Compare and contrast your three chosen writers presentation of the ways their female characters fight against

the constrictions that society places upon them.

The role of women in society is constantly questioned and for centuries women have struggled to find their place in the world that is predominantly male oriented. Literature provides a window into the lives, thoughts and actions of women during certain periods of time in a fictious form, yet often reflecting truth in many respects. Anne Brontes The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Sylvia Plaths Selected Poems and Heinrick Ibsens A Dolls House each paint a picture of a woman who has struggled against dominant male figures and the constraint of society. Each of them describing a stereotypically dominated woman. Through submissive natures, compliant attitudes, and shattered egos the three women each struggle to live their lives in accordance with men, using only silent means of escape. So it is naturally with the male and female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind. This quote, spoken by Aristotle proves to be timeless, although modern western society has challenged this assertion with equal opportunities that can be seen within H.R laws. The words express knowledge concerning gender that proves to be centuries ahead of its time. Throughout the study of Ibsens A Dolls House, this is most certainly not the case. It becomes clear throughout this text that for Nora to manipulate the world around her, she must play the little girl in order to be able to deal with the world in a way that she pleases. This holds truth in a different way than originally intended. Noras character is presented to us as purely innocent, like a playful, nave child who lacks knowledge of the world outside of her home. Nora clarifies that she understands the business details related to the debt she incurred taking out a loan to preserve Tuvalus health, indicating that she is intelligent and possesses capacities beyond her expected role as Torvalds wife. In

effect, her trait of intelligence in a rather manipulating manner is symbolic of deception. The central theme of this play is Noras rebellion against society and everything that was expected of her. Nora shows this by breaking away from all of the standards and expectations her husband and society had set upon her. In her time women werent supposed to be independent. They ere to support their husbands, take care of the children, cook, clean and make everything perfect around the house. Noras first rebellion was when she took out a loan without consent for her ill husbands health. By doing this she proved that she wasnt as submissive and helpless as Torvald had imagined. In order to acquire the loan Nora had to forge her fathers signature just after his death, an act of plagiarism that most would certainly refuse to do. Torvald called her a Poor helpless little creature. A perfect example of Torvalds control and Noras submissiveness was when she got him to re-teach her the tarantell. She already knew the dance but acted as If she needed him to re-teach her the entire thing. When he says to her watching you swing and dance the tarantella makes my blood rush. This shows that he is more interested in her physically rather than emotionally. Then when she told him to stop he said too her, am I not your husband? Again this is an example of Torvalds control over Nora, and how he believes that she is there to fulfil his every desire on command. Torvald doesnt trust her with any money and with the little money that does entrust her with he is afraid that she will spend it on Macaroons, a candy that he has forbid her to eat. He calls her his little squirrel, skylark, and he says that she spends money very foolishly. He is overbearing, and yet even more patronising. The second rebellious act in the play is when Nora leaves Torvald and her children. Society in Noras time demands that she should be submissive to her husband and that she is not his equal, but placed under him. The concept of women in society was that they were the property of their husband and that they should fulfil all their expectations within marriage. Nora first realises that there is a problem in the moment when Krogstad tries to blackmail her, Torvald at this time completely refused to support her. In the instance that Torvald realises his social status will not be affected he displays his real feelings for Nora, both physically and emotionally. It is with in this very moment that Nora has some what of an epiphany and decides that she no longer wants to be constrained by Torvald,

and she tells him that she is going to leave him. By separating from Torvald she is not only cutting him out of her life, but also forgetting everything in her past. As Torvald tries to intercede the situation Nora expresses how all of her life she has been treated like a child. She stated how she was Always merry, never happy. Never being able to make a decision on her own. Nora explains to Torvald how she wants to grow into a mature, responsible young woman, depicting herself as a Responsible human being and wants to lead her own life. Noras rebellions were studious and well executed. She knew what was expected of her, yet she did not hesitate to break the norm and do what she thought way right in her own mind. Ibsen uses such rebellions deliberately to highlight the faults in society at the time. Even though she was right by what she had done, society at the time still frowned upon her. In effect, it was wrong of Nora to forge the signature in order to attain the loan for Torvalds medical treatment, but she was in a way forced to do it. There is no doubt that her husband would have died if she hadnt. She was compelled to do it by love and compassion. Both society, and Torvald condemned her for doing such an act. Nora is portrayed throughout the play as Torvalds possession, she is patronised and only there for show and to please her husband. He, Torvald is conveyed as the provider and he is the decision maker. At the time this was deemed to be the perfect marriage yet what it lacked was the vitality of love and understanding. This was clarified when Torvald was outraged after learning that Nora took out the loan to save his life. Ibsen intricately uses Noras character to highlight that societys expectations of a womans role in a marriage and that there should be more equality, love and understanding between them. In comparison to many other authors of the twentieth century, Plaths writing was influenced greatly by her depression and mental illness. In the poem Daddy. Plaths explicit message is that there are women who, due to early conditioning find themselves without the tools to deal with oppressive and controlling men. Women were left to feel hopeless and helpless. The poem itself holds a sense of being cathartic as Plath herself is the speaker. The poem conveys her feelings of oppression and her battle to come to terms with the issues of imbalance. The poem also

