Submissive Wife Research Articles

Harpies in the House: Neo-Victorian Rewritings of Avian Femininities

This article examines avian metaphors in Neo-Victorian literature in relation to contemporary reconsiderations of nineteenth-century womanhood and its connection to animal discourse. Ornithological imagery and the female condition were closely linked in the nineteenth-century cultural imaginary, as clearly manifested in the period’s literature and art. From the idealized image of the submissive wife caged within the Victorian household to the controversial use of feathers in feminine accessories, bird-like women perched on the margins between the domestic space and the outside world. Significantly, birdcage imagery has since been recovered by numerous feminist authors to denounce women’s lack of freedom under patriarchal oppression. However, such analogies have often been rooted in a rejection of animality, rather than in a sense of solidarity between women and animals against androcentric domination. As this article intends to prove, Neo-Victorian works such as A. S. Byatt’s The Conjugial Angel (1992) and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984) offer subversive possibilities for the reinterpretation of avian imagery in ways that challenge the interlocking patriarchal and speciesist dynamics at the core of anthropocentric culture.

Kurdish women “bargaining with patriarchy:” The subversive woman in Ata Nahai's fiction

Over the past two decades, Women Studies has developed within Kurdish studies. Scholars from various disciplines, including sociology, history, and folk literature, have explored this field to shed light on the experiences and roles of Kurdish women. A less explored area remains literature, particularly fiction. This study focuses on Ata Nahai, a highly acclaimed novelist from Iranian Kurdistan, born in 1960, whose main female characters deviate significantly from the stereotypes of selfless mothers and loving submissive wives. Nahais short stories and novels depict women as subversive. Their subversion does not, however, bring about their emancipation, but highlights significant issues faced by Kurdish women, such as contradictory attitudes towards their own bodies, abusing other women and behaving inconsistently with their family members.

Happy Wife, Happy Life: Pauline Marriage in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale

Abstract: This article asserts continuity of purpose between The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale through the Pauline marital paradigm of mutual submission. The apparent incongruity between the Wife’s diatribe against expectations of wifely submission in the Prologue and her Tale ’s subsequent depiction of a reformed rapist knight who eventually finds himself happily married to a beautiful, submissive wife has long produced scholarly consternation. I argue that the Prologue and Tale work together to reveal the inevitable outcome of imposing gender hierarchies in marriage and a means of recovering a Pauline marriage paradigm focused on service rather than power.

The Submissive Wife: A Study of Stockholm Syndrome and Abuse- Cycle in Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You Or, A Portrait Of The Writer As A Young Wife

Stockholm syndrome refers to a psychological phenomenon observed in situations where individuals, typically hostages or victims, develop a deep bond or compassion for their captors or abusers. Scholars describe Stockholm syndrome as a complex emotional response where victims, despite being held against their will, start feeling positive emotions or sympathy for their captors. This paradoxical phenomenon involves hostages expressing admiration or praise for their captors, seemingly irrational given the danger they face. Victims may form emotional attachments and bonds as survival strategies fostering a connection that contradicts the apparent threat posed by their captors. The main aims of the present study are twofold. The first aim is to examine the depiction of submissive wives in the novel When I Hit You: Or A Portrait of a Writer as a Young Wife(2018) written by Meena Kandasamy; and the second, analyzing the wife’s submissiveness and acceptance of her spouse’s abuse through relating it to Stockholm syndrome and through the lens of abuse cycle theory suggested by Lenore Walker's concept of Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS), which encompasses various psychological and behavioral symptoms. The research argues that the acceptance of violence by abused victims, particularly submissive wives, should not be attributed solely to their actions, as there are numerous underlying reasons, social and psychological, for their submissiveness which will be explored thoroughly in this study.

Aging Yet Independent Women in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford and Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield

In the Victorian England whose ideal woman was the Angel in the House, a devoted and submissive wife and mother, it would generally be unfortunate for women to be still unmarried past their reproductive years. Using feminist lens, this study compares the Jenkyns sisters (Deborah and Matty) of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1853) and Betsy Trotwood of Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield (1850). While aging and single, they are financially independent. Husbandless and childless, the Jenkyns sisters and Betsey could easily fall into the category of redundant women, but they skillfully manage the house and class relations the way the Angels in the House do.

