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1 | W o m e n i n L i t e r a t u r e

WOMEN IN LITERATURE

Ummul Khoiriyah/112154017

Outline:

1. Introduction – Thesis

There are some reasons why women become an interesting discussion in

literature.

2. First Cause

Discrimination makes women marginalized.

3. Second Cause

Women mostly will lose their rights and be isolated in expressing their feelings

and ideas.

4. Third Cause

The dominance of men causes violence to women.

5. Conclusion

Women’s role has been important in literature since previous centuries;

discrimination, isolation, and violence make feminism works.




WOMEN IN LITERATURE

Ummul Khoiriyah/112154017

Feminism exists for long period of time since it has been introduced around 19th

century. Many writers use the theory of feminism in literature due to focus their works

on “women”. Thinkers or philosophers have explained their ideas of feminism; related

to gender differences or women’s consciousness of freedom. Feminists concern on

exposing what women actually feel. They tell the stories, on the form of literary work (it

can be drama, novel, poem, or short story), which shows how they are interesting in

discussing women and the entire problem inside. Mostly, their works give illustration of

women live their life with unsupported environment. Those writers also depict that they

disagr ee on women’s situation in the previous centuries. There are some reasons why

“women” becomes an interesting discussion in literature.

First of all, there is discrimination causes women marginalized. Differences make

human alive, there will be no life if people live in the same way. Here, the fact that

sexual differences exist actually affect women. Women in previous centuries can not do

anything that does not fit the society’s construction. Beauvoir has stated that women

will be prevented to work, their duty only raising their children or cooking in the

kitchen. Beliefs and customs in society launch the identity of women that are seen by

being a mother and a wife [Tidd, 2004: 51-53]. Susan Glaspell is one of dramatist who

directly shows this term. In her drama entitled Trifles (1916), she uses kitchen as the

setting of place to prove that it is related to woman’s thing. Glaspell tells the case of

Mrs. Wright who killed her own husband in order to take her freedom back. In Mrs.

Wright’s marital life, she was prevented to do anything she wanted including singing in

choir like before the marriage as she was Minnie Fooster. Women around 19 th century

will be treated as what people want they to be. They will be unrecognized unless they

follow how the environment works or they can adapt well.




Second, women in the era of Jane Austen will mostly lose their rights and be isolated in

expressing their feelings and ideas. This is the truth, when gender plays most of the

important roles in society, women not only will be marginalized but they will be

isolated. There is no place for women to confess their point of view on certain matters.

Here, Kate Chopin in her The Story of An Hour (1894), tells the story of Mrs. Mallard

who died after knowing that her husband, Mr. Mallard, was still alive after the news

stated her husband’s death. She directly gives the situation where Mrs. Mallard did not

love her husband and kept it in silence for a long time. In contrast, women in this

modern era will not do the same thing, they are free to choose with whom they want to

live or refuse everything does not fit them at all. Again, Glaspell also makes the same

proof trough her drama. She creates two more women’s characters, Mrs. Peters and

Mrs. Hale, who then made a conspiracy not to tell their husbands what evidence and

assumption they got because of knowing their husbands would not listen their opinion.

Eventhough, evidence they got only came from a killed bird in a box; it really means

everything, they assumed that Mr. Wright had killed the bird; he did not like noise. The

bird symbolizes Mr. Wright who used to sing. We can infer that women will lose most

of their identity after marriage, because their existence has to picture how their

husbands are.

Third, the dominance of men causes violence to women. Beauvoir argued that men who

are stronger than women will be consequently have the higher position in social

organization. Women will only place their subordinate position support the idea of men

and pass trough the system [Tidd, 2004: 52]. Both Mr. Mallard and Mr. Wright felt the

same way that they had the right to limit their wives. The wives automatically become

the victim of psychological violence. They of course will have a life in silence that

nobody knows. Society only sees their marital life as a happiness one without caring

what problem inside because they think their marriages have fulfilled the construction.

Feminists not only look at the psychological one, but also the physical one. For

instance, William Faulkner in Dry September (1931) also shows how McLendon, one of

the White treated his wife. “IT WAS MIDNIGHT when McLendon drove up to his neat

new house. It was trim and fresh as a birdcage and almost as small, with its clean,




green-and-white paint”. Faulkner uses the word of “birdcage” to depict that

McLendon’s wife is like a bird in a cage. McLendon let his wife stayed home and

limited her. He is told that he used to violent his wife eventhough he knew the

consequences.

In conclusion, Women’s role has been important in literature since previous centuries;

discrimination, isolation, and violence make feminism works. Writers often compare the

condition during the era and the way they write woman’s character as a contradiction

with the environment, such as women is unlikely confessing their own feelings. Women

are considered complicated than men. By observing the condition of previous centuries,

people start to know what the reasons make women be one of the focuses. There are

more examples of literary works concern on “women” outside three examples above.

Nowadays, women start knowing terms of freedom which makes them stronger and

bear emancipation.

References:

Chopin, Kate. (1894). The Story of An Hour.

Faulkner, William. (1931). Dry September.

Glaspell, Susan. (1916). Trifles.

Tidd, Ursula. (2004). Simone de Beauvoir. London and New York: Routledge Critical

Thinkers.

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