World Literature, 1650-Present

From the texts we read during the nineteenth- century, we can see that women in the nineteenth- century were pretty independent and were valued much more than before. Woman thought more individually and they were no longer understrapper to men. Women were also able to speak out their thoughts and stand up for their own rights. The most significant characteristic that female characters from texts of the Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov and La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats showed that these two women were courageous enough to pursue love in the nineteenth- century. The female characters had strong will to change their lives. Women before that era didn’t really have the will to change their lives and most of them followed social convention. This was a big step in history because women became more independent and started to make their own decisions.

In the Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dog, the female character dared to pursue her love even though she knows that this was against social convention. In the 19^th century, women made the choice of whom they really loved and whom they want to marry to. Anton Chekhov described how a man and a woman, who were not satisfied with their lives, fell in love with each other. The lady tells Gurov about her husband, “I was only twenty when I married him, and I was devoured by curiosity, I wanted something higher. I told myself that there must be a different kind of life I wanted to live, to live…I was burning with curiosity…” The lady was unsatisfied with her life and had a strong will to change her life. The lady was not happy with her husband because he was a flunky could not offer her a life she wanted. The lady wanted a passionate life and she is so curious about life. The lady loved Gurov so much and she pursued her love regardless of social convention. She was not fine with her life and love, so she wanted to find a better way to live. When Gurov came to see the lady, the lady said: “I’ll come to see you in Moscow. I have never been happy, I am unhappy now, and I shall never be happy- never!” The lady was not happy with her current marriage and she want to pursue the possibility of happiness.  So the lady made the decision to break the shackles of tradition and pursue her true love with Gurov.

Similarly, in the nineteenth- century, John Keats also gave us a female character who was brave enough to chase her life no matter what was her purpose. The beautiful lady knew what she wanted and she was moving to her goal. John Keats described how the beautiful lady expressed her love in the La Belle Dame sans Merci. The speaker said “She found me roots of relish sweet, and honey wild, and manna dew, and sure in language strange she said “I love thee true. ’ ”. What the beautiful lady said showed that she tried to do something to pursue her love and confess her love. Keats use “sure” in this sentence showed the lady is confident enough to confess. The lady spoke aloud her thoughts and she was not afraid of being rejected, which showed women during nineteenth- century were independent and brave.

These two texts really show the reader how independent women were during the era of the nineteenth- century and how they pursued their love. The attitudes they had were dissimilar from the attitudes women had before, and I think that was a huge step for women in history.

Prior to 19^th century and 20^th century, Male are always the superior in the society and the women were assigned as naive, fragile and weak figure that they should be beneath men. In the text, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats and “Punishment” by Rabindranath Tagore, we will examine how the attitude toward women is suggested and the characterization of women and attitude toward women changed over period of time. Also, both of the text will provide different roles of women in the society.

In ” La Belle Dame Sans Merci” seems, on the surface, to be just another Romantic poem about knights who fall in love with beautiful lady. However, if we look deep, we can see the knight that is lonely and escapes to his own world of imagination with lady Sans Merci. Start off “So haggard and so woe-begone?” (Stanza 2), we can see that knight tired and worn out and it is obviously both sick and depressed. From stanza 4, it changes of view all suddenly, that is when he starts to imagination:

“I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful – a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light.”

And we can see, through this stanza in his mind that Merci is pure and she is an angle to him with no evil spirit.

“And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend and sing a faery sing”

He can’t control himself anymore; he becomes so enraptured with this pretty fairy lady that he forgets everything else.

The only thing he wants to do is to be beside her all day long.  At the end,         “I saw their starved lips in the gloam

With horrid warning gapèd wide

It is sign try to warn him if he keep live in the imagination world of his, problems in reality is still not getting any results. That let me think of old Chinese saying “Women are the root of trouble.