『金甁梅』와 영화 ｢시카고｣의 ‘미녀에 의한 살인’ 서사 비교

Ban Jin-Lian, the heroine of Ming dynasty novel “JinPingmei”, and Roxy, the heroine of the movie “Chicago”, were not punished for their crimes due to their beautiful appearance, despite clear evidence of their involvement in a man's murder. They are exceptional beauties who conform to the standards of beauty established by a male-dominated society. Men coveted their sexual appeal, and the public's attention was captivated by them. In the vulnerable position of women within traditional society, they actively utilized their beauty. They knew how to manipulate powerful and capable men through their attractiveness and sex appeal. Moreover, they were resolute in their desires and pursued them. Here, these two beauties face a contradiction. Externally, they meet the aesthetic criteria set by a male-centered society, but internally, they resist the norms of traditional society and strive to remain true to their own desires. Both Jin-Lian and Roxy refuse to conform to the role of submissive wives. They demand more rights than what is permitted in a male-dominated society and openly express their sexual desires. From the perspective of men, these women are seen as “destroyers of order” and the “roots of evil.” Positioned in opposition to the sacred and sublime ideal of the “mother”, these women are simultaneously desired and feared. Their actions are perceived to have had an impact, and this is where their individual coldness and cruelty contribute to the creation of a “beautiful devil” character.

Subversion of Patriarchal Discourse in Meridian

Walker in her novel Meridian, criticizes patriarchal society’s expectations of woman's roles and advocates about women's individuality and independence. The novel examines its title character Meridian’s emergence as a liberated strong woman. It observes Meridian's attempts to break the patriarchal tradition and how she brings an end to the racism and segregation. It also studies the lives and revolutionary activities of black women who played crucial roles to bring subversion in patriarchal discourse. Initially suspended black woman of patriarchal society, Meridian, the protagonist of the novel, becomes a liberated woman as she knows what she should borrow from the past for the present to create a new future. She breaks most of the generally accepted patriarchal norms and values that govern her society. Though she grows up in the racist, sexist and patriarchal society, she rebels against oppressive systems to attain her self-identity and selfhood. She considers marriage a false institution and deserts it as a challenge to the patriarchal ideology. She challenges the patriarchal image of womanhood and motherhood and presents herself as a liberated woman rather than a submissive wife and loving mother. She disobeys the patriarchal rules made for women and rejects any of the life-narratives of her patriarchal society. She starts her journey in search of meaningful personal and political life. She subverts all sorts of patriarchal discourses dominant in racist and sexist society. She finally paves a path of liberty with self identity and selfhood for herself and for the whole women. The paper tracks Meridian’s experiences from her college life to her self-determining liberated woman of present. She is free to love men without the burdens of marriage, sexual restriction and motherhood. It also explores black women's hidden strength, their beauty and feelings of sisterhood and wifehood. The study reveals how Meridian, revolts against the patriarchal ideologies to regain her lost identity and wholeness.

Forbidden Aspect of Erotic Desire Embodied in the Figure of the Vampire in “Carmilla” and “Olalla”

During the Victorian period, there was a dichotomy for women. On the one hand, there was the image of an “Angel of the House”, who was basically the submissive wife within a strongly patriarchal system. On the other hand, women could also be portrayed as monsters/prostitute because they refused to fulfill the role of a perfect wife and preferred to have an uncontrollable sex desire. This research will focus on the analysis of women as “monsters” by using the nineteenth-century vampire stories “Olalla” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “Carmilla” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. These two works will provide an exploration into the forbidden or transgressive aspects of erotic desire embodied in the figure of the vampire, precisely, female vampire. Throughout this study, there are several transgressive elements depicted in the characters of Olalla andCarmilla. Firstly, those monsters are sexually empowered characters, Olalla and Carmilla posses a sex desire that should not be acceptable for a woman. Secondly, the short stories clearly establish a ‘role reversal’ in therelationships with their human partners, that is to say, the female vampires take the active role since their fangs are the elements of penetration (like a phallus) whereas their lovers take the passive role. And thirdly, the sexual orientation is considered transgressive, particularly, in Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” that presents a homosexual relationship with a female friend, Laura.

