Post by Save Your Karma on Jul 27, 2007 14:52:19 GMT -5
Deana Kalcich
English 213
Dr. Marsden
December 14, 2006
Feminist Control in 20th Century Literature
“The thing women have yet to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it.” Though Roseanne Barr has gotten plenty of criticism for the power and control she often asserted, her words are well taken by women and literature in the 20th century. With the rise of first wave feminism in the UK and the US at the dawn of the 20th century, women were beginning to realize that they had to take control of their own decisions and lives. Many of the stories in British and American Literature in the 20th century reflect a liberation of the female characters in which the woman starts out in an inferior position and rebels in the story to claim control of her own actions.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s piece “The Yellow Wallpaper “ the protagonist, is presented as inferior in a very literal way. Stricken by a mental illness, the narrator is taken into the country to regain health. Her husband John, a doctor, believes nothing is seriously wrong with her and treats her as though she just needs time away. The narrator states, in reference to her husband and brother who are both physicians, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do” (Gilman 1)? The narrator feels powerless in her own recovery, like she is a passive recipient of good health. The narrator is also forced to sensor the effects of her illness because her husband believes that she can control her temperament. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition. But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself--before him, at least, and that makes me very tired” (Gilman 1). Her husband ignores her needs more by choosing a bedroom she does not wish to sleep in and forces her to stop writing, which seems to give her some release for her illness, he forces her to nap and threatens to send her away to a different doctor is she does not show progress. John dictates what she should or should not do or think about and he takes care of her and makes sure any need she may have is met. Interestingly enough when the protagonist starts to deviant from John’s instruction her condition worsens as she becomes more passionate about the wallpaper. When her hysteria reaches it’s peak John cannot handle her fury and becomes emasculated when he faints as she hysterically rips down the wallpaper“ (Gilman 9) “He stopped short by the door. ’What is the matter?’ he cried. ’For God’s sake, what are you doing!’ I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. ’I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ’in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time”(Gilman 16) Even though her rebellion ultimately is due to her psychological condition, she gains control of her actions, by scaring her husband into fainting, and gets to rip down the yellow wallpaper.
The “Girl” in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” is very much in the same lowly position but for a different reason. In Spain with the “Man,” the Girl is completely dependant on him. She does not know the language, the reader can assume that the Man is handling any financial obligations and travel arrangement because she is in a country which she is not familiar with. The Man also tries to assert power over her in trying to convince her to go through with the operation by assuring her it really is simple and they will be very happy afterwards.
“’It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.‘ The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. ‘I know you won’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.‘ The girl did not say anything. ‘I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and hen it’s all perfectly natural.‘ “What will we do afterwards?‘ ‘We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.‘” (Hemingway )
The Man does not seem to hold their relationship as high as she does but by assuring her they will be happier afterward appeals to her want for the relationship to mean something more than a fling. However, the girl also has the knowledge that she could ruin the both of them. Her pregnancy was highly controversial in that day, assuming as the text suggests that they are not married. By not having an abortion and having the baby she would ruin both their reputations. The girl ultimately has control, and as the story progresses it becomes more evident that she knows it. She tests and manipulates him by saying, “’Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.’ ’What do you mean?’ ‘I don’t care about me’ ‘Well I care about you.’ ‘Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine’ ‘I don‘t want you to do it if you feel that way‘” (Hemingway). She commands him “’Would you please please please please please please please stop talking’ He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights. ‘But I don’t want you to,’ he said, ‘I don’t care anything about it.’ ‘I’ll scream,’ the girl said” (Hemingway). The reader never really knows what the outcome of their conversation about the abortion is, the can infer that the Girl is going to do whatever she wants to regardless of what the Man wants when she says: “’I feel fine,’ she said ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine’” (Hemingway).
