Page |1

Lisa Stanley LIT 2205 Cassel 4 December 2013 Introduction to Anthology My anthology involves five short stories, each of which deals with larger issues underneath their surfaces. These veiled issues all have to do with women and the goal of their message is to introduce the reader to issues regarding Womens Suffrage and Feminism. I believe that this theme is very valuable and that the time period during which the stories were written is a reason as to why the authors chose these issues to confront. Although women have been forced into their societal roles based on gender from the beginning of time, for the most part, women did not speak out against these unfair roles until the late 1800s and even then it was only a very small group that spoke out. This is roughly the time period that we see the first feminist short stories being written and in fact, three of the short stories I am including in my introduction were written during this time. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman were among the first of their time to speak out against the unfair gender roles and capture the beginning thoughts of the Feminist movement in their stories. The other two authors included in my anthology that also speak out against the unfair treatment of women are Margaret Atwood with her story, Rape Fantasies and Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat. Both of these stories were written in the 1970s during the time of the largest Womens Liberation Movement in America. All of these authors use their stories as a medium to get their Feminist message across to their reader by using literary elements. The specific elements that I will interpret from these stories in relation to feminism are characterization, point-of-view and setting.

Page |2

Each of these stories have their own portrayal of women in order to get the authors message across. The first literary element that I will explore in detail is characterization. The way in which characterization is used is in regards to the women in the stories and how they are portrayed. For instance, in the Yellow Wallpaper it is clear that Gilman is creating her female character to fit the role of a mother that is suffering from Post-partum depression. It is not solely characterization of the woman though, as we see the men in each story being portrayed as a specific type of character. Though it is slightly different in each based on their story, the overarching characters are the same type of male chauvinist. I will delve deeper into this literary element when I compare each short story, but a quick example would be like the husband in Sweat who is adulterous and mistreats his wife. The next literary element analyzed in my anthology is the point-of-view. While some of the stories make it difficult to side with one person or the other, sometimes the point-of-view that the author writes the story in helps bring a bias to the reader. If the reader understands the issues of the story from only one perspective, then the reader can sometimes be swayed to side with this point-of view. This element can be very influential if used correctly in leading the reader to the conclusion that the author is trying to make. In this anthology, this is an important element in bringing the feminist view to the forefront of the readers comprehension. A good example that showcases several different sides with this is in Rape Fantasies. This story is told by one narrator, yet while several different women are discussing the same topic, we see several different points-of views on the topic being discussed. I think that the author, Margaret Atwood, makes it a point to portray each womans point-of-view differently and at different extremes in order to get her larger argument of Womens Liberation across.

Page |3

The final literary element that I examine to relate the stories to the theme of my anthology is the Setting. The Setting is a very important factor in creating a time and place for the reader as well as adding in imagery. The Setting of each of my five stories is different, although the goal of writing about the setting is the same for each. The goal is to get the reader introduced to where the story is taking place and how that may affect the story or the perspective of the characters. The time period is one example of this; while Rape Fantasies shows women in the workplace openly discussing their rape fantasies, yet Sweat portrays a woman working at a time when women did not typically work because her husband would not support her. The setting of each story is different, yet individually significant to the message their author is portraying in their story. The final section of this Introduction will go into detail discussing the individual stories that are in this anthology. Ive chosen to compare and contrast them looking at relationships between stories as well as through the literary concepts aforementioned. Since all of these stories handle the same concept of Feminism just in different ways, Ive decided that separating the stories into small groups in order to compare them would not be beneficial. All of the stories deal with the same issues so Ive chosen to discuss each individual story in order to discuss the theme and how each author handles it differently. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story dripping with feminist undertones. The characterization in this story is very important, the male (Aylmer) is portrayed as a scientist who doesnt have much of a social life, who marries Georgiana who is said to be very pretty. The issue in this story is that Georgiana has a birthmark that shes always liked; until Aylmer tells her it looks bad. This is where the characterization that is typical of a man and woman comes into play. The man is worried about the womans looks so much so, that it ends up killing

