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Gabriella Gonzaba
February 13, 2015
The Transformation of Women in Times of War
The American Civil War confronted the ideology of women in the south. In
William Faulkners book, Absalom, Absalom! Mr. Compson says, Years ago we in the
South made our women into ladies. Then the War came and made the ladies into ghost
(Faulkner 7). Although there were adaptations to the United States standings, women
faced a change that was present in many attributes of their life, such as the role of the
men in their communities such as the provider for the family as well as labor intense jobs.
This essay will explain how womens roles were affected during and after the war and
what burdens came along with these changes.
Prior to the Civil War there was a process of cultural exploration in Mississippi.
People moved from the East into Mississippi region, in hopes of finding enough land to
gain prosperity as well as move up in society. The Plantation South had many wealthy
planters and slave-owners. The Plantation South societys economy was focused deeply
in agriculture. Women and families depended on the slaves or their husbands to do most
of the work, providing, and manual labor. The women in the upper class, were seen as
ladies of the South because they were not specified of a task of working hard long hours
or keeping of the house. It is important to not that the women were not aware of how to
care for the plantation or house without the help of the men. In Faulkners book, the
Sutpen plantation is build and run off the work of the slaves and men, not the women.
The women were ladies in the sense that they didnt have much that was asked of them.
the fact women plead nor claim loneliness until impenetrable and insurmountable

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circumstances forces them to give up all hope of attaining the particular baulble which at
the moment they happen to want (Faulkner 41). Ellen, this typical antebellum lady, is
explained as this simple hostess to the household. He had corrupted Ellen in more ways
than one (Faulkner 56). Sutpen was a hard workingman that wanted the respect and
social status he lacked. He wanted the whole picture of the slave-owner, the husband who
had the southern belle wife and two children, and the wealth and social status. When the
civil war happened, the men were off to war. This meant that Thomas and Henry were to
leave the family and leave the women to the plantation duties. The women were forced to
the hardships of manual labor and daily responsibly that they had never been exposed to
prior to the war. These three worked all-day and divided up labor to make their work
more efficient and to simply survive.
We can see from Faulkners book that Judith explains the female essence was
almost ghostlike in that they began to view life as futile. She compares her life to a block
of stone that people scratch on to remember you, but rain, used as a metaphor. The
wanting to escape the world, without the help of the dependable men they suffered so
much pain. While the mind and brain sleep on and only make of this adjacent heat some
trashy myth of realitys escape; or that same sleeping hand, in sensuous marriage with
some dulcet surface (Faulkner 115). She explains the constant pressures people face in
life as well as time itself, eventually weathers your memory from the Earth. Faulkner
explains the ghost like of the women through the sense of ignorance and confusion by
Rosa as Sutpens slaves gossip about the absence of the Thomas and Henry during the
war. It is obvious that the women were not prepared or educated in her husbands duties.

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The women were defeated by the war; they were stripped of their womanhood in the
south.
In conclusion, the changing of women roles from southern belles to ghost spirits
was one of the Souths desperate moments in history. The women were forced to adjust
from the lack of their husbands or men and push to survive. Faulkner explained how
women were matured from this box of daughters of the confederacy to make shift
plantation owners and workers. This transformed how society and family units began to
change through history after the Civil War.

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Works Cited
Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom! New York: Modern Library, 1951. Print.