Bilquis, from Hanif Kureishi‘s My Beautiful Laundrette suffers from the same lack of relationship , though her situation is different in that her husband, Nasser, is having an affair. While Bilquis is at home with the kids, taking care of the house, and of course remaining faithful, Nasser controls the family business. Gone from home as much as he is, Nasser has no reason to keep his affair secretive, taking Rachel, his mistress, everywhere with him. He is not particularly discreet, nor does he expect his children or his wife to be involved with any of his business endevors, so when Omar invites Nasser’s daughter to the opening of his Laundrette, it is a bit of a shock for Nasser to see his daughter conversing with his mistress. Though it was not a well kept secret, the meeting is enough to apparently anger Bilquis and incite enough feeling for Bilquis to take action against Rachel. Rachel ends her affair with Nasser, saying she is taking love and money away from their family. She also shows Nasser the “work” of Bilquis which is her splotched marked stomach, which are never really given an explanation. However Rachel received those marks on her body, the point is clear that Bilquis has stopped Nasser from continuing his affair therefore taking control of him and in theory regaining his time and resources for the family. If she has not really regained control of him Bilquis has at least taken control and removed his source of happiness.
Though the oppression women feel is not always imposed specifically by men. In “Puertoricanness” the narrator feels oppression from society because her actions do not match the societal norms in The United States.
“The door was opening. She could no longer keep her accent under lock and key. It seeped out, masquerading as dyslexia, stuttering, halting, unable to speak the word which will surely come out in the wrong language, wearing the wrong clothes. Doesn’t that girl know how to dress? Doesn’t she know how to date, what to say to a professor, how to behave at a dinner table laid with silver and crystal and too many forks” (Lauter 3028)
The protagonist is chastised because her cultural norms differ from the societal norms. Slowly she, as she makes her way through college, does she let her puertorican side begin to live within her, eventually giving in to her natural rhythms and actions. She gives herself liberty to drink pineapple juice, be late to appointments, eat throughout the day rather than specific meals. At the end of the narrative the protagonist is completely liberated and able to express her puertorican side without shame. “She was taking over, putting dolies on the word processor, not bothering to make appointments, talking to the neighbors, riding miles on the bus to buy bacalao, making her presence felt…and she was all Puerto Rican, every bit of her” (Lauter 3029).
Sometimes society itself is the oppressor. In Bharati Mukerjee’s “A Wife’s Story” Panna emigrates to The United States to escape the gender oppression within the Indian culture and earn her degree. While women in India are often give considerable power in their households, the man retains the superior status of the protector. Women are often view as meek, needing guidance. Panna leaves to gain independence and pursue her own ambitions, her degree. Even when her husband visits her, he imposes those standards upon her. “I told you not to wear pants. He thinks you are Puerto Rican. He thinks he can disrespect you” (Mukerjee 2700) Her husband feels the need to suggest things in order to shield her from, what he sees to be, utter disrespect rather than playful banter. While her husband is around the protagonist feels as though she is someone else. The way of life she has become accustomed to living has already created a distain and detachment from the old gender roles she is used to abiding by. By the end of the story we get the sense that Panna is in the US for liberation purposes more than her degree as she detaches herself from her body to make love to her husband whom she associates with the old oppression she once lived under,“In the mirror that hangs on the bathroom door, I watch my naked body turn, the breasts , the thighs glow. The body’s beauty amazes. I stand there shameless, in ways he has never seen me. I am free, afloat, watching somebody else” (Lauter 2703). In detaching her body she is once and for all detaching herself from the oppressive role of patriarchal society extremes endorsed in India. Panna allows herself to become freed by her own thoughts even though she retains a facade with her husband which she will only uphold until he leaves for India.
The women in these stories have all over come the position of inferiority whether they were put there by men or society or men running society or just people looking down upon others for their differences. These women have all asserted themselves and become the rulers or their own destinies, or at least in control of some part of their own lives. Women in these pieces of 20th century literature refuse to continue to remain under the thumb of anyone and inspire others to demand equality.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper. College of Staten Island. 17 October 2006 www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html.
Hemingway, Ernest “Hills like White Elephants” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume D Modern Period 1910-1945. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 1422-1425.
Kureishi, Hanif. “My Beautiful Laundrette” The Longman Anthology of British Literature Volume 2c. Eds. David Damrosch and Kevin J.H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 2942-2986.
Levins Morales, Aurora “Puertoricanness” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume E Contemporary Period 1945-the Present. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3028-3029.
Mukherjee, Bharati “A Wife’s Story” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume E Contemporary Period 1945-the Present. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 2694-2703.