Page |4

her and the woman, who was comfortable with her appearance crumbles as soon as her husband said one negative word. The setting of this story may have a lot to do with the theme in that it takes place in the 1800s when women were gauged on their appearance more often than their wisdom, and women were known to do harmful things to their bodies in order to fit the status quo. The point-of-view of this story is from a mans perspective. This activates the reader in seeing his side, and even up until Georgianas final words she is saying that it is not Aylmers fault, that he did a good job in getting rid of the birthmark. This fits the feminist theme in that Hawthornes goal in writing the story is to show the importance society places on vanity and how it can be detrimental to women. In Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood, we see a major contrast to The Birthmark first in the Setting. Rape Fantasies is set in the 1970s where women have many more rights and are holding jobs; they are working on becoming equal to men. While they may be working toward equality, some of the women portrayed by Atwood seem to have the same mentality as Georgiana in The Birthmark. The women in this story are discussing their rape fantasies during their lunch break, and it seems as though Atwood has characterized each woman differently to fit different perception of women during this time period. We are introduced to Chrissy and Greta, two women specifically who seem daft and somewhat infatuated with the exciting idea of being raped. These characters are juxtaposed to Estelle, the narrator, who is seemingly more of a feminist and not afraid to point out to these women that they are being ignorant of what rape really is. This brings up the element of point-of-view; in this case, the point-of-view of this story is by Estelle, a woman who is more of a feminist than the rest and brings out this perspective to the reader. The message in this story is clearly feminist in that it

Page |5

shows women who, like Georgiana, lack the feminist nature and ability to see rape as a crime, they even go so far as to say that the women are asking for it. Next, in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, we see feminism undertones through the death of Louises husband. The Story is written through the point-of-view of Louise, the main character, who is grieving the loss of her husband by repeating the word Free. This point-of-view makes the reader assume that Louise has been oppressed by her husband and is just now beginning to realize her freedom. The setting adds to this realization, as in The Birthmark this story is set in the 1800s where women were not free, once they were married their freedom belonged to their husbands. Finally, the characterization of this story adds to the Womens Liberation theme because this women is totally beside herself with this news, she is envisioning her life without her husband controlling her. This story has an incredibly feminist theme especially for this time period; in The Birthmark we see the opposite of Louise in Georgiana who dies to please her husband. The story Sweat brings the reader forward into the future, but not far enough that women are accustomed to working. This alludes to the setting, being the time period, 1920s America. The main character, Delia, is abused and cheated on by her husband, Sykes. Unlike the women in the marriages in The Birthmark and The Story of an Hour (whose time periods are relatively similar to Sweat in how women are treated) Delia is forced to work because her husband spends all of his money on his mistress. This story is told from the point-of-view of Delia, which is powerful because of the terrible things Sykes does to her. The reader is more inclined to see her side, not only because of the actions of Sykes, but also because of her perceptions that she adds into the story. Finally the characterization of this story is powerful in making the feminist theme clear to the reader. The reader is introduced to the male role by

Page |6

Sykes, who is a terrible man, and the woman lead, Delia, who is strong. Delia goes through many terrible years being married to Sykes who is an adulterer and plainly states that he does not love Delia. In the end, Delia shows the strength of a woman and the feminist theme by overcoming the terror that Sykes bring to her life. The final story is, in my opinion the most powerful of all the short stories included in this anthology of feminist stories. The Yellow Wallpaper b y Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman going through post-partum depression, whose husband is a doctor. This story relates well to the portrayals of women in all of the other stories because all of them have women who are oppressed (as in Sweat and The Story of an Hour) or seemingly ignorant because of the social norms for women (as in Rape Fantasies, and The Birthmark) Gilman chooses to characterize the leading woman, as a weak woman who cannot handle her life and needs to be taken care of by her husband. Her husband is characterized as a doctor who is a strong male, who believes he knows what is best for his wife and ends up incapacitating her and driving her insane. The Setting is important to the story because being the late 1800s early 1900s, like the other stories, the narrator is being taken care of by her husband. It is the social norm of the time and she is expected to listen to what he has to say, although he does not understand the depression she is going through. The point-of-view of this story is from the perspective of the narrator, the leading woman, who is not a reliable narrator due to her illness. However, the reader is still able to notice the confusion of the unreliable narrator and how it enhances the feminist undertones by showing the husband treating her like a child. All of these stories are very relevant to my anthology in that they each deal with the issues of Womens Liberation and Feminism. The literary elements that the authors use to get this message across in their stories are through the setting, characterization and the point-of view.

Page |7

I think that all of these stories correlate in their portrayal of women and the ways in which women are expected to act, or be treated in the stories, all alluding to a feminist theme.