I know I already did a post about this, but I found another good quote, and another possible hint of a different gender stereotype.
Ok, so when Edna is defying her husband, she says (in her mind) that in her past "She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us."pg. 46 & 47. So this just goes to show how serious a wife's job was back in those days.
Also notice how the author uses says "portioned out to us" at the end to describe how the people back then were born into a mold that they had to fit. They didn't really create their lives back then, they already had them cut out for them.
One other thing I wanted to mention was that Edna doesn't even thank Robert after he waits for hours and hours for her to take a bath and then sleep and then eat some food. He's seems fine after waiting for her to do some mindless things she could have done back at her own house. I think she should have thanked him for waiting but she just assumes he doesn't mind. This is where I wanted to point out that he was probably following the typical gender stereotype of a man back then: 'always go easy on the ladies, they are way weaker than you.'
Wow, I didn't even catch the "portioned out to us." That's really really interesting. Chopping Board isn't even trying to be subtle. She's practically screaming "WOMEN SHOULD BREAK FREE OF THESE MOLDS!"
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Lion did the same thing as Robert. He felt obligated to sit outside with her despite her wishes or needs. Even if he was smoking and drinking randomly... what was up with that?!
There was also the part that said that Edna did not want to go inside because she felt like she was caving into him. What do y'all think gave her the strength to stand up to them for so long? I don't think it was PURELY because of the swimming thing. (by the way... is it just me or do the songs "I Believe I Can Fly" or "You Can Fly!" (from Peter Pan) come to mind when you think about her reaction to swimming? "I CAN SWIIIM! I CAN SWIIIM!" sorry totally random...) Maybe she had finally cracked under all the pressure to be the perfect "mother-woman," and she was ready to be her own kind of woman. Or maybe the attention from HB was what got her in this mentality. Who knows....
I agree with you and think that she was defiantly doing something before her time, back then a woman's life was her children and her home, taking care of the children and cleaning the home. getting a bit off topic, It seems like Edna knows what society thinks she should do but i having a hard time doing it herself because that's not really what she wants to do, we've talked about this before but it's very strange how ignorant she is towards her children, I mean can you imagine having her as your mother, she seems very dreamy and Robert was really nice to wait for her and she just didn't care but if he hadn't she would have been insulted, it says that her class was raised when she married her husband but her behavior makes her seem very spoiled.
ReplyDeleteYes! I know I was so happy when I read that!
ReplyDeleteGo Edna!!!
ReplyDelete