English 213
Dr. Marsden
December 14, 2006
Feminist Control in 20th Century Literature
“The thing women have yet to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it.” Though Roseanne Barr has gotten plenty of criticism for the power and control she often asserted, her words are well taken by women and literature in the 20th century. With the rise of first wave feminism in the UK and the US at the dawn of the 20th century, women were beginning to realize that they had to take control of their own decisions and lives. Many of the stories in British and American Literature in the 20th century reflect a liberation of the female characters in which the woman starts out in an inferior position and rebels in the story to claim control of her own actions.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s piece “The Yellow Wallpaper “ the protagonist, is presented as inferior in a very literal way. Stricken by a mental illness, the narrator is taken into the country to regain health. Her husband John, a doctor, believes nothing is seriously wrong with her and treats her as though she just needs time away. The narrator states, in reference to her husband and brother who are both physicians, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do” (Gilman 1)? The narrator feels powerless in her own recovery, like she is a passive recipient of good health. The narrator is also forced to sensor the effects of her illness because her husband believes that she can control her temperament. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition. But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself--before him, at least, and that makes me very tired” (Gilman 1). Her husband ignores her needs more by choosing a bedroom she does not wish to sleep in and forces her to stop writing, which seems to give her some release for her illness, he forces her to nap and threatens to send her away to a different doctor is she does not show progress. John dictates what she should or should not do or think about and he takes care of her and makes sure any need she may have is met. Interestingly enough when the protagonist starts to deviant from John’s instruction her condition worsens as she becomes more passionate about the wallpaper. When her hysteria reaches it’s peak John cannot handle her fury and becomes emasculated when he faints as she hysterically rips down the wallpaper“ (Gilman 9) “He stopped short by the door. ’What is the matter?’ he cried. ’For God’s sake, what are you doing!’ I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. ’I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ’in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time”(Gilman 16) Even though her rebellion ultimately is due to her psychological condition, she gains control of her actions, by scaring her husband into fainting, and gets to rip down the yellow wallpaper.
The “Girl” in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” is very much in the same lowly position but for a different reason. In Spain with the “Man,” the Girl is completely dependant on him. She does not know the language, the reader can assume that the Man is handling any financial obligations and travel arrangement because she is in a country which she is not familiar with. The Man also tries to assert power over her in trying to convince her to go through with the operation by assuring her it really is simple and they will be very happy afterwards.
“’It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.‘ The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. ‘I know you won’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.‘ The girl did not say anything. ‘I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and hen it’s all perfectly natural.‘ “What will we do afterwards?‘ ‘We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.‘” (Hemingway )
The Man does not seem to hold their relationship as high as she does but by assuring her they will be happier afterward appeals to her want for the relationship to mean something more than a fling. However, the girl also has the knowledge that she could ruin the both of them. Her pregnancy was highly controversial in that day, assuming as the text suggests that they are not married. By not having an abortion and having the baby she would ruin both their reputations. The girl ultimately has control, and as the story progresses it becomes more evident that she knows it. She tests and manipulates him by saying, “’Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.’ ’What do you mean?’ ‘I don’t care about me’ ‘Well I care about you.’ ‘Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine’ ‘I don‘t want you to do it if you feel that way‘” (Hemingway). She commands him “’Would you please please please please please please please stop talking’ He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights. ‘But I don’t want you to,’ he said, ‘I don’t care anything about it.’ ‘I’ll scream,’ the girl said” (Hemingway). The reader never really knows what the outcome of their conversation about the abortion is, the can infer that the Girl is going to do whatever she wants to regardless of what the Man wants when she says: “’I feel fine,’ she said ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine’” (Hemingway).
