The Image of Women in Late Victorian Times: The Case of “The Mandrake Venus”, “A White Night” and “The City of Blood”
Journal Title: International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) - Year 2017, Vol 7, Issue 5
Abstract
The intensity of violence perpetrated on women can be regarded as a common denominator that ties together “The Mandrake Venus” (George Egerton), “A White Night” (Charlotte Mew) and “The Red City” (Anna Kingsford). The author’s of these stories pertain to the Victorian age, which spanned over the rule of Queen Victoria between 1837 and 1901. They introduce themselves as spokespersons of a community wherein people are fettered by forces greater than themselves. The first story is a demeaning portrayal of prostitution in a society where women are suppressed to the subservient position. They are subjected not only to the reductive ethos of the condescending male discourse, but also to the injunctions laid down by the patriarchal system at large. The anonymous heroine is displayed without a name, dignity and honor. She is referred to as the Mandrake Venus, which is concomitantly a source of attraction and repulsion. The second story is about a ‘fallen’ woman displayed on the altar of shame. The agonizing and panoptical gazes of the throng around her are meant to play havoc with her self-esteem and strip her of humanity, but, like ‘the world harlot’, in the first tale, she shows spectacular signs of resistance. The third story is a meticulous delineation of vivisection. The author establishes herself as a high profile animal rights activist denouncing the torture inflicted on animals, which resemble, in their helplessness, the disparaged female characters. Generally, this article is an attempt to look at how women are discursively constructed in a patriarchal society. The way they are represented is indicative of the power of a dominant culture to shape the world under the pretentious claim of knowing it. The analysis acquires significance by looking at the text in terms of its worldliness; that is the idea that literature cannot be separated from the political reality of the world in which it is written.
Authors and Affiliations
Mohamed Handour
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP244796
- DOI -
- Views 98
- Downloads 0
DALRYMPLE’S THE AGE OF KALI: A POIGNANT ACCOUNT
India is usually regarded as one of the most spiritual and culturally diverse countries on the earth, with its myriad religions, traditions, long history and colorful rituals This has endeared the country to the Scottish...
Eco-Feminism in Emily Dickinson's Poetry
Eco- feminism which is a “new term for an ancient wisdom” grew out of various social movements – the feminist, peace and ecology movements- in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Eco-feminism represents the coming together o...
PROBLEMS ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE WRITING: SFL ANALYSIS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION
This paper aimed to describe the students’ problems in narrative writing. The population of this research involved 38 students of senior high school students at one of senior high school in Riau province. This research e...
INDIAN CHICK LIT: A GENRE FOR DESI GIRLS
Chick Lit, a contemporary genre, is said to have a dual Anglo-American origin in 1996 with the publication of Bridget Jones’s Diary in the UK and Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City in the USA. The commercial genre gets...
Of Beliefs and Beyond: Influence of Obeah and Myal in the Slave Rebellion in Marlon James’ Novel the Book of Night Women
Religion and its practices have often been causes of conflict and have led to the division of humanity into narrow restrictive boundaries. Religion, in most cases does not seek to empower but to restrict those practising...