Woman and Yemen in Three Novels by Nadia al-Kawkabani (Yemen)

Among scholars of literature, there is a discussion about whether modern Arab women write fiction differently from their male counterparts. Some argue that women writers have special concerns which result from their specific experiences in Muslim society and determine not only the thematic spectrum of their works, but also a specific, sometimes vague manner of their literary expression. This discussion is based mostly on the works of prominent women writers from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, North Africa, sometimes Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf States. Yemen has not received much attention in this discussion, as well as in literary studies in general. This article examines to what extent the suggested female, or “feminist”, manner of writing is manifested in the works of Yemeni novelist and short story writer Nadia al-Kawkabani, who is one of the most prolific women writers in her country. In her three novels, Not More Than Love (2006), Submissive Wives (2009), and My Sanaa (2013), “feminist” topics are touched upon repeatedly, but practically none of them is represented by a detailed story with a sufficient degree of sentiment and psychologism. On the contrary, a great deal of attention in these novels is given to the culture and modern history of Yemen, and the narrative, like in many male writers’ works, is dominated by sociopolitical issues. One may argue that Yemen in Nadia al-Kawkabani’s novels prevails over the “feminist” issue.

Vegetal Affect: Disruptive Unfeeling in the Face of Gender Oppression in Han Kang's The Vegetarian

Han Kang's novel The Vegetarian tells the story of a woman who has a nightmare so obscene, so violent, that it fundamentally changes how she lives in the waking world. In this disconcerting dream, the young female protagonist Yeong-hye Kim kills and eats someone—or something—with her bare hands. When she awakens, she immediately adopts a vegetarian diet but her demeanour and affective expression also change. Her face defaults to a vacant expression, she begins speaking less, and when forced to interact with others she shocks them by not only behaving in socially unacceptable ways, but also emoting (or not) in non-normative ways. In doing so, Yeong-hye reveals and disrupts hegemonic gender-based power relations, particularly those relating to affective gender expectations of women such as ‘a submissive wife, an obedient daughter, an amiable person’ that keep the patriarchy intact.

Christian Citizens: Reading the Bible in Black and White in the Postemancipation South

Christian Citizens: Reading the Bible in Black and White in the Postemancipation South

Patriarchal structure and place of Women in Angami Society: In the Select Novel

Gender discrimination against women within the matriarchy and patriarchy plays a pivotal role in the protagonist's life in the select novel. This paper examines the protagonist's journey as seen in Easterine Kire's A Terrible Matriarchy, and also aims to expose patriarchy for what it is. Kire gives a critical insight into how girls are raised and groomed to be submissive wives. Women's subordination in tribal communities is one of the key themes explored in this novel. As the Angami society is a dominant patriarchal society, this work shows how unfair the matriarchy is to women. This paper focuses on how a matriarch becomes an ardent defender of patriarchy.

MARRIAGE PLOT AS a CHALLENGE TO GENDER CONVENTIONS IN AURORA LEIGH BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her long narrative poem titled Aurora Leigh portrays a heroine that struggles to be a poetess rather than a submissive wife in accordance with gender conventions. Her struggle shows that women attempting to go beyond domesticity to pursue a career encounter certain obstacles because marriage is regarded supreme career for them. Despite those obstacles and gender-specific applications, Aurora Leigh, the heroine, becomes a poet and marries her cousin. Her poetic career and marriage display that womanhood is not an obstacle to pursuing a career. By such a plot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, challenged patriarchal society and the attribution of both frailty and certain fixed roles to women. Rather than presenting a conventional marriage in the end, Browning utilizes an unconventional marriage as a challenge to the patriarchal Victorian society because she underlined the fact that a marriage is not a career for women but a necessity. Discussing unconventionality of the marriage in Aurora Leigh, this study investigates how Browning problematizes conventional gender roles and presents marriage as a part of women’s powerful side rather than as a sign of subjection.

