Feminist Movement
The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, began in the late eighteenth century and still continues today. The first part of the feminist movement began in the western world and was mainly focused on the suffrage of woman and inequality of woman in social classes.
During the Victorian Era, many writers began to stress the inequalities of women and the suffrage of woman in literary works. Life for a woman in the Victorian Era was very strict in the roles that women could pursue. For the most part, women were teachers or caretakers and were limited by social class. Many female writers began to use literature as way to show the suffrage of women and assert independence. Among some of the most well-known writers of the Victorian era are the Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Because of the disdain for female writers as being less competent than male writers at the time, the Bronte sisters were first forced to write under male pen names (Ellis Bell=Emily Bronte, Acton Bell=Anne Bronte, Currer Bell=Charlotte Bronte).
The novels of the Bronte sisters focused on the struggles and faced by women due to social class and expectations during the time period. The Bronte sisters used their writing as a way to gain independence in a world that did not allow women to be independent. Emily wrote a single novel, Wuthering Heights, while Charlotte and Anne went on to publish several novels.
The Bronte sisters were only a few of the writers of the Victorian era that had feminist tendencies included in literature. Elizabeth Gaskell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were also among females writers to include feminist views in writings. Browning criticizes the role of women in one passage of writing in Aurora Leigh:
The works of women are symbolical
We sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,
Producing what? A pair of slippers, sir,
To put on when you're weary--or a stool
To tumble over and vex you..."curse that stool!"
Or else, at best, a cushion where you lean
And sleep, and dream of something we are not,
But would be for your sake. Alas, alas!
This hurts most, this...that, after all, we are paid
The worth of our work, perhaps(15).
For female writers during the Victorian era, writing was a way to gain independence in a world that held women back. Literature from the Victorian time period gives insight into what trials and tribulations women went through.
During the Victorian Era, many writers began to stress the inequalities of women and the suffrage of woman in literary works. Life for a woman in the Victorian Era was very strict in the roles that women could pursue. For the most part, women were teachers or caretakers and were limited by social class. Many female writers began to use literature as way to show the suffrage of women and assert independence. Among some of the most well-known writers of the Victorian era are the Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Because of the disdain for female writers as being less competent than male writers at the time, the Bronte sisters were first forced to write under male pen names (Ellis Bell=Emily Bronte, Acton Bell=Anne Bronte, Currer Bell=Charlotte Bronte).
The novels of the Bronte sisters focused on the struggles and faced by women due to social class and expectations during the time period. The Bronte sisters used their writing as a way to gain independence in a world that did not allow women to be independent. Emily wrote a single novel, Wuthering Heights, while Charlotte and Anne went on to publish several novels.
The Bronte sisters were only a few of the writers of the Victorian era that had feminist tendencies included in literature. Elizabeth Gaskell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were also among females writers to include feminist views in writings. Browning criticizes the role of women in one passage of writing in Aurora Leigh:
The works of women are symbolical
We sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,
Producing what? A pair of slippers, sir,
To put on when you're weary--or a stool
To tumble over and vex you..."curse that stool!"
Or else, at best, a cushion where you lean
And sleep, and dream of something we are not,
But would be for your sake. Alas, alas!
This hurts most, this...that, after all, we are paid
The worth of our work, perhaps(15).
For female writers during the Victorian era, writing was a way to gain independence in a world that held women back. Literature from the Victorian time period gives insight into what trials and tribulations women went through.