Jane Austen: An Unsung Feminist?

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A watercolour and pencil sketch of Jane Austen, believed to be drawn from life by her sister Cassandra (c. 1810).

Jane Austen is often considered as one of the most important female writers of the19th century. For decades since their initial publications, her works have been widely read, praised, analyzed, and adapted in different ways. However, it must be noted that Austen’s works do not merely portray romantic stories; rather, they serve as keen explorations of how the early 19^th century society perceived relationships and marriages against the norms concerning wealth, honor, and social standing. More important to note is that these works are always sympathetic to the position of women, especially since their future often depends on marriage and the quality thereof. Thus, in a way, it can be said that her works are suggestive of feminism.

To understand how her works appear to be feminist in nature, one must first acquaint oneself with her works. Many of Austen’s works have gathered their respective fame and acclaim. Three of these are her Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the Dashwood sisters. With little income, the Dahswood sisters are faced with the immediate need for husbands. In the same manner, Pride and Prejudice’s Bennet sisters are in search for husbands. And lastly, Persuasion also revolves around the Elliot sister’s search for marital bliss.

Basing on these three plots, it can be said that marriage is a central theme in the lives of women in Austen’s time. Each of the important women characters are faced with the need to marry which are in turn complicated by social norms and expectations. Indeed, it is no surprise that marriage is the center of conflict for the characters since it is of primary importance for women to find good matches for the sake of their future. As seen in the novels, women’s later lives significantly depend on men. This may be attributed to the fact that men in those times had more control on things such as property and industry. An excellent example to this is the system of inheritance employed by society. In Sense and Sensibility, the death of Henry Dashwood leaves all of his property to his son by his first marriage, leaving the Dashwood sisters without a home. Similarly, the property of the Bennet family is “entailed” which means that the property shall pass to a male relative and thus if the Bennet sisters fail to marry, they shall inherit none at the death of their father. Moreover, the quality of marriage is also a concern, with women from the upper-classes needing men of the same standing as seen in Persuasion and women of lower-classes finding it against social expectation to marry men from nobility as in the case of the Bennet sisters.

Taking into account the plight of women in the face of the uncertainty and complications of marriage, one can say that Austen’s novels are sympathetic to women and thereby assume a feminist position. It might not be Austen’s intention to be a feminist but her works certainly act as advocates of women. This is due to the fact that by writing the conditions that face women in their search for marriage, their dependence on men for their futures are given emphasis. Austen’s readers, which were numerous in her time, are acquainted with the real situation of women through the novels’ keen illustration of their lives in the contemporary setting.

In the end, it is beyond a doubt that Austen’s novels have become accurate and poignant portraits of the lives of women in her own time. Having died a spinster herself, Austen may have faced the same difficulties that her character faced in their lives. In creating her sensible characters, she highlights the real situations that make marriage complicated and in doing so acts as an advocate that reveals through her writing a perspective that is at once endearing as it is sympathetic to women in general.

Rain Man

Barry Levinson’s film entitled “Rain Man” is a story of a man’s journey to sympathy, acceptance, and love. Charlie Babbit, the main character in the story does not know what is in store for him—until his father dies and bequeaths all of his state to his autistic son, Raymond. This story is simple, but touches the heart of many lives because the film teaches the audience to choose between money and blood, referring to his brother. The film is also in linear perspective wherein the story moves without going back and forth of the scenes. That is why the story creates a, uncomplicated stream of consciousness wherein the protagonist needs to weigh things according to his belief and understanding.

This film educates its audience on how to appreciate the autistic patients. In this aspect, Raymond has no eye contact, limits his words and speech, responds to short and simple commands, and shows extreme anxiety if he cannot perform his usual routine. It means that this kind of patients needs special education. It is because their knowledge should develop despite their illness. Therefore, in this case, education has to be more sensitive and conscious to the autistic patients—to cater their needs with extreme assistance to help them understand the rightness and wrongness of things.

In general, Levinson’s film can be used to demonstrate the issues of autism that people do not “really” understand. This movie can be an educational recognition of the truth behind the autistic people because it is always important to analyze the reasons behind an illness before judging the patient. In the end, this film wants to say that people should value autistic patients like the way they value any other people because they are also human beings who need love, support, and acceptance for who they are because the bottom line is, they did not choose to be in that situation, but they suffer and somehow wants to live a normal life.

Shakespeare – Crown of the Elizabethan Theatre

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.

