Looking At The Exploitation Of Women To Men English Literature Essay

Looking At The Exploitation Of Wo men To men position Literature EssaySelden states that, Rhys presents the composition of a wo manhood as an impri paroleed victim oppressed by the standards and ideals prevailing in the decrepit, ph eitherogecentric participation dominated by the virile form of logos, language (selden139).Rhys fe manful fighter is the victim of domination and humiliation due to the system of paternal and compound oppression which is prevalent in England and Jamaica. In large Sargasso ocean Jean Rhys queers venerable military unit as tyrannic and unhealthy. These time-honored spot structures argon present in economic, legal, family and educational systems in Rhyss wise. This paternal superpower affects the lives of in all told in all the characters in Rhyss novel because they all belong to a patriarchal purchase order.This is the story of Antoinettes Cosmodal value who is isolated by her Victorian husband who locked her up and drives her mad. She is left wing alone by her husband in the patriarchal society and pass away helpless(prenominal) and detain homogeneous a ship struck in Sargasso Sea by the British. Through her portrayal of female characters in her novel, Rhys exposes how women argon legally and financially dependent on men round them. When we consider the situation of Antoinettes let, Annette, who is economically dependent upon men, we can at at one measure nonice that in patriarchal society economic inequality exist. When Annettes initiative husband died, she thinks that her second unification is the chance for her to escape from her life at Coulibri where she is rejected by b overlooks because of her Creole heritage and may be up to(p) to retrieve status among her peers.Maria olaussen states that, Annette signifies the gender ideology in the patriarchal economic system, since she need to be provided for by men. She uses her dishful as her just now means to compete with other(a) women in search fo r side protective covering and economic support (Olausen103). When widely Sargasso Sea was written it was that time when marriage was considered as a mean to get economic support.Antoinette is not able to free herself from Rochesters brutality and rudety because she has no financial in habituation. solely of the currency was given to her husband, Mr. Rochester when she married him. In Victorian times, there was a law that women could not held lieu in their names, even if they inherited that property from their p arnts. It was still in the custody of their husbands.Patriarchal law prohibits women from inheriting specie if there is a son in the family, the inheritance runs in the male line. Mr. masons son, Richard Mason, represents patriarchal law, since, he after his fathers death, become the lawful provider and protector of Antoinette. He makes her decisions and arranges her marriage to Mr. Rochester, with kayoed consent (olaussen108-9).The feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote in 1972 astir(predicate) patriarchal education systems in Vindications of the Rights of women, questioned why only men were alert for professions and not women. She believed that, this was the lawsuit for womens needs for marriage they had to marry in stray to be economically supported (wollstonecraft150).But Jean Rhys in broad(a) Sargasso Sea denies Wollstonecraft theories in one aspect, that marriage with Antoinette is necessary for Mr. Rochester because he will not inherit from his father as he is the youngest son in the family. By marrying Antoinette, he saves her wealth and in this way she becomes entirely economically dependent upon Mr. Rochester. In the patriarchal family structures of Victorian era, father has permit over his wife and his baby birdren. Women and children are legally and economically dependent upon their fathers or husbands. Mr. Rochester uses his patriarchal power to drive Antoinette crazy. She is dependent upon him because of the patriarchal p ower structures in society (both legally and economically) and consequently, it is not possible for her to leave Mr. Rochester.In enormous Sargasso Sea, marriage increases the wealth of men by allowing them power to possess their wives inheritance. If we critically examine the condition of Annette and Antoinette womanhood is similar to a diversity of child like dependence on the nearest men. In detail, it is the dependence that contri moreoveres to the tragic end of both Annette and Antoinette. both(prenominal) women marry white English men in the hopes of assuaging their fears as vulnerable outsiders, but both men betray and abandon them.As Teresa OConnor puts it, the direct of betrayal ranges from the cultural and historic implicit in the relationship between discolours and whites to the familical and filial levels.In wide Sargasso Sea, it appears that the one quality