Gender Criticism Literature through Two Vantage Points - Essay Example

GENDER CRITICISMIN LITERATURE THROUGH TWO VANTAGE POINTS Gender Criticismin Literature through Two Vantage Points Gender criticism, formerly knownas feminist criticism emerged to answer issues of inaccurate character portrayal in literature about females as portrayed by males, and vice versa, along with the distortion of female representation in literature, and lifting the attached stereotypes to both genders, during the rise of feminism in the 1950’s and 1960’s with the increasing number of women writers and literary critics (Griffith, 2010; Wolfson, 1999). As such, literary gender criticism in literature aims to find out how the writer’s gender and societal upbringing in relation to gender roles affect character portrayal in literary works. The variable effects of contemporary gender roles of authors allowed various gender character portrayals tohighly depend on author perspective, exemplified by using two pairs of literary classics written through a woman’s vantage point, by a male; Henry James and his novels The Portrait of a Lady and Washington Square, and a female author, Jane Austen and her novels Emma and Sense and Sensibility. Different attitudes of the two authors on the gender female help shapestrengths and weaknesses of female main protagonists in their storiesthrough conflicts to show how females cope, if these are successful or not, and whether or not these would resonate with readers on expected and prescribed gender roles. How Author Gender Influences Character Development Using the historical context of these four novels, it is easily-deduced that women do not have equal rights with men, and that they are incapable of independence, intelligence, strong attitudes, and other traits considered masculine (Griffith, 2010). As such,before the women’s liberation movement women are often portrayed by male writers as docile, meek, shy, and dependent beings unworthy to stand on their own, rendering them incapable of achieving successes by themselves. Henry James’ novel The Portrait of a Lady written in 1881 showed how masculine traits such as assertiveness and independence did not mix well with women, with his female protagonist Isabel ending up in an unhappy marriage as the result of asserting her need to be right (James, 1995). Her demise was through stereotypical notion of women’s emotional decisions, denoting their incapacity for intelligent thinking. Similarly in James’ other novel Washington Square, which was written a year earlier, Catherine’s demise resulted to her fighting for her beliefs against her strict father, in the end causing him to believe she is unintelligent and stubborn and should lose her inheritance, for her father lacked faith in her decisions with regards to choosing who to marry (James, 1998).James’ two novels send the message that women mustbe subservient to men for success, wealth or comfort throughout their lives. While male authors rarely mold their female protagonists against societal influences,female writers create strong-willed and dedicated characters, thus making female characters with unlikely attitudes to make the story lively and reflect unconscious desires of gaining equality with males in society (Wolfson, 1999). These stories have greater emphasis on the female protagonists’ feelings, capturing how women think under particular circumstances. Jane Austen created strong-willed and assertive characters capable of independent thinking in choosing their fate and learning lessons through such efforts. In her story Sense and Sensibility published in 1811, Austen created the main female protagonists Marian and Elinor to learn how to think independently under different circumstances, even while showing their femininity and their despair after losing the men they love. Learning pain through love by realizing their mistakesand thinking about these a lot helped them become stronger in the story’s progression, with Elinor taking back Edward despite his disinheritance, and Marian promptly rejecting Mr. Willoughby after learning of his deceitful and selfish nature (Austen, 2009).Despitea different plot, Austen’s other novel Emma written in 1815 also shows female characters with strong will, assertiveness, and capabilities to learn. She made the main female protagonist Emma an independent, intelligent, and rich young lady by default, bringing up her stature without going through various, deviating from common female roles in literature around Austen’s time (Austen, 1996; Wolfson, 1999). Austen’s belief that women can also be as strong-willed or assertive as men comes through her novels by making her female protagonists more thoughtful and go-getting, in a way contributing to her plot allowing more female action than men. What Austen and James show Audiences about Male and FemaleAttitudes Despite Austen putting greater focus on her female protagonists by emphasizing on their happy endings, and James leading his female protagonists to tragic endings at the hands of male characters, it