In the 19th century many debates raged on the correct way to showcase a women’s body in a painting. “What was the relationship between women’s moral and sexual nature?” (pg. 272), artist worked to find a balance between these two concepts. A successful combination of these two topics can be seen in the can be seen in Eclogue by artist Kenyon Cox. Cox’s painting depicts four women naked and partially clothed lounging about together in a field.
Love is different for each and every person. For most people it comes easy and happens early in life. “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, written by Zora Neale Hurston portrays that romantic love is the protagonists ultimate goal. The protagonist’s vision of true love us associated with innocence, openness, understanding and equality between Janie’s lovers. Marriage does not immediately lead to love, though it can be expressions of it.
For many centuries in our society women have been confined into a stereotypical idea of a patriarchal society. In today 's society the idea isn’t as much viewed upon with all the rights women have been given, but the concept still lingers in some of men 's minds. More so, than today, in the 19th century women were obligated to abide to the principle of gender roles and a male dominated culture. Women were seen as to be a slave and to act a certain way towards men as well as be able to gratify man 's lust of expectations of a perfect woman. These presumptions of women had been very much portrayed in short story , The Chaser by John Collier, in which a boy name Alan Austen seeks for a love potion from an old man, for a girl he likes name Diana.
Twenty years of marriage with Joe is nothing to Janie, as after only two years with Tea Cake she says to him, “We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. ”(159). Janie’s loving comparison of Tea Cake to the light at daybreak shows her appreciation for him, and that it does not matter that they are not rich. Her confident embrace of death also demonstrates to the reader that she has finally achieved her dream of true love.
As a result, weddings now, are just romantic desires for the wedding day and there is no association of the wedding to the marriage of two people and the married life. Thus, Boden argues that due to consumerism, there is a greater emphasis on the wedding as being a cultural event involving romance rather then a religious celebration. Subsequently, Boden presents the wedding fantasy of a bride as a transformation process that allows brides to stage their weddings into socially constructed events despite not feeling them to be authentic and romantic. Boden regarded these transformations of brides into Cinderella-like princesses who depended on industry professionals for their beautification and appearance. Furthermore, the emotions experienced by the brides were depicted as overwhelming, however, they were regarded as inevitable and it was seen at a more fantasy level symbolizing the wedding
Essentially, marriage in the 1700’s was seen merely as a means of birthing heirs and finding a way to financially support yourself, so it resulted in both men and women being devalued. It is universally known that women were often treated as inept and helpless rather than sophisticated people with autonomy and capabilities. In fact, during this time, “married women were consistently compared with minor children and the insane-- both categories of people considered incapable of caring for themselves. To marry a woman was, in one sense, to ‘adopt’ her-- or at least to adopt responsibility for all the circumstances of life with which she entered the marriage” (Teachman 39). Furthermore, when women got married, they would legally cease to exist.
Through this satirical writing, Wilde uses comparison of beauty and industrialism and juxtaposition between compliments and criticism to paint American social values as backwards and unappealing in order to dispel the glamour of a romantic American culture.
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).
For instance, Lady Bracknell’s hypocritical nature is exposed when the topic of marriage is brought up. “Lady Bracknell: But I do not approve of mercenary marriages. When I married Lord Bracknell, I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way (Wilde 78).”
During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.
Another theme illustrated through Wilde’s use of motifs and symbols is the theme of superficiality. The theme of superficiality can be understood as a sense of the superficial view of outer beauty that is shown in the work. It relates to the concept of remaining young, which is an important factor of what is shown in the novel. This is an important part of the novel because outer beauty plays a bigger role for Dorian, than inner beauty does. In the beginning of the novel, Lord Henry and Dorian have a conversation that focuses on the topic of youth and Dorian 's outer beauty – Lord Henry mentions the fact that Dorian has a beautiful face, and later during this conversation, Lord Henry states that: “youth is the only thing worth having…”
Wilde is greatly influenced by the societal movements in the Victorian Era, therefore the theme of hedonism is prominent displaying the influence of Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray and further explaining the consequences of selfishness and self-pleasure. The Aestheticism movement shockingly challenged all past standards of love, pleasure, and sexuality. Specifically this Victorian movement “promotes sexual… experimentation. ”(Burdett)
Love is a complicated affair, it involves the two lives of the couples and the lives of everyone around them. There are many factors that could break or make a relationship, for one to be successful they must be able to succeed in all of those factors. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest delves into these factors regarding love and marriage. Wilde stresses the importance of social status and gender expectations as a key guideline for a successful marriage. For Wilde, social status is defined as birth, wealth, and power.
Wilde’s comedic influence takes place in the characters placing emphasis on trivial things and treating serious matters with inconsequence. Though this play could be viewed as a simple comedy, what makes it a satirical work is the underlying social commentary. Wilde highlights his views on institutions such as love, marriage, and gender relations by satirizing their nature via reductio ad absurdum and thereby reveals their essential frivolity. Though marriage is traditionally viewed by society as the final step in a lover’s journey, Wilde intentionally separates marriage and love to the point where they seem mutually exclusive.
Oscar Wilde is known for his homosexuality that eventually lead him to jail, and the perception that is captured from the novel for this topic, apart from being completely ironical in relation to what was established in the British society, is quite strong and could be understood as a consequence of his own life. Marriage and romance are pictured as pointless, imprisoning, faithless, and even contradictory. For example, it is shown a different perception on how love and company are always the ultimate achievement people aim to but is, however, vacant and the only thing that can be taken out of them is loneliness, “The worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic” (Wilde, 1993, 9). On the other hand, once commitment has been made, not only loneliness persists, but, what once was supposed to be love, becomes necessity for they try to escape from life using as a means the other person, “The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties” (Wilde, 1993,