of Antoinette that best express her finished out the novel is her dependency in others. From her friend ship with Tia, to her marriage with Rochester, Antoinette is just in search for happiness. After the burning down of her nursing home by the slaves in part one, Antoinette has no one in her life, and she is all alone. Her brother Perrie dies and her beat gets mad, therefore, she marries Rochester because she indirect requests to liveliness safe again. She needs someone to protect her from the ill-treatment that her mother experiences through out her life as a single woman. You are safe, Id say. Shed like that-to be told you are safe. Or Id touch her quietly and touch her tears (pg.78). These lines from Mr. Rochester awards that Antoinette indirect requests to be notion safe and secure.Since Rhys is a West-Indian, she wants to reveal a truth round the limit of literary standards that supposes a share white heritage in its audience. She draws an unflattering picture of patriarchal society in the characterization of Mr. Mason. When Annette describes the troubles of her sister s married life to and specially describes her husbands oppressive and dominating behavior to Mr. Mason, his answer to Annette was, thats her story. I dont believe it. He succeederfully and unsympathetically silences the Creole womens voice. Rhys wanted to give voice to this silent woman and advert this silent women voice in her novel replete(p) Sargasso Sea.In patriarchal society the man is the superior and educated being. Mr. Rochester gets irritated by Antoinette when he tries to teach her about England and she denies the beauty of industrialized England in likeness with West Indies.Is it true, she said, that England is like a dream? Well, I answered annoyed, that is precisely how your fine- tone island seems to me, quite un reliable and like a dream.But how can rivers and mountains and the sea be unreal? And how can millions of people, their houses and their streets be unreal? More easily, she said, more than more easily. Yes a big city must be like a dream (pg67)Mr. Roches ter feels embarrassment in accepting his wifes superior companionship about the West Indies, as he is completely a Victorian, patriarchal Englishman. Antoinette tries to teach about the nature and life of West Indies because he is a new comer in her island. But Mr. Rochester is that kind of a soul who believes that to be taught by a woman is a sign of helplessness and inferiority. He belongs to that category of men who wants to maintain their superiority over women. This is the reason that Mr. Rochester opposes his wifes concepts about England and West Indies. The patriarchal educational system of the 18th blow was criticized by Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote that men preserved womens innocence by tutelage them ignorant (131).If she was a child she was not a stupid child but an obstinate one. She often questioned me about England and listened attentively to my answers, but I was certain that nix I said made much difference. Her sound judgement was already made up. Some romant ic novel, a star state never forgotten, a sketch, a picture, a song, a waltz, some level of music, and her ideas were fixed. About England and about Europe. I could not change them and probably nothing would. Reality might discontent her, bewilder her, hurt her, but it would not be reality. It would be only a mistake, a misfortune, a unlawful path taken, her fixed ideas would never change.Nothing that I told her influenced her at all (pg78).This instruction shows that Antoinettes resistance in his attempt to educate her annoys him. He feels that he can not influence her thoughts and ideas. Thus, he is scared to accept his lack of hold upledge because it would lead to his loss of control over her.Teresa F. O Connor explains that Mr. Rochester, who comes from the male-identified England, is saved by Antoinette when he lives in her female identified West Indies. I agree with Teresa F. O Connor that their roles are reversed and that Mr. Rochester is afraid of finding himself in a f emale role in a female knowledge domain (148-49).Personal tragedies which are founded in patriarchal societies are expressed through dramatization, imagery and characterization right from the opening pages. All the characters in Wide Sargasso Sea are imprisoned in patriarchal kindly structure and it lead to their tragic end. In suggesting, the common working of fascism, racialism and bourgeois patriarchy, the persecutory power of the modern religion of intolerance (carr12). Rhys echoes Virginia Woolf, who argued in terzetto Guineas that, patriarchy, racism, pomposity, militarism, economic exploitation, autocracy and fascism are all part of the corresponding performance (carr51).Rhys reveals the hidden working of patriarchy by explaining how both Antoinette and Rochester are trapped and conditioned by the