Woman and Society

Women and Society

Throughout the course of the semester we have looked and discussed through the many ideas of how women are treated, what I’d like to discuss is how women in these societies attempt to lead better lives and how society rewards or punishes their actions. The works that best embody this are The Castle of Otranto where women are viewed as resources for the men to use and disregard at will, Geraldine who controls her fate though manipulating men, The Thorn where society disregards Martha Ray without thought to compassion, and finally The Cenci where Beatrice makes her own destiny only to be thrown on the mercy of a unjust society.

The Cenci and Helplessness

In The Cenci, Beatrice father is a uncaring and brutal man who has no redeeming qualities at all, the helplessness of Beatrice is brought fully too to the reader’s attention when Beatrice reveals that her father has raped her effectively showing the reader his depravity and because no one is willing to stand up to him, due to his less than merciful nature she is effectively left with no choice but to protect herself through ending his life. This is similar to a anime named Elfen Lied where a girl named Lucy (shown above) is a Diclonius or race of beings mutated from humans and filled with an instinctual need to wipe out every human life, though she effectively has the power to destroy all humans she herself is as emotionally fragile as a toddler and receives absolutely no sympathy from her captors, making her lash out at humanity even more for treating her as a non-sentient being. Both characters effectively try to take revenge Beatrice by having her father killed and Lucy by killing everyone in the entire research facility then killing everyone with any knowledge of her species, leaving her singularly alive and both suffer An, Young-Ok  said it best in his article “Beatrice's gaze revisited: Anatomizing The Cenci” (I argue that The Cenci provides a feminist reader with a particularly useful textual instance to investigate not just abominable incidents of paternal tyranny and parricide but much more complex operations of violence, law and desire that intersect with gender issues) by having to face the consequences, where Beatrice must face the death penalty because she refuses to say she didn’t seek to have her father killed and Lucy must face the rest of her life struggling with the desire to be connected to humanity but being forced to be alone in order to not destroy the entire human race, a slow death by absolute loneliness. If society had thought to help Beatrice instead of leaving her to face her situation alone things wouldn’t have had to take such a radical and dark turn, and if the researchers and humanity in general had thought to treat Lucy as a person instead of a freak of nature it’s possible she could have overcame her instincts and not murdered people.

Lamia and the seductress trope

Geraldine a Lamia creature or mixture of human and snake that manipulates men then traditionally kills them is defiantly shown in a light that the men in the world she inhabits are beguiled while the only other women sees what she really is. The picture above works to show the empowerment of women by having a large cat, traditionally cats are associated with power and grace, two traits that women of this time period would give a woman a sense of pride. But Geraldine who is a snake is shown to be told and manipulative having none of the “warm” tendencies that we appreciate about what was commonly referred to as the “weaker” sex yet Geraldine’s society has given her the “perfect” place to get everything she wants just by playing a part to the egos and sympathies of men. This best shown in her made up tale about being taken by a group of men and needing to be protected when there aren’t any men in any direction, causing doubt to her story and the fact her otherworldly nature is only ever seen by a women. The men of the house eat up this story and within a small amount of time she has them in the palm of her hand manipulating them until she is getting married to the richest and most powerful of them. It’s incredible in a literature at this time would actually have a woman would have such power by an immoral means because she’s only powerful through manipulation and faerie like she doesn’t seem to have any caring about who’s hurt so long as she gets what she wants. A social critique of how men thought that women were either sacred virgins or demonic seductresses.

The Thorn and a Women’s Need for Compassion

Martha in The Thorn desperately could have used some compassion, because due to the uncompassionate society around she is stuck completely within the prison of her own guilt. Martha in her early life got pregnant out of wedlock and when she was going to be married the father ran out on her, and then in her madness she killed her child out of disgust and a sense of failure. The society she lives in instead of helping this poor women did nothing but criticize and mock her till all she can say is “oh misery”. Martha’s inability to see herself as someone of value even though she did things that weren’t right, the hatred and condemnation she receives by both men and the townswomen is nothing short of disgusting and frankly inhuman. The thorn, a animated personification of her child shows up to torment her along with the belligerent and condescending nature of the townspeople results in a never-ending cycle of abusive behavior where the curse of the hatred and guilt between the town, thorn, and Martha is constant and all are caught in this cycle unable to get out. The need for compassion is desperately needed for all parties, Martha needs compassion in order to forgive herself and heal so the grief and rage of her child that has taken the form of the Thorn can rest and be at peace. The town’s people need to forgive Martha in order to get past what happened and be able to look to the future and have their community become more of a family instead of just a menagerie of people that gossip about each other to the point where it seems to look like all these people do is just find new and creative ways to back-stab each other. The lack of compassion for Martha by anyone and the continued appearance of her child as “the thorn” that is constantly infecting this town with its hatred and desire to punish Martha for her sin means that it can’t administer the compassion necessary that’s needed to heal this town meaning that no one is capable of having compassion on anyone, such a problem is the catalyst for the repeated cycle and the fact that only the reporter who is an outsider is even remotely capable of showing even the smallest crumb of compassion to Martha, but it isn’t enough to stop the curse of hatred between all parties.

Maria: The Wonder Woman of Novels

The women of Maria and how they rebel against the established order of male dominated society is just as strange to their society as Wonder Woman was when she came out to men in our society. In the article Power Through Comics by Devoney Looser wrote (Wonder Woman's archetypal message is 'Remember Our Power) the power of womanhood is strange, fragile, yet incredibly resilient and these women in the face of wrongs by their husbands seem to grab onto that by coming together to support each other. Jemima seems to be this idea incarnate because by having her come to support other women even after she is abused, raped, and suffers at the worst of societies misfortunes still wishes to help others and feels a sense that her life could get better. Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote the book truly is a Wonder Woman figure to all woman in that her crusade for the advancement of woman in education, the job market, and a like Wonder Woman a vehicle through which other woman could be inspired by and strive to be like as a role model show that even ordinary woman can be just as famous and inspiring to generations of woman even years later.

Works Cited:

Beatrice's gaze revisited: Anatomizing The Cenci

An, Young-Ok. Criticism38. 1 (Winter 1996): 27.

Power Through Comics

Looser, Devoney. Minnesota Review 63/64 (Spring 2005): 239-243,253.

Philosophy in Anime: The Helpless Elfen Lied-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNoKkD0GksE

A Feminist Otaku-http://www.afeministotaku.com/?p=1909