evokes the struggle many women faced in a male dominated society. The main conflict of this poem is male authority and control versus the right to independence as a female, to make choices and be free of male domination. Plaths conflicts began in her relationship with her Father and here continued when she married her husband, Ted Hughes. The sheer intensity of this conflict becomes extremely apparent as she uses examples that arent easy to dismiss. The atrocities of NAZI Germany are used as symbols to exemplify the horror of male domination. The perpetual and blunt manipulation of the male, as he introduces the hopelessness and oppression into the lives of his women is associated with the twentieth centuries worst period. German diction such as Luftwaffe. panzerman, and Meinkampf look are used to portray her father and husband as well as all male domination. The extensive use of the word black: throughout the poem connotes a feeling of gloom and suffocation within the mise-en-scene. This is the notion of restriction and constraint. Like many other women In society at the time, we learn that Plath felt constrained and stifled throughout her life by her use of the simile I have lied like a shoe for thirty years poor and white, barely able to breathe or Achoo. The use of similes and metaphors such as chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belson. And I think I may well be a Jew. Clearly express the feelings of anguished hopelessness and the ripping agony she must have felt. The agelessness of this poem is guaranteed and there will always be women repressed and controlled by their husbands as other male influences. Whilst reading through the poem Mirror, the lake is relevant because of the famous mythological story of Narcissus. He was known to be extremely beautiful and one day while drinking from a lake he saw his reflection. Overcome by vanity he stared at his reflection for so long and so close that he fell in the river and died. This underpins the consequences of vanity. Plath explores this metaphor to show the little girl that once looked in that mirror has now drowned and an old woman rises towards her like a terrible fish. This shows her dislike for herself. Sylvia Plath has been looking in this mirror everyday for a long period of time, and she sees that she is getting older and despises it. We get a sense of time period because it says over and over and day after

day. Sylvia Plath had severe depression and very little compassion for herself. This poem evokes how she is scared of the truth the mirror is showing her and how she tries to go to other things to feel young again. The poem Mirror is told from the point of view of a mirror hanging up on a wall. This mirror, has, over time, been privy to the tears of a woman over who she sees in it, desperate gasps at moonlit lies, and the endless speculations of a pink with speckles wall. Mirror is a poem that probes in to the corners of human nature, beauty, life, and death, reflecting back their truths to readers as good mirrors do. In this poem, readers can see truth about themselves reflected among the words as though the poem itself is a mirror, too. Just as the poem reflects truth to its readers, so the mirror in it reflects truth to the woman it sees every day. It is objective about everything it observes in the woman, for it can have no biases simply owing to the nature of its stature. The mirror informs us that it is not cruel, only truthful. It is giving, true to its nature, a frank description of itself; non-judgemental and unprejudiced of its admirers. Mirrors have and never will pass any judgment on their gazers. They leave that for their gazers themselves to do, and they always do just that, as it is human nature. The mirror prides itself on the same clear-cut honesty of the faces it regurgitates back for judgement. It is almost arrogant about it, refusing to falter in its own perfection for a moment, even as she turns to those liars, the candle or the moon which cast false shadows upon her face. It continues to reflect the woman honestly, even though she cannot see it, so that when she learns of the lies and turns back, there she is in all her self-perceived imperfection. Not one person, the woman of the poem included, has ever been judged by a mirror, but rather through it. It is because of it that the woman can see her outer self, so also because of it, she sometimes forgets her inner self. She forgets the pink behind the speckles on the wall of her face, seeing only that the speckles are marring the beauty of it. The mirror, however, does not see the destruction the woman sees, for she is the only one of the two who has the desire to judge. She was the only true master of herself, but she ended up caving in under her preconceived notions of societys view of her. She became a slave to the mirror and her interpretations its truths. One of these truths is age. No one has yet