dominant patriarchal law. The marriage of Antoinette and Rochester is set in the patriarchal world. If we read Wide Sargasso Sea on deeper level we can see that Rochesters marr iage to Antoinette is parallel to a business contract. His statement that, I will swan you if you trust me? Would appear to demonstrate that he does not want to give the unconditional security and love which she desires. However, by uttering the line, is it a bargain? It gives us a clue that what are the real motives of Rochester for marrying Antoinette. Everyone knows that Bargain is an economic term and it does not exist in the marriage of two people. But this marriage is like a bargain for Rochester, because he is able to gain wealth which he desired for and Antoinette is able to feel safe after all the sufferings which she faces in part one of the Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys portrays Rochester as a person who implies the patriarchal set of laws ( shake upism, colonialism, the English law and the law which the patriarchal society imposes and which creates sanity and insanity) that trapped Antoinette Cosway.Both the female characters Annette and Antoinette are sexually exploited in this patriarchal world. custody in the patriarchal society can be seen as tyrants having all right to deprive women from their innocence. They demoralized womens sexuality and innocence in the equal way as falcon hunts its prey. As Rhys writes, the men did as they liked. The women-never. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys illustrates that men consider women as a pieces of sexual pleasure. They take women for granted and consider them as a life less creature, not having whimseys and emotions like a doll. The most valuable episode in the novel is the scene of Antoinettes mother with the sable man. It also contains the motifs of race and sex which are central in the novel. As Antoinette says in the text memory board the helplessness and pain of her mother,I remember the come she was wearing-an evening dress cut very low, and she was barefooted. There was a fat black man with a glass of rum in his hand. He said present it and you will forget. She drank it without stopping. I saw his mo uth fasten on hers and she went all soft and limp in his arms and he laughed.This incident happened when Annette was at a lower place the take care of black couple. After the burning down of her house and death of her son Perrie she starts exhibiting the signs of emotionally unbalanced woman. Therefore, Mr. Mason assigned black couple to take care of her. This scene depicts the subjugation of women by male authority in a patriarchal world. This scene has also its grow grounded in racial conflicts. The mothers dreadful condition is clearly the result of penalize on the owners of Coulibri by the black slaves. After the emancipation act black slaves wants to take revenge on their ex-slaves owners because of the brutal treatment which they receive from the work force of white people.In Victorian society, men treat women cruelly. They think women are only there for them to provide sexual pleasures. Antoinette and Rochesters marriage can be seen in this perspective. Mr. Rochester only appreciates Antoinette for her external beauty. I wonder why I never realized how beautiful she was. This statement shows that Mr. Rochester is only sexually attracted towards his wife. He has only a sexual lust for her and this yearn does not show a true feeling of love for her. Even Mr. Rochester confesses this kind of feeling for her wife. He states, I did not love her. I was thirsty for her, but that is not love. I felt very little tenderness for her, she was a stranger to me, a stranger who did not think or feel as I did (pg78).According to Howells, Rochester belongs to that patriarchal world where women are luxuriousness items to be bought, enjoyed and discarded.Through out the novel, Mr. Rochester is consistently shown as being hostile, cruel and unloving towards her wife. Christophine tells Antoinette, that he is hard as a board. He belongs to that patriarchal world where men substitutes love with sex and domination. He wants to set out Antoinette up like an hard-hitting warrior. As Christophine keeps repeating to him, all you want is to chance on her up (126).In all of Rhyss works sexuality is the most important theme. It was mostly due to the idea that men dominate women in all aspects. They want control and deoxidise womens sexually. And Rochester here is not only shown as a patriarchal husband but he is also shown as a Victorian who believes that women sexuality should be repressed. Here Rhys illustrates that men want to link women with death, just for the reason to control and suppress them. They kill women to repress them and here Rochester does the same thing to Antoinette. Die then Die I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candle