The novel follows an idolized monk, Ambrosio, who struggles between maintaining his monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions after he is tempted by a young woman. ... Antonia's virtue prevents her from having the knowledge to properly protect herself and causes her to be one of the novels weakest characters. ... The women in this novel are raised in a masculine world, and their personal lives and ambitions are controlled by those around them. ... One of the most significant themes of the gothic novel in this century were the shifts in gender roles and the debate of the role of wome...

• Word Count: 1567
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Thesis statement: Eva Luna by Isabel Allende is an example of a novel that depicts a great variety of women characters that come together in their struggle to survive in a politically torn and male-dominated country. ... Eva Luna was my introduction into the world of Isabel Allende's novels and I have to admit that in the beginning I had to struggle with the stereotype of "romantic pulp novels- to get myself through the first twenty-five - thirty pages (Wilson). I think that a reader, in this case me, starts to appreciate a novel as soon as he or she finds something in thi...

• Word Count: 2213
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The novel, O Pioneers!... Cather's characters, through the main character Alexandra, and everyone she interacts with is evident demonstrations of the type of historical context the novel entails. Through her novel, Cather can demonstrate challenges Americans faced during the late 1800s and the early 1900s, particularly in situations such as isolation and inevitable loneliness, and about gender roles. Throughout the novel, Alexandra is continually abandoned through the death of her father, fleeing neighbors, Carl's departure, her brother's endeavors, and his eventual death. ......

• Word Count: 649
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Little Women is first and foremost a girl's novel "it is written by a girl, about girls, and for girls. ... The young women in this novel are shown dealing with the conflict of choosing what is more important in their lives "self-cultivation, or domestic duties. Social constraints on women during the nineteenth-century play an important role in this novel. ... Alcott stresses the virtue of acting humble and genuine throughout her novel. ... In short, both novels, in their respective ways, help to define children's literature as a didactic genre that continues to this d...

• Word Count: 1473
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is the first English novel to realistically depict the horrors of slavery and bring awareness of the reality of the slave trade [ CITATION Gel12 l 1033 ]. ... She begins the novel by stating that she is an "eye-witness" and that the story is not a work of fiction [ CITATION Ken l 1033 ]. Throughout the novel, Aphra gives extreme detail to legitimatize the notion that she speaks nothing but the truth. ... Furthermore, Behn's personal opinions allowed her to reject the idea of a democratic society in the novel. ... Most people view this novel as an anti-slavery effort, however...

• Word Count: 2238
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Through establishing gender roles as one of the primary motifs in the novel, Frank Norris projects Laura as a historically distinctive character. ... This very same flirtatious manner with which Laura approaches all of her suitors in the novel causes the reader to question the motivation behind her actions. ...

• Word Count: 305
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The novel The Bell Jar written by Sylvia Plath is set in the 1950s America when the idea of adolescence was reasonably recent and society seemed a little uncomfortable with the idea of unrestricted individuality. ... The novel could be misinterpreted saying that Esther, instead of finding a new meaning in living, she just wants the easy way out and commit suicide, believing that she was hopeless. ... Throughout the novel The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath constantly denunciates the issues about our society and implies the societal pressures that early or late adolescents face with little absence. ...

• Word Count: 743
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

There have been many scenarios in which the female characters of the novel are viewed in lesser light than men. ... Female characters like Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters in the novel. ... To take certain characters out of context, Justine's is a very passive, seldom vocal character in the novel. ...

• Word Count: 712
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman into her own person; in spite of the pattern society has formed for her. Chopin's novel, which challenged society's concepts of what a wife and mother should be, tells of a young woman in search of her identity and sexual awakening. ... Her poems, short stories and novels permitted her not only to emphasize her beliefs for herself, but also question the ideas of individuality and autonomy during the turn of the century. ... This view of a man's wife being his possession is prevalent throughout the entire novel, especiall...

• Word Count: 1248
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the mid-Victorian period women have been represented in many different ways, using various forms of literature, for example through poetry, novels, and newspaper articles and also in visual form through paintings and etchings, they show how women were represented, how fathers, husbands and society treated them in general. ... Unlike the earlier romantic 19th century novels of Jane Austen whose characters such as Elizabeth Bennett lived happily ever after, Victorian novelist George Eliot, broke the tradition of the standard romantic novel by representing women in unhappy relationships and th...

