The Woman's Trap (undergrad, English paper)

THE WOMAN ‘S TRAP By Silva Redigonda THE WOMAN’S TRAP Women have been raped by men, denounced by men, loved by men and hated by men. As a mouse is trapped with a little cheese, women have been trapped for centuries and sometimes the element of surprise has been just as astonishing. But a woman is not a mouse. She is human and no better or worse than any man. A woman deserves equal value in this world where ever she may live. The ideas expressed in The Second Sex depicts a patriarchal society where women are considered second to men. This essay will demonstrate how The Second Sex reveals the struggles of being a single woman, a married women and the cost of attaining independence in a patriarchal society clearly portrayed in A Woman and Artemisia. Being a single woman in a patriarchal society exposes her to the whims of men. She may be protected by men, ignored, or trampled by men. What is important is that the choice is hardly hers. The Second Sex reports that, “Men have always held the lot of woman in their hands, and they have determined what it should be, not according to her interest, but rather with regard to their own projects, their fears, and their needs.” (De Beauvoir, pg 129). The text Artemisia demonstrates this control. The narrator guides the reader to show the contrast of a father who is often away, preferring his art to his responsibilities as a father, to the man who rapes her, to a brother who loves and cares for her. Her father“… would come back late in the evening….” (Banti, pg 10) Left alone too often, the father fails in his responsibility to protect his daughter as she becomes prey, to a man who violates her, “I closed my ears to the sound of Agostino’s voice and footsteps, but our shadows had already joined together. And so once again he did what he wanted.” (Banti, pg 21). The narrator demonstrates the father’s power to influence and encourage his daughter’s art by the merest of attention, and the impact her father’s attention has to her happiness, “As he bent over she saw the laughter lines at the corners of his eyes contract, the prelude to a smile, a sign of satisfaction….he delicately softened a rather hard charcoal line in the angel’s garment.” …(that evening) “Orazio began to speak and Artemisia was so happy that the meaning of the words escaped her.” (Banti, 32). It is Francesco, Artemisia’s brother who offers his sister the constant support and love she craves. This sister considered a child in this century but not hers, “…the harmony of the gestures with which brother and sister tidy the table and extinguish the lamp is worth as much as a handclasp, a sign of gratitude. (Banti, pg 29) A Woman is similar to Artemisia as both main characters are raped (Aleramo, pg 35). In contrast to Artemisia the narrator of A Woman describes a more promising life that begins with servants in the household (Aleramo, pg 15). The narrator describes how education provided by the father for his daughter causes the mother worry, “…she didn’t approve of the education he so ardently wanted for me. She was worried for me, fearing that I would grow up devoid of emotions, fated to live only through my intellect.” (Aleramo, pg 7) Education is permitted because the father desires it. The mother considers education to belong to a man’s domain but she has no influence in a patriarch society. It is because of that patriarchy, she considers education to belong to men alone while, “she fully intends to fit her daughter into the feminine role.”(De Beauvoir, pg 281) The narrator of A Woman relates the opportunity of employment offered by her father and the encouragement of employment vice marriage to enforce his own dissatisfaction of his marriage. “I would never be happy unless I could go on working, and that furthermore all girls should do the same as me, for marriage was a mistake – father said so.” (Aleramo, pg 29) But employment is snatched away as easily as it comes because his father has control of her destiny, “Suddenly he carried out his earlier threat and instructed me not to return to the office.” (Aleramo, pg 39) The Second Sex has clearly projected the male dominance observed in A Woman and Artemisia from rape to acceptance, the man clearly has the power to control women according to his own will. The married woman in a patriarchal society has a role that defines her husband. The male is called upon for action, his vocation is to produce, fight, create, progress, to transcend himself toward the totality of the universe and the infinity of the future: but traditional marriage does not invite woman to transcend herself with him; it confines her immanence shuts her up within the circle of herself. De Beauvoir pg 448 A Woman demonstrates how a married man transcends himself successfully while his spouse feels trapped in a marriage, by the man who raped her when she was single. A woman’s descent is witnessed, as her freedom is controlled. Being independent single, let alone married was unique for certain men, “The only thing that surprised him my independence, so accustomed was he to think of women as naturally servile and submissive. (Aleramo, pg 31) The married woman feels what her place is, “My new flannel dresses constantly reminded me that I really was a married woman, a serious person, whose place in life was irrevocably fixed.”