“Punishment” is a heart rendering tale about conflicting emotions between the losing a brother or the wife. It all starts like this, when very hungry Dukhiram came home from work and his wife was impudently denied to give him food. From page 1694, “Where is there food? Did you give me anything to cook? Must I earn money myself to buy it?” it is a sign that Radha is resisting her husband’s command and try to fight back. Because of disobeys the order of the husband, Radha was killed by her outraged husband Dukhiram who plunged his farm knife mercilessly into her head. Then, Ramlochan came and found out that tragedy and the first thing came to Chidam’s mind was: “if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace him?” (On page 1695). It is totally brutal and unfair for women in that society. At last, because of culture background and all the respects for her father, Chandara accepted Chidam’s suggestion and admitted the murder for his brother. Till the end, Chidam wants to see Chandara, but she said something that shocked me: “To hell with him.” (On page 1699) It is a message to her husband that sacrificed her to exchange his brother’s freedom she is so disappointed to him and don’t want to see him again.

In conclusion, both of the texts that show us the different Characterizations of women and attitude toward women have changed over period of time. Also, both of the text will provide different roles of women in the society some are positivity and some are negatively.

Women of the 19 century most lived in a state little better than slavery and had no choices. Women had to obey men, because in most cases men held all the resources. On the other hand women always have been seeing as an abstract of a mystery, fairy and love. Though in works ”Punishment” by Rabindranath Tagore and ”La belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats ones can distinguish a woman who is vulnerable and is dependent on man, or a woman who is nubile and innocently seductive fairy. Keats and Tagore assign very different characteristics to the women.

Tagore wrote ”Punishment” based on his cultural experience in India. One significant aspect of the story was the role of women in the family and how they were treated by husbands. Generally, Indian culture discriminates on women. Many examples can be view right from the story. First, the wives both stayed home,clean the house, cooked. In addition, Radha looked after her son. Chandara and Radha were treated like they were not worthy, less important. In other words, husbands let them feel not valuable. An example of this when Dukiram comes home demanding food from his wife. Because it was not ready he kills in anger his “sloppy” wife. To help his brother, Chidam asked his wife Chandara to take the blame. Chandara willingly accepts the husband request to confess the crime. From this episode we can clearly see that he treated her like he was more important than her. She knew that it was no other way and she could only hide a protest inside herself. ‘In her thoughts, Chandara was saying to her husband, “I shall give my youth to the gallows instead of you. My final ties in this life will be with them.”‘ Consequently, this indicates that women back then were inferior to men and treated with no respect and had to follow what men say.

The image of a woman in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by Keats is viewed in a deferent perspective. In his ballad he sees woman as something significant and unrealistic. He falls in love with the Belle Dame instantly and is convinced that she too is in love with him; ”She looked at me as she did love”. The author describes her as “beautiful, a faery’s child”. She appears to us as a magnificent oblique. Furthermore, Keats seeking to withdraw from the duties and responsibilities of the reality into some kind of mysterious pleasure of a dream “And this is why I sojourn here”.  I think the central idea in the Keats writing was risking everything for a pleasure which can be so intoxicating. So, women by Keats shown as a beautiful fairy which can take power of a man because of his weaknesses.

Though both works ”Punishment” and ”La Belle Dame Sans Merci” assign very different characteristics to the women. In ”Punishment”, the woman is submissive, more obedient and passive and a victim of cruelty, whereas La belle Dame in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is more powerful than man because of her seductive and fairy image. Compare 19th  century to nowadays we have to take for granted that women have more rights and can speak up for themselves.

In the nineteenth-century, the ratio between women to men was 1.5:1 which meant that women outnumbered the men. What this also meant was limited chances of marriage for women. At that time, marriage was the only escape for women from a life of poverty and dependency. Their great advantage however, was that men were also behind the idea that women’s purpose in life was marriage and kids. The characterization of women in nineteenth-century literature was based on this belief, as well. In the two texts we have read- Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych” and John Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci”- the image of women was portrayed as only having one “right way” of life which was being in love, getting married and conceiving children.

