Images and Roles of Women
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Images and Roles of Women
The Victorian and British Colonial Eras were a difficult and confusing time for women. Their trials and tribulations are reflected in the literature of that time. Although the three pieces of literature being discussed are not entirely about women, they shed light on the ideals of women and the standards of the authors who created these women characters. In this essay I will show how the woman in Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, A Passage to India by E.M. Forester and T.S. Eliot’s poetry, depict the ideal type of women of that era, and how the “absence” of woman is used to signify their importance.
There are four different examples of woman present in the three works (however not all examples are present in all three works), the first being the heroines. The heroines are characterized by their success in dealing with the limitations of spiritual and physical matters, eventually accepting these limitations or reconciling their differences into their lives. Mrs. Moore is the heroine of A Passage to India. She is depicted as a heroine because of a small event that does not concern her. She goes to India just to further the happiness of her children, and due to the circumstances, sacrifices the integrity of her own self. She is at first a very compassionate, with a love that extends over all creation, religion and every living thing. She lives in a world where everything is in harmony, until her perfect vision is shattered by her experience in the Macabar Caves. Eventually Mrs. Moore, after believing the world is this harmonic place realizes all the troubles of the world and how insignificant the world is. She then only troubles herself with trivial things, such as playing cards. In Major Barbara, the heroine is Major Barbara herself. She is the idealist as Michael Tan, a analyst on this story says she is, but I believe that she is a more of a heroine then the critics give her credit for. She has more typical characteristics of a heroine than does Mrs. Moore. Shaw presents Barbara as a strong-willed, compassionate young girl. She is unashamed of her salvation and willingly spreads its message. She objects to her father’s ammunition business at first, but then realizes that all religions glorify death and passivity and denial of thy self. She then begins to believe that her fathers religion is no different then her own.
The second example of woman is the socialite group. This is the group most criticized by their creators. These women have lives with no real meaning. They are devoted entirely to their outside activities and cannot think apart from the rules of the society to which they belong. They will not hesitate to criticize the women who do not adhere to society’s strict rules. Mrs. Turton in A Passage to India belongs to this socialite type. She is a cruel selfish woman because of absorption in herself and the Anglo-Indian society. She even tries to convince Mrs. Moore and Adela of her ideas about the Indians: “you’re superior to them, don’t forget that.”(42 Forester) Lady Britomart is the socialite of Major Barbara. Her socialite manner begins in the home then extends outward. She is only concerns herself with family affairs if money is involved. The criticism brought upon by
these types of woman by their author-creators seems to indicate the rules and standards of society mean nothing.
The third type of character is the idealistic type. This describes the woman who pursues something ideal which the have little knowledge about. They exclude the “real” aspects of what they are pursuing. Sooner or later they realize how inadequate their quest and their lives are, but by this point they are so committed to their ideal dream that they cannot change it. Adela is the perfect example of this type. She travels to see the “real India” to meet the “real people” of India, and to meet her “perfect husband”. Eventually Adela’s downfall comes from wanting two incompatible things: to truly understand people, yet still stick to her standards of honesty and justice. Major Barbara is the most typical of the idealist, because she is co committed to her work with the Salvation Army, she believes that this is the one and only thing for her. Her idealistic views are completely reversed and she realizes that the Salvation Army is not the only way, she ends up doing what she never thought she would, running her father’s business.
The final type of woman is the “perfect” woman. T.S. Eliot’s poetry is full of images of perfect, unreachable woman. La Figlia che Piange is the best example of his ideal images of women. He (the narrator) envisions the woman as his model. He instructs her to pose for him, to hold flowers in her arms, and to “weave the sunlight” (Eliot) in her hair. The narrator seems to admire the woman he is painting the picture of, but he does not trust her. He sees her as if a “fugitive resentment” were in her eye, and she turns away from him. The reason why she left is implied in the second stanza, most likely a misunderstanding between the two parties. Even though the woman