Women's discrimination

Women through of the human history have been discriminated. In fact, men have had the power of the society and they have established their own ideas and laws about how people have to live inside it. Taking a second place in any society, women have had to suffer a lot of humiliations since they are so-called as the weak sex. Fortunately, there were women that fought in order to assert themselves, showing their dissatisfaction with a feminist movement during 1920’s. Feminists worked hard to achieve their goals which were; equality for women, to suffrage as well as men, women’s rights and interests, etc. Women obtained their right to suffrage 1928 in England. But, one of the greatest feminist during this period who played an important role was Virginia Woolf.


Adelia Virgina Woolf was born on January 25th in 1882, London. She was an important woman during the “interwar period” (the period between the First World War and Second World War) because all her wrorks made her a famous English novelist and essayist. Woolf belonged to London literary society and was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. This was a group of friends where their works were influenced by Literature, criticism, feminism, pacifism and sexuality points of views. But, all good things that she made for women could not save her from her heavy mental illness, for that reason on March 28th, 1941; she committed suicide, leaving a letter to her husband explaining her reasons why she did it. Woolf wrote great texts such as; Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando 8 1928) and A room of One’s own (1929). It is precisely the last one that made her so important during the Feminism movement. In this text, Woolf brought out controversial issues, for example, all difficulties that a woman writer had if she wanted to introduce herself in the literary world which has been dominated by men. Inside of “A room of One’s own” appears her famous phrase which is “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”[1]. This sentence expresses the idea that a woman need to have a personal place where she can think and write as well as a man has his own room, and she also need to earn enough money in order to support her works.


In chapter three of “A room of One’s own”, Woolf talks about women writers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, saying that they had the same capacity than men in order to write wonderful songs and sonnets. But, most of women were not prepared to do it because they lacked education and economic support. Having had an education based on how they had to be good mothers, homemakers and wives, women could not develop their capacities of writing poetry, novels, stories, etc. That is why marriage started to be the best option that fathers found for their daughters in order to increase the money in the family, “Marriage was not an affair of personal affection, but of family avarice, particularly in the “chivalrous” upper classes.”[2] In fact, women did not have personality and character, they were submissive. For that reason, Woolf says that all books which were written by men show women that were not real, “Indeed, if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; as great as a man, some think even greater”[3]. In effect, in the real life women were completely insignificant, they could not say what they wanted to say, women rights did not exist, they were slaves of their fathers and then of their husbands, and women were also slave of Catholic Church because most of they had to wear chastity belts, “-for chastity may be a fetish invented by certain societies for unknown reasons- but were none the less inevitable… a religious importance in a woman’s life…”[4] However, there were some women that challenged this world managed by men, and they started to write using names of men, for example; Currer Bell whose real mane was Charlotte Bronte or Geroge Sand whose real name was Amandine-Aurore-Lucille Dupin. Both were great writers, but they had to hide their real sexuality in order to protect their integrity because they could be killed or tortured for the society which was dominated by men.


In conclusion, gender differences have provoked that women had to express their discontent writing about this. Virginia Woolf was and will be being one of the most important feminists because she wrote about women’s discrimination. Her text “A room of One’s own” is a manifestation of disapproving because it shows how women have to suffer that men not allow them to write, to think, to vote, and to live their lives how they want to. However, Woolf says clearly that every woman has the same capacity than a man has for writing and thinking, but men have not given women the chance to develop them. However, there were breve women who did not care men's thoughts and they started to write using false men's names.

[1] Woolf, Virginia. A room of One’s owm.
[2] Woolf, Virginia. A room of One’s own. Chapter 3.
[3] Woolf, Virginia. A room of One’s owm. Chapter 3.
[4] Woolf, Virginia. A room of One’s own. Chapter 3.
words: 861

Reference:
- Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own; Chapeter 3, pdf document
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf
- http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.co.uk/vw_res.biography.htm

W.H. Auden & Stephen Spender

In the poems "September 1, 1939" written by Auden, and "Two Armies" Spender created, it is possible to find a description of what was happened in those times. Both writers mention how wars are able to destroy not only cities but people life, above all, younger ones. They talk about what things children learn in "schoolchildren" as Auden says, but what kind of school are they talking about. I think that they are referring to Military "schools", where younger people are prepared in order to fight against other, and most of the time they really do not know why they have to do it.

In addition, Spender poem has a lot of details what kind of behavior young solders have to have "Men freeze and hunger. No one is given leave. On either side, except the dead and wounded." (First Stanza) So, they have to be prepared to do and support everything, not matter what happen around them, they HAVE to be strong and kill their enemy. Having lived all things cruel things the majority of younger solders can not be happy or be good after a war. I think that both writers want to show us that our society is responsible that solders are not able to live in a better way because they were created to kill people when exist a disagreement between nations.