Oltrepassare la soglia della morale: delitto, giustizia, suicidio L’innocente secondo Luchino Visconti

The essay is about the film L’innocente by Luchino Visconti based on the novel by Gabriele d’Annunzio (1892). Accused of immorality, the literary text, decisive for the work of the Italian writer and dramatist, narrates – in the movie – the story of Tullio Hermil, a refined but restless man with a marked sensuality, and his infidelity towards his submissive wife Giuliana who, after a short love story with the writer Arborio, gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby. After the baptism, the jealous and upset Tullio kills the baby exposing him to the elements of Christmas night. Oppressed by the remorse, he commits suicide by gunshot. This essay intends to compare the two texts according to the poetic horizon of the director Luchino Visconti in the light of his contradictory attraction/rejection relationship with the Vate.

Subverting the Myth of the Submissive Woman in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

‘The Penelopiad’ is a retelling of the Greek myth of Odysseus and his faithful wife, Penelope. According to the myth, Penelope cleverly keeps away from more than a hundred suitors when Odysseus went for the Trojan war. Therefore, her character is traditionally associated with marital fidelity and ‘The Odyssey’ portrays her as the quintessential faithful and submissive wife. This paper proposes to analyse how patriarchy creates the myth of the submissive woman and how Atwood subverts the myth through the characters of Penelope and her twelve maids.

THE DEPICTION OF WOMEN IN THE SELECTED NOVELS OF NAGUIB MAHFOUZ

This paper represents the female factor and discusses the depiction of women in the view of the novelist. The paper also focuses on the concept of feminism in the era of Mahfouz and portrays a micro picture of women in Arabian society. Mahfouz attempts to examine in his novels male dominance and female resistance in Arabic society, mainly in Egypt and how women have been marginalized and relegated as secondary to men through the established traditions. The study also focuses on how women respond to these attitudes within the family and society. Furthermore, this study examines the reasons through which women turned to prostitution on one hand, and to investigate Arab women’s regression in achieving their complete rights on the other. During this study, we attempt to examine how Naguib Mahfouz addressed the issue of women extensively in various situations and on different social levels. Also, this study sheds light on how Mahfouz depicted the women who are subjected to exploitation and oppression. These women stand for the submissive wife, the sex object, the self-sacrificing women.
 
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Shifting the Mythic Discourse: Ambiguity and Destabilization in Joanne Kyger’s The Tapestry and the Web

The Homeric Penelope, long hailed as a feminist icon just as much as an example of submissive wife, has been the focus of numerous revisions and interpretations ranging from the reactionary to the most subversive. This article analyzes Joanne Kyger’s revision of the mythic discourse in The Tapestry and the Web (1965) by studying two of the main strategies used by the poet: subtle shifts of focus and the use of alternative sources. Building from Joseph Campbell’s concept of the monomyth, which gave the poet the aesthetic freedom to move within Homer’s text, the article examines Kyger’s use of the mythic discourse to undermine the prevalence of patriarchal narratives and question their position as established categories. Operating inside and outside the Homeric construct, Kyger’s collection perpetuates and subverts the classical myth in a move that anticipates contemporary – feminist – revisions and adaptations.

‘Does She Look Like the Innocent Flower but Become the Serpent Underneath?’: The Femme Fatal Lady Macbeth in the Misogynist Macbeth

