Preview

My Last Duchess By Margaret Atwood

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
304 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Last Duchess By Margaret Atwood
Throughout the story, “My Last Duchess” by Margaret Atwood, there exists vast dissimilarities between stereotypical women and women opposing stereotypes, and society. These dissimilarities are shown evidently through the characters. Margaret Atwood uses her characters to supply detailed examples of individuals who embody these stereotypes, those who do not, and the conflicting tones she uses in regards to these characters display her feminist ideals. A few of the characters representing stereotypical women in the text are embodied by the Duchess within the poem titled “My Last Duchess,” and the female individuals who surround the protagonist. Although the most notable male character in the story, Bill, is oblivious to any problem with the Duchess’

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Atwood’s ‘Villainesses’, aims to captivate audiences and arguably has the most textual integrity of all the prescribed speeches. The composer challenges society’s attitudes towards women and urges social reform. Atwood was an illustrious novelist and poet, renown for the complexity of her work. Her speech was delivered during the rise of the third wave of feminism and she ensured to distance herself from this ideology, hence her epideictic speech is not bound by context, emphasised by the polyvocality of the speech. If she had embraced the dogmatic feminism she dissociated with, the speech would be far more context dependent and the textual integrity of the speech would have been lessened. Atwood challenges the representation of women in literature, arguing that lack of evil women in literature is suppressive to women in society, while Suu Kyi argues that the lack of women in politics is suppressive to women. The title of Atwood’s speech alludes to Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, emphasising that women are multidimensional and capable of evil. Atwood attempts to create a middle-ground between the patriarchal and ideological feminist representations of women. The recurring motif of the ‘eternal breakfast’ acts as a symbol of the static state of which she is critiquing. Atwood argues that a…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anne Sexton’s poem, “Her Kind” presents a stark look at the roles that women place themselves in and are forced into by societal pressures. Throughout history, women have been expected to take on the role of obedient wife, and failure to do so can result in a barrage of retaliations on a woman and her lifestyle. Though Sexton’s troubled past of depression and eventual suicide has cast negative light on the meanings of her works--particularly speculation that her work is a confession-- “Her Kind” is not so much a personal story as it is the story of the three roles women continue to fall into, even to this day: a witch, an old-school midwife, and a whore.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The aspirations and expectations of women are explored wherein the contexts of Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice present women in different circumstances with varying opportunities. The changes of context between these two texts alter the situations of women and their predominant values.…

    • 1502 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Historical Novels That You Have to Read Historical novels are a great addition to your library since they act as a sort of time travel machine: they bring you decades or even centuries back into the past and let you see how it was like to live back then. Of course, they spin tales of sweet and inspiring love stories and turn up the heat with hot and steamy bed scenes. If you're ready to start reading historical novels, here are some of the titles you need to get: 1. Silver Storm (Rakes & Rebels Book 1) by Cynthia Wright If you want to enjoy an exciting love story while learning more about America's history, this book is for you.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both of the writers have made their speakers very proud of things in their life, the duke in My Last Duchess is very proud of his 900 year old name he has given her and all his power and riches. But he is also very viscous in the poem and seems to not care about women as he treats them like objects in the time of patriarchal society “My Last Duchess” and “is my object”.…

    • 768 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Feminist Literature Draft In many instances, the works of feminist literature use characters to examine and address the issues in the way society treats women. The poems “Daystar” by Rita Dove and “The Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy do that by focusing on the female identity, more specifically the lack of it their characters are experiencing. By introducing readers to the attitude of the female characters toward their situation, the poems portray daily life from a new perspective that challenged the society’s image of that time.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem ‘Cousin Kate” written by Christina Rossetti signifies a story of the speaker which explains what happens to a ‘cottage maiden’ once she has been sullied by a man which consequently leads her to lose her innocence. ‘Cottage maiden’ creates a rural simplistic image of the speaker who has a low status. Due to the Victorian era in which the poem was written it is clear that the poem is based around the fact that women were not treated fairly as there was a patriarchal society.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Female emancipation and the struggle for women of existing within a predominately patriarchal society is a prevalent topic in literature. Female heroines are portrayed variably across all eras and genres of literature and yet the use of a melancholic and isolated female protagonist is arguably inescapable as writers continually refer back to a critical portrayal of women in their work. From Chaucer’s presentment of the Wife of Bath as an old hag to John Donne’s plea in his poem ‘Loves Alchemy’ that one should “Hope not for mind in women”1; or one of Shakespeare’s female protagonists, Ophelia driven mad arguably due to her unrequited love for Hamlet. There is a tendency in literature, with particular reference to Shakespeare’s…

