Nelly refers to Catherine's transformation as a "reform" Bronte, , pg. Lyn Pykett explains how Catherine's transformation illuminates the power of the social production of female gentility. Furthermore, we see how her personality changes with the change in her appearance.
As Catherine confides in Nelly Dean about her acceptance of Edgar's hand in marriage, we discover how her place as a woman in society has been persuaded by the conventions that have been set up for women. Social ambition is what motivates her now, not her wild passions and love.
She explains "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know I love him" pg. Here we see how Catherine has moved from changing the conventions on her own terms, too succumbing to the conventions for women. As Catherine succumbs to becoming a lady, Heathcliff also falls into a position of equal powerlessness.
Heathcliff is disempowered due to him being dark skinned and "gipsy in aspect" pg. This way Heathcliff can be read as a male character with a female position in society. He is not eligible. Edgar is the one who is always referred to as 'the master' and is the one who has all the power and masculinity. Heathcliff is feminine next to Edgar and he is dispossessed, ruled by the father and an outcast from society with his unknown background.
The fact that Catherine spoils her own destiny and accepts Edgar to be her husband is a display of the struggle for women in society. Money and property was a key aspect of acceptance. Because Heathcliff isn't worthy in societies eyes despite being worthy in Catherine's eyes she goes against her own wishes and hearts desires. Despite Catherine's rejection of Heathcliff for a better life, they both end up in the same condition at the end of the novel; unable to eat and feverish.
There are suggestions that Heathcliff is a complimentary part of Catherine throughout the novel. First he is the manifestation of Catherine's desire for a whip. He is "a complimentary addition to her being who fleshes out all her lacks" pg. Then Catherine states that "he is more myself than I am" pg. All of these points collectively support the idea of Heathcliff being portrayed as a female type character.
Furthermore, the fact that he is dis-empowered and is characterized as the female puts more strain on his relationship with Catherine and pushes them further apart. The idea that they won't fit together becomes more apparent. Female writers in the Victorian period were directed to abstain from writing social and political criticism in their work in their work because of their restricted position as female writers in the literary world. Critics have argued that the rural and remote setting of Wuthering Heights can be a representation of women's remote position from society and modern industry.
Wuthering Heights has attracted a large number of feminist critics due to the autobiographical nature of the novel. Emily Bronte would have drawn on her personal experiences as a female in a society where women were highly inferior to men.
Feminists readings of the novel illuminate the focus on a "female tradition" in Victorian literature. Margaret Laurence and Shashi Deshpande have strived heroically to overcome their cultural and societal barriers posed on them by the society. An idea of self hood in a woman requires taking into consideration the institute of marriage, wifehood and motherhood.
Formerly these were the indications of the identity, but now every woman wanted an identity of their own. They spell out the problems of women with a clearer persuasion through their characters that people want to pause and ponder over. They revolt against the dominant literary conventions of the romance genre by inventing other narrative strategies and in that way they present alternative visions on gender. The Do right is a novel written by Lisa Sandlin who enhances the societal depiction of gender roles.
Sandlin allows room for those same characters to challenge the stereotypes within their singular character arcs. Sandlin provides examples of women siphoning the power from the male-dominated culture of the time and setting. The feminist theory was created to shed light on the oppressive state of women in society. Theorist based their claims on the overt power of men and their domination of central societal structures.
The research report will identify the subjugation of women and the points where writer allows his female characters to step out from oppression. Furthermore her negative image is composed by co-effort of man and society in order to keep woman oppressed. The following research questions will help to approach the assumed conclusion systematically. What characteristics of a woman are portrayed by Maugham; being a male author?
She could be accepted as a guiding figure and someone that little girls could look up to and want to be like. This makes them more likely to listen to her advice.
She forces Nelly to lie to her husband Edgar and say she is very ill in order to frighten him. The violence against women in Gothic fiction as in the novels of genre pioneer Ann Radcliffe generally sees them depicted as beautiful victims. They remain locked in a perpetual struggle both inside the home and with the forces of nature and fate beyond the home.
Even Isabella manages to escape her abusive marriage to Heathcliff, and moves away with her baby son. And narrator Nelly Dean is stoic and always protective of her charges, even in the face of simmering violence.
These women are not passively resilient, but resolute, resistant and strong-willed.
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