Post by amandakaliner on Nov 18, 2015 20:04:03 GMT
It is clear that women in the Victorian era were seen as weak and incapable and fragile and should be passive and pure. In the packet, they said "women must be 'killed' into passivity in order for her to acquiesce.. her duty of self-abnegation." in "Madwoman in the Attic" as well as in "Jane Eyre", and especially in "The Yellow Wallpaper", we can see several examples where the women decide to let themselves be passive and go along with what the men said or to do the opposite.
Clearly, Jane Eyre never pretends to be fragile and go along with men. When she leaves Rochester and then St. John, she is disobeying both of their orders to follow what she thinks is the right decision. Bertha Mason's descent into madness is her way of not going out without a fight.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper", however, the narrator goes along with whatever her husband, John, tells her to do without question. It doesn't see fit to her to argue with him and instead is passive and weak even when she knows that she's slowly going mad with the treatment John is trying on her.
Clearly, Jane Eyre never pretends to be fragile and go along with men. When she leaves Rochester and then St. John, she is disobeying both of their orders to follow what she thinks is the right decision. Bertha Mason's descent into madness is her way of not going out without a fight.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper", however, the narrator goes along with whatever her husband, John, tells her to do without question. It doesn't see fit to her to argue with him and instead is passive and weak even when she knows that she's slowly going mad with the treatment John is trying on her.
