The Female Character: Victorian Era to the Modern Woman

The Female Character; Victorian Era to the Modern Woman Throughout history, woman have played many roles in society, in the home, and in literature. They have been relied on as caretakers, home keepers, and in some eras, domestic servants. In literature, female characters are developed with similar traits attributed to the roles previously listed. I will describe the contrast in the literary version of the ideal Victorian woman and the feminist, researched modern woman During the Victorian era, the mid 1800s, women’s rights were extremely limited. Her daily duties as a wife and mother, or rather just as a female, were limited to sacrificing their of their minds, bodies, and sometimes breakable spirits to their husbands and families; a domestic servant. Their every waking moment was consumed with thoughts never of themselves but only of their responsibilities as a good wife. Women were not allowed to own property and were discouraged to seek employment outside of the home unless they were unfortunately single and alone. A smaller poem The Wife’s Tragedy from The Angel in the House by Conventry Patmore depicts a self sacrificing wife flinging to her husband in desperation of approval. The first line of the poem gives an excellent definition of what should please a woman, “Man must be pleased, but him to please is woman’s pleasure” (611). The poem goes on to repeat the action of a the wife flinging to her husband and “yoking “her heart to her husbands word (611). The symbolism of a woman yoking her heart to something, her husband, is similar to that of an animal, most often an ox, with a U shaped crossbar around it’s neck; a yoke used for controlling the animal’s movements and driving it for work use. This dehumanization technique, the use of the term the “yoking” when discussing a wife’s “tragedy” is very supplemental to the female ideology of the Victorian era. In modern era, the late 19th century, feminism began to spread and women were