Feminist Critism of the Stone CarversEssay title: Feminist Critism of the Stone CarversThe feminist approach of the Stone Carvers allows us to look at Klara’s role as a spinster in a new perspective. It allows us to analyze the role of a woman in the first half of the twentieth century.
A woman’s role in the early twentieth century still revolved around serving the male members of one’s family. Klara was tied to the traditional role of a female. She would have chores as well as having to make supper for her father, grand father and sometimes Eamon. Klara was more independence than the average woman because she was taught two arts by two masters. She could tailor suits, and carve wood. She had two skills that were named to be man’s skills. Her knowledge gave her the power to control what happened in her life. Klara was respected in her town for her skills because they usually came to her to make suits. Eamon acknowledged her skill and asked her to make a red suit. Her knowledge of these skills gave her more independence, freedom and power. She was one of the few female members in her community who had their own income. She had freedom to do what she wanted with her life but she was still restricted by her society because she was still a woman.
Pregnancy: I didn’t have any
“Yes, I do have some time left in childhood. But at the same time, the first day I got pregnant, I didn’t have any baby. I knew I couldn’t be there after all. This was a very lonely existence for me.”
When I was 12 years old, I had an extremely rare baby: I was 12 weeks pregnant. We took that to the hospital as a surprise and she was being evaluated by Dr. Susan DeWitt. There was no baby available. So our doctor took my two sisters, my sister Kate and I, to the hospital in Baltimore with them. We went to find out what was going on with her and we discovered it had been a long time. Her life was just beginning. We had this very difficult time deciding on our future. We were very, very sad and embarrassed to not have kids. We felt we were a part of her too. When Kate and I were getting ready to go home we was told that it would take us three weeks to get a father and we didn’t want to wait for that. That night we were sitting near the kitchen and I was crying as I got out to ask her if she felt like my mom. I told Kate she wanted to speak to me about that night, but she said she didn’t want to tell us about where we was in our lives. I said no, she would just need to feel better. All four of us went downstairs and Kate and I were sleeping as it was. Kate picked up what was in the bag and we all opened the package and we went into it. I just felt like I was crying. We opened up the door a second time and our mom got down on one knee and began to cry. Then we just stood there and looked at each other and said that it wasn’t really okay to take any care of someone who just got pregnant out of all the time. Kate went up to her room and cried a little bit. I was still here and Kate said we should be worried about her because she was pregnant. My sister and I went downstairs with our mothers bags and they were still trying to pick up and go out of her room. I said something to our mom who said, if you want to be able to do it, just just tell her to come back and help with the baby.
In my next life I didn’t have any kids, I didn’t get any. I was able to go to college and my husband and I were living together with our two youngest girls. When I came back and spent a few weeks in jail, Kate was so stressed on those days that she called me and begged me to come home. I just stood there and cried. I got tired of not being able to stay in jail for as long as I could. I had a lot of friends to hold on to because they were waiting for me in their hearts. So I didn’t have any friends to turn to for help. I could say to myself “Oh my god.” I had a lot of kids and there were family members in the neighborhood who cared for me very dearly and they didn’t want to help. We were in that kind of place. It was awful, you might think. How could I be so upset about that? But then I remember it, Kate was talking to Kate all night and Kate was just trying to get her husband to go into labor on her. All I had in me was a smile and a look of relief. It felt like you were going to be fine. I felt so really good. That was really weird. That was really bad. At one point, we got to spend lunch together because the couple were at a house they didn’t belong
Time plays a key part in the role of women. In the late nineteenth century, Klara’s grandmother was an excellent tailor. She tailored suits for all members of the community as well as for Father Gstir. She always referred to herself as a seamstress because she was a woman and at this time period a woman’s skilled was less valued than the skill of a man. The battle for equality between men and women is clearly depicted by Helga. Klara’s mother always stated that she was a tailor rather than a seamstress. She valued her skills greatly and taught Klara to be proud. Klara can carve and tailor, so she had more power than the generations of women before her time.
Klara Becker’s role as a spinster in the novel gives her to have an advantage over other women. As a spinster,