... them." Throughout the text, it should be noted that Woolf will often consider these themes, as she says, "inextricably mixed together." She will do so especially through the lens of fictional personal experience, most memorably with the description of two imaginary meals, one at a women's college, the other ... "The water jug was liberally passed around." The situation at the men's college was quite different. Here there was 2 sole and partridges "with all their retinue of sauces and salads," "meanwhile the glasses had flushed yellow and flushed crimson; had been emptied; had been filled...

• Word Count: 1692
• Approx Pages: 7

... Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." These two stories deal with the position of women in the late 1800's. This era is especially interesting because women were still treated as second-class citizens. I will try to make their themes apparent by examining a brief summary of their stories, relate them to ... news; however, instead of falling apart, Louise finds herself feeling as if she has a new lease on life because she will finally be able to live for herself. Suddenly, her husband walks in the door, and shocked, Louise drops dead of a heart attack. The physician says it was from "a j...

• Word Count: 1179
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... after encountering the supposed death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard experiences an epiphany, and realizes she must endeavor to live her own life. One of the many themes in this story is not accepting life as it comes but directing it in a desired path. Because of a heart condition, Mrs. Mallard's friends and family ... dreams that she once had but have been lost in the routine of her every day life. This death caused her to examine herself and to view her life with out her husband. Mrs. Mallard experienced two extremes in a short period; she mourned the death of husband, and shortly after...

• Word Count: 824
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... "The Yellow Wallpaper." On the surface, this gothic tale seems only to relate one woman's struggle with mental illness, but because Guilman was a prominent feminist and social thinker she incorporated themes of women's rights and the poor relationships between husbands and wives (Kennedy and Gioia 424). Guilman ... wallpaper and later admits to doing it herself (Kennedy et al. 426,428). Her regression is also demonstrated by her comparison of her present room with the bedroom of her childhood (Kennedy and Gioia 427,428). The underlying theme of woman's rights emanates from every part of ...

• Word Count: 1026
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... focus of this work. The reason that a woman needs a room of her own to make fiction is because privacy and solitude - keeping the world from "butting in" - are necessary for creation. And the reader, at various points, is presented with what it's like to be "but in on," perhaps most ... to offer about women and fiction. What she can talk about, however, is how she came to her view about the privacy and the money - and this provides the work's structure. A Room Of One's Own, one might say, is a kind of cultural odyssey where one can experience someone moving ... efficient cause. Througho...

• Word Count: 1699
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... symbolize the eventual failure of every union and, thus, the imminent failure of Robert and Edna's relationship. Water and the sea are recurring themes in The Awakening. One of Edna's most fond memories is of "swimming- through a field as a little girl "aimlessly, unthinking and unguided- (Beaty ... great burden she feels from her children: "Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake- (Beaty 45). To Edna, ... de...

• Word Count: 2280
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... enduring attitudes of traditions which society has placed upon them. The poem denotes being upset with the society due to the limitations placed on women in civilization, particularly in marriage. It is for this reason that the themes of many of Rich's poems are advice for women to live life for themselves, and to listen to only what they believe is right and to do ... within Aunt Jennifer's heart. The poem then resumes using the tigers again. Deborah Pope expresses her feelings on this poem by saying, "The fearful, gloomy woman waiting inside her darkening room for the emotional and me...

• Word Count: 2580
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... through relationships with her husband and her friends. "A Doll's House- is a play about the need for a woman to feel freedom- freedom from her husband's control, from her role in society, her role as a mother figure; the problems presented still appear in today's society. One of "A Doll's House's- central themes is secession ... her father and her husband. She describes that she feels like a doll, always dressing up and performing dances for everybody, "I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald [ ] But our house has been nothing but a play room. Here I have been your doll-wife, just...

• Word Count: 1908
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... ending of Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a sad conclusion to an inspirational story, sadness and despair are not the central themes of the novel. The novel's ending should not be construed as Edna's failure to continue her pursuit of individualism and ... see it as society's failure to accept or even tolerate Edna's newly awakened self. Edna finds it impossible to reconcile her desire for self-determination with the world she lives in. However, her attempts to gain independence are influenced by thinking that is often flawed or contradictory. She puts ... described as "the embodiment of ...

• Word Count: 2488
• Approx Pages: 10