light. In the long afternoons, when the house was empty. solo the sun was there to keep us company (Rhys pg.77).Angier indicate Rhyss idea about men and love, men rob love with sex (Angier543).In the Victorian patriarchal society, men think about sex iden tical to love. They believed that feeling of love and sex is alike. Therefore, when Antoinette offers herself to love her, Rochester replies her only with sexual desires because has no feeling of love for her. He is cold in his feelings of love for Antoinette and therefore, he is emotionally a stone. This shows Mr. Rochesters patriarchal and unloving attitude towards her which kills Antoinette emotionally and she transforms into a Zombie, a living dead, in Voodoo or Obeah.In Wide Sargasso Sea, Mr. Rochester has been shown as the ultimate in patriarchal tyranny, but other male characters in this novel also exhibit deep-rooted feelings of misogyny, including Mr. Mason and Daniel. Rhys undoubtedly laments these men who deprived all of the female characters in this novel from their agency. Conventional aspects are traditionally associated with women, such as having propensity to psychic illness, or being illogical, frivolous, depended, decorative, subordinate, scheming, manipulative, w eak, jealous, gossiping, vulnerable and deceitful. Marriage of Antoinette and Rochester is marked with suspicion, betrayal and mistake right from the beginning of their marriage.When Mr. Rochester receives the letter from Antoinettes half brother, Daniel Cosway, in which Daniel has written about Antoinettes mad mother and her drunkard father, he is not surprised. And when he came to know about Antoinettes love affair with her cousin Sandy, he became more aggressive and cruel towards her. The feeling of jealousy takes control of him. Thus the issue of trust is play out between Rochester and Antoinettes relationship.Although Mr. Rochester is only concerned with material success as Christophine says to Rochester, Everybody know that you marry her for her money and you take it all. And then you want to break her up, because you jealous of her (pg125). This statement reveals the fact that Rochester married Antoinette only for her money and does not love her. But still he wants to posses s her in order to show his patriarchal power over her. He believes that she belongs to him and is therefore not allowed to leave him and love someone else. I tell you she loves no one, anyone. I could not touch her. Expecting as the hurricane will touch that tree-and break it. You say I did? No. that was loves fierce play. Now Ill do it. She ill not laugh in the sun again. Shell not dress up and smile at herself in that damnable looking glass. So pleased, so satisfied. Vain, silly creature. Made for loving? Yes, but flap have no lover, for I dont want her and shell see no other (Rhys 136).Though, Mr. Rochester feel hatred towards Antoinette, he still feels that she belongs to him. He does not want Antoinette to lead an independent life, because it would result in loosing his patriarchal power and dominance over his wife. Therefore, he refuses to let her leave him. Despite the fact that Mr. Rochester married Antoinette only for her money, he still feels that he is attracted towards her wifes exotic beauty and the beauty of her island. He does not want to come in for their charms and magnificence and therefrom he denies the attraction he feels towards the island and his wife.I scorned the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rains. I hated the sunsets of whatever color, I hated its beauty and its magic and the secret I would never know. I hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. higher up all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost out front I found it (Rhys).This quotation describes Mr. Rochester as a colonizer. As an Englishman, he wants to colonize both his wife and her island. His strict Victorian breeding and patriarchal values makes him obsessed with control and dominance. He does not want to fall love with her wife and her island, even though he is attracted towards them, because of the fact that he wan ts to maintain his patriarchal power to control and dominate them. Thus, by acting blindly to the attractions he feels towards his wife and her island, he condemns Antoinette and her world and in this way he tries to protect himself.All the sufferings and miseries which Antoinette suffers through out her life are due to the fact that in Victorian patriarchal society women were considered to be the source to bring sexual pleasures to their husbands. Men treat women in the same manner as somebody treat the servant or an animal. Women in Victorian societies are thought to be weak, helpless creatures that are futile to think for themselves. Men believed that it was the law of bible that males are superior to females, therefore they have a right to treat them as they like.