One of the most common themes that I noticed throughout my reading concerning gender is how cultural and societal norms/expectations have a great and larger over-arching effect on society and the individual. I think this can be best summarized when looking at pieces like Characteristics of the Women of England written by Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and “Maids, Not to You My Mind Doth Change” by Michael Fields (Edith Cooper and Katharine Bradley).
Characteristics of the Women of England is fairly direct in how it plays into gender roles, it sets specific expectations for women in its narrative going so far as to declare women that fall outside of that narrative immoral. Ellis assigns a specific task and role to women in society leading readers to feel dissatisfied with the results. As I stated in a blog post on the reading, Ellis has a very narrow conception of women and their roles with little creativity for potential progress.
This can also be observed in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which is a story about a man who felt that he had to create an entirely different person in order to be free of society’s constraints. Jekyll would not have been pushed to this decision if the expectations of Victorian society where perhaps less strict and rigid. He feels trapped in the same network of expectations: wealthy, educated, always proper and polite with no freedom to act as he may wish if it falls outside of the expectations society holds.
While the gender expectations and roles in "Maids, Not to You My Mind Doth Change” is more subtly noticed in the writing directly, the fact that these writers felt trapped and controlled by society is self-evident when looking at the decisions they had to make in regards to expressing their love. Field and Cooper were so controlled by society that they couldn’t even write love poetry to each other openly, instead having to create a pen name and keep their love hidden.
Another theme that was evident throughout the same pieces was how we conform to societies expectations and what it means for our greater humanity. Each character, and in some cases the authors themselves, sacrifice an aspect of themselves for the benefit of the society the imposing upon them.
In Ellis’ writing, she claims that women must sacrifice employment and education so that they can stay the moral backbones of society. Furthermore, Ellis claims it is important that women don’t push for equality because we have our roles and must stick to it. At what cost does Ellis ask readers to make this sacrifice? It’s not only in minor conformities, as it leads to a more long-standing form of oppression and control.
Stevenson’s piece is one of the best examples of this conformity as I believe that Jekyll represents the ideal Victorian man while Hyde is the opposite. Less so about the duality of man, but more about how the pressures of society leads us to conform in a way that may be unsafe. Jekyll’s decision leads to his death and the death of another because he felt so compelled to conform in some regards while attempting to oppose in other ways. Ultimately, this state of being stuck in the middle is what destroys him.
Finally, Cooper and Bradley’s poetry shows, in a real-world example, how society’s expectation can impact real people and, in their case, true love. They were unable to embrace and be publicly together as a result of what society expected of women, at the time. This led the two to create their pen names and created love poetry that could be published an in the view of the public yet, it had to be under a male name. While they were able to be successful under this new name, they sacrificed a large part of their identity to do so.
Characteristics of the Women of England is fairly direct in how it plays into gender roles, it sets specific expectations for women in its narrative going so far as to declare women that fall outside of that narrative immoral. Ellis assigns a specific task and role to women in society leading readers to feel dissatisfied with the results. As I stated in a blog post on the reading, Ellis has a very narrow conception of women and their roles with little creativity for potential progress.
This can also be observed in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which is a story about a man who felt that he had to create an entirely different person in order to be free of society’s constraints. Jekyll would not have been pushed to this decision if the expectations of Victorian society where perhaps less strict and rigid. He feels trapped in the same network of expectations: wealthy, educated, always proper and polite with no freedom to act as he may wish if it falls outside of the expectations society holds.
While the gender expectations and roles in "Maids, Not to You My Mind Doth Change” is more subtly noticed in the writing directly, the fact that these writers felt trapped and controlled by society is self-evident when looking at the decisions they had to make in regards to expressing their love. Field and Cooper were so controlled by society that they couldn’t even write love poetry to each other openly, instead having to create a pen name and keep their love hidden.
Another theme that was evident throughout the same pieces was how we conform to societies expectations and what it means for our greater humanity. Each character, and in some cases the authors themselves, sacrifice an aspect of themselves for the benefit of the society the imposing upon them.
In Ellis’ writing, she claims that women must sacrifice employment and education so that they can stay the moral backbones of society. Furthermore, Ellis claims it is important that women don’t push for equality because we have our roles and must stick to it. At what cost does Ellis ask readers to make this sacrifice? It’s not only in minor conformities, as it leads to a more long-standing form of oppression and control.
Stevenson’s piece is one of the best examples of this conformity as I believe that Jekyll represents the ideal Victorian man while Hyde is the opposite. Less so about the duality of man, but more about how the pressures of society leads us to conform in a way that may be unsafe. Jekyll’s decision leads to his death and the death of another because he felt so compelled to conform in some regards while attempting to oppose in other ways. Ultimately, this state of being stuck in the middle is what destroys him.
Finally, Cooper and Bradley’s poetry shows, in a real-world example, how society’s expectation can impact real people and, in their case, true love. They were unable to embrace and be publicly together as a result of what society expected of women, at the time. This led the two to create their pen names and created love poetry that could be published an in the view of the public yet, it had to be under a male name. While they were able to be successful under this new name, they sacrificed a large part of their identity to do so.