Could you present feminist themes in prose and drama since the Victorian period till now?

“Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte – Victorian prose

 For the first time a woman is a narrator speaking about her feelings, frustrations,
emotions straight to the reader
 Since it includes many autobiographical elements it seems to be more genuine, real
 We read about real woman’s aspirations and thoughts
 Female writers often wrote under male alias,
 They were very often criticized
 Women considered too weak and narrow-minded to write about certain issues
 Jane puts herself in an equal position with the man she loves – Edward Rochester,
which was revolutionary for that times, and that is why he loves and admires her
 Jane searches, not just for romantic love, but also for a sense of being valued, of
belonging.
 Her fear of losing her autonomy motivates her refusal of Rochester’s marriage
proposal. Jane believes that “marrying” Rochester while he remains legally tied to
Bertha would mean rendering herself a mistress and sacrificing her own integrity for
the sake of emotional gratification.
 Only after proving her self-sufficiency to herself can she marry Rochester and not be
asymmetrically dependent upon him as her “master.” The marriage can be one
between equals.
 Jane has an uphill battle to become independent and recognized for her personal
qualities.
 She faces off with a series of men who do not respect women as their equals. Mr.
Brocklehurst, Rochester, and St. John all attempt to command or master women.
 Jane fends off marriage proposals that would squash her identity, and strives for
equality in her relationships. For its depiction of Jane's struggle for gender equality,
Jane Eyre was considered a radical book in its day.
 Only after Jane completes her education, becomes self-sufficient and can make
money on her own rather than being a mere mistress of Mr. Rochester she can agree
to marry him; at that point she may even be considered superior to him

Virginia Woolf - background

 Virginia Woolf encouraged women to break free of the repression they were
inflicted to in the patriarchal society
 All her childhood she was repressed by the male dominance
 Subjected to living up to her mother’s perfect figure after her death by her father –
as the perfect hostess
 This made her despise and fear her father and encouraged her aversion against
confining to Victorian society’s expectations
  Her two stepbrothers could go to university while she had to be schooled at home –
the fact that women were excluded from universities had a huge influence on her
emancipation

“A room of one’s own”

 Emphasizes that women should have equal rights with men as to fiction writing
 Believes that in the patriarchal world females have little opportunities to reveal
their individualities and freely express their thoughts
 Criticize male dominance over women
 Uncovers social prejudices and mentions all barriers to female writing
 Asserts that these women who want to be writers should reject any imposed social
roles and subordination
 Females should not imitate males or their writing, recognizing gender differences,
formation of female style of writing
 She imagines the fate of Shakespeare’s sister Judith
 Title – every woman need her own ‘room’, space for herself only
 Premise of the lecture “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is
to write fiction”
 Based on the history of women, the narrator imagines that Shakespeare had a sister
who was equally gifted. She contrasts her fate with Shakespeare's, and concludes
that "any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have
gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the
village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at"

Contemporarily – “Bloody Chamber” Angela Carter

 Carter in postmodern way plays with the texts from the past, fairy tales and writes
their new, degenerated versions
 Dark, full of gothic elements
 Women are allowed to speak, they are given a voice
 We never knew the thoughts of these characters
 First person narrative, she comments on her problems, situation
 Angela Carter's short stories challenge the way women are represented in fairy tales
 Carter effectively draws out the theme of feminism by contrasting traditional
elements of Gothic fiction – which usually depicted female characters as weak and
helpless – with strong female protagonists.
 By contrasting the barren and horrific atmosphere found typically within the Gothic
to the strong heroines of her story, Carter is able to create sexually liberated female
characters that are set against the more traditional backdrop of the fairy tale.
 The stories deal with themes of women's roles in relationships and marriage, their
sexuality, coming of age and corruption. Stories such as "The Bloody Chamber" and
 "The Company of Wolves" explicitly deal with the horrific or corrupting aspects of
marriage and/or sex and the balance of power within such relationships.

Drama – “Top Girls” Caryl Churchill

 She introduces feminist themes in her works

 The play is written as if it was a dream
 On the stage we have a few women from history and culture who present at the
dinner table their own experiences
 A mistress of a Japanese emperor, a Pope Joan, Lady Bird – a Victorian traveler
 They talk, share their experiences of what it is like to be a woman, about men,
children, the reality they live in
 The action later moves to contemporary London ruled by Margaret Thatcher
 A modern girl, Marlene wants to achieve success