is surprising that Austen actually shows conservative and moralist ideals in her female and male character portrayals, whereas James portrays a relatively modern idea about women’s independence through education, inheritance, and other means under a patriarchal society. Without gender criticism it is easy to overlook these instances. In Austen’s novels the two female protagonists end up getting married, echoing societal attitudes aboutmarriage in the Victorian Era. For example, Emma mostly dwells on marrying off to the best match possible, with the main protagonist Emma facilitating such events unsuccessfully(Austen, 1996). Emma pushesher female friend Harriet to marry the best available bachelor, showinghow important it is for women to marrymen with high social status. This is similar in Sense and Sensibility, wherein Marian marries Colonel Brandon because he provides security and stability despite the wide age gap (Austen, 2009).The female protagonists’endings in the novels reflect Austen’s personal beliefs on marriage to a certain degree, showing attitudes about women finding their happiness or at least experience wealth and comfort through marriage (Howe &Aguiar, 2001). The idea that a woman can only be truly successful inmarriage is further cemented by Austen’s portrayal of spinster or widowers. In Emma, the old spinster Miss Bates was depicted destitutely despite her nice attitude and temperament (Austen, 1996). Similarly in Sense and Sensibility Mrs. Dashwood did not receive any inheritance from her husband upon his death, leaving her and her two daughters in poverty, and was also never shown to have overcome poverty by herself. Instead she became delegated as a dependent of her cousin, Sir John Middleton (Austen, 2009).Showing spinsters or widows at the lowest point of their lives without redemption further shows Austen’s attitudes about females and marriage. Austen’s portrayal of females in both of her stories was very emotional and human, did not leave this in from males in her stories. While she did make the males to have dominance over the female characters, she did so only to a certain degree, and instead of completely having control over the female characters she created her own kind of masculinity, in the case of male characters with relations to the female protagonists they are respectful and treat both genders equally and fairly. For example, in EmmaMr. Knightly treats Robert Martin with respect as his equal, unlike Emma who thinks she and Harriet are above him and deems him unworthy of Harriet’s hand in marriage. Mr.Knightly also criticizes both women and men when they fail to meet his standard of behavior, not having bias on gender as shown with his encounters with Mr. and Mrs.Elton, Frank Churchill, and even with Emma. Aside from equality, Austen also defined masculinity to have a caring attitude towards females, in turn creating the idea of a romantic male. Still in Emma, Mr. Knightley was shown to be Emma’s support despite her silly antics due to his love for her, and professing this love near the story’s denouement.The notion of a romantic male was explored further inSense and Sensibility, with Colonel Brandon as the main example. This was done successfully through his kind and gentle treatment of Marian, strongly contrasting with the brash and arrogant Mr. Willoughby (Austen, 2009).Colonel Brandon’s traits that empower women such as showing his dedication to his first love’s child, not giving up on Marian despite the consequences, of assisting and encouraging Elinor for Marian’s sake, and basically his overall support of the women in his life in general makeshim a much more desirable and better choice for Marian, helping her choose him as her husband she was able to think clearly for herself. The idea that males can satisfy women to some degree was a relatively new idea that Austen took advantage of in her stories and made these popular, thus her redefining of masculinity involved the greater participation of males in the lives of females by making them more emotional, by supporting female interests, and helping them live better in stability and comfort. While Austen mostly focused on letting females enjoy freedom happily, James was not shy in showing the downside of female independence in his two stories and subliminally asserting male dominance and strength in society, in which he did not make explicit happy endings for the female protagonists nor show them to be happy in their independent undertakings, while the male characters mostly have greater control over the situations. However, despite many challenges and ending up sad, miserable, or alone in the process, the fact that he allowed his female protagonists to be self-dependent thinkers and have enough willingness to be prideful by standing up for their choices was something revolutionary given the context that these stories were written long before the feminist movement was even heard of. In Washington Square, Catherine underwent a slow transformation from a shy and quiet girl into an assertive and