Theme of Women and Marriage in Women Writers' Literature

Other than Elizabeth, Marilyn French’s work, Beyond Power: On Men, Women, and Morals suggests that Christianity emerged as a result of the patriarchal social order that men impounded on humanity several decades ago and out of this religion, women have been forced to be submissive to their husbands even when their rights are not paid attention to (French 119). One may argue that the involvement of women in literature in the 20th century began in the 18th century or before this period when women decided to fight for political, social reforms, and their economic independence. For instance, the feminist movement which started by the American feminist movement is said to have begun several decades before the Civil War. In its beginnings, feminism in America formed part of the social reform movements in the period when abolitionism was the main concern, and also involved other movements which advocated for women’s independence, socialism, prison reforms, temperance, and building of public schools.

Women writers use different approaches to discuss the theme and position of women and marriage in the society. Like other writers, early women writers were influenced by the values and ideas that emerged during their time. However, some women writers were conservatives which implies that they were half-hidden or did not express their awareness directly to the reader about the problematic issues that faced women across the world. Most women writers of the early 17th and 18th century such as Perkins Gilman and Jane Austen use different literary devices to communicate their themes to the reader. For instance, in Jane Austen and Gilman Perkins’ novels Pride and Prejudice and The Yellow Wallpaper respectively, the authors use an epistolary work of fiction which is in the form of letters in between characters (Gilman 167).

The two novels are kinds of epistolary stories in which the narrators talk to themselves. By analyzing the works of other female writers of the 19th century, several issues such as divorce and single motherhood emerge. From history, the early women writers were influenced by the ideas, facts, and values that surround women’s position in the community. In Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, the author shows how Elizabeth embarks on a journey to find love and finally ends up in a deep true love with Darcy. In her book, Jane argues is critical to the societal view because the community expects women to be married before the age of 30 and believes that a woman beyond this age is not worth for a man for marriage.

Charlotte is obsessed to getting married without any regard to matrimony but because her income is extremely little that it cannot support her lifestyle and believes that marriage is the solution to her problems (Austen 166). Also, unlike in the 17th up to the early 20th centuries where women would not be allowed to hold public offices, currently, women have contested in political posts and succeeded both in their family and leadership roles. Hence, there are greater fruits that came as a result of women writers’ involvement in literature. Throughout the works of many women authors, the dominant concern that women authors discuss is that lack of their freedom and personal independence has forced married women to over-depend on their husbands for their provisions and as a result, the authors argue that the romantic lovers ended up being vulnerable both physically and emotionally.

This is what happens in most families where women are not empowered and when women realize that their husbands do not care for them, they end up developing psychotic conditions or make daring decisions to demand a divorce. As discussed in this work, the women’s step towards fighting for their political, social, and economic freedom has bored fruits because currently, women hold crucial positions in the society, are employed in corporate worlds, and at the same time, they take care of their families. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.  WOMEN & ECONOMICS: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution: From the famous American feminist, social reformer, sociologist and the author of The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland.