Mrs Joe's failure as mother creates an environment of abuse from which Pip sees becoming a gentleman would be his escape. .
Great Expectations uses first person narrative to give a personal perspective of Pip maturing into adulthood. Mrs Joe condescending and dominant towards her family and extremely vocal about the effort she has had to expend in order to maintain it, ruling with an iron hand and is not against using it to discipline. Joe, however, is a good, honest man who is a blacksmith. He has little say in the household and is not a character of any literate accomplishment (pp 45). The effective use of Joe's character within this story transcends far beyond the Victorian ideology which looked at wives and mothers as angelic in their care and protection of the home, as discusses by Brunt (2004). The ideal was for men to act as the sole providers and women to work in the home and distribute the husband's income to the various household needs. As a family they are not considered part of the middle class, and their home which is attached to Joe's forge gives a further indication of their lower social class. It is clear that Joe is representative throughout the novel of Pip's conscience a reminder of his roots which he strives to escape. .
Most of the punishments that Pip endures as a child are also endured by Mrs. Joe's own husband. In fact, Mrs. Joe treats her husband as another child, one whose mouth needs to be rinsed with tar-water (pp 12), and who endures physical outrage as much as Pip. It is important to note Mrs Joe's domestic failure, extends to her role of wife as well as mother. Even the physical appearance depicted by Mrs. Joe is a contrast to the idea of a domestic angel (pp 8). .
Mrs. Joe has a harsh, dominating, bullying temperament which is made clear at the outset. She uses a cane, which she has given the name 'Tickler', and she has often used this cane to punish Pip. She has a very sharp tongue too.
The persona in the poem experiences the negative change induced by the labors of motherhood. ... Her children and present life through her role as a mother and by the expectations placed on her by society trap the persona. Motherhood undoubtedly brings about a form of inevitable change. ... "Time gold great surprises", he is superior to her. ... The poem looks at the change in perception s of self. ...
But what happens when a woman is faced with the socially accepted perception of women versus her own potential? ... It also shows how cynical and twisted her perception of life is. ... I felt part of a great tradition"" (Plath 229). ... It's here that Esther's, not only physical but psychological conflict, is addressed as she strives to meet the expectations of a typical 1950's woman. ... With this in mind, the pursuit of motherhood dances in the mind of our young heroine. ...
Thus, motherhood gravely circumscribed their lives. ... However, motherhood did not mean that slave women were deprived of other strategies to resist their masters. ... Accustomed to wearing tattered, poor quality fabric that further relegated their status, bondswomen "went to great trouble to create and wear clothes of quality and, importantly, style.... This is reflected in work which has examined the external perceptions they induced, the expectations they challenged, and the subsequent slave culture they contributed to. ...
Postmodernist insist that the change is so great that a more complex and far less hopeful world has supplanted the modern one we thought we lied in. ... However, the number of instances of single motherhood has been going up even as childbearing has been declining overall in the US. ...
Abstract The object of this study is to explore specific identity-formations that have occurred under specific cultural and socio-political contexts that have enabled women politicians in India to acquire political power. The paper will examine Indira Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamta Banerjee, and Jayalalithaa, and try to understand what led to the personalization of power in all four cases. The idea is to analyze the relationship between particular identities that these figures have acquired in popular discourse and particular modalities of power. What do the invocation of mother or sister figures sig...