In “The Death of Ivan Ilych” Leo Tolstoy creates a society that is superficial, materialistic, non-sympathetic, but still very family-oriented. His theme was to show us that the “right life” is one that consists of marriage and kids and at the time of death, one’s material belongings don’t seem to matter anymore. Since a very young age, Ivan Ilych greatly admired those of higher social standing and was willing to change his behavior and values to what they believed would bring a meaningful life. Some of those things included having a family, which did not really interest Ivan. It was only as an adult, when Ivan became very ill, that he realized how isolated he made himself become from his family and the world. The text in Leo Tolstoy’s story that best reveals Ivan’s dilemma and Tolstoy’s values is when Ivan says: “Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,” it suddenly occurred to him. “But how could that be, when I did everything properly?” The fact that Ivan is only now, on his death bed,  looking back on his life and questioning whether it was the correct way to live is showing his growing awareness to what Tolstoy actually believes is the true meaning of life.

The knight in John Keats’ story was in a very similar situation as Ivan Ilych was. The story starts by describing the knight as looking pale and alone on a hillside, being in an environment where “no birds sing” which means it is not a pleasant environment. The gloomy setting mirrors the knight’s condition of suffering and misery. This knight falls in love with a lady he meets who he describes as being beautiful like “a fairy’s child”. The knight is overpowered by the physical pleasures, which is evident as he only describes her appearance. He soon becomes so infatuated with the fairy he becomes almost blinded. The knight spends the whole day with the fairy on his horse, the fairy singing to him “a fairy’s song”. He did not understand what she was saying but his obsession made him believe that she was saying “I love thee true”. When the fairy put the knight to sleep, he had a dream, “I saw pale kings, and princes too, pale warriors, death-pale were they all.” In this part of the text, John Keats was trying to show that the knight is now like the pale, starving kings because he has gotten himself involved with an impossible love and the desire for something he cannot attain. This behavior matches that of Ivan Ilych. The fairy ends up abandoning him, and the knights refusal to let go of his superficial attitude ends up destroying his life.

In both “The Death of Ivan Ilych” and “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, Leo Tolstoy and John Keats show the difference between the ideal and real life. Both Ivan Ilych and the Knight give in to the dream of the ideal and therefore destroy their lives by giving up the fulfillment’s of the real world. Without feeling meaning, one cannot have true happiness and that is why Ivan Ilych gets ill and why the Knight feels so miserable and alone.

In the nineteenth century we have seen the emergence of dominant female characters in literature across the world. Their inclusion serves key roles in how the story is driven but also how the role of woman has changed and how they can be characterized. Women can be as integral to a story’s progression as any other character because of how diverse their roles can be. In La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats and Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekov, we see women talk on many characteristics such as that of a temptress, manipulator and someone that is unattainable.

La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats is a poem about a knight who has fallen in love with a beautiful woman only to have a dream which warns him that he has been trapped. This poem is significant in creating a view for women as being seductive, dangerous and unattainable. In this ballad, the author creates a romanticized image of women as fairies. Keats describes the woman as a beautiful faery in the meadows with long hair, light feet and wild and beautiful eyes. In essence, it is the representation of how all men would like to visualize their partners. However, women are also illustrated to be sensual and seductive temptresses where the knight has little control over his love for her. “I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;… I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long;” This woman is attractive and charming but also has the knight doing things that he would normally not do. This quote shows how Keats may be trying to represent women as casting spells on the men that they “trap”. It foreshadows the knights dream in which he is warned by authoritative figures “La belle Dame sans merci Thee hath in thrall!”” which means that the beautiful lady without mercy has you in bondage! Because the image of women as being beautiful yet dangerous, Keats chose to characterize the woman both literally and figuratively as something that is unreal. By using the image of the beautiful fairy, Keats shows us the true nature of how women that we hold to be perfect are hence portrayed as something that is unattainable.

Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekov is a short-story of Dmitry and Anna who are both married to other people and find love in Yalta. They hope to leave their previous lives behind for each other. This story also shares many of the same views of women as John Keats poem. Throughout the story, we see the progression of women being the primary driving force in the main characters life. They are characterized as seductive, dangerous and unattainable. Anna the main woman figure in the story is described as attractive “He recalled her slender, delicate neck, her fine gray eyes.” (1526) It is however, not her beauty that attracts Dmitry but her awkwardness and inexperience that hints toward an innocence that Dmitry is attracted to. As a result, Anna proved to be dangerous to Dmitry because he is trying to leave his wife, children, and work behind to be with her. Although it is unlike the way the woman in Keats poem might have purposefully been dangerous by luring the knight, Anna can be seen in such as way because their love must destroy Dmitry’s previous life. Because there is a struggle between Dmitry’s previous life and the one he wants to create with Anna, Chekov shows us that the women that we would like to have is out of reach from us.

With the rise of women as powerful figures in literature we can see that women are truly seen as driving forces. They can become anything the situation allows them to be. Woman can be seductive, they can be manipulating, but most of all they can be powerful and in control. Between just these two texts we can see how women can be both seductive yet dangerous and loving yet unattainable.

Following the 18^th century Age of Reason was the 19^th century movement of Romanticism.  During this period, writers rebelled against the strict ideas of logic and reason that were prevalent during the Enlightenment.  Lost in the quest for knowledge was the importance of human emotions.  Charles Baudelaire, a romantic writer, defined Romanticism as: “precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling.”  Also a Symbolist, Baudelaire utilized the “evocative power of words to express [these] feelings, sensations, and states of mind that lie beyond everyday awareness (Smith).  In his poem, “A Carcass”, which made its public appearance in 1857, Baudelaire uses this power to evoke discomfort as his audience reads about a female carcass.  These emotions evoked represent Baudelaire’s view of women, as well as the overall male perspective of women at the time.  Another romantic writer, Anton Chekhov, also makes comments on this perspective in his short story “The Lady with the Dog”, which was published in 1899.  Throughout this story it is evident that Chekhov recognized the intolerance women faced during his lifetime.  Although his writing is less explicit than Baudelaire’s, Chekhov’s vague storytelling insinuates his realization of this intolerance.  Through the depiction of women in their writing, both Baudelaire and Chekhov unearth the unfair treatment women faced during the 19^th century.

In Baudelaire’s “A Carcass”, the narrator (implied to be a male) depicts a woman’s dead carcass in disgusting detail to an unnamed female who is his lover.  Baudelaire’s choice of words evokes strong imagery and emotion.  His verbs especially create this disturbing imagery; the quotes on page 1,387 “Festering womb” and “flies buzzed and droned on these bowels of filth” depict how vulgarly this woman’s carcass is described.  By using such descriptive, literal imagery, Baudelaire isn’t only painting us a picture of how grotesque the carcass is; he is showing us how women were depicted during the 19^th century.  By leaving the narrator as an unnamed character, never introduced to the reader, he implies that all men (his “doubles” or “brothers”, as referred to in his poem “To The Reader”) are guilty of having this view of women.  The poem in its entirety is so over the top with vulgarity that it’s tone becomes mocking.  From the introduction to Baudelaire in The Norton Anthology of World Literature, we learn that the poem’s format is meant to mock the “Petrarchan ideals of feminine beauty” (p.1382).  “My passion, my angel [“series of conventional Petrarchan images that idealize the beloved”] in one!” (p.1387).  Not only is he mocking the Petrarchan idealization of feminine beauty, he is also mocking women in general.  The narrator, in reference to the carcass, tells his lover “– And you, in your turn, will be rotten as this; Horrible, filthy, undone” (p. 1387).  Baudelaire has doomed the narrator’s lover to the same cruel fate of the carcass.  There is no hope for her character, or other women, as they are both overgeneralized as objects of sex.  In an idealized world, she is the narrator’s “sun of [his] nature and star of [his] eyes” (p.1387); Baudelaire is saying that in reality, she’s “a lecherous whore” (p.1387).

