Women: The Root of All Evil?

Women: The Root of All Evil?

Author, congresswoman, and woman of the year Clare Booth Luce once said, "Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'" Women have been continually downtrodden in society, and it reflects in our literature and media. Women have, throughout time, been treated like second-class citizens, and the problems still continue. Although women's treatment in first world countries has become almost equal to that of men, they are still looked down upon in most other parts of the world. Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her revolutionary work The Second Sex, that in order for women to become equal, they need to stand up to their oppressors and fight back. A woman's acceptance of her status is no one's fault but her own. For this reason women have taken many roles in revolutionary literature.

Women's lives have been built around traditional roles and laws for thousands of years. In Goodwin's A Sorrowful Woman, the mother becomes bored with the monotony of everyday housekeeping and mothering duties. When her husband hires a nanny to help, she becomes disillusioned by her existence. The mother kills herself because of the worthlessness that she has created for her own life. This is the story for lots of women; they detest their everyday lives but do nothing to better themselves. What would women do if they had nothing? For this reason Wollstonecraft rejects her rich counterparts needless and vain existence in A Vindication of the Rights of Women. These women do not work for anything, and are doing nothing to advance themselves. Wollstonecraft believed women should become strong, intelligent human beings and free themselves from their dependence on men. Women need to adopt the strong, masculine qualities that men embody, and adapt them to a womanlier and more powerful identity. In the French Lieutenant's Woman, Sarah creates a lie to make herself an outcast in society in order to fight oppression. This is the only way she is able to break all her ties and find herself. Sarah travels freely, is her own person, and loves whomever she likes. For her "crimes" she is outcast by an unforgiving society. Traditional customs that influence women's ability to be seen as equal in society need to be erased from the minds of the world.

Men's views of women in society have often been degrading. In Keats's La Belle Dame San Merci, the woman is viewed as a beautiful object, a damsel in distress. She cannot live without man, and longs for his return. The Subjection of Women views women as submissive, with no life outside of the home. Men influence women to be accepting of the position society hands them. Men want their women to be willing slaves Ñ* to be merely brainwashed rag dolls used by their "masters". Males are portrayed as strong, intelligent, better-looking Ñ* seducers of females. Especially in Darwin's The Descent of Man the females are portrayed as weak, subservient maids, required to cater to the beckon call of any man in their path: including their husbands, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and sons. In Shelley's To a Skylark, the woman in love can only dream of the day her man will return to whisk her away to a life of servitude and punishment. In the past, it was perfectly acceptable to think of your wife as property, and use any means to force her to obey. In Woolfe's Room of One's Own, the women in Trevelyan's History of England often encountered "wife beating", and would be "locked up, beaten, and flung about the room." These practices were common, and a right to every man.

Women in history are virtually unrecognized, while in literature they have always been important characters with complex personalities and key story details. In much of literature women play a significant role, and sometimes even serve as main characters. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Elizabeth is Franknstein's confidant, companion, friend, sister, and lover. She provides a strong motivation for everything Frankenstein does. Since we see Elizabeth through Frankenstein's eyes, we only see her as his to "cherish, love, and protect." Similarly, we only see Frankenstein's mother through the loving eyes of her son. She is the main motivation for creating a "cure" for death. Conversely, Conrad's Heart of Darkness contains virtually no female characters; those that are present have little or no meaning in the story. They are weak, helpless creatures. When the boat is pulling away, and the native woman is shot, there is little or no meaning to it because she is a woman; it is insignificant. If a man had been shot, the consequences probably would have been greater. In Woolfe's A Room