| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis I will undertake a comparative analysis of three different novels to investigate how restrictive gendered ideals affect the protagonists’ sense of womanhood and, as part of this examination, discuss how the female condition has changed from the Victorian era to 1950s post-war America. A particular focus will be placed on the doctrine of domestic bliss as the ultimate goal for women.
I have chosen three novels written by women who themselves had to either conform to or be deviants from the reigning expectations of their societies, that is, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899), Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927) and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963). These three novels have primarily been chosen because they portray women who are in similar predicaments, but are placed in different time periods and spaces, and who represent different circumstances of class. Hence, I will investigate how the Victorian, Modernist and Post-war societies pressure women to conform to ideal mothers and wives, and how four different female characters both are seen to accept and refute these ideals.
In order to discuss and critique the mentioned ideals, I will refer myself to a range of theoretic material. I will be using feminist theory that was written during or shortly after the heights of the ideals mentioned – such as The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan, that described the repressive ideal while it was still in effect. Additionally, I will be looking at essays and text from recent years that have interpreted the novels and connected them with the female condition of the era the novels are set in. Lastly, I will be referring to memoirs and news articles that demonstrate that some of the limitations described in the novels for women are still in effect today. | |