Chekhov also depicts women in a negative light.  In contrast to Baudelaire, however, Chekhov’s writing is vague.  In a letter to A.S. Suvorin on October 27^th, 1888, Chekhov writes: “you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly.  It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist…It is the business of the judge to put the right questions, but the answers must be given by the jury according to their own lights.”  This idea that the artist only needs to state the problems – not solve them, is evident throughout the story.  On the first page of Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”, Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov shows his intolerant view of women, referring to them as “the lower race” (p.1524).   Although Dmitry has degrading views of women, in the following sentence the narrator adds commentary to Dmitry’s negative thoughts: “…without this ‘lower race’ he could not have existed a single day.  He was bored and ill-at-ease in the company of men…but felt quite at home among women…he could even be silent in their company without feeling the slightest awkwardness” (p.1524).  There are also interesting similarities between Chekhov, and the character Gurov.  In the book Chekhov’s Leading Lady by Harvey Pitcher, Chekhov is described as “Russia’s most elusive literary bachelor”, known to have multiple love affairs; Dmitry was “constantly unfaithful to [his wife]” (p.1524).  In his introduction in The Norton Anthology of World Literature we also learn that he moved to Yalta in 1899, the location the story begins in, the same year “The Lady with the Dog” was published.  Chekhov is using the contrasting voices of Gurov and the narrator to illustrate his own personal conflicts in regards to his views of women.  These voices also contradict themselves, shedding light on the hypocrite Gurov/Chekhov can be: “He became gradually immersed in Moscow life, reading with avidity three newspapers a day, while declaring he never read Moscow newspapers on principle” (p.1530).  Part of him enjoys his frivolous love life, while another longs for a deeper emotional fulfillment.  “…everything in the world is beautiful really, everything but our own thoughts and actions, when we lose sight of the higher aims of life, and of our dignity as human beings” (p.1528).

As Gurov catches a glimpse of himself on the last page of the story, he realizes how time has caught up with him, and begins pitying himself.  “Women had always believed him different from what he really was, had loved in him not himself but the man their imagination pictured him, a man they had sought for eagerly all their lives…when they discovered their mistake, they went on loving him just the same.  And not one of them had ever been happy with him…he had met one woman after another, become intimate with each, parted with each, but had never loved.  There had been all sorts of things between them, but never love” (p. 1535).  Gurov faces himself, reflecting on his life.  He seduced women through lies, never getting to show his true self, and could therefore never be loved for whom he really was.  Chekhov is admitting fault in his treatment of women, although the women who fall in love with him are not without blame either.  Earlier in the story, Gurov recalls women whose “features flitted a predatory expression, betraying a determination to wring from life more than it could give…and when Gurov had cooled to these, their beauty aroused in him nothing but repulsion, and the lace trimming on their underclothes reminded him of fish-scales” (p.1527).  These women don’t have the right intentions either: they are after Gurov not seeking love, but seeking to exploit his wealth.  These negative emotional qualities chase Gurov away, and their physical beauty that attracted Gurov wears off.  These women are also criticized for still loving him even though they’ve discovered he’s a liar.  Chekhov is pointing out how ridiculous the values and laws of attraction are.  These values and laws of attraction have had a harmful effect on love lives, and have caused grief and despair.

Baudelaire’s poem is much shorter than Chekhov’s short story.  Consequently, in order to make his point, his words are more direct.  This does not mean that they aren’t symbolic.  Instead, each line is carefully crafted to contain as much meaning as possible through words that evoke strong imagery and emotions in the reader.  These emotions and imagery are disgusting, and are meant to parallel his view of women in society.  Chekhov’s short story, although less direct with it’s message, still carries negative connotations towards women.  However, in the 42 years that have passed between these two pieces of writing, progress in the way women are characterized can be seen.  In Gurov’s short story, despite sexism still strongly apparent, there is a feeling of hope for women’s rights.  Chekhov acknowledges that there is a problem regarding the values of men and women behind attraction, and admits that the way he once treated women wasn’t right – back then he had lost “sight of the higher aims of life, and…dignity as [a] human being” (p.1528).  Only after Gurov “had he fallen in love properly” had he realized these mistakes, although now he has already been married with a child, and he has grown old.  Through their intolerant depiction of women in their writing, a topic once unspoken of and ignored can be brought to the public surface, and progress for women’s rights can be made.