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The Little Foxes Literary Analysis

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Throughout the their lifespans many authors receive criticism on every work of theirs, whether it be good or bad. Criticism can be received from all sorts of people. Every literary work has the potential to be broken down into multiple schools of thought, but when it is done professionally by a literary critic the criticism is generally specialized into a certain school of philosophy. One particular work by the author/playwright Lillian Hellman is “The Little Foxes”. “The Little Foxes” can be characterized by the feminist school of criticism. The feminist school of criticism pertains to the ideas of how the oppression of gender affects a literary work. “The Little Foxes” is perfect for the feminist school of criticism because of the many different …show more content…

The most noticeable element added is irony. There are multiple cases of irony in this play. The first case is with the juxtapositioning of Regina and Birdie. They are both women during 1900 and they belong to the same family, but they are still so different. The irony is that Birdie was originally from a family of aristocracy and “nobility” in a sense and now she is very poorly treated. Regina, on the other hand, wasn’t of any special background but she will soon be treated like a queen and she will have the wealth of the elite class. Another case of irony is again with Regina. However, this time it involves Alexandra as well. Regina is a woman that is more than capable by herself and doesn’t believe she has to listen to anybody. But, after Horace dies she tries to make her daughter, Alexandra, do what she says. She wants Alexandra to come live with her in Chicago after they make their fortune. Ironically, Regina tried to do to her daughter what she didn’t want to be done to her. Regina’s efforts have failed as Alexandra matures and realizes that she must escape the Hubbards and her mother (Hellman Act 3). In conclusion, criticism can be applied to literary works through many schools of thought. Given, Lillian Hellman's personality her feminine ideals are expressed through her works. Her ideas were and are integral part of history for not only women, but society as a whole. In order to express her ideas more clearly and add to the plot Hellman uses literary devices such as

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