Analysis Of 'Cult Of True Womanhood'
Identifying as Female: When My Name was Keoko through a Feminist Lens Returning to the novel, the gender roles of females in Korean culture can be connected to the pillars of the ‘Cult of True Womanhood’ from the Victorian era. These pillars are presented by Barbara Welter in her article “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860” that speak of what is truly feminine in the eyes of Victorian women. This mean that the pillars could be seen as keys towards the gender role of femininity. While they are from another time period and geographical setting, the pillars can be seen in virtually any culture, including the one presented in the novel. There are four pillars explained by Welter in her article – piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity
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While religion is not mentioned in the novel, piety can still be seen in the women especially with Mrs. Ahn. According the cult, religion “belonged to woman by divine right, a gift of God and nature” (Welter, 1) and that women were “more readily than men to accept the proffered grace of the Gospel” (Welter, 1-2). This means that women were more inherently wired to be religious and devoted to God, making them pure beacons of religion by using their “purifying passionless love” (Welter 1) to bring men back to God. Religion was also what a woman needs “for it gives her that dignity that best suits her dependence” (Welter, 2) which means that religion was valued because it did not “take away a woman from her “proper sphere” her home” (Welter, 2). When Abuji announced that Uncle was hidden in Mrs. Ahn’s secret cellar in her garden, this reflects how she is takes her “holy privilege” (Gilbert and Gubar, 601) as a woman to become one of the “ministering angels” (Gilbert and Gubar, 601). As stated before since religion was not mentioned at all in the novel, but since she hides not only Uncle but other resistance workers she can be seen as the “angel of the house” for keeping her holy privilege of being a mother to those men and women who hid there. She did not turn away from helping them or caring for them, thus she is no separated from her “proper sphere” of her home which brings us to the next
While religion is not mentioned in the novel, piety can still be seen in the women especially with Mrs. Ahn. According the cult, religion “belonged to woman by divine right, a gift of God and nature” (Welter, 1) and that women were “more readily than men to accept the proffered grace of the Gospel” (Welter, 1-2). This means that women were more inherently wired to be religious and devoted to God, making them pure beacons of religion by using their “purifying passionless love” (Welter 1) to bring men back to God. Religion was also what a woman needs “for it gives her that dignity that best suits her dependence” (Welter, 2) which means that religion was valued because it did not “take away a woman from her “proper sphere” her home” (Welter, 2). When Abuji announced that Uncle was hidden in Mrs. Ahn’s secret cellar in her garden, this reflects how she is takes her “holy privilege” (Gilbert and Gubar, 601) as a woman to become one of the “ministering angels” (Gilbert and Gubar, 601). As stated before since religion was not mentioned at all in the novel, but since she hides not only Uncle but other resistance workers she can be seen as the “angel of the house” for keeping her holy privilege of being a mother to those men and women who hid there. She did not turn away from helping them or caring for them, thus she is no separated from her “proper sphere” of her home which brings us to the next