• Word Count: 1599
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Bronte tackles these ideas in her novel, subverting the stereotypical Victorian gender roles and demonstrating groundbreaking new attitudes towards gender roles in society, making her arguably one of the first proponents of the feminist movement. ... Jane's search for independence from the men in her life is a continuing theme in the novel. ... Interestingly the more likeable women in the novel are in positions of servitude (Mrs Fairfax, Mrs Temple, the Rivers sisters), whilst the women with money and status (Blanche Ingram) are disliked by the protagonist and therefore the audience. .....

• Word Count: 1797
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Hedges is presented from the onset of the novel as a persistent, resourceful, "snake eyed", "very black", and an "enormous bulk of a woman."... Throughout the novel she exists as a being who dies not fit the mold of the weak, small, and rightfully dependent disabled woman, yet it is her dual existence in both the male and female spheres as a disabled therein woman and strong therein man, that marks her possibility for success to Junto, just as Boots is marked for success as he is both a man and emotionally expressive through his music. ... This in no way devalues her position within the novel...

• Word Count: 1175
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the novel, Founding Mothers, Cokie Roberts explicates the determination, strength and integrity of the First Lady by not only showing the hardships Martha Washington faced throughout the 1700's but also how she became one of the most influential founding mothers and created a stance for women in colonial America. ... I feel that the most influential individual Roberts expresses in her novel is, Martha Washington. ...

• Word Count: 1103
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This novel directly goes against a patriarchal definition of a twentieth century woman by creating a strong, independent, female leader. ... Katniss, from the very beginning of the novel, shows true leadership as well as bravery as she illegally passes her district's boundaries in order to hunt and provide for her family. ...

• Word Count: 2160
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Sarah was also a prolific writer, however, and parlayed that into income through submissions to periodicals and literary contests, self-publishing a book of her poetry, and writing a successful novel. ...

• Word Count: 837
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The role of women in society is very different today compared to the role of women in Victorian society, in the 19th Century. Discuss this statement with reference to Maggie Tulliver in "Mill On The Floss" Since the book "Mill on The Floss" was written nearly two hundred years ago, it is no sur...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The role of women in society is very different today compared to the role of women in Victorian society, in the 19th Century. Discuss this statement with reference to Maggie Tulliver in "Mill On The Floss" Since the book "Mill on The Floss" was written nearly two hundred years ago, it is no sur...

• Word Count: 1370
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

​The representation of women throughout history has always gone unnoticed. It is often misunderstood or disguised as equivalent. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper and in Virginia Woolf's, A Room of Ones Own, we get a particular look into women's roles in a patriarchal society. To...

• Word Count: 1227
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Kate Chopin's The Awakening depicts the difficulties a woman at the turn of the twentieth century must face when she becomes unsatisfied with her existence. Edna Pontellier, the wife of an affluent Creole businessman, unexpectedly becomes aware of a sense of discontent in many aspects of her life, ...

• Word Count: 980
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Virginia Woolf, too, channels in her novel, A Room of One's Own, a whole thought process, based on her thoughtful experiences, reflecting on the topic of women and fiction, on attaining a form of sovereignty. ...

• Word Count: 1477
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

A significant change has occurred in the representation of women in the two texts, A Gathering Light and The Devil Wears Prada. Discuss this statement about the two texts remember to comment on the techniques used to represent women in the texts. As time and context changes, significant developments...

• Word Count: 1463
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

While colorful prose and realistic dialogue may give a play or novel some artistic merit, it is the conflict that gives the fiction its dramatic energy; it is the conflict that draws the audience in, holds their interest, and brings them to care about the characters and the ultimate resolution of the story. ...

• Word Count: 2278
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In 1984, Sandra Cisneros published a collection of forty four vignettes titled The House on Mango Street. This Bildungsroman narrates the experiences of growing up in a Hispanic-American neighborhood in Chicago through the eyes of Esperanza Cordero, a fictionalized adolescent girl who is transitioning between childhood and adulthood. Due to parallels between the lives of Cisneros and Esperanza, Esperanza functions as a surrogate for Cisneros. Cisneros suppresses the milieu she witnesses as a child; therefore, when searching for her literary identity, she uses phantasies to channel those experi...

• Word Count: 2834
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate