StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Women Facing Limitations - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Women Facing Limitations" discusses that the female characters found in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” live within this oppressive ideology of the subservient woman both socially and internally…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.7% of users find it useful
Women Facing Limitations
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Women Facing Limitations"

Constrained Women Short stories can often focus a reader’s attention on various elements of our lives that frequently pass by under our radar because they are now so deeply ingrained in our society’s norms. Such concepts in our life would include the inherent male-dominant beliefs of old in which the woman’s space is considered to be only within the home. On a social level, the woman’s place remains below men even in modern times and is usually placed only slightly above children in matters of importance. While these are ideologies that have, in the past 100 years, been increasingly challenged, particularly by women who have continued to demonstrate their ability to keep up with men, it remains the case that women continue to struggle, not simply on the social level, but on the personal level as well. This personal battle in the example of female subservience requires women to begin questioning the values learned in their youth to consider something both thrilling and frightening – the idea that they may be capable of making their own decisions in life without the leadership or approval of men. For many women, the concept alone would be the most they would achieve, especially in earlier time periods. The female characters found in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” live within this oppressive ideology of the subservient woman both socially and internally, but also exhibit a yearning to escape the ties that bind them. In the greater social context, women are given few choices in how they should live a ‘good’ life. They are seen as finding happiness only as they are willing to remain constrained within the home and occupy themselves with caring for the children. However, because they are neither the breadwinners nor necessary to the continuation of the family once the next generation is born, their importance to the world becomes sharply reduced. In “The Lottery”, women are seen to fall into well-defined social roles, appearing last at the square, taking subservient positions beside or behind their husbands and holding little to no authority over the children. Tessie excuses herself for being late by offering a socially acceptable reason, “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?” (Jackson, 1949: 48). Mrs. Martin calls after her son Billy, but the boy only returns to the family at the word of his father. Within Faulkner’s story, Miss Emily Grierson is also trapped by social conventions. She is introduced as a woman who has never been provided an opportunity to become comfortable or familiar with the world outside of her father’s old world ideals. “None of the young men were quite good enough to Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door” (437). This created a situation in which Miss Emily “got to be thirty and was still single” (437), forced to live in her maidenhood forever and lacking any connection to the rest of the world; she is alienated from her society. Through this progression, Miss Emily can be seen making the transition from a normal young woman, to something of an oddity as a 30-year-old maiden, unable to escape the definition of her society. On the personal level, women often feel constrained to adopt these social definitions as a part of their own identity and desire at the expense of discovering their true selves. Tessie remains ignorant of the fallacies of her culture as she hurries to the square to witness the event occurring there and encourages her husband in playing his allotted role regardless of what that might mean to her personally. It is clear that she has never considered the personal implications of the lottery as, after being late to the gathering, she encourages her husband forward when the family name is called, “Get up there, Bill,’ Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed” (Jackson, 1949: 50). While some of this banter might be considered a sign of nervousness, it seems more like a Sunday gathering as if for a picnic or some other pleasant festival or announcement rather than something with such deadly and brutal consequences as the lottery depicts further on. Finally finding herself master of her own person following the death of her father, Miss Emily is seen to take on a greater role in society yet still based within the context of what was expected of a proper lady. Even the one time period in which Miss Emily was seen to be most alive, just following her father’s death and while she was courting Homer Barron, she remains described in terms of rigid, unchanging material — “her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows — sort of tragic and serene” (438), and her activities remain the socially constrained ‘acceptable’ activities of a woman – courting and earning a little money for herself through giving painting lessons. “She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms, where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries were sent to her … Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her” (441). Not completely able to give up on her dream of having a ‘normal’ life like other women, Miss Emily steps over the line when she finally manages to break free of some of the constraints that have been placed upon her. Despite their best attempts to convince themselves that they agree with the social norms, though, each of the female protagonists in these stories reveals a secret desire to break free and be something else. When Tessie’s family is selected as the lottery winner, she suddenly realizes the brutality of the tradition and repeatedly insists the drawing wasn’t fair to no avail (Jackson, 1949: 51-53). Although she knows the yearly tradition and the way in which the lottery is to be played out, when it actually falls to her to pay the price of the lottery, Tess finally begins to act contrary to the traditions of her village. Although she reluctantly draws the ticket she is required to take, she holds it behind her back away from the view of the others as if this will be enough to protect her. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it” (Jackson, 1949: 52). She has even forsaken the cardinal rule of motherhood in wanting to protect her children above even her own life, as she insists that her grown daughter, the one who is already married or is perhaps a daughter by a previous Mrs. Hutchinson, perhaps also lost to the lottery, take a part of the family drawing. Yet, as is evidenced by her husband’s relentless adherence to the social conventions, Tessie is unable to escape her fate as the stones begin to fly. Similarly, Miss Emily breaks her bonds of femininity in her own spirit, although no one else may know of it. As the story unfolds, the reader learns that Miss Emily brought Homer Barron into her world rather than suffering the disgrace of joining his. When the men of the town broke through the door of the upstairs bedroom following Miss Emily’s death, they describe a grisly scene. “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, … what was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (443). In each of these stories, it can be seen that the female characters’ lives were strongly constrained by the attitudes of their society and their ability to question them. Within “The Lottery”, Tessie is not permitted to explore her new realization, dying very shortly after she discovers it. However, Miss Emily manages to create a world of her own making in which she may not have escaped the traditional definitions of living a ‘right’ life, but does it in her own unique way. Works Cited Faulker, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Anthology of American Literature – 8th Edition. Ed. McMichael, George, James S. Leonard, Bill Lyne, Anne-Marie Mallon and Verner D. Mitchell. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2004. 433-444. Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” (1949). Printed in Mercury Reader. Melanie Rubens. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2007. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Constrained Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1546551-constrained-women
(Constrained Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1546551-constrained-women.
“Constrained Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1546551-constrained-women.
  • Cited: 1 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Women Facing Limitations

Analysis of Two Works to Explore the Theme of Gender Roles and Marriage

er emotions have been portrayed with great delicacy to illustrate the importance and worth of self-freedom for women that is often taken away from them in the male dominating society.... The story has been writing at the end of the nineteenth century when feminist rights were not widely recognized socially and males have the right to dominate women and their lives.... Mallard represent the feelings of all the women of the male dominating society restricted to live, feel and think freely due to their inferior position in the society (Bender, 1991)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Historically, women were known and considered “home makers,” responsible for raising their children, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining the home while the husband worked.... women have made great strides in the business world today.... ant challenges around this issue as women feel more comfortable in their role and are stepping up to discuss this issue with their upper management and/or human resource departments.... Unfortunately for women, despite their personal growth, they continue to lose the battle as most This paper focused on women in leadership and how women face resistance regardless of how they prove that they are equal to men and regardless of what position they hold within the organization or political presence....
14 Pages (3500 words) Thesis

Women and Work

The annotated bibliography "women and Work" therefore, reviews different sources that highlight the relationship between women needs and work productivity, including policies by employers and government, which consider needs of female employees in their workplace.... women's needs are more diverse than those of men....
13 Pages (3250 words) Annotated Bibliography

Emotional and Physical Symptoms of Depression during Pregnancy And Different Ways of Treatment

Secondly, the study enables scholars to assess different methods of treating pregnant women facing such conditions, and determine which of the intervention techniques is effective.... imitation of the studyThe study has both qualitative and quantitative limitations.... The quantitative limitations of this study will be related to the size of the research sample and how pregnant mothers will respond to my research.... The qualitative limitations of the study will be whether the pregnant and health officials will provide me with all the necessary information needed for the completion of the research....
1 Pages (250 words) Research Paper

Objectification Of Women In The Music Industry

However, these gains seem to be facing a serious challenge from the entertainment industry that often uses women to market products.... The research "Objectification Of women In The Music Industry" discusses whether women have been objectified by the music industry in order to generate more sales.... Nowadays, if it is not a female artist singing about sexual encounters and dancing seductively, it is a male artist singing about the female body and using semi-nude women in videos to attract male listeners and viewers....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Comparison of US / Other health system

Mobility limitations - overall report stated that the rate of limitation is slightly higher in America as compared to Canadian.... That is because of the higher severe limitations among American women.... In both the countries, the people with the lowest income has been facing the poorer health issues along with the higher rate of severe mobility limitations, obesity and smoking.... People with lower income in America are poorer in health and severe mobility limitations as compared to the low income people of Canada (Edward, 2002, p....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Society's Perception of Black Women

The paper "Society's Perception of Black women" explains the factors that influence the perception of black women without fully explaining the society's perception of black women.... This study extends assessing the society's perception of black women in the United States of America.... Many studies documented on society perceptions on black woman report on the image of African American in hip hop music videos, (Drucker, 2012); factors that influence the perception of women in the society (William, 2011), and black women stereotypes (Pressley-Sanon, 2013)....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Proposal

Treatment of Depression in Pregnant Women

This research paper "Treatment of Depression in Pregnant women" discusses depression in pregnant women that is very common despite the fact that most of the cases are not diagnosed.... Treatment of depression in pregnant women depends on the successful screening of the patients.... Pregnant women will be recruited to be sampled in this research-based on the criterion described in the DSM manual of depression.... here is evidence suggesting that women have a higher prevalence of suffering from depression during pregnancy....
18 Pages (4500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us