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Gender Roles In Othello And In The Time Of Butterflies, By Alvarez

893 Words4 Pages

400 Years in House Arrest
The past, when applied to gender roles, has the power to regress the advancements of generations of women. The right to voice one’s opinions or choose who to marry seem like the most basic behaviors that humans were designed to do. In reality, precedence for such privileges were based wholly on gender in previous societies. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Shakespeare’s Othello, and Alvarez’s In the Time of Butterflies reflect the confinements surrounding the life of a woman during time periods not even 400 years of one another. Gender roles portray women as inferior to men and limit individual ability to control their own life. A woman's expectation to shadow a submissive and obedient homemaker often results in conformity under dominant male figures, stripping them of the possibility to serve a meaningful purpose. …show more content…

Most women refrained from the workforce as a result of the deterrence that came with abandoning their domestic ties. Perhaps the strongest illustration of gender roles can be found in the types of women represented. George favored his ability to “go in an’ get drunk and get ever’thing outa his system all at once, an’ no messes” (Steinbeck 56). Prostitutes were a commonality among the men’s lives and bolstered their idea of female objectification. Curley's wife is the only female character largely developed in the course of the novel and is classified as “jail bait all set on the trigger” (Steinbeck 51). If a women was not a prostitute, they were labeled as jailbait, and viewed only as having sexual worth that often created more problems than it solved for the men. The extent of obscene depiction and their commentary on femininity in Of Mice and Men justify a woman’s inability to make a significant societal contribution even in the most dire periods of

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Julia Alvarez's historical novel, In The Time of the Butterflies, captures the lives of the Mirabal sisters and the Dominican Republic under the appalling dictatorship of Trujillo. Unfortunately, in a dangerous scheme to overthrow Trujillo, the Mirabal sisters meet their tragic fate. Before their death, these martyrs dodged through dozens of obstacles. In the Dominican Republic, it was extremely difficult for women to be respected and taken seriously because they were seen as domesticated and inferior. This old ideology of gender roles gravely affected the Mirabal sisters and their participation in their revolution against Trujillo; however, they still managed to challenge these gender limitations throughout the book.

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Gender roles are timeless stereotypes that belong in the 1950s, yet sixty years later they still exist. Even today, gender roles are still prevalent and simply change to fit new adaptations of society, but have become less stressed over time. In the two literary pieces, In the Time of the Butterflies and Othello, men control women in some way whether it be as their father, husband, or a man of acquaintance. Both pieces illustrate that a woman's place in society is thought of as being subordinate to a man’s, which causes women to feel inferior to men, and also to seek their approval.

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Mary Beth Norton is a historian who specializes in women’s history, her interview with Barker-Benfield uncovers her experiences and involvement in discovering the importance of female involvement in the late 17th, early 18th century history. Mary Beth and professor Peter Lapsion’s He Said, She Said article both explain why gender roles were so important in shaping and revealing todays gender morals in society. Mary Beth explains in her interview that in order to get a clear understanding of history, both women and men needed to be included to look at life in the 17th century. Norton clearly states that men and women had secret lives that were written in their dairies.

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John Steinbeck intentionally strips the women in the novella of their names, instructing audiences to view these women’s roles as limited. Not even once does Curley, her husband, refer to her by her name, only asking the workers, “[If] You seen a girl around here?”. Curley doesn’t respect her as an individual, only viewing her as an accessory to himself, the others follow this belief, hence the simplistic title of “Curley’s wife”. She is also described as having “full, red lips.” and her fingernails being painted red.

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From the 1600’s, to the 1900’s, to even the present day, there is one issue that has been a point of controversy for centuries. This issue is the case of mainstream patriarchal society systematically oppressing women of all ages and backgrounds. Although The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Trifles by Susan Glaspell are works of fiction, both touch upon society’s common belief that women were distrustful, deceitful, and simple-minded. Despite the fact that the events of each take place hundreds of years apart, both works share one exceedingly important aspect-- the respective societies both are based in cater to men and men only. Both The Scarlet Letter and Trifles feature situations in which conflict occurs, and due to the harmful

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George says, “She’s gonna make a mess… That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her” (Steinbeck 51). The men all know that Curley’s wife is a flirt, and Steinbeck makes it clear to readers that she puts herself out there and throws herself at people. Curley’s wife is treated very poorly by every single man working on the ranch. Readers, especially young boys, will receive the wrong impression on the correct way to treat women.

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Deception always has many perspectives; the truth, the fabrication, and how it is interpreted. An individual’s ability to deceive defines their effectiveness as a perpetrator. Within Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and William Shakespeare’s Othello, the antagonists of each convey themselves as divine, therefore attempting to distract from their misconduct and represent themselves sincerely.

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