Character Commentary:
Whilst analyzing magazine articles and reading literature, I collected some clippings that interest me most and pasted them in my journal. Oh how I love new fashion. It captivates me. I am drawn to creating unseen, untraditional looks. Dressing women in bright colors and short dresses, allowing them to express themselves and embrace their bodies: that is what excites me. I find solace not only in allowing women to express themselves physically, but intellectually as well. Pages from mathematics books and English literature supplement my lust for knowledge. I yearn to join the workforce and accomplish what society deems only possible for men. Reading arithmetic and literature allows me to expand my knowledge, an important step in furthering the education of women. I find it infuriating that society deems women only capable of ascertaining maternal and spousal capabilities. Women should learn of the mysteries and opportunities that the world has to offer, not of the confinements the household provides. My idea of life is to do what you please and have fun, being selfish is not always a bad thing. I always strive to make myself happy and do not allow the stigmas of society get to me. If I want to smoke, I shall do so, if I want to dance, I shall do so, and if I want to break boundaries in pursuit of my passions, I shall do so. Most importantly, I will never let a man decide what I can and cannot do. Men can be useful for their money and homes, but if they are not interested in my happiness, useful is all they are. Women are what the world revolves around.
Editorial Commentary:
Before the Victorian Era and the reign of Queen Elizabeth, many women were reserved and refrained from expressing themselves. Rather than occupying their own interests, they occupied the interests of their husbands and fathers, neglecting their own personal will. This period in history sparked a time where women developed and expanded on their personalities. Through mediums such as fashion and literature, women expressed their newfound personalities. Due to this flourishing wave of feminism, a new character arose in English literature: “The New Woman”. Authors “identified the struggle of the New Woman to assert herself and to employ her hitherto repressed energies to her own advantage with their own warfare against society in behalf of the right of the individual” (Wollstonecraft). The emphasis on the right of the individual is what allowed women to express their own interests. Whether it was math, writing, astronomy, or something as simple as fashion, women took this movement as an incentive to find themselves. In the third page of this commonplace book, the author expresses her interests in fashion, education, women's rights, and her own happiness. Specifically, the creation of the “New Women” in feminist literature illustrated to women that they can exist outside of men and cater to their own wants. Usually, “heroines are hardly concerned with self-fulfillment” which is why “the ‘New Woman’ did not gain sympathy until late in the Victorian period”(Wollstonecraft). Female activists of the time, such as the “new woman”, were more concerned with fulfilling and finding themselves rather than being selfless for the happiness of others. This defied the traditional role of hero in literature, persuading women to express themselves after so many years of repressing their true personalities.
Works Cited:
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Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman : “Strengthen the Female Mind by Enlarging It, and There Will Be an End to Blind Obedience.” A Word To The Wise, 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=e870sww&AN=2205893&site=eds-live.