers thoughts and opinions on the gender expectations and roles that are present in today’s society.

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Rebecca: Comparison and Contrast between the Novel and the Film Daphne de Maurier’s novel Rebecca (1938), later adapted by A.S.M.Ronaldson, tell us a psychological thriller and mystery story about a handsome man he is called Maxim de Winter. He is marry to Rebecca due to he loves about her that how much she is lovely and intelligent a lady. Over the year, he realizes the wrong decision he is taken on, then he fixes it by killing her and sink the body also he travels to forget. While he is in the Monte Carlo he fell in love with his new wife. After slight happy weeks, they turn back to Manderley.

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Misery: Challenging Gender Stereotype Misery is the most thematically satisfying of all Stephen King’s novels. The theme this paper will explore further is that of King’s disturbing interpretation of gender roles. Gender stereotypes are what is thought of as societal norms dictating types of behaviour based on whether a person is a male or female. In popular literature gender stereotypes often see women as good, pure and innocent, whereas men are seen as strong and at times the evil beings, most often being the villain.

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In stormy weather, a ship sinks off of the coast of Manderley. While seeking to rescue it the remains of Rebecca in her boat are found. This discovery represents a major turning point in the narrator and Maxim’s relationship. As the tension mounts with detectives trying to discover who shot Rebecca, Maxim finally reveals his true feelings about his dead wife (Du Maurier 266). The narrator was totally wrong in her assumptions about Rebecca and finds out that Maxim despised Rebecca for her independence and wicked personality.

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Thirdly, the classification of women into different classes prevents them from identifying their upmost enemy: masculine power. The relationship between the different groups of women creates a powerful atmosphere of suppression. In fact, Gilead promotes the act of woman against woman. Wives and Aunts controls and enforces the disciplines of the patriarchal society to other women, so one can clearly see that even women takes advantage of power. For example, Serena Joy, the Commander’s Wife who lives in vain hope for traditional womanhood, is the true traitor against women.

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The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).

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In what ways are women abused and discriminated against inside literature and throughout history? In many patriarchal societies, men have held authority over women due to gender. This power imbalance between men and women sometimes led to unjust treatment of women; men exert their authority over many women in the play, The Crucible. In The Crucible¸ male characters intimidate women to achieve specific outcomes and mark their superiority. Elizabeth Proctor, the protagonist’s wife, shows the standard for Salem women as she is submissive and does not defy her husband or the traditional role as a housekeeper.

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Furthermore, Feminist Criticism provides a better view of literature because it shows that women can be powerful. When Emilia finds out that her husband has been plotting an evil plan she says,” Tis proper I obey him, but not now”(Othello V.2.195). Emilia refuses to help her husband after she finds the cruel intentions he has despite the expectation of women always being submissive to their husbands. Women also have a voice and feelings, they are capable of defying their husbands commands when they know what he expects is simply wrong. In a literary article,The Role of Women in Othello: A Feminist Reading states that,” Society weighs heavily on the shoulders of women; they feel that they must support the men and defer to them, even if the actions of the men are questionable” (Literary Articles).

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Washing, ironing, sweeping, ferreting out the rolls of lint from under wardrobes—all this halting of decay is also the denial of life; for time simultaneously creates and destroys, and only its negative aspect concerns the housekeeper” (Beauvoir 380). "The Married Woman" is a chapter in Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex, which demonstrates her negative thoughts about marriage and the overall treatment of a married woman. I agree with Beauvoir’s argument concerning the inequalities between spouses and the exaggeration of house work because of the time the book was written. In 1950, women’s roles were greatly changed because the men came back from war and took their jobs back.

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