The Literary World of Herbert Ernest Bates in the Light of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex

Abstract

This research aims to study selected stories: The Kimono and Thelma by the writer H. E. Bates from the perspective of feministic criticism of the well-known critic Simone de Beauvoir. In both stories, immanence is manifested through the portrayal of Hilda and Blanche in The Kimono and Thelma in Thelma as devoted lovers for men. The conclusion of the paper proves that, in both stories, the three women are meant to be slaves to men and live their lives in immanence either through being a desperate lover who is seeking to be with her beloved even at her dreams as Thelma, to be a devoted wife as Hilda who in spite of being abandoned by her husband for twenty-five years is still waiting for him and wants to see him in her last days or being a whore as Blanche who is without moral obligation and her desire for being with men is as essential to her as bread. What impels the researchers to examine such topic is that no researcher has investigated the traits of the female characters in H. E. Bates' short stories with respect to the concept of immanence, especially in the context of Simone de Beauvoir’s theory in The Second Sex.