Eastern civilization has been noted throughout history as a society of strict standards based on a system of honor and high moral values. The traditions and values of Eastern civilization are an underlying element in the plot of Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman". It is ultimate...

The enlightenment period in England occurred most prominently in the eighteenth century and helped mold our current thoughts and values into what are accepted by our society today. Besides criticizing religion and broadening the range of science, enlightenment thinkers provided new points of view o...

The ideal antebellum woman is a far cry from today's woman, but of course the antebellum time period is over a century removed from today's world. The antebellum woman was expected to be a member of the proverbial "cult of domesticity," a term modern historians use to describe t...

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, an interesting mix of people gather to comment on various issues in the society. The most commendable aspect of their stories is that none of them seems to be interested in making an issue out of anything. They are simply who are they and through them...

Throughout history, people from across the land and oceans have found that folklore and stories that they have shared have similarities that tie them together. Folklore enables readers to view the spiritual and material aspects of any different culture that can be transmitted orally or by observatio...

A Woman's Decision Many people believe that abortion is a moral issue, but it is also a constitutional issue. It is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body, and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. Abortion has joined the race and war as one of the most controve...

The reason why Flaubert's book was so controversial during his time is because readers thought that he was glorifying adultery and insinuating that French middle-class women were lecherous whores. Another reason for the controversy would be Flaubert's scandalous descriptions of Emma'...

A Feminist Perspective on Measure for Measure "Measure for Measure," is a play about a woman on her knees. It is quite bothersome that her status in the play, socially, morally, and physically, only touches few sympathies. Marcia Reefer would share this bother. In her feminist essay ent...

The central Bosnian village Dolina is located in a valley north of the Bosnian-Hercegovinian capital, Sarejevo. From a very early age Muslim girls are taught that their role as a female is to assist their mother with household chores and to serve the men. While her male siblings, who spend most...

Oliver Twist provides insight into the experience of the poor in 1830s England. Beneath the novel's humor and dramatic plot runs an undertone of bitter criticism of the Victorian middle class's attitudes toward the poor. Dickens's Oliver Twist very vividly critisizes the legal system, workh...

Death through murder, illness, or suicide is the end result in many stories of romantic love. In the plays, Hedda Gabler and Medea, women heroines often take the brunt of society's censure of "inappropriate" passion due to their performances of vengeance. The protagonists are marked b...

The portrayal of Thomas Hardy's character Tess in his work Tess of the D'Ubervilles and Geoffrey Chaucer's character of Alisoun in his work The Wife of Bath's Prologue is such that both women are seen by society at the given time in history as rebellious, discontent, and badly behaved . Though these...

Anne Bradstreet was one of the first poets to write an English verse in the American colonies. Her poems were written for her family she had no incentive to publish them. Anne Bradstreet sailed to settle on Massachusetts Bay at 16 out of a civilized and humane background. Her father, Thomas Dudle...

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is solely about Tess - her personality, trials, growth, and development. While many novels concern the interaction of characters, this novel concentrates almost single – mindedly on the life of its heroine Tess. The other characters are important only to the e...

Congreve's play, The Way of the World, while it was very interesting it still remained very hard to follow. However, as the plot unfolded and the relationships became more evident, the story line was more readily understood. The play gave an almost comical portrayal of women and even the morals for...

Kate's soliloquy brings about a joyous conclusion to The Taming of the Shrew. The audience leaves the theatre with a pleasant feeling, glad that such a shrew could be tamed so well. Kate herself realised the error of her ways, making the men feel confident while making the women feel safe. ...

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman. In some societies, women had endless tasks, including raising the children, planting and harvesting the grain, and pounding it into flour. Some societies believe that any action to make women's...

The roles of men and women in the play, "A Doll's House", written by Henrik Ibsen, are very different compared to what they are now. According to Ibsen, "A woman cannot be herself in modern society. It is an exclusive male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and j...

Discrimination is a word which can be applied to a multitude of life-learned situations; for it is arguably a part of human nature to discriminate. Whether it is the color of one's skin, judgement pertaining to the aesthetic value of one's countenance, or the type of jean...

Gender issues are prevalent in Shakespeare's plays Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth. Some of the key characteristics relevant to gender issues are masculinity, feminism, honor, bravery, and ambition. These issues will be examined through the dynamics of three couples, Hero and Claudi...

Sarah Kemble Knight What would a woman in the 1700's be doing riding on horseback across country by herself? This question seems shocking to some but not to a woman like Sarah Kemble Knight. She was the daughter of a Boston merchant and married a sea captain. In her quest from Boston to New ...