Favorite Feminist Literature Part II: Early 20th Century-WWII

Favorite Feminist Literature Part II: Early 20^th Century-WWII

 

By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm

In honor of March, Women’s History Month, I am writing a three-part review series of my favorite works considered Feminist literature from the 19^th to the end of the 20^th century. While most of the authors are women, not all are. The works just have to be told primarily from a woman’s point of view or feature a female protagonist.

The female protagonists are strong characters who challenge society’s expectations of them. While some are successful, others are not so successful. But they certainly let the other characters and the reader know exactly who they are and how they feel. I use the term “literature” because while the selections are mostly novels, I have also included one book of poems and an anthology of short stories.

I am aware that some books are left out. Many such as The Well of Loneliness, Mrs. Dalloway, and Atonement were left out for a very simple reason: I haven’t read them. (Though I want to). Of course, I am open to any great suggestions of feminist literature or any other sort of literature that discusses important topics, so please write your comments below.

All descriptions will include spoilers to the works.

5. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (1938)

The plot: A young unnamed protagonist marries Maxim De Winter, a wealthy Cornish man and moves to his estate, Manderley. While setting up house, Mrs. De Winter hears about Rebecca, Maxim’s late first wife who was apparently a paragon of beauty, social grace and skills. Rumors start to swirl about Maxim and Rebecca’s relationship and Mrs. De Winter begins to fear and envy the deceased woman. When she learns about Maxim and Rebecca’s marriage and the truth about her death, Mrs. De Winter finally comes into her own.

Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Through the two female characters, Du Maurier gives a stronger look at the “Madonna/Whore” stereotypes in which female characters are either good or bad, but not both. Instead Du Maurier turns that around by creating two characters that are revealed to be more than their outward appearances suggest.

Rebecca and Mrs. De Winter are practically two halves of the same woman. On the surface, Rebecca seems like the perfect lady, beautiful, brilliant, and well bred. Mrs. De Winter appears to be a mousy ingénue who is overwhelmed by her predecessor. However, when Maxim reveals the truth of his marriage to Rebecca and her death, and then Maxim and Mrs. De Winter learn of the possible motive for Rebecca’s death, their personalities begin to change. Instead Rebecca is seen as a spirited, intelligent, troubled woman making her life and death meaningful in the only way that she can. Mrs. De Winter also takes control of her role as lady of Manderley and Maxim’s wife by revealing her love for her husband and her own control over the servants and the estate.

Favorite Quote(s): Mrs. Danvers, Manderley’s sinister housekeeper: (Rebecca) had all the knowledge then of a grown person, she’d enter into conversation with men and women as clever and full of tricks as someone of eighteen….Spirit, you couldn’t beat my lady for spirit….No one got the better of her, never, never. She did what she liked, she lived as she liked. She had the strength of a lion too…..That’s how she went at life, when she grew up. I saw her. I was with her. She cared for nothing and for no one. And then she was beaten in the end. But it wasn’t a man, it wasn’t a woman. The sea got her. The sea was too strong for her. The sea got her in the end.”

Mrs. De Winter (after Mrs. Danvers disagrees with her decision to send messages through Robert, a junior servant): “I’m afraid it does not concern me very much what Mrs. De Winter used to do. I am Mrs. De Winter now, you know. And if I choose to send a message by Robert I shall do so.”

4. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton ((1902)

The plot: Lily Bart longs to enter New York high society. She falls in love with lawyer, Lawrence Selden but does not want to pursue a relationship with him further because of his lack of wealth. Instead she engages in bridge playing for money, gets involved with crooked financier, Gus Trenor, and is accused of engaging in an affair with the married, George Dorset, husband of Lily’s nemesis, Bertha. All of these along with other scandals lead to Lily’s ostracism from society and decline.

Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Wharton knew how to write about 19^th century high society in New York, since she was herself a member. She had a cold indifferent relationship with her family particularly her mother and had an unhappy marriage with Teddy Wharton, a socialite who was abusive, violent, and bipolar. Wharton engaged in an affair with an American journalist which though passionate ended badly. All of this pain is revealed in her writing, particularly how she described the New York setting that Lily longs to be a member with cynicism and an experienced eye.

The world is filled with men and women who scheme, bicker, have secret affairs, and then judge others for doing the same, particularly Lily. Lily however questions these standards longing to find enjoyment and mirth along with her desire for money and a comfortable life.

Favorite quote: Narration (after Lily lies about seeing her dressmaker when she was alone having tea with Lawrence Selden): “Why must a girl pay so dearly for her latest escape from routine? Why could one never do a natural thing without having to screen it behind a screen of artifice? She had yielded to a passing impulse in going to Lawrence Selden’s rooms, and it was so seldom that she could allow herself the luxury of an impulse!”

3. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1890-1913)

The plot: Various, but Perkins Gilman most famous story is “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In this story, a young married woman is given a “rest cure” by her physician husband. This entails her to be placed in a bedroom without any outside stimulation: no writing, hardly any visitors, no physical activity. As the narrator writes of her confinement, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room which she begins to believe has a woman trapped inside.

Perkins Gilman’s other stories feature various women who embrace independence despite objections from friends, lovers, spouses, and family members. Some of the best include: “My Poor Aunt,” in which a young woman follows the path of her divorced journalist aunt, “Three Thanksgivings,” in which a middle-aged mother decides to live on her own and run a social club despite her children’s objections, “Her Beauty,” in which a seemingly plain-looking woman embraces her unconventional beauty to become a dressmaker, and “When I Was A Witch,” a fantasy story in which a woman uses her wishes to make the world a better place with unique results.

Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Perkins Gilman captured some of the issues prevailing women in her day some that still resonate like lookism, desires to find fulfilling careers, choosing love over duty, and other themes.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” in particular stands out. Perkins Gilman herself was given a rest cure which made her mental and emotional state worse than she was before she was prescribed the cure. Even though the narrator is thought to be insane, the realization of her confinement from her husband and brother become clearer to her. She sees herself in the dream woman behind the wallpaper. In freeing the dream woman, the narrator is trying to free herself.

Favorite quote: The narrator: “The front pattern does move-and no wonder! This woman behind shakes it!

Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over….And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many shakes.

They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!”

2. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1926)          

The plot: Lolly, a middle-aged spinster, becomes tired of being shuffled between her brothers’ families. Under a bit of serendipitous and possibly supernatural circumstances, she decides to move to the fictional village of the Great Mop. While at the Great Mop, Lolly begins to make herbs, takes in a stray cat, and meets a somewhat sinister visitor. She then attends Sabbat meetings and becomes a witch.

Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: Warner turns the concept of an innocent getting involved in witchcraft on its head. Instead of the Sabbats becoming a satanic wicked orgy of hatred, Lolly feels a welcome connection to other women and to nature. She becomes enamored of her independence and solitude far from her family’s protective watch. This book could almost be a precursor to Wicca and its members’ involvement in feminism and environmentalism.

Favorite Quote: Lolly: “It’s like this. When I think of witches, I seem to see all over England, all over Europe, women living and growing old, as common as blackberries, countries one sees from the train. You know. Well, there were, there they are, child-rearing, house-keeping, hanging washed dishcloths on current brush; and for diversions each other’s silly conversation, and listening to men talking together in the way that men talk and women listen. Quite different to the way women talk, and men listen, if they listen at all. And all the being thrust further down into dullness when the one thing all women hate is to be thought dull.”

1. The Awakening bby Kate Chopin(1899-I think of this book as a bridge between the Feminist works of the 19th and 20th centuries)

The plot: Edna Pontellier, a dissatisfied married Creole wife and mother falls in love with a young man. Edna is awakened to the idea of her own desires and lives independently, becomes an artist, befriends an outspoken female musician, and engages in an affair with a known seducer. She worries that her new independent life is only temporary and agonizes about returning to her role as wife and mother.

Why it’s a favorite in Feminist literature: The book is filled with imagery about sleeping and awakening, which reflects Edna’s life before and after her transformation. Once she is awakened to the idea of being a liberated woman, she pursues this desire to the fullest. Edna discovers her sexuality in her affairs with Robert Lebrun and Alcѐe Arobin. She also finds fulfillment in her talent for painting and swimming. She awakens to being an independent woman.

While the book ends with Edna drowning, the plot and characterization suggests that Edna does not commit suicide so much as she is unwilling to return to the confinement of marriage even to the point of swimming to exhaustion.

Favorite quote: Narration: “There were days when (Edna) was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.”

Honorable Mention: Novels: Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, My Antonia by Willa Cather, Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton, Notes on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith, Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, and Pursuit of Love/Love in A Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Herland by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Non-Fiction: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, The Story of My Life and Other Writings by Helen Keller, The Fun of It and Other Writings by Amelia Earhart, and “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston

Plays: Trifles by Susan Glaspell, The Children’s Hour and Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, and The Women by Clare Booth Luce

Poetry and Short Stories: Works by Dorothy Parker, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sara Teasdale, Stevie Smith, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Katherine Mansfield, Tillie Olsen, and Eudora Welty