Introduction
“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition”, said Marilyn Monroe as she was defining the power of women thru their charms and presence, and not thru equal work with men. This concept, according to which femininity is the aspect that most empowers women in relationship with men was developed in various writings of the nineteenth century and comes as a contradiction to the binary relationship man – woman, which suggests that woman is placed on the negative side, as she is disempowered. Three novels, “The Awakening” (Kate Chopin), “Mrs. Spring Fragrance” (Sui Sin Far) and “Maggie: A Girl from the Streets” indicate how women take the approach on femininity for pursuing their goals for a careless life.
Composing Paragraphs
Adèle – the Exquisite Motherly Figure, Self – Assured on Her Charms and Social Power
Set in opposition with Edna, the main feminine character of “The Awakening”, (written by Kate Chopin), Adèle Ratignolle seems to have all the values of a classical woman, living and acting upon the standards of the nineteenth century society. Obedience, love for her family, affection for her children, devotion, crassness and total dependence of the loved ones (her family) make her the Queen of motherhood (Martin 118). Yet, her looks, her charm and her self – care makes her a very beautiful and attractive woman. Nonetheless, although she acts modestly upon it, she is also a talented person, playing piano in a soft and delicate manner. All these attributes reflect the meaning of the femininity, which empowered the woman socially.
“Adèle Ratingolle. There are no words to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams” (Chopin 19).
Adèle expressed her beauty, her tenderness, her motherly feelings and the devotion to her husband and her family, according to the Victorian society’s standards and had no difficulty in acting according to these self – imposed societal stereotypes regarding the woman. However, besides these societal norms she developed a real fidelity for her family and from the friendship relationship that she developed with Edna Pontellier, there can be sensed that she passionately believed in the role of a mother in life, not as a product of the society. She encourages Edna to consider the condition of her children if she was to leave them:
“Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!” (Chopin 289). This is both a warning and an advice that comes from a friend to another, discussing about the things that really matter, which makes Mrs. Ratignolle a real promoter of family consciousness.
She embraced the traditional role of a woman and wore it like a glove. An elegant, fancy glove, as although Adèle Ratignolle was the reflection of the concept of “woman”, entrenched in her familial, household duties, she nevertheless was a very stylish person, passionate about jewelries and elegant clothing.
“She wore dogskin gloves, with gauntlets that protected her wrists. She was dressed in pure white, () The draperies and fluttering things which she wore suited her rich, luxuriant beauty as a greater severity of line could not have done” (Chopin 37).
She is self – conscious about her beauty, her charm, her attitude, her power of attracting men with her looks, her style and her seemingly humbleness. This makes her a person aware of her individuality, who solely chooses to be who she is – the woman of the nineteenth century not fighting the status – quo of the time, as she had no trouble accepting it. On the contrary, she had only but to win. She was respected by all the people who knew her for being so devoted to her family, she was admired by the gentlemen and admired and envied by women for her elegance, style and unique beauty.
Contrasted with the main feminine character of the novel, Edna, Adèle appears to be the rationale one from the two women. While Edna is acting vividly, openly and even furiously against the social standards of the society she lives in and disregards and disrespects the traditional role of the woman in that society, putting her own self into a negative light, Adèle flows just like the water on the societal standards that define the woman of the nineteenth century. While Edna seeks her independence by breaking out of the marriage, following her passion for arts, intending to earn her own money assuring her existence by herself, with no man’s help, Adèle is already independent in the role of the mother, loving wife and elegant, beautiful and talented woman, who can afford everything she desires, without having to work. Her beauty was one of her “weapons”, which constituted along with her social status of a devoted wife and mother (for seven years that she had been married, every two years she had a new baby), the attribute of femininity:
“Her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent: the spun – gold hair that comb nor confining pin could restrain; the blue eyes that were like nothing but sapphires; two lips that pouted, that were so red one could only think of cherries” (Chopin 20).
Thru obedience, soft smiles, delicateness, tenderness, devotion to her family, but in the same time thru coquetry, elegance, style and attitude, this woman expressed her individuality. Femininity helped her in being independent and in gaining all the social advantages. She is aware of her power of obtaining whatever she desires, of her charm and the effect that she has upon men, based on her femininity.
The Romantic Vail of a Patriarchal Society Pursued thru Mrs. Spring Fragrance
Yet another perspective upon femininity is set by the part Chinese writer Sui Sin Far in “Mrs. Spring Fragrance”, a novel that treats the femininity that moves into a modern version of the American nineteenth century.
The central feminine character of the novel, Minnie, is nostalgic about the Victorian femininity and she disregards the new femininity style imposed by the reform of modernity. This reform is targeting a renegotiation of the roles of women and men in the society, seeks for gender equality and equal participation in the social work and activities (Pizer 108).
As such, Minnie’s first husband, an American men, gender equality and equal participation in the social work and activities.
As such, Minnie’s first husband, an American man, seems captured about the negotiation of the social roles between men and women and he sustains the movement that aims for women’s emancipation. He is enthusiastic about the actions in which women demonstrate ability to be equal to men.
“Whenever I had a magazine around he would pick it up and read aloud to me the columns of advice to women who were ambitious to become comrades to men and walk shoulder to shoulder with their brothers.” (Far 67).
Minnie dislikes these sort of actions in which women are being deprived of their femininity and considers them “very unbeautiful and disorderly spectacle” (Fen 67) and in response, her former husband perceives her as a person who was “built for anything but taking care of kids” (Far 68).
Minnie romanticizes about the traditional role of a woman, who is a care – giver, a domestic person, entrenched in the familial duties, being responsible for the household, being in the control of her man. Her Chinese husband, Liu Kanghi, is the embodiment of Minnie’s expectations, the prototype of “the lost Victorian ideals of masculinity and patriarchal control () situated firmly against the politics of Progressive reform that would seek to make men and women equally ‘ranked’” (Degenhart 659).
Pizer considers Minnie a privileged woman who is forced and indoctrinated in the suffocating ethics of the Victorian age, being fascinated about its specific conceptualization of gender roles, which locates the woman in the private sphere, as the dependent, care giver partner, and the man in the public one, as the independent, bread winner partner (108).
But Minnie is a Chinese woman who is open minded about cultural differences and enters in contact with her neighbors and makes friends of varied cultures. In fact, in Far’s novel, there is a cultural conflict presented, which continues the line of the gender conflict. The Chinese assimilation into the North American culture imposes difficulties in acceptance and adaptation to the new societal standards. This includes the new standards of the gender roles in the context of a modernized society.
Minnie is acting against the feminist movement which is rapidly spreading and winning many adepts, she nevertheless feels attracted by the American culture, which imposes a luxuriant fashion style and another perception of the romantic expression of love.
“My husband desired me to wear the American dress. I protested and declared that never would I so appear. But one day he brought home a gown fit for a fairy, and ever since then I have worn and adored the American dress” (Far 30).
In Far’s novel, femininity is presented as a stone resisting the change brought by the modernity of the nineteenth century. Thru Minnie’s eyes, women’s empowerment is in her own household, where she holds the wheel to the marriage, where she is cared for and nurtured, within a patriarchal relationship. For her the women who aim for gender equality, for camaraderie with men lack femininity, are “unbeautiful” and represent no aim for her, as her strength resides in her romantic expression of the traditional role of woman.
Alluring Men with the Sexual Femininity Empowers Nellie into Obtaining Her Goals
The financial dependency on men by driving them into the charm of experienced women – is the main focus of the femininity in Steven Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl from the Streets”. The character that defines this feature is Nellie, beautiful women, self-aware of her charms and on her seduction power.
She is an elegant and very fashionable lady “her black dress fitted her to perfection. Her linen collar and cuffs were spotless. Tan gloves were stretched over her well-shaped hands. A hat of a prevailing fashion perched jauntily upon her dark hair.” (Crane 114 - 115). She seems to pursue men for meeting her goals of never having to lust for something material that she cannot possess. As such, in relation to Pete, Maggie’s boyfriend, Nellie manifests a matronly air, flirting with him in a confortable manner, which indicates that she developed a habit from this activity of alluring men with her charms. Thru this feminine attitude, Nellie is in control of her relationships with men, following her interests and obtaining exactly what she desires:
“The woman was familiar with all his affairs, asked him about mutual friends, and knew the amount of his salary.” (Crane 116).
At the time when Crane created this novel, the industrial revolution was rapidly evolving and with it women were aspiring for more active roles in the society, to be considered equal to men and to gain their financial independence. However, for Nellie these were not an actively followed purpose, for the women was solely interested in finding somebody to support her financially, and not for having to work herself.
Nellie’s lack of motivation of becoming an adherent of the new gender relationship current that placed the woman near the man, empowering her with somehow masculine feature, (resulted from the binary model according to which men are strong and they provide for the family and women are fable and they depend on their men for being cared and protected) was not a goal for her. She was empowered by her own femininity, and she obtained all that she wanted from men by applying her womanly charms, and men were falling right into her traditional femininity trap: “He made a great show of lavishing wealth upon the woman of brilliance and audacity.” (Crane 117).
Conclusion
While for some women gender equality represents their vital goal, being determined to pursue it with the price of their life (as Edna in “The Awakening” did, throwing herself into the sea for escaping a traditionally entrenched society), others, such as Adèle (“The Awakening”), Minnie (“Mrs. Spring Fragrance”) and Nellie (“Maggie: A Girl from the Streets”) do not need to demonstrate that they are equal to men and have no interest in fighting for this desiderate. They are empowered by their own femininity, which they manifest in their own ways: thru an exquisite motherhood love, familial devotion and thru beauty and refinement (Adèle), thru the romanticism specific to Victorian age and patriarchal society or thru sexual attractiveness, alluring the men with pure feminine charms (Nellie).
In general, the problem with this specific approach on the empowerment of women (the femininity) was that the women who followed this approach were consistently pursuing the patriarchal society, which placed the women into the domestic space, having limited interaction with the public life (although not the case of Nellie). This approach would not allow women to grow professionally or artistically. As such, for instance, Adèle did not intend to pursue her artistic gift of playing the piano, nor Minnie the one of writing poetry. This shaded their own development and limited them to pursuing material, somehow superficial goals, instead of following their professional callings. As a result, women who were strictly empowered by their femininity specific to a patriarchal society limit the development of the society, to which they can greatly contribute thru their talents and thru the expression of their identities, hidden in the embracing of a traditional society, where they can only be powerful if they allure men with their femininity, attractiveness, or their familial attachment.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York, Harvard Library. 1882. Print.
Craner, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl from the Streets. New York, Appleton. 1896. Print.
Degenhardt, Jave, Hwang. “Situating the Essential Alien: Sui Sin Far’s Depiction of Chinese – White Marriage and the Exclusionary Logic of Citizenship”. Modern Fiction Studies. Vol. 54, no. 4, 2008, pp. 654 – 688. Print.
Fra, Sui, Sin. Mrs. Spring Fragrance. United States, A. C. McClurg. 1912. Print.
Martin, Wendy. New Essays on The Awakening. New York, Cambridge University Press. 1988. Print.
Monroe, Marilyn. Quotes about Equality “Women Who Seek to Be independent with Men Lack Ambition”. Accessed on 18.11.2012 from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/equality. N.d. Web.
Pizer, Donald. The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: from Howells to London. New York, Cambridge Universtity Press. 1995. Print.
