Sample Essay †The Role of Women Essay

The transition from early 19th deoxycytidine monophosphate England to late twentieth century Australia reveals an everywherewhelming shift in the possessive discourses and ideologies surrounding the contribution of women. While Jane Austen composed her seminal 1813 romance Pride and diagonal against the tender and diachronic backdrop of Regency England, a time when patriarchal ideals governed notions of femininity, Fay Weldons 1984 epistolatory novel Letters to Alice bears the hallmarks of post- womens rightist womens liberation and agency.However, through close interrogatory of the inter school textual matterual connections woven between this pair of texts, it emerges that not only does Weldons text take form as a didactic treatise to her four-year-old dainty that reflects her stimulate contemporary views on women and women writers, her letters prompt an unquestioningly libber re-reading of Austens prototype of women in her own literary works. As a result, it is these connections that yield the recognition that scorn the contextual divide separating this pair of texts, twain authors are irrevocably trap in their purpose to didactically argufy the politically charged copy and role of women in their respective cultural spheres.Composed in the late 20th century an era where womens rightist discourses of equality were deeply entrenched in political and academic spheres Weldons text is narratively shaped as a didactic novel intercommunicate to her fictionalised green haired punk niece, using the epistolary form to both discipline and demonstrate the power of literature with its capital L to function as a vehicle for women to both change and challenge dominant well-disposed conventions and nurses. To achieve these means, it is no coincidence that Weldon is seen to appropriate the epistolary form a popular form of fiction at the time used by female writers such as Austen herself- to create a intertextual connection that transcends the con textual gap separating each text to promote a specifically feminist view of writers and the function of Literature. Here, Weldon is herself the embodiment of her self-described breed of strong women, women who work, think, earn, mother independent habits.Her influential didacticisms to the burgeoning writer Alice -simply speakand you will be listened to. And eventually,even enjoy your captive audience symbolically demonstrate the bequest of feminist ideals that were initially catalyzed through early Regency female authors such as Austen whose patriarchal context kept their revolutionary works sheltered behind the garb of anonymity. Given the modern context of Letters to Alice, it is undeniable that Weldon writes from a discourse of female agency when she informs Alice that to enter the immortal City of blueprint, she must metaphorically swim against the catamenia of communal ideas and demonstrate to the reviewer the limitations of convention that societies inscribe upon its populace as unquesti bingled beliefs.The strong modulate employed in such directives highlight that from Weldons feminist perspective, the foster of female authorship and literature is derived from the capacity of ones own personal value system to morally guide or catalyse a renderation in its readership Readers need and seek moral instructionThey need an example, in the light of which they can examine themselves, and understand themselves. barely put, Weldons Letters to Alice is a text that is highly political in purpose it prompts a strong consideration of the function of literature to catalyse notions of female empowerment through both changing and challenging dominant genial conventions and values.Taking into account Weldons didacticisms regarding female authorship and social change, it becomes apparent that the intertextual connections to Jane Austen weaved within Letters to Alice prompt an undeniably feminist re-evaluation of her representation of Elizabeth Bennet in Pri de and Prejudice. While separated by the historical divide of almost two centuries, Weldons instruction for her niece to swim against the stream of communal ideas can be seen to resonate in Austens ideal protagonist Elizabeth Bennet, a use who transgresses against the dominant values that governed Regency England and whose personal virtues triumphed over the restrictions of her era. Weldons didactic assertion that female authors must work to demonstrate to the reader the limitations of convention undeniably connect with and transform perceptions of Austens Elizabeth, framing and augmenting her personal values of rationality and wit as they shine through the text.This is particularly evident through her strong authoritative tone in declarative statements I shall be very stand for to seeJane which is all I want, which work alongside untypical images of female activity springing over puddles to with impatient activity gave her a boldness glowing with the warmth of exercise to und ermine a social value system that links feminine propriety with explicit passivity. Such aspects of her character are further augmented through Austen inscribing Elizabeths dialogue with a strongly comedic tone of satire and irony.She delights in intellectually challenging the supposedly superior intellect of Mr Darcy in a series of playful exchanges I am convinced that one good sonnet will b forbidden love entirely away your defect is to hate everybody. In considering these connections, Weldons text can be seen to invoke a renewed reading of Elizabeth, positioning her as a didactic figure that planted the early seeds of feminist discourse from which Letters to Alice was composed She payed paying attention to the subtle demands of gracious dignity rather than the cruder ones of established conventionprodding civilisation quicker and quicker along the slow difficult road that has led us out of barbarity into civilisationUltimately, examination of the intertextual connections betwe en Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice yield a recognition that while Weldons text instructs young Alice on contemporary views on women and women writers from a late 19th century context, it also catalyses a re-evaluation of Austens representation of Elizabeth Bennet, reframing interpretations of her character as one who challenges the dominant value systems of gender. As a result, it is these connections that incite the realisation that despite the contextual divide separating this pair of texts, both authors are irrevocably bound in their purpose to didactically challenge the politically charged representation and role of women in their respective cultural spheres.