Table of Contents
Gender studies
Gender studies are devoted to the study of gender identity and representation. It includes men, women and queer studies. Among which men’s studies include masculinities, women’s studies include feminism along with gender and political issues. Queer is about the sexual orientation originally centered on LGBT. Gender studies helps in the study of gender and sexuality in fields of literature, language, history, sociology, anthropology etc. It helps to analyze the connectivity between race, ethnicity and class to gender and sexuality. Gender is pertinent to many disciplines such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, psychology etc. For instance, in cultural studies gender is examined. Gender studies is a discipline, incorporating methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines. From this broad spectrum this research paper presents women’s studies as a major theme.
Women’s Studies
Women’s studies are an academic field which portrays feminist and interdisciplinary methods placing women’s lives and experiences at the center for examining the social and cultural structure of gender. It has both systems of privilege and oppression. The relationship between power and gender go hand in hand with other identities and social locations. Popular theories within the field of women’s studies include feminist theory, standpoint theory, intersectionality, multiculturalism, etc. Research practices involved in women’s study include ethnology, autoethnography and reading practices along with critical theory, post structuralism, and queer theory. The field researchers and critiques focus on the social norms such as gender, race, class, sexuality and other social inequalities associated with women.
Role of Literature and Language:
Literature plays the role of a very essential and significant instrument in representing the culture, norms and mindset of the society during which it was written. Literature has a greater impact than history because the former portrays a lively image of the lives of great and common men beautifully bringing about the difference in both, in short it is a boisterous representation of the lives of people who lived during that period whereas history is the mere statement of facts. Just like how a painter’s presentation of his artistic talent is dependent on his on the bristles of his brush it is necessary for literature to be accompanied by a good language. A good language is the one which helps in delivering the idea in an easy and exact manner.
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Therefore, this research paper focuses on bringing forth the changes that have taken place in the portrayal of women through literature.
Wuthering Heights
Written between October 1845 and June 1846 and published in 1847, Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë’s only novel. It was published under the pseudonym “Ellis Bell”. The book Wuthering Heights has traces of the author’s personal life and preferences along with the society’s mindset.
“Catherine” from Wuthering Heights
Catherine also known as Cathy is portrayed in her childhood to be a mischievous and wayward girl which happens to be her inborn nature. This is evident from her father’s words
“Nay, Cathy I cannot love thee. Thou art worse than thy brother. Go, say thy prayers, child, and ask God’s pardon. I doubt thy mother and I must rue that we reared thee”
On another occasion he says to her
“Why canst thou not always be a good lass Cathy?”
It is after her father’s death and during the five weeks she spends at Linton’s place she understands how a woman should behave and how not to and it is after this that she begins to see social status and refinement of people around her bringing upon her inborn nature a superficial one. When Edgar Linton proposed marriage to Cathy, she accepts it based on Nelly’s opinion that
“As Edgar’s wife you will be the greatest woman of the neighborhood”
Nelly also mentions that as Edgar’s wife she would be
“Proud of having such a husband”
Catherine too agrees that she loves the ground under Edgar’s feet and the air over Edgar’s head and everything he touches and every word he speaks.
Catherine explains to Nelly that she agreed to marry Edgar because she found Heathcliff low and socially degrading.
Catherine love for Heathcliff is evident when he disappears, she tells Nelly that
“My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries……my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to be a mighty stranger”
Proving her love for Heathcliff. Thus, this proves that Catherine had to change her inborn nature and develop a superficial nature for the sake of the society she lived in.
A Doll’s House
Published in the early days of December 1879 and first premiered on 21 December 1879 at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark was a three-act play called A Doll’s House. It was written by Norway’s Henrick Ibsen. The play is set in a Norwegian town Circa 1879.
“An Ibsenite sentence performs four or five functions at once. It sheds light on the character speaking, on the character spoken to, on the character spoken about, it furthers the plot; it functions ironically conveying to the audience a meaning different from that conveyed to the characters……” – adapted from The Playwright as Thinker Pg. 97
Nora from A Doll’s House
Nora at the beginning of the play is observed to be an ideal nineteenth century wife. She is the central character, who is a doll for her husband who calls her “a little song bird”. She is childlike. Nora forges her father’s signature and gets money for her husband’s health issues. She hides the fact from her husband for it might hurt his ego. Reality strikes her only when her husband gets to know about it and shows his true colours, when she expected him to be with her and support her, he abuses her badly which shatters the perception she had of her husband and makes her question her eight years of marriage. It is evident from the lines
“……. you don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either….”
“We have been married for eight years. Doesn’t it occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation”
She also understands that she was just a doll. When Torvald explains to her that no man would sacrifice his honor for a woman she explains that
“It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done”
This explains clearly that the state of women during that period. Finally, Nora leaves the house understanding the importance spending time for one’s own self she tries to spend time for her. By doing so she proves the change of mindset of the society
Becoming
Becoming was published by crown and planned to be released in 24 languages. In this book which is a autobiographical memoir Michelle Obama explains about her experiences and life. She talks about the time before and after becoming “United States First Lady Michelle Obama”
Michelle Obama
As we all have known and seen Michelle Obama is one of the most powerful women in the world. She is a writer, lawyer and university administrator. She says
“I’ve been the only woman, the only African American, in all sorts of rooms. I’ve been a bride, a stressed-out new mother, a daughter torn up by grief. And until recently, I was the First Lady of the United States of America—a job that’s not officially a job, but that nonetheless has given me a platform like nothing I could have imagined”
She explains very beautifully how she felt during her childhood till now. She explains and expresses her gratitude for her parents to let her grow up the way she wanted. We all know the First Lady Michelle Obama, but her feelings expressed makes us understand her even better
Conclusion
This research there by prove that changes in the portrayal of women has been beautifully brought about. Therefore, the breakage of the stereotype of typical women characters through literature by means of language.
Works Cited
- Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. United Kingdom: Thomas Cautley Newby,1847. Print
- Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House.
- Obama, Michelle. Becoming. United States: Crown, 2018. Hardcover
