Reflect upon how women break free from male oppression Gurjot Sahota

During recent years feminism has risen increasingly, more women have now started fighting for their rights and have proved themselves to be independent. However Feminism cannot clearly be defined as it has so many interpretations. Women from the late 19 th and early 20th century fought for their rights as women. A clear example is The Suffragette movement where there was an aspiring group that were seen as a voice for women under male dominance. They chained themselves, set fire to post boxes and smashed windows to get their point across. The members of the suffragette movement mostly came from middle class backgrounds. They were dissatisfied with by their social and economic situation and wanted change. Women now are able to do paid work and can vote since 1928 in the UK. Ever since the Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1971 it made it illegal to pay women different wages for the same work. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 also helped women not to be discriminated by the basis of gender. The Yellow Wallpaper which was written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a woman struggling against her husband and this yellow wallpaper which is in her bedroom. Gilman was an American sociologist, novelist and writer of shorts stories and poetry. She was a strong feminist during a period of time where accomplishments were extraordinary for women. She served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her individual concepts of life. Yellow Wallpaper is a short story full of symbolism written in first person narrative, it has been classified as a gothic fiction novel illustrating gender attitudes in the nineteenth century. A woman begins her narrative by marvelling on the house and grounds her husband from a temporary accommodation. She describes the house as upper-class estate or even a haunted house, she feels there is something queer about it. The woman then goes on to tell us that she is suffering from nervous depression she complains that her husband demeans her about her illness and of her thoughts and actions in general, he does not believe that she is sick therefore she is forced to suffer alone most of the time. The female narrator of Yellow Wallpaper suffers from post natal depression, however no one, knows this. Her husband is a doctor who is naive about his wifes condition does not prescribe her. If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression a slight hysterical tendency what is one to do? The female character is being denied her rights, as she feels that something is severely wrong with her however no one seems to believe her. The bloody chamber by Angela Carter is another feminist novel which was written in 1979, where feminism was seen more often in different places of the world. Carter was an English feminist and a journalist. She wrote many novels, poems and short stories including The Bloody Chamber. The novel was published in 1979. It was written during the second wave of feminism where women fought against social inequalities such as abortion rights, freedom from house work and the right to vote. Carter was a feminist writer, she has

presented the narrator of the novel as unnamed but we know that she is young, and had recently married a wealthy older man who her mother did not accept as she was asked several times whether she was sure about marrying him. This could be seen as a perfect fairy tale and we see the couple living happily ever after, however going against her husbands demands of not entering one specific room and also being caught in the room has left her being terrified. The narrator describes her husband as a menacing, dark, harsh person. Havisham written by Carol Ann Duffy in 1998 is a poem which was adapted from Great Expectations. Duffy is a Scottish poet and a playwright. Most of her poems address the issues of oppression, gender and violence in a language where all ages are able to read and relate too. The character in Havisham is plotting revenge on all men. She begins to tell the story to the reader why she has so many troubles. Beloved sweetheart bastard an oxymoron to express her feelings of love and hate towards her ex fianc. Not a day since then I havent wished him dead She prayed for it so hard that her eyes have now shrivelled together and her hands have had ropes on the back which will be ideal for her to get her revenge on him. Here we see the struggle of Miss Havisham breaking free from oppression as she has continuously thought about him which has resulted into self harm her body. She has aged and continues to wear her wedding dress which she refuses to take off maybe hoping one day that he will come back to her. The dress is yellowing, the colour yellow usually symbolises warmth and happiness however in this case the dress is yellowing because it seems that Havisham is withering Little Red Cap also written by Duffy was featured in The Worlds Wife collection of poems. Little Red Cap gives a feminist twist to Little Red Riding Hood which was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The classic short story shows how a girl was captured by a wolf. It makes the reader remember the classic tale, which makes it easier for them to connect as she is overcoming her transition from childhood to adolescence in Little Red Cap. We see the opposite where she gets revenge on the wolf. The differences in this poem are that the wolf is portrayed innocent and Little Red Cap as sly. The imagery in the original version can be seen as a childlike and innocent story where as in Little Red Cap the poem can be seen as sexual and promiscuous shown by the main female character. I made quite sure he spotted me, sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink.

The female characters husband in The Yellow Wallpaper controls her from expressing herself. I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus--but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. It can be seen that the character is being cut off from society, which could be a source of her madness. Therefore Perkins reflects upon how this character cannot break free from male oppression. Again we see the colour yellow representing misery. It can be seen as a boundary of where the character is not able to break free from male oppression as it shows the wallpaper representing society and the bars in front of the wallpaper symbolises how she is stuck and cannot break free. He said after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead and then the barred windows and then the gate at the head of the stairs and so on The heavy bedstead,

barred windows and the gate in front of the stairs can be seen to show physical imprisonment that mirrors the narrators societal confinement. Carters The bloody chamber explores the coming of age theme. The way the character transitions from her mothers house to her husbands mimics a womans transition from childhood to womanhood. When he put the gold band on my finger, I had in some way, ceased to be her child in becoming his wife. Furthermore, the gold band can symbolise handcuffs with the connotation of being tied to him- this is Carters representation of women being a possession of men. Both unnamed characters have been denied their identity by their respected authors to symbolise women not being unique in the eyes of a patriarchal, male dominated, society. The unnamed female character has specifically been told not to go into one room, contrastingly in The Yellow Wallpaper the character has been told not to come out of her room. The Little Red-Cap is Duffys take on little red riding hood but it is autobiographical as in the poem Duffy portrays the wolf in terms of a lover and is talking about her own past experiences with a lover in which he seduces her. However unlike the fairytale in which the hunter comes and slays the wolf, in the poem Duffy herself kills the wolf so she in essence takes the mantle of power. The poem still does retain many of the qualities the fairytale does such as the repetition of how large his features were e.g. what big eyes he had! What teeth! but the red wine staining his bearded jaw brings in a sense of modernity and again brings us back to the fact that this maybe an actual person she is talking about not a fictional character. The way she portrays the wolfs lair to be in a dark tangled thorny place shows us how she is out of her comfort zone and she is treading in to the unknown and then again says wolfs lair, better beware. again showing how the wolfs lair is a scary place. My stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer snagged on twig and branch showing us again that there is a sexual relationship as there is intense passion and by stating a colour red which can be a colour which shows love only adds to the belief that Duffy is talking about a sexual relationship with someone. Duffy has clearly shown how this character in the poem has broken free from oppression by being revengeful. As in the beginning the grandmother is in the wolfs belly which symbolizes women being trapped under male dominance. The poem is a sestet and is in a narrative form with Duffy accounting her own personal experience mixed in with a fairytale. Enjambment is used a lot within the poem to quicken the pace of the poem or to create tension and add to the climax.