‘What Writers Tend to Demonstrate in Texts Which Explore Relationships Between Men and Women, Is That Women Have Always Been Relatively Powerless and the Victims of Society’s Double Standards’ Compare and Contrast the
‘What writers tend to demonstrate in texts which explore relationships between men and women, is that women have always been relatively powerless and the victims of society’s double standards’ Compare and contrast the extent to which this interpretation applies to your chosen three texts.
Throughout Literature the role and position of women has been constantly one of debate and controversy. For centuries women have struggled to exert any power or individual identity through times of male dominance. The novel The Great Gatsby as well as the play A Streetcar Named Desire and lastly the poetry of Anne Sexton, were all written during the 20th Century in America. Throughout the 20th Century, attitudes towards women in the USA were changing, the war had given an opportunity for women to realize and prove that they could look after the household without men. This called for much debate about the rights and roles of women which carried on throughout the 20th Century and inspired many of the characters and themes within Literature. In all three texts interactions between men and women are explored and represented in different ways. Each painting pictures of women whose compliance and submissiveness have resulted in their portrayal of being male dominated victims of society’s double standards.
Central to the victimization of women in all three texts is their objectification by men. In The Great Gatsby, Tom refers to Myrtle as ‘My girl’; the possessive pronoun indicates that Tom feels an ownership over her. It is prominent that Myrtle is Tom’s mistress; therefore despite not being married to her, he feels he has the right to own her. This could be an example of Tom being ‘moralistic without being moral’ as Ronald Berman puts it, by the way that Tom feels this is a right that he has despite not being Myrtle’s husband, due to the fact that he is a man in society with more power than a women. Name calling can also be seen within A Streetcar Named Desire, when Stanley
Throughout Literature the role and position of women has been constantly one of debate and controversy. For centuries women have struggled to exert any power or individual identity through times of male dominance. The novel The Great Gatsby as well as the play A Streetcar Named Desire and lastly the poetry of Anne Sexton, were all written during the 20th Century in America. Throughout the 20th Century, attitudes towards women in the USA were changing, the war had given an opportunity for women to realize and prove that they could look after the household without men. This called for much debate about the rights and roles of women which carried on throughout the 20th Century and inspired many of the characters and themes within Literature. In all three texts interactions between men and women are explored and represented in different ways. Each painting pictures of women whose compliance and submissiveness have resulted in their portrayal of being male dominated victims of society’s double standards.
Central to the victimization of women in all three texts is their objectification by men. In The Great Gatsby, Tom refers to Myrtle as ‘My girl’; the possessive pronoun indicates that Tom feels an ownership over her. It is prominent that Myrtle is Tom’s mistress; therefore despite not being married to her, he feels he has the right to own her. This could be an example of Tom being ‘moralistic without being moral’ as Ronald Berman puts it, by the way that Tom feels this is a right that he has despite not being Myrtle’s husband, due to the fact that he is a man in society with more power than a women. Name calling can also be seen within A Streetcar Named Desire, when Stanley