            The era of Renaissance is one of the most influential and spectacular era in the history of art and literature, which produced wonderful writers, poets, philosophers, scholars, scientists and theorists, who led the world towards the path of constant and continuous transition in the form of unabated progress and development in the fields of philosophy, art, literature, science, technology, biology, physics and others, and determined new ways of creativity, thoughtfulness and intellect for the people.  The Elizabethan Theatre was also developed during this era.  The evolution of the Elizabethan Theatre started with the development of the very first theatre and amphitheatres.   The Elizabethan men who had the ideas and the money were the ones who created these theatres.  Until the medieval drama grew strong, medieval drama was confined to the interior walls of the church (Theatre History.com).  But once it grew strong and started gaining fame, the medieval drama lasted for very long with religious intent.
            All the playwrights and authors belonging to the Shakespeare’s time were extremely revolutionary.  Incidentally, that was the era of Renaissance.  The era maintains unique style and form of art and literature in diction and material.  However, this era was made extremely interesting as the works of Shakespeare dominated the works of his peers in a number of ways. The fundamental attractions of his plays used to be suspense and climax.  His effort was amazing as it was not of the customary for the time of his existence.  The characters portrayed in all of his plays are very sure and comprehensive.  This was not the case with other playwrights of his time.  With the confidence of complete mastery he causes men and women to live for us, an enormous representative crowd, in all the real array of age and station, flawlessly realized in all the delicate diversities and contradictions of inconsistent human nature.
            The history of the Elizabethan Theatre is a short and tumultuous one.  The victory and recognition shown by Elizabethan theatre during William Shakespeare’s time is an exceptional success story for the theatrical businessmen of that time.  Shakespeare dominated the stage during the era of Elizabethan Theatre as one of the greatest playwrights of the English Literature.  The domination of Shakespeare as the king of Elizabethan era was due to certain interesting aspects like comprehensiveness, construction of the plot of the story, and the characterization which lacked in other works of his contemporaries.
            The three main categories of Shakespeare’s works are Comedy, Tragedy, and Historic plays.  Both comedies and tragedies of Shakespeare are more common than having much of dissimilarity.  The commonality of these categories of Shakespeare’s works lies in the recognition that comes from the fact of all of them having been written by the same genius writer whose specialty lies in excellent characterization and plot construction.  Especially, the tragic works of Shakespeare are an all-time favorite for a majority of Literature lovers.  Shakespeare started writing tragedies because of the reason that he felt that the various other tragic plots that were being used by other English writers of his time lacked artistic rationale and structure.  The main focus of all his tragedies was the fall of a prominent person of his story.  Anybody with just very little knowledge about the writings of Shakespeare would be familiar with one of the tragedies as a Shakespearean work (Gandhi).
            The fourth category of Shakespearean plays is Romances.  A few of them are The Tempest, Cymbeline, and The Two Noble Kinsmen etc.  Romeo and Juliet, despite being a love story does not fall into this category as it has become popular as a Tragedy.

   Bibliography

Gandhi, A. E. (n.d.). Shakespeare's Tragedies. Retrieved June 02, 2009, from http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/Schools/Springfield/Eliz/shaktragedies.html

The Contemporary Nature of the Canterbury Tales

A woodcut from William Caxton's second edition of the Canterbury Tales printed in 1483.

 

Written roughly eight centuries ago, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales have continued to delight its readers with its often clever and amusing accounts. Yet while the setting and ways of the characters in the tales are antiquated, the nature of the stories itself remains essentially the same and can be applied even in modern times. In this paper, we will look at three tales and how they apply to the lives of modern people.

The first story is that of the Man of Law’s Tale. It tells the story of Constance, who is a steadfast Christian princess twice fooled by her mother-in-law. While this story is often noted for the virtue of remaining Christian despite great odds, a theme that applies to contemporary society is the feud between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. The conflict between these two influential women in a man’s life has been the subject of study, parody, and speculation since ancient history. Today, it is not uncommon for women to see their mothers-in-law as domineering figures in the married life of couples.

The second tale, which is told by the Shipman, tells the story of a monk fooling a wealthy merchant and his wife. Perhaps the contemporary theme that can be identified in this story is the deviousness of the clergy. A common characteristic shared by the tales in Chaucer’s collection is the attack on the clergy. The Shipman’s Tale is but one of these. The attacks directed at the clergy by the tale are not unfounded, even in modern standards. Today, the clergy is still perceived as deceitful, which may be attributed to the abundance of gossip and real news about clergymen committing acts that go against the morals and virtues that have sworn into.

Lastly, the Miller’s Tale is about a young lodger named Nicholas who fools an old carpenter so as to have sex with his young wife. The story ends with Nicholas, John, and Absalon (another character) each suffering an unpleasant experience. The contemporary theme in this story is the dilemma of relationships between old men and young women. The unhappiness young women often feel in being married to men who are not their age and cannot provide the qualities of men they seek is still present today. While this may not be practiced in western societies, other cultures that observe arranged marriages between old men and young women often results in an unhappy union, especially for females.

As seen in these stories, the themes and situations presented by Chaucer in his work still apply to modern society. The contemporaneous nature of the Canterbury Tales can be attributed to the fact that while modernity cause changes in society, some aspects such as human nature, moral issues, and relationships continue to linger as time goes by.