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Women's Domestic Lives In Early 20th Century

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Women Domestic Lives in early 20th Century
In Virginia Woolf’s essays, entitled “The Professions for Women” and “Virginia Woolf”, she describes women’s domestic lives in the early 20th century. Woolf’s writing also sets the scene for a period when women’s place existed in the private sphere, while men’s place was the public. The aim of this paper is to explore the domestic lives of women through the lens of marriage, social class and domesticity by reviewing the writings of Virginia Woolf, Alice Wood’s essay, “Made for Measure”, Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles”, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s poem, “I Sit and Sew”. The common themes described in the writing of all four authors are the subordination and oppression of women in a society controlled …show more content…

It depicts the social status of how men acted towards women during the 1900s. Minnie Wright’s character shows the marriage of a lower class, however, it had been unwoven because the marriage ended in the death of her husband. Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”, was written in the context of American Literature, with its depiction of Minnie Wright’s plight and lower class status. Glaspell has similarities to Virginia Woolf’s writing in “Professions for Women” about the relationship of social status and women’s subordination and oppression. As such, lower class women were likely more subordinated because of their affiliation to the domestic sphere, and their inability to enter the public domain. The difference in the status in relation to women’s domestic lives are shown in the Mrs. Minnie Wright character, being subjected to scrutiny and oppression by George Henderson, suggesting that she is an “unfit housewife” (Glaspell 180). The point also made here is that women were said to be the “queen of the castle”. George Henderson’s criticism of Mrs. Minnie Wright’s housekeeping skills suggests she could in no way have been queen of the castle and be subjected to such criticism. The observation of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters’ comments about Mrs. Wright was one of empathy, and relational, by responding to the men about the tediousness associated with cleaning a house and operating a “farm” (Glaspell

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