R-E-S-P-E-C-T
- Benjamin Fearon
- Jan 10, 2019
- 3 min read
Misogyny is evident in three texts: Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and The Story of an Hour. In all of these novel a main character either is the victim of misogyny or the perpetrator.
In Death of a Salesman Happy shows misogyny to any women that he encounters. At the beginning of the book Happy is talking to Biff about a woman and he talks about them as if they are objects. “... maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can’t get rid of her.” He says this about one of the fiances of his boss, and the phrase “ruined her” makes Happy seem as if she is an inanimate object. This shows tremendous misogyny because he doesn’t even see women as close to equal. But why is this? I believe that this is because of the time in which this book took place. In the early 1900’s men and women were not seen as close to equals as they are now. It was a patriarchal society in which men dominated every aspect of life. Another reason why Happy shows no respect towards women is because of his father. Willy treats Linda with little respect and this is outlined in one of the seen later on in this book.(see below) Happy always has had a deep admiration for his father, so copying this unfortunate flaw is one of the many mistakes Happy makes in this story.
Linda: Maybe things are beginning to…
Willy: (wildly enthused, to Linda). Stop interrupting!......
Linda: He loved you!
Willy: (to Linda). Will you stop!......
Linda: Oliver always thought the highest of him…
Willy: Will you let me talk?......."
The play Hamlet also explores misogyny with the character of Hamlet, and he directs his misogynistic attack to his love interest, Ophelia. The most flagrant use of misogyny by Hamlet is when he is talking to Ophelia when she doing her father’s biding. “Get thee to a nunnery.” That’s what he says to Ophelia, this phrase has two meaning, the first one being that if Hamlet cannot marry her, he prefers her to withdraw from the world. The second meaning is that Ophelia is no better than a prostitute. Hamlet is basically saying that if she cannot be loyal to him, he does not want to associate with her. But why does he not show her any respect? I believe that similar to Death of a Salesman the time period has a large impact on the treatment of women. As society has advanced women have gotten more respect, since the play takes place around 1600’s, women were not respected at all, which made this statement more acceptable then, then it would now. Another reason for this ill treatment of Ophelia is because of Hamlet’s mother, when old Hamlet died Gertrude married Hamlet’s uncle, now Hamlet thinks that all women are weak.
The last example of misogyny is in The Story of an Hour, in which the editors of the short story changed one word in the story, which showed misogyny. In one of the lines of the book the earliest publications says: “There would be no one to for during those coming years; she would live for herself” In the original it says: “There would be no one to for her during those coming years; she would live for herself” This one small change makes a huge difference, in the earliest publication taking out the ‘her’ makes the sentence mean that she could life for someone, meaning that she had to live for someone. In the original it saying that no could live her now that her husband is dead. But why was this one word excluded? I believe that it’s because of the time it was written in like Death of a Salesman and Hamlet. Back in those days people thought that a women lived for a man in a relationship, so it would hard to accept the reverse of that.
In all three of these examples misogyny is used because of the time that the text was written, and that link all three of these texts and the reason why misogyny is involved in these books.
Interesting analysis on the three texts about misogyny. I think a definite part of all the misogyny is the time that the text was made because during those times women weren’t respected and seen as equals. I really liked your analysis on Death of a Salesman and how Happy views women as mere objects were learned from his father Willy. It never occurred to me that inheritance from your parents can also cause us to have our own views. I think that because a lot of people pass down old beliefs and traditions - good or bad - is what makes these things so hard to get rid of. Even now women aren’t 100% seen as equal as there are…
Misogyny is definitely one of the main themes of Story of an Hour. You did a great job of extending this concept to cover Hamlet and Death of a Salesman. The time period that these stories were written in has a huge impact on how the male characters treat the female characters. You mentioned that Willy sometimes treats Linda with no respect, repeatedly telling her to stop talking. The fact that the Arthur made Willy such blatant misogynist shows that he recognizes misogyny as a problem in society. For Hamlet, he felt that the two women in his life has betrayed him. His mother married his uncle, and his girlfriend suddenly stopped associating with him. Even though we can see…
Great connection of the theme of misogyny between all three of these texts. I agree with everything you have mentioned about why misogyny is depicted in all three of these texts. Firstly, the point you portrayed about how during those times, women were treated unequally than men. Back then, women were assumed to be weaker and fragile than man who were portrayed as "stronger." As you mentioned about Queen Gertrude, Hamlet insulted Gertrude by saying she is weak for marrying another man after her husband has died. Moreover, this also ties in with The Story of an Hour in which it mentions how females can only be strong and have a purpose in their life if they are with a…