Virginia Woolf

When I read "Room of One's Own" of Virginia Woolf, I started to think all things that women had to do in order to have men's respect. In those days, women were unable to write some critical because they were not educated to do that. Women education was based on to be great mothers, lovely wives, and to do housework well. So, when women won suffrage, they also won their own space in order to write critically about women. This meant, women began to write about themselves using most of the time their own life experience.
Women have proved that they are NOT the weaker sex. In effect, women have a lot of rolls or activities in their lives which make them important citizens, professionals, mother, wives, and so on. It could be women are more important than men.

The invisible Japanese Gentlemen"

Greene's short story presents eleven characters. But there are three important Characters: The narrator, the Lady writer and her fiancé. First of all, the author shows a narrator who notices everything around him. He pays attention to what this couple says and what kind of attitudes they have. Second, the Lady writer is a superficial and selfish woman who is only interested in her works, and how much money her publisher is going to pay for her novels. She doesn't care what happen around her, and also what her fiancé can feel or think about what she is saying to him. The Fiancé is a man who feels scare if he says anything that her girlfriend could take as an attack against her.On the other hand, this short story has a lot of details. In effect, we as readers are able to know that there are eight Japanese gentlemen eating an expensive fish in a restaurant.Also, that there is a couple who is talking about the Lady's novel which is going to be sell. All these things are narrated by the narrator, who observes what this couple is talking and their gestures. All details, wich are giving by the narrator, are able to provoke that we can imagine the Lady and her fiancé's psychological and psichologycal personalities.According to the title, the name is because at the final of the story the Lady never noticed that there were Japanese gentlemen in the restaurant. She was so worried about the name of her novel and her publisher that she did not pay attention to them. In fact, it was only her fianacé who saw and made her a comment about all these Japanese gentlemen, when they were picking up their coats.

Oliver Twist and The signalman

In the short story "The signal- man and the movie "Oliver Twist", I could find a lot of interesting themes like: Fear, Working class, Poverty and Power. Both show how people in those days feared because they did not know what would happen with their jobs, society, and the most importantly, with their own lives. In fact, people in those times, especially women and children, started working in different places with low salaries. They were exposed to death or have a work accident.
However, power is another important theme. I could see how people who had power could take advantage of poor people, especially children who did not have parents. In effect, rich people could abuse of their power with people who did not have any kind of education. But, the power and rich people were and will be taking advantage of lower social classes.

T.S. Eliot's poems.

If I have to connect Eliot's poems to the picture that I saw in class. I think that there are two subtitle which are appropriated. The first one is "The Burial of the death" because we as human beings are natura's members, and we are distroying it without mercy. Even though, sometimes nature is distruction when there are big winter storms or when it is very hot in a country provoking drought, both are able to provoke a higger caos in human's life. But, these are natural events that anyman can not prevent. However, we are supposedly racional people. We know that we are finishing with ourselves, and we are not able to do anything about it.

The second subtitle is the "Death by Water", this is connected with the first one because witouth water there is not life. In fact, we are doing that our world is dying every time that we contaminate our oceans, farms and air. The picture show us this distruction because there are two people inside a garbage which is falling with debris. How can these people live if around them are a lot of rubbish. Also, inside the picture there is polluted atmosphere, there is not water, not a clean place at all. Fort that reason, I think that Eliot imaged this picture in his mind many years ago and wrote these two poems describing our reality.

Figure of fathers in Lawrence's stories

Lawrence in his stories talks about fathers figure in a superficial way. Because he presents in "The Rocking - Horse Winner" and "The Odour of Chrysanthemums" stories fathers who are absent. In fact, in the first story the child Paul only has an emotional relation with his mother, and also he needs her love and approbation, his father is called as an unlucky person who only has to work in order to earn money for the family. Paul never talks about his father using nice words or expressions saying that he is emotionally important for him.

In The Odour of Chrysanthemums story is worse because here we can find a poor family where there is a father who is not only absent, also he is drunk and better person. He is a coal miner, so he works for earning a less salary, but he spends his money drinking.

Both stories show us fathers who only are supplier of money, they are not really important in his families. In effect, it is more important the roll of the mothers than the fathers in family. I think still today, there are families where fathers are only seen how suppler of money, and not father of loving their children and their wives. However, it is true that today fathers are taking a different attitude with their children. The mojority of fathers are worried about giving love to their children, and also they are paticipating in their education as well as mothers have been doing.