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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In four pages this paper examines whether or not the character of Nora in Ibsen’s play fits the criteria of female characters as ‘beacons’ in male works Sophocles’ Antigone and William Shakespeare’s Othello as described in the third chapter of her collection of essays, A Room of One’s Own. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGbeacons.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
most great works of literature up to that point had been written by men. She notes that anything known about these featured female heroines have been exclusively based upon
the manner in which their male creators have chosen to portray them. She decides to go to the library in order to answer the question, "What were the conditions
in which women lived?" (Woolf) The narrator happens upon Professor George Macaulay Trevelyans History of England, in which he describes women throughout English history - with the Elizabethan era
being no exception - as being oppressed and abused by men to the point of being physically beaten and imprisoned against their will. This was in stark contrast to
how women are presented in works by Sophocles and William Shakespeare among others because protagonists like Antigone and Desdemona in Othello "have burnt like beacons" (Woolf). They shine brightly
and seem to be complete and independent entities, but upon closer examination, they are attached either to "grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in"
or by the men who attempt to dominate every aspect of their lives (Woolf). In Antigone for example, the seemingly strong female heroine is willing to risk her life by
defying King Creon in order to give her warrior brother Polynices the proper burial he was denied (and which his twin Eteocles received) because he fought on the opposing side.
When she informs her sister Ismene of her intentions and asks for her assistance, Ismene refuses to do so at least publicly. She realizes women have no independent
social status or power and will not commit an act deemed dishonorable to the patriarchy. Ismene represents the actual Athenian world in which women during the time of Sophocles
...