Bilquis, from Hanif Kureishi‘s My Beautiful Laundrette suffers from the same lack of relationship , though her situation is different in that her husband, Nasser, is having an affair. While Bilquis is at home with the kids, taking care of the house, and of course remaining faithful, Nasser controls the family business. Gone from home as much as he is, Nasser has no reason to keep his affair secretive, taking Rachel, his mistress, everywhere with him. He is not particularly discreet, nor does he expect his children or his wife to be involved with any of his business endevors, so when Omar invites Nasser’s daughter to the opening of his Laundrette, it is a bit of a shock for Nasser to see his daughter conversing with his mistress. Though it was not a well kept secret, the meeting is enough to apparently anger Bilquis and incite enough feeling for Bilquis to take action against Rachel. Rachel ends her affair with Nasser, saying she is taking love and money away from their family. She also shows Nasser the “work” of Bilquis which is her splotched marked stomach, which are never really given an explanation. However Rachel received those marks on her body, the point is clear that Bilquis has stopped Nasser from continuing his affair therefore taking control of him and in theory regaining his time and resources for the family. If she has not really regained control of him Bilquis has at least taken control and removed his source of happiness.
Though the oppression women feel is not always imposed specifically by men. In “Puertoricanness” the narrator feels oppression from society because her actions do not match the societal norms in The United States.
“The door was opening. She could no longer keep her accent under lock and key. It seeped out, masquerading as dyslexia, stuttering, halting, unable to speak the word which will surely come out in the wrong language, wearing the wrong clothes. Doesn’t that girl know how to dress? Doesn’t she know how to date, what to say to a professor, how to behave at a dinner table laid with silver and crystal and too many forks” (Lauter 3028)
The protagonist is chastised because her cultural norms differ from the societal norms. Slowly she, as she makes her way through college, does she let her puertorican side begin to live within her, eventually giving in to her natural rhythms and actions. She gives herself liberty to drink pineapple juice, be late to appointments, eat throughout the day rather than specific meals. At the end of the narrative the protagonist is completely liberated and able to express her puertorican side without shame. “She was taking over, putting dolies on the word processor, not bothering to make appointments, talking to the neighbors, riding miles on the bus to buy bacalao, making her presence felt…and she was all Puerto Rican, every bit of her” (Lauter 3029).
Sometimes society itself is the oppressor. In Bharati Mukerjee’s “A Wife’s Story” Panna emigrates to The United States to escape the gender oppression within the Indian culture and earn her degree. While women in India are often give considerable power in their households, the man retains the superior status of the protector. Women are often view as meek, needing guidance. Panna leaves to gain independence and pursue her own ambitions, her degree. Even when her husband visits her, he imposes those standards upon her. “I told you not to wear pants. He thinks you are Puerto Rican. He thinks he can disrespect you” (Mukerjee 2700) Her husband feels the need to suggest things in order to shield her from, what he sees to be, utter disrespect rather than playful banter. While her husband is around the protagonist feels as though she is someone else. The way of life she has become accustomed to living has already created a distain and detachment from the old gender roles she is used to abiding by. By the end of the story we get the sense that Panna is in the US for liberation purposes more than her degree as she detaches herself from her body to make love to her husband whom she associates with the old oppression she once lived under,“In the mirror that hangs on the bathroom door, I watch my naked body turn, the breasts , the thighs glow. The body’s beauty amazes. I stand there shameless, in ways he has never seen me. I am free, afloat, watching somebody else” (Lauter 2703). In detaching her body she is once and for all detaching herself from the oppressive role of patriarchal society extremes endorsed in India. Panna allows herself to become freed by her own thoughts even though she retains a facade with her husband which she will only uphold until he leaves for India.
The women in these stories have all over come the position of inferiority whether they were put there by men or society or men running society or just people looking down upon others for their differences. These women have all asserted themselves and become the rulers or their own destinies, or at least in control of some part of their own lives. Women in these pieces of 20th century literature refuse to continue to remain under the thumb of anyone and inspire others to demand equality.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper. College of Staten Island. 17 October 2006 www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html.
Hemingway, Ernest “Hills like White Elephants” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume D Modern Period 1910-1945. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 1422-1425.
Kureishi, Hanif. “My Beautiful Laundrette” The Longman Anthology of British Literature Volume 2c. Eds. David Damrosch and Kevin J.H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 2942-2986.
Levins Morales, Aurora “Puertoricanness” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume E Contemporary Period 1945-the Present. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 3028-3029.
Mukherjee, Bharati “A Wife’s Story” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume E Contemporary Period 1945-the Present. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 2694-2703.