    • 3108 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dame Alice Quotes

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the Middle Ages, men are known to have more power than women, controlling them and taking advantage over them. Women do not have the same rights as men and they are treated differently. Men are superior while women are inferior. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales changes the society of the Middle Age completely in The Wife of Bath. In The Wife of Bath, the main character of this tale, or the one telling this tale, is a woman, the Dame Alice. The Dame Alice tells her tale as if she has nothing to hide and she explains the role of women in her tale and she explains her tale, thus, becoming the first feminist character in Western Literature.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Canterbury Tales Response

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are over a billion people in this world, an over 50% of them are women. In the current world, they're growing to create an impact in the world. It makes one wonder how they struggled to become what they are today. Many works of literature portray women in two types, those fit and unfit for society. While the two categories may have very different definitions to different perspectives, there isn't a doubt that this has helped society in many ways. One work on literature, which contains both categories, is the The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The novel describes women who may be shunned by society because of their boldness, while others show women who can get away with anything just because of their status. While the female gender is a difficult subject to tackle, women decide for themselves if they want to please society or not.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    It can be said that society has always been quite judgmental, and at times misguided when it comes to women. The negative perceptions that society has towards females are often times directly related toward her actions. What a female does seems to degrade her identity and capabilities in the eyes of some men. In the poems “The Lady’s Dressing Room” and The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, we can see both authors use of tone, form and style to develop their works. These poems are mainly driven by men’s attitudes towards women. A man’s perceived opinion about women can negatively shape society’s views and perceptions of them.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This has been perpetuated by the ideology that women are naturally submissive, pious, and gentle creatures. “The Cult of Womanhood” describes this ideology by placing men and women into two “spheres” – not unlike men are from Mars, women are from Venus. (reference here) The public sphere involves business and public life, ruthless and uncaring. This sphere is reserved for men. The other sphere, the private sphere, is gentle, nurturing, and devoted to familial and religious matters. When a women steps outside this sphere, she is reviled and, what some sexist journalists have called her, a “mental hermaphrodite.” The Wife of Bath, Alyson, one of the traveling characters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” is a prime example of a complex, independent woman in literature, who by Chaucer’s pen, is an immoral being. GoodAlyson explains her quintet of marriages, going into detail about how she controlled, lied, and manipulated all of her husbands until their deaths. She says, “Of tribulacion in marriage, of which I am expert in al myn age. This is to seyn, myself have been the whippe.” (III.179-181) ExcellentShe is seen as a sexually dominant man-hater, instead of a headstrong, vivacious…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Gender Roles

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages

    American politician and feminist Shirley Chisholm once said “The emotional, sexual and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “it's a girl”. In saying this, Chisholm draws attention to the idea that from birth females are stereotyped and victimised, purely as a result of society’s ingrained attitudes towards women. This unfortunate, patriarchal portrayal of females as the less dominant gender is a theme that is not only reflected through the Shakespearean play ‘Hamlet’, but in many areas of contemporary society. Although times have changed since the Elizabethan era, women are still oppressed and restricted by male-constructed orders and societal attitudes, along with unequal power structures between the sexes to a lesser extent.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty and the Beast is one of the fairy tales which has been narrated through various media such as oral storytelling, written short story, film, opera and musical theatre. With each interpretation, the story is given a new perspective and distinct elements are being highlighted in every presentation. Each of these versions leave an indelible imprint on the mind of readers or viewers. Subsequently, in 1946, Jean Cocteau adapted Madame Leprince de Beaumont's short story of "Beauty and the Beast" for the his film, Beauty and the Beast. De Beaumont's story was composed to have it perused and appreciated by grown-ups and youngsters, while Cocteau's film is pointed basically at grown-ups because of the darker and all the more befuddling nature…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel primarily focuses on the personalities and actions of female characters as they strive to gain happiness. However, the women in this novel can be divided into two groups. The first includes characters such as Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bingley, Lydia, and Lady Catherine. These women have the tendency to manipulate the world around them in their favor. They display all the faults in women; greed, over confidence, and stupidity to name a few.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays