EDU3234
RESEARCH PAPER
BY: SARIA LIMPOT(J38828)
Title:
Female retaliation for man’s betrayal and possessiveness as reflected in the
work of Kate Chopin in the story of an Hour, William Faulkner in the Rose for
Emily and Roald Dahl in the Lamb to Slaughter.
1.0 Introduction
To go
with my research paper, I choose 3 stories by different authors. They are Lamb
of the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, A story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Rose for
Emily by William Faulkner. In this research paper I try to look at female
retaliation for man’s betrayal and possessiveness as reflected in the work of
Kate Chopin in the story of an Hour, William Faulkner in the Rose for Emily and
Roald Dahl in the Lamb to Slaughter.
1.1 Why I choose these 3 stories
I choose the stories above for
the main characters of all the short stories are females. The antagonists of
all the stories mentioned are male. The relationships between the protagonists
and the antagonists in the stories above are lovers and also husband and wife.
The relationships touch on the man’s superiority toward female. Thus, man’s
opinion and act are more important and always the right one. My wonder is to
see why the such thing does happen.
1.2 The significant of the research chosen
Nowadays, in the modern era,
where gender equality is taken a good attention, still we can read and hear
that they are some women still under the control of man, mainly when come to
marriage part. Some husbands still have the full power to control their wives
by telling them what to do and what not to do. In Malaysia, despite there
are many programs, plans and
legislations to avoid this domestic issue, still, the number of victim keep on
increasing. To prove, I let you to see the statistics reported by the Polis
Diraja Malaysia in 2007 for two years: 2006- 3093 cases were reported as
domestic issue against women and it increased to 3264 in year 2006. In this
research, I hope that society of the
world could be able to open their mind widely to considerate and to accept the equality between female and man . By then,
no more woman becomes victim for man’s carnal desire.
Further, should female is treated
abusively or violently, they know what to do. In the past, female is the
subject to male’s act of cruelty. Female is not given space in the world as
human being who has feelings and emotions. Female’s needs was not heard and
listened by the superior one-The man. As they are inferior to the man’s
superiority, female is not given right to determine their own life. They are
given less opportunity to go out of their home such example to become worker to
earn good salary like man. For example, American woman in 19 century such
reflected in the short story of William Faulkner, Kate Chopin and Roald Dahl prove
to us that woman does the household duties such cleaning, cooking and serve
their husband submissively. They were described as often tired, oppressed and
sickly because of their duty. Poorly, as female, despite their submission,
appreciation from their pairs is hardly shown. Therefore, I hope through this
research, female will open their mind to seek for hope and strength to claim their right so they have good position in the
future.
Other significant of this
research paper is to alarm the male to be more understanding, caring and
concern on female’s need. They should know that female’s needs is not subtle to
understand and not harmless to anyone. It is also not to overthrow male’s
position in a society. What important is
that female and male could be able to work together, take decision together and
to face hardship together for they are equal in a way that they are just human
being who have feelings and emotions. By seeing this equality, male could
become more empathy to female’s
necessity.
2.0 THE
OBJECTIVES OF THIS RESEARCH
In
this research, I am interested to look at:
2.1 Female
position before men in the 19 century society which make them retaliators
2.2 Female requisitions from society
which are rejected which ignite their retaliation
2.3 How female retaliate in a desperate
situations
3.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STORIES CHOSEN.
3.1 Author 1 and his story
The
first author is William Faulkner. I select his short story, “A Rose for Emily”
which originally published in the April 30, 1930, issue of Forum. It was his
first short story published in a major magazine. A slightly revised version was
published in two collections of his short fiction, These 13 (1931) and Collected Stories (1950).
It has been published in dozens of anthologies as well. “A Rose for Emily” is
the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson. This female character is
very secretive that she hides the truth
about her father who is abusive and her true relationship with her lover which
is actually ended because her lover no longer wants her. She lives alone,
depressive and oppressed because of irresponsible act of her farther and her
lover.
3.2 Author 2 and her story
"The
Story of An Hour" is a short story by Kate Chopin. The story was published
in 1894, and it spans a one-hour span of time in the life of Mrs. Millard. She
has a heart condition, which causes her sister and her husband's friend,
Richard, to be extremely concern for they think the news may ruin her
motivation to stay alive. In other hand, the news makes her very happy for she
wants her husband’s death. The reason is that of her desire to not being
enslaved by her husband anymore. In the story, Mrs. Mallard seems to be very
oppressed because of the control and possessiveness that her husband put over
her.
3.3 Author 3 and his story
The
third author is Roald Dahl in the Lamb to the slaughter. This story is
initially rejected by The New Yoker but
then published by Collier’s in 1953. The story is about a submissive wife, Mary
Maloney to Mr. Patrick. She is pregnant of Patrick’s child and happy with it. The
situation changes when her husband tells her that he wants to leave her for
another woman he love more. For being disappointed , she kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then arranges an alibi.
4.0 Research point
Today’s
women play a vital role. Her image has changed from that of a house wife to a
useful person in almost all spheres. Women physical weakness is no longer a
barrier in getting herself established in the modern world. It is no longer
said, ‘behind every man’s success there is a women,’ but the new saying is
that, “by the side of every man there is a women trying to succeed (http://www.merinews.com/article/)
I
personally, attracted to the view above
because this is an important indicator that sometime ago female is not valued
by our society but now, in the vice versa. This can be traced through the
product of literary text written by writer some time ago. There are evidences
showing that women in the past era felt being oppressed, deprived and
controlled. Being no choices, they become dependent to men. Some women are hardly
able to go through their days. Therefore, they are forced
to act extremely harmful to the oppressor-the men. Using the three
mentioned short stories before, this research paper, will deal with feminist issues where domestic violence and abuse could drive
submissive women to act odd and
sometimes dangerous which hard to be understood by others who have not
experience the same situation.
Before
I go further to my issue, let me give you the description of the Domestic
Violence. Domestic Violence can take many
forms, such as physical battering, psychological or emotional torture, and
sexual abuse. ( Gaayathri Prabakaran)
As I mentioned
before, female has the low value to the society in the 19 century, specially
before the world war 1 that they could be said as violated persons. This
scenario happens when society has notion that man is the superior compare to
the inferior female. As a result, women are marginalized, where they are not
given opportunity to handle any important job in the government sector. Women
are confined in the walls of kitchen and
in core of taking good care of children. Men become bread earners. Other
words, there are separation in women’s and men’s roles. This scenario is
described in Roald Dahl short story. The
protagonist in the story is Mary Maloney, the wife of Mr. Patrick. She is
described a docile person. All she can do is to perform as a good and
submissive wife to her husband. She does house cores such as prepare him meal
and make sure that his clothes ironed and ready to use. Her behaviour in the beginning of the story is docile and therefore
socially acceptable. She is the willing and conscientious housewife that all
women should be. She has no choice in the matter, for the western family
structure helps to subordinate women causing them to be economically dependent.
(Bressler). The same thing happens in the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. In
Chopin’s short story, the protagonist is known as Mrs. Mallard. We are hardly
able to know the name of the female character in the story for she is a married
woman. The change of her name indicates that she has owned by someone. She no
longer able to do freely what she likes but subjected to her husband’s permission.
Men in this era believe that men
should have more personal
freedoms than women. This situation makes Mrs. Mallard’s life confined in her
husband’s house. She feels like a doll which can be taken care and be dumped
anytime. She wants freedom but she knows the consequences of her action will
not be good to her. Otherwise, she should face the society’s accusation towards
her as price of her desire. Here, we can see where the men’s superiority lies. In
the Rose for Emily, we see that Emily’s life is prisoned by the act of men in her
life. Her father never allowed Emily to go to any man of her own choice but
his. When finally she meets a man that she can accept as a lover, after her
father’s death, the man leaves her without any reason. Ultimately, she lives alone in her house with Tobe, her slave.
Consequently, loneliness becomes her. Anyway, the confinement has already been
there for Emily since her father’s days. As woman, she cannot claim anything
from a man who dumps her just like that. As a result, pain is there, in Emily’s
heart which is caused by the men’s cruelty.
So far, we can see all three female
characters in the three short stories above experience the disappointment caused
by men. I consider it as abuse where it violating the women’s right as human
being. We also can see that they cannot do anything to protect themselves from
being violated because of the gender bias by the society during the time. The
only thing they can do to retaliate toward the men’s violence is to act alone.
One of the ways is to put curse on their
husbands. Beside the curse, they automatically declare to hate their husband
which is religiously wrong. Mrs. Mallard in the story of an Hour always wants
his husband’s death in a way of wanting freedom from his possessive attitude. In
the Islam Religion as well as Christian, to put curse or to hate on someone are
considered as Sin. The such action is as equal as killing people. This is
because hatred can drive persons to act in the dangerous way such as killing
people they hate so much. As reflection to this issue, I personally hope that
there is place for them to give out their problem so they can act fairly to
their husbands. Else, if they are valued as human being they may discuss to
their husbands and work together to make their situation better.
In 19 century
also, we can see that there are series of claims that female want so much from
their society. They claim the independent values and opinion. They
also protest the double standard that said men should have more personal
freedom than women and also the equality between men and women. However, the
series of their claims are of course not heard. They are safely kept in their
mind. As a result, they become emotionally and spiritually abused. For
examples, let us see the secretive Emily who shut herself down form society,
Mrs Mallard who lost his spirit to live and Mary Maloney who depress too much
for her husband leave her. My point is, we should open our mind that the change
in their behaviour are caused by men’s
abusive manner. With that, we would be able to understand why the women in the
era act oddly toward some things. Sometimes, people accuse them as insane for
they are not understood by the society.
To trace back a history, in the late 1800's, a woman were still mostly man's property. Marriage guaranteed the man
“rights” the woman's body which often meant pregnancies which could be fatal
for the woman. Women were not allowed to be passionate about any area of study
because it was considered detrimental to the family and it was also believed
that if a woman became too educated, her uterus would become dysfunctional
(Radek, 2008). Therefore, Marriage is
not a sharing of life where women and men may work together to overcome issues
that may rise in a family. This scenario does happen to Mr. Mallad’s family.
Mrs Mallard is the property of Mr. Mallard. Being property to Mr. Mallard, Mrs
Mallard’s life has automatically buried. So, female want back their own life. To get their desire, high cost
is needed. It is the society’s negative perception that should be faced. As for
Mary Maloney, she understands of her position in her family. Being no choice,
as wife, she treats her husband well. However, because of the notion that
married women are totally the men’s
property, women have no value at all. They could be left as men’s wish. Thus,
we see how Mary is left alone even though she is pregnant which supposedly need
Patrick’s care, in the Lamb to Slaughter. The same scenario happens in the Rose
for Emily, where Emily is left alone by her lover makes her totally disturb and
become rebellious, even though she is a loyal daughter to Mr. Grierson. One of
Emily’s rebellious actions is her refusal to pay tax for town. She wants to be
freed from all types of prisons in her life.
One more thing that
apparently could be seen in the short stories that I have selected is the
change in women’s characters’ emotion where they are drawn into totally depress
caused by the dissatisfaction on men’s abusive manner. Being nowhere to go or
to express their feelings, they are forced to act dangerously as to retaliate
to men’s bad behaviour. Historically, this is a post-war era. Women movement is
strengthened to claim their right in society so they can be given the gender
equality. Women’s action against men’s bad treatment over them is more brave
and aggressive. However not all the members of the society can accept this
transformation’s process. Some still
stick to the old notion that women should abide in men’s rules. Besides, the
economics bias still unable to support their movement. Women could not be able
to earn money out of their job. Still many of their job is to do house cores. In
the Rose for Emily, Emily is described as symbol of women’s act of liberation.
She dares not to pay tax as required by authority of the town. However, being
in the process of transformation into the liberal women, they
still not strong enough to uphold their right. Men’s superiority is
still on top of people’s mind. We can see this scenario when Mary is still
dependent to her husband. After his husband’s confession of wanting to leave
her, she does not know where to go. She becomes very tension. The tension drives her to an action that she should not do
at the first place. However, she cannot accept the truth that her husband
betrays her despite of she has been very loyal and obedient wife to her
husband. Consequently, she kills her husband with leg of a lamb. She knows she
has acted brutally but she seems to be satisfied with her action. The same
thing happens in the Rose for Emily. Female’s retaliates to men’s abusive
manner. Emily cannot accept that Homer leaves her as Homer seems to be a man
where she can rely on. Unexpectedly, he tries to leave her. To retaliate, she
kills Homer. Some retaliation seems odd. There is an odd action of retaliation
in the story of an hour. Even though Mrs. Mallard wants her husband’s death,
she never plan or act aggressive to kill him. However, when she hears a news of
his husband’s death, she overthrown with joy. She even cries of a joy. People
around her never knew that his tear is the tear of joy. The similarity of the
three stories in part is that of women are more expressive and more brave to do what they think is right for
them.
In conclusion, female’s retaliation
for men’s betrayal and abusive action can be seen apparently as reflected in the three chosen short
stories mentioned above.
5.0 The importance of the research in the ESL context
1
Students
can practice English from literary text.
Scher (1976) affirms that with
students at the beginning and intermediate levels,
a teacher can use literary texts
for “language practice, reading comprehension, and possible aesthetic
appreciation” (Muyskens, 1983, p. 413). In contrast, with advanced students literary
texts may be utilized for the “development of knowledge of world literature,
practice in reading and discussing creative work, and the introduction of
literary concepts, genres, and
terminologies—e g, recognition of figures of speech, levels of meaning, and
other stylistic features” (p. 413). Moreover, students can gain insight into
literature by gaining entrance to a world familiar or unfamiliar to them due to
the cultural aspects of stories, and taking a voyage from the literary text to
their own minds to find meanings for ideas, leading to critical thinking.
With the two ideas above, we can
conclude that using literary text to teach English among students will bring
great benefit to our students. Other thing that we can conclude from the two idea
above is that both HEP and LEP students
can be taught English using literary text. However, we should be selective on
the text we are going to use. The text
supposedly should be able to improve students skills in English as well
as to educate them with suitable culture and moral values.
2. Open the gate of discussion among students, mainly
when discussion has no right
and wrong
which will promote good skills in speaking and communication.
The use
of literary text in class also can open gate to students to discuss and to
argue
things
they may find in the text. Discussion on certain issue in the literary text
could be able to enhance students’ skill in communication and speaking. For
example we can conduct a debate to make our class more interesting and lively. Debates allow students to become more proficient in speaking,
researching, reading, and writing skills, and they promote reasoning as well as
communication skills. Fact-filled and passionate debates provide the incentive
for students of all academic and socioeconomic levels to become engaged and to
participate in the debate process. In addition, debates, both formal and
informal, are a vehicle for students to express their opinions assertively in a
respectful manner on a relevant issue or topic. Classroom
debates also enable students to work cooperatively, brainstorm ideas, develop
vocabulary and read to support an opinion. By conducting research, students are
taking notes to summarize, to question, and to clarify information. Students
are identifying the main idea, deleting less important information, collapsing,
categorizing, and labeling information. Questioning allows students to explain
and to explore additional facts for clarification purposes. These comprehension
skills are essential for students to become competent readers and writers
linking debates directly to the entire curriculum. ( http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/636)
Using
literature as source to conduct a debate where there is no right and wrong
educate students on the finding evidence for their claim. The example of topic
that could be debated in class is should women be given equal right as men.
3. Improve
students’ level of proficiency.
Short
stories allow a teacher to teach the four skills to all levels of language
proficiency.Murdoch (2002) indicates that “short stories can, if selected and
exploited appropriately, provide quality text content which will greatly
enhance ELT courses for learners at
intermediate levels of proficiency” (p. 9). He explains why stories should be
used to reinforce ELT by discussing activities instructors can create such as
writing and acting out dialogues. Also,
Oster (1989) affirms that literature helps students to write more creatively
(p. 85). A teacher can create a variety of writing activities to help students
to develop their writing skills. They can ask students to write dialogues
(Murdoch, 2002, p. 9) or more complex writing activities if students have
reached a high level of language proficiency. For example, if a teacher bring
to class “The Lamb to slaughter,” they can assign the following writing such as
script writing.
4
value/lesson- equal right of women in society. In school, boys
and girls should respect to each other regardless of their gender for they are
both have potential to feel being hurt.
As we
already seen from the text, female, like male has equal feelings and emotions.
Beside to promote the good of gender equality among students, we also can
instil moral values using issue that grasped by the short stories.
In teaching the language, moral values are
also instilled in the same time. Using this short story would be able to give
them apparent description of which bad and which good. In the lamb to Slaughter
the moral implications of murder do not occur to
her, nor does the narrative point out the complex feelings one might reasonably
expect a woman to feel who has just killed her husband. On the other hand, her
feelings about being abandoned by her husband are discussed In these
short stories the moral values that can be given to students is to do treatment regardless of their gender
because both male and female have potential to feel being hurt.
Closure
In this
research paper we look at women position in the post-war era. Their position is
inferior to men’s superiority. To that, they marginalized in all type of work.
Female dissatisfied of their position in the society, especially when come to
the part of marriage.
In the
beginning, being not dare to take any action, the only thing that they can do
is to curse and to hate their husbands. However, this kind of action does not
able to solve their problem.
In this
research also I look at the women’s claim from a society. As seen in the texts
and back to trace the history, we know that women’s claims is toward gender
equality. Even though their objective is not totally achieved, there are some effort to achieve it.
Finally,
I also look at the women’s action in the desperate situation. From the text, we
know that a female can act brutally or dangerously to show their protest.
