ORWELL

https://studydriver.com/role-of-woman-in-1984/

HUXLEY

https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1156&context=rbc

The Women of Brave New World: Aldous Huxley and the Gendered Agenda of Eugenics Between
the World Wars, the concept of eugenics was continuously debated. It started with the ideas
surrounding Social Darwinism. Eugenics followers used Social Darwinism along with their own
beliefs to create different definitions for those they deemed “unfit” for society.

Lenina is introduced as a normal, untroubled citizen of the World State. Her point of view shows us
how the World State’s philosophy and indoctrination work in an ordinary citizen.

Bernard takes Lenina out to sea. He hopes that if they can be alone (which is discouraged by the
World State’s authorities) they might be able to forge a strong emotional connection. When he asks
Lenina “Don’t you understand that?” her response is conflicted. It’s not that she doesn’t understand,
but rather that she is “determined to preserve her incomprehension.” This moment is our first
definite clue that Lenina feels the appeal of strong romantic emotion. She has to make a “decision”
not to acknowledge it.

A V.P.S. treatment indeed! She would have laughed, if she hadn’t been on the point of crying. As
though she hadn’t got enough V.P. of her own! She sighed profoundly as she refilled her syringe.
“John,” she murmured to herself. “John…” Then “My Ford,” she wondered, “have I given this one
its sleeping-sickness injection, or haven’t I?”
When John refuses Lenina’s advances, she begins to experience violent romantic and sexual
longing. While John, Bernard and Helmholtz all embrace the idea that their strong emotions make
them social renegades, Lenina tries to process her passion in a socially-acceptable way, using the
language and ideas of the World State, as “V.P.” (“Violent Passion”.) Her behavior confirms
Mustapha Mond’s argument that even non-renegade emotion is dangerous and troublesome to the
World State. Her passion for John causes her to make a mistake at work which will result in a death.

WOOLF

Virginia Woolf: the pioneer of feminism - Squaderno

The vision of Virginia Woolf was strongly based on the emancipation and independence of women
as men. What a woman in Victorian times was forced to do, it was not right for personal growth,
especially for her. As seen previously, during the Victorian era the female population was literally
forced by conventions, dogmas and dresses. The woman and the Victorian matriarch were women
who could not study, if they were not rich or aristocratic enough to do it. The environments in
which they lived were common spaces and they had to only take care of their husbands, and their
children, and finally the house. These social conventions of formality and rigidity, had distinguish
Victorian society until began to appear a glimmer of independence. The woman had to be
emancipated, she had to fight for her rights and had to be adept at still be able to maintain the
desired attitude from men and society. And it is this that seeks to make real Virginia Woolf in her
book “A Room of one’s own”. This book represents the women’s fairest novel ever written.

JOYCE

The social and economic conditions of women in the Irish society of Joyce’s time – a brief survey.

As a consequence of the great Famine in 1845 and severe economic deprivation, millions of people
were driven abroad. Those who remained in Ireland had to cope with widespread poverty. Jobs
were few, salaries meagre and opportunities to improve their social living

conditions were rare, especially for young women whose vocational choices were much more
limited than men's.[4]

In the mid-nineteenth century, women were largely excluded from participation in Dublin's
dominant male society. Instead, the Irish Catholic Church expected them to fulfil the traditional
female roles of self-sacrificing wives and mothers, submissive and humble to their husbands.
Young women should be virginal, emulating the Virgin Mary and families were to model
themselves on the Holy Family. Actually, marriage and housework was their future vocation [5] - a
fact, that at first glance seems to allow the assumption that it was common practice for women to
marry early.

The situation of women in Dubliners

Joyce's female Dubliners are almost always portrayed in relation to men – they are mothers, wives,
daughters, sisters, lovers or fiancées. All of them appear to be victims of the patriarchal and
paralytical nature of Irish society caught between their desire to lead an independent and prosperous
life and the fulfillment of their traditional female role. A woman's married or celibate life
in Dubliners is destined to be unhappy, denying any romantic ideas of love and marriage and
always leading to a disillusionment of the character..

Although some of the female protagonists are depicted as rather dominant women, strongly
contrasting the larger number of those that tend to be more weak and pitiable, none of them is
offered the possibility of escaping her wearisome and frustated life shaped by the cultural pressures
of nineteenth-century Ireland.

In illustrating the extent of female deprivation in Dubliners, Joyce draws heavily on the
underprivileged situation of women in Dublin around 1900. The unhappy marital and celibate lives
of Joyce's female Dubliners are very much determined by family restrictions and the influence of
the Catholic Church on the individual.[8]

Unhappiness and domination in women's lives are recurring themes in Dubliners. As both combine
in Joyce's story "Eveline", it is the interest of the following to introduce aspects of women's
situation in Dubliners by means of chosen short stories, which subsequently correspond to
"Eveline" and her failure to escape Dublin's oppressive environment.
The unhappy marital life in Dubliners

In Dubliners, none of the fifteen stories presents harmony in marriage and none of the married
women was able to preserve romantic ideas of a happy family life or could escape from their dull
existence.

The picture that Joyce drew of those pitiful characters as in "Grace" and "A Painful Case," reflects
women's way of coping with their unhappy marital existences - an attempt that always ends in
frustration for the character.

WILDE
Women in Dorian Gray
Posted on June 18, 2013 by Lauren Lind

‘Women appreciate cruelty’.  How far and in what ways are women victims in The Picture of
Dorian Gray?