strong-willed lady, which leads her to lose her father’s trust and his inheritance (James, 1998). However, contrary to the expectations for women to be attached, romantic, melodramatic, and emotional, she did not display such characteristics and even refused marriage offers, to end up being a middle-aged spinster. Furthermore, Catherine was even able to tell off her former lover when he appeared in her life after several years, showing how she became stronger emotionally. Meanwhile Isabel’s character development in The Portrait of a Lady shows her initially to be a strong and independent woman, who became less of it during the story’s development. It was not explicitly shown in the end that Isabel grew as strong as Catherine’s portrayal in Washington Square, and it only leaves audiences to judge whether Isabel has grown independent once again or if she fails to do so based on her decision to leave Rome without telling her husband (James, 1995). The circumstances that the female protagonists faced in the two stories simply reflect the plight of women during James’ lifetime, in which he was able to skilfully describe what could possibly happen if women started to think independently, or at the very least start thinking and behaving like men (McCall, 1999).And yet, simply showing how these events came to be also gave the message to readers that women are indeed capable of independent thinking, despite the notion that they cannot handle their own affairs. Summaries and Conclusion Gender criticism is an avenue in studying the influence of author gender to character portrayal, in turn affecting character perception and acceptance as described in two pairs of classic novels about women but written by a man and a woman. Jane Austen’s Emma and Sense and Sensibilitycharacter portrayals mostly focused on women, describing the differences in how they think between the same and the opposite genders, even with the influence of perceived gender roles in society, and that male protagonists are portrayed to be romantic and a bit submissive towards female characters without full emasculation. While her novels show female roles with happy endings, this was not the cases in two of Henry James’ novels, wherein women experience pain and defeat in asserting their independence amidst a patriarchal and male-dominated society. Despiteseemingly-portraying a sort of liberation in women by illustratingthatfemales are uncannily capable of independent thinking, it is contradicted within the story’s progress by showing how women’s weaknesses in love can cause their own demise. Thus, Henry James’ female protagonists implicitly show inferiority with and dependence on men as well asthe control of circumstances by the opposite gender. However, it is surprising to note that Austen shows she accepts women’s domestic roles and of marriage making women happyby allowing her characters to end up getting married in her stories. In James’ case, while he caused tragic endings to his female protagonists’, he at least imparted a feminist touch by allowing their independence and strong-wills, making them resilient and less pitiful in the end. In a way, this makes Austen’s writing more conservative but less-modern when compared with James’, thus making James’ female protagonists more of unhappy victors and Austen’s to be happy failures under modern contemporary society. Looking at the two pairs of stories, it is easy to see how gender affects character development within the progress of the story. Based on the historical context that these stories were written, it was clear that women have lesser rights than men, and thus female portrayal by males would tend to put bigger emphasis on the importance of male decisions and attitudes, while portrayals by women would empower women and turn them into independent and assertive women.These views in turn will also affect readers, in a way that female characters depicted by females will resonate more with female readers than those depicted by males, and vice versa. This said, it is of importance to analyze these characters not just based on the historical context of the story, but also through gender criticism by relying on the author’s gender in order to find deeper meaning from the character’s attitude and changes within the story. References Austen, J. (1996). Emma. London: Penguin Group. ________. (2009). Sense and sensibility. New York: Classic Books America. Griffith, K. (2010). Writing essays about literature. Boston: Wadsworth. Howe, M., &Aguiar, S. A. (2001).He said, she says: An RSVP to the male text. Danvers, MA: Rosemond Publishing and Printing Corp. James, H. (1995). The portrait of a lady. New York: Penguin Books Ltd. ________. (1998). Washington square. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. McCall, D. (1999). Citizens of somewhere else: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Wolfson, S. (1999).Romanticism and gender.In D. Wu, A companion to romanticism (pp. 385-397). Malden: Blackwell Publishing. 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