Renaissance's society used to bring into play an ad nauseam cliche woman's place is the home. However, Lady Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare's dramatic characters, represents an image of the powerful woman. Because she enabled her husband Macbeth to ascend the throne of Scotland. This is when she urges him to commit a crime. Accordingly, Lady Macbeth was labeled as a femme fatale and a disastrous woman. However, when Macbeth becomes the king she switched to the role of the submissive wife. Contemporary readers would feel ambivalent toward Lady Macbeth's feminity; she is a mix of both a powerful woman and a formidable villain. Lady Macbeth's dilemma, in a nutshell, is that she is a disastrous wife to urge her husband to kill the king and she is a faint-hearted woman to feel guilty and let the pang of conscience destroy her mind. Thus, Lady Macbeth ends up marginalized, the same as her Renaissance counterparts. Correspondingly, this paper focuses on the connection of Lady Macbeth’s demonic nature with gender discrimination and the misogynist attitude of Shakespeare. Bias against Lady Macbeth, here, is not just a product of individual male thought but is the result of the pervasive social norm of early modern patriarchy. The main methodological approach of this paper is the cultural study of the sixteenth-century feminism. Thus, interdisciplinary theory of feminist perspective in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as well as the historical study of the marginalized Renaissance women are applied to probe into the reality of misogyny and negative representation of women in Shakespearean drama as alluring and evil figures. Therefore, the focused question within this none-thesis is why Shakespearean female characters, mainly including Lady Macbeth, are prejudicially undermined. In the end, the paper urges other researches to apply the sociological study of female power within Shakespeare’s other plays to find out how all of the Shakespearean heroines are subordinate; following the Elizabethan social norm of disempowering women.

“Does she look like the innocent flower but become the serpent underneath ?”: The Femme Fatal Lady Macbeth in the Misogynist Macbeth

Renaissance's society used to bring into play an ad nauseam cliche woman's place is the home. However, Lady Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare's dramatic characters, represents an image of the powerful woman. Because she enabled her husband Macbeth to ascend the throne of Scotland. This is when she urges him to commit a crime. Accordingly, Lady Macbeth was labeled as a femme fatale and a disastrous woman. However, when Macbeth becomes the king she switched to the role of the submissive wife. Contemporary readers would feel ambivalent toward Lady Macbeth's feminity; she is a mix of both a powerful woman and a formidable villain. Lady Macbeth's dilemma, in a nutshell, is that she is a disastrous wife to urge her husband to kill the king and she is a faint-hearted woman to feel guilty and let the pang of conscience destroy her mind. Thus, Lady Macbeth ends up marginalized, the same as her Renaissance counterparts. Correspondingly, this paper focuses on the connection of Lady Macbeth’s demonic nature with gender discrimination and the misogynist attitude of Shakespeare. Bias against Lady Macbeth, here, is not just a product of individual male thought but is the result of the pervasive social norm of early modern patriarchy. The main methodological approach of this paper is the cultural study of the sixteenth-century feminism. Thus, interdisciplinary theory of feminist perspective in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as well as the historical study of the marginalized Renaissance women are applied to probe into the reality of misogyny and negative representation of women in Shakespearean drama as alluring and evil figures. Therefore, the focused question within this none-thesis is why Shakespearean female characters, mainly including Lady Macbeth, are prejudicially undermined. In the end, the paper urges other researches to apply the sociological study of female power within Shakespeare’s other plays to find out how all of the Shakespearean heroines are subordinate; following the Elizabethan social norm of disempowering women.

Theme of Oppression of Women in Naguib Mahfouz's Realistic Novels: An Analytical Study

It is in his realistic novels that Mahfouz unequivocally voices his views on violence against women, views to which he remains loyal till the end of his life. The main objective is to deal with the theme of oppression of women in selected novels that Mahfouz wrote in the 1940s and early 1950s. The significance of the study lies in its attempt to link the past with the present. The study tries to show how Mahfouz's realistic novels are contemporary and relevant because they deal with issues that are contemporary and relevant. The researcher used the analytical method to achieve this aim. Several female characters from New Cairo, Beginning and End, Middaq Alley, and the Cairo Trilogy are selected as examples of women who are subjected to exploitation and oppression. These women stand for the submissive wife, the self-sacrificing woman, the ambitious woman, and the new woman. The study is divided into sections based on this classification in order to fully understand the various types of oppression faced by women in a Middle-eastern society. The stories of these women are examined and analysed in light of the socio-political conditions at the time and Mahfouz's views on women and their place in society. The conclusion is in the form of a list of the important lessons we learn from Mahfouz's treatment of the theme of oppression of women. It is through these findings that the study links the past with the present.