Women were expected to run the house and obtain a passive almost spiritual role, whilst the male
figure was predominantly the breadwinner. In the Picture of Dorian Dray women (especially of the
upper class) are often seen conforming to the custom and this is revealed when the ladies leave the
table after dinner. These restrictions are ones which Lord Henry and Dorian would never have to
face and from a feminist perspective it is easy to see how women are treated as victims. 
The ‘Angel of the house’ was the Victorian ideal of the perfect women and wife and created an
expectation to further maintain their ‘maternal’ and caring nature. Lord Henry states that he doesn’t
suppose that Dorian will ‘want [his] wife to act’, once they are married and this reinforces the
dominant ideologies of the role of women in the 19 th century. Ironically it is Sibyl’s passivity and
inability to act or perform, which may be considered a male role (working and earning an income),
that ‘kills’ Dorian’s love and therefore it may be argued that Wilde is making a social comment on
gender and society.
It is argued that within the novel, women are physically ‘caged’. Sibyl is described by Dorian as a
‘caged bird’ and this possibly represents the idea that, as an actress, Sibyl is trapped by the
standards of society.

It has been argued that Sibyl is the girl version of Dorian and the many similarities that Wilde
places in the novel tends to give us this notion.  Lord Henry describes Dorian as a ‘rose’ in the
opening chapter and Dorian too compares his kiss with Sibyl as ‘rose coloured joy’. There is then
an argument to suggest that Dorian’s character is feminine as he seen ‘pouring tea’ and is often
objectified by male figures. Dorian is an ekphratic character and he is often seen as a work of art
instead of a person. When Basil describes the portrait as the ‘real’ Dorian he adds ‘in appearance’.
The comparison to ‘Narcissus’ and ‘Adonis’ that Lord Henry makes to Dorian are two allusions that
further reinforce the idea that Dorian is objectified and ‘worship[ed]’ for his beauty and youth.

even though Sibyl is an actress, this is not a choice that she actively made herself – but rather one
that she has been forced to make, due to her social conditions. Given a choice, she rejects her acting
and even states that she would hate ‘to be free’. She is therefore represented as a victim of society
who has been trapped for so long that she would not know what to do if she was truly free. Mrs
Vane is too represented as a victim and it is only James Vane (in the family) who actively leaves
and pursues his own life.
HARDY

Tess
The novel’s protagonist. Tess is a beautiful, loyal young woman living with her impoverished
family in the village of Marlott. Tess has a keen sense of responsibility and is committed to doing
the best she can for her family, although her inexperience and lack of wise parenting leave her
extremely vulnerable. Her life is complicated when her father discovers a link to the noble line of
the d’Urbervilles, and, as a result, Tess is sent to work at the d’Urberville mansion. Unfortunately,
her ideals cannot prevent her from sliding further and further into misfortune after she becomes
pregnant by Alec d’Urberville. The terrible irony is that Tess and her family are not really related to
this branch of the d’Urbervilles at all: Alec’s father, a merchant named Simon Stokes, simply
assumed the name after he retired.

The Victorian society held rigid ‘views on marriage’ and the role of women in life. Most women
regarded marriage as a fixed fact of nature. It was a fundamental part of their life plan, as was
childbearing. In the mid 19th century, reproduction was considered a woman’s only correct
occupation. Marriage and divorce legislation regulated the relations between men and women.
Under the common law doctrine.

Divorce was very expensive, only available to the rich. People most often simply lived apart or
separated from one another. The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923 equalized the grounds for divorce
by allowing woman to sue an adulterous husband for divorce. In the middle of this strict social
code, Hardy came into being. He had a very distinct view of the institution and the implications that
came along with it. He felt that it was absurd to force two people to vow to love each other forever
and even if that did not happen, the couple was socially required to stay together. Hardy was not so
much against marriage as he was against the idea that it was an irrevocable contract. He points out
that Tess of the D’urbervilles deals in the inequities women face and their serious consequences for
the sex.

DICKENS

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/charles-dickens-depicts-women-3864.php

Dickens and his view towards women- Is it really progress?

The Victorian Age is a period of great progress in multiple fields such as industry, trade, literature
and so on. The role of women in society also improved considerably and many laws were passed
safeguarding their rights during this age. By the fin de siècle, the concept of a “New Woman” is
born. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous novelists during this era as his novels were read
widespread by the general populace. His works always favoured progression of the working class,
and the effects of industrial revolution like in “Hard Times”. But his portrayal of women in his
works easily fall under the Victorian stereotypes of women and this aspect does not really portray
him as a progressive writer for women.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:408447/fulltext01
Charles Dickens was a novelist of the Victorian Era (1837-1901), which is often characterized as a
domestic age. Oliver Twist was written at the beginning of the era, when Queen Victoria and her
femininity became an icon. She represented family, motherhood, and respectability.13 The British
middle-class women were at home taking care of the household and the family. Women also spent
much time being pregnant but the image of a sexless woman was a part of the domestic ideologies.

The ideal of domesticity became powerful not only in middle-class families but also among the
working class. Men were expecting their wives to take care of the home. Men also wanted to be
able to focus on their jobs to keep their salaries high.

Oliver Twist was written in the time of idealized Victorian womanhood and all it stands for.
Women were only supposed to be at home and perform “women‟s work”.21 Dickens‟ vision of a
perfect woman is a pure, sexless, intelligent and innocent being. He was obviously a man of the
Victorian era but he also felt concern for fallen women.22 In Oliver Twist, Dickens also depicts
libidinal women. Dickens was well aware that prostitution was a social issue. He was fascinated by
murders and prisons and his writing about Nancy‟s murder in the novel “drove all the breath out of
his body”. 23 Dickens had great sympathy for fallen and poor women and saw them as victims of
society.