achieved immortality, and so death is a formidable foe. Mirrors reflect the coming of this rival in the rivulets and creases found in a face of age, and many people obsess over this manifesting. In the poem, according to the mirror, I am important to her. The woman in the poem has drowned a young girl in her obsessions, aging her into an old woman like a terrible fish. With each day, the manifestation becomes more pronounced because Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She wasted away in front of that mirror so that now, death Rises towards her day after day, like a terrible fish. She hates the mirrors honesty on the matter, but cannot turn away. She is unable to resist knowing that death is creeping ever closer every day. She lives her life; it seems, around that knowledge, convinced that she should not be as she is. She is, as the poem says, Searching for what she really is. She is unaware that all around her, death is marking others down for capture with the lines of age. All she knows is that she has gone from pink, with speckles into a world of darkness that she disapproves of seeing in the mirror. She does not seem to understand that in fact, no one will be left unaffected. The eye of the little god will seek out everyone from all four corners of the globe. In the end, her obsession kills her, the terrible fish having finally made it to the surface. The woman within this poem lives and dies within it, mirroring any and all readers lives in that. The poem offers up a universal reflection of a person for readers to judge themselves. After all, it is a mirror and that is what mirrors do. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents an interesting picture of human nature. Anne Bronte offers a dualistic view of humanity. On one side is the evil, the corrupt, and the undisciplined; on the other side is self-restraint, virtue, and goodness. While there are exceptions, the general tenor of the book suggests that this duality is divided not by religion, race, or class, but by gender. Indeed, Bronte seems to equate moral uprightness with feminine virtue. The most glaring example of masculine corruption comes in the example of Arthur Huntington, Helen Huntington's first husband. Prior to their marriage, Helen believes he is a paragon of virtue. She is warned, however, about the moral standing of Arthur and his friends, and, by extension, all men. "They can all play the hypocrite," says her aunt, "when they want to take in a fond, misguided woman. Arthur

lives up to the aunt's expectation. He is a constant drunkard. He takes no responsibility for his actions, tending instead to blame indiscretion on too much alcohol. He is verbally abusive to Helen. While there is no description of physical abuse, Huntington is certainly a violent character; when he demands Helen's portfolio from her and she refuses, he grabs the middle out of it, declaring, "let me have its bowels". Ultimately, Helen gives up on Arthur, declaring her efforts to reform him to be in vain, and leaving it to God to "remove the film of sensual darkness from his eyes" Bronte characterizes Arthur's friend Hattersley in a similar fashion. Prior to marrying Hattersley, Milicent desperately writes to Helen, begging Helen to convince her that Hattersley is better than he seems, and that he is just "a diamond in the rough. In fact, Hattersley takes his abuse of Milicent beyond Arthur's abuse of Helen when he becomes not only verbally and psychologically but also physically abusive to Millicent. Even young Arthur is in danger of being corrupted by the grown men around him. After seeing young Arthur interacting with his father, Helen laments, "He has won his father's heart at last; and now my constant terror is, lest he should be ruined by that father's thoughtless indulgence. Helen complains of "the father's spirit in the son to contend against, the germs of his evil tendencies to search out and eradicate, and his corrupting intercourse and example in after-life. to counteract. When Helen leaves Huntington, she does not do so out of concern for her own well being; rather, she hides out at Wildfell hall for young Arthur's sake. Even Gilbert Markham, who stands far above Huntington and his friends in terms of morality, struggles with the basest of desires. Helen's "proud, chilly look" had "roused my corruption at church". When Helen finally consents to marry Markham, he is so blinded by pride and disbelief that, initially, he does not believe that she is truly proposing to him. Still, Markham does offer a picture of a man who, for the most part, keeps his "corruption" in check. Helen becomes outraged at the illicit affair between her husband and Lady Lowborough. While Helen resents Lady Lowborough, the only thing Helen directly faults her for is her "guilty connection with my husband". Lady Lowborough's guilt is not particularly innate, but rather comes as a connection with Huntington. Huntington seduces Lady

Lowborough, rather than she seducing him. Further, Bronte tells of the many illicit affairs involving Huntington, but only credits Lady Lowborough with a single mistake. Anne Bronte wrote of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, "if I have warned one rash youth from following in their steps, or prevented one thoughtless girl from falling into the very natural error of my heroine, the book has not been written in vain". Thus, the driving moral lesson of the book is not the evils of liquor or impropriety; rather, it is an object lesson designed to steer young women away from men who cannot control their basest passions. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has much to say about a great many connected topics that could lead to this further study. For example, the book seems to have an internal dialogue about gender roles within marriage such as occurs with Markham's discussion with his aunt about the nature of marriage. The book speaks to ideas about divorce and remarriage in the Victorian era. Helen's design to make her own living as an artist speaks to other aspects of gender roles, as well as ideas about class.

Bibliography

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