(Aleramo, pg 45) Control turns violent. The wife is suspected of adultery, without proof, “And once again I found myself on the floor. I felt him kicking me, twice, three times.” (Aleramo, pg 86). The Second Sex explains male violence, “In masculine hands logic is often a form of violence, a sly kind of tyranny…”(De Beauvoir, pg 463) Aleramo reports living a prison, “he was still jealous of me: I could move round the house in the mornings because our maid was there, but I wasn’t allowed into any room that looked on to the street. (Aleramo, pg 94). The only support this woman has is her doctor, “I felt that no one had ever been as close to me as was this gentle, depressed young man.”(Aleramo, pg82)” I was grateful for his visits. When he was there he at least brought a subdued echo of that world I thought I had finished with. (Aleramo, pg 97) A Woman clearly depicts the change a woman undergoes from being single, and responsible to her father, to being married and responsible to her husband. Her own identity is never hers. When I agreed to marry a man who had oppressed and assaulted me when I was young and unprotected, I had believed that I was obeying nature, that my destiny as a woman was forcing me to acknowledge an inability to go through life on my own. But I had not wanted this destiny to more powerful than me, and had hoped that if I accepted it as a full human being, I could make it my own. Aleramo, pg 79 Artemisia in contrast provides an alternative perspective to marriage, ““how lovely it is to belong to someone, to lose one’s identity, to become different, unrecognizable. How lovely is it?”” (Banti, pg 73) This young woman finds herself living in a bedroom shared with her husband, in the home of his family. Her exposure to the entire household is eavesdropping through a crack of her bedroom door (Banti, pg 68). Yet, the young wife feels secure in her position as she sleeps with her husband, “she contemplated this gift, this surprise, this creature that slept at her side, totally relaxed … her counterpart, her contemporary and her equal…”(Banti, pg 72). Both texts display the married heroines as being controlled and restricted to where they may wander, in their homes. A woman can live restricted for only so long before retaliating or becoming completely subdued. A test of courage in a patriarchal society is tested when a woman demands and seeks independence. The Second Sex reveals that, “Only independent work of her own can assure woman’s genuine independence.” (De Beauvoir, pg 475) In Artemisia this is proven true, “…her brother offers her a lovely apartment in Ripetta with an anteroom and salon which a Frenchman is willing to let her have in return for ten large canvases a year. “Six at the most,” she retorts...”(Banti, pg 475). Artemisia has the courage to leave the dominance of her husband’s home to live in her own apartment. She may do this because she is an Artist and therefore has a position to obtain income. This pays for her freedom. “Antonio seemed to have decided to follow her, to live with her, to obey her in short.”(Banti, pg 79) Such a step takes courage not only for a woman but for her husband as well. But a man cannot be comfortable in a position second to his wife, no matter how much he loves her in a patriarchal society. After an argument which completes her power, he leaves her, “She does not say to herself, “”He’ll be back.””She has the premonition that she has been abandoned…her mild fainting fit that was not ministered to by he whose duty it was.”(Banti, pgs 84-85) Aleramo develops a progressive independence. After writing, “a short article and send{ing} it to a paper in Rome. They published it.”(Aleramo, pg 115). She is subsequently offered a small salary to write (Aleramo, pg 119). But it is after an inheritance is provided from her uncle that independence is guaranteed. “I was to have 25,000 lire….It meant that I would acquire some financial independence. It wasn’t a large amount, but it would support my child, even if I had to work to support myself.” (Aleramo Pg 205) Both women in the texts battle a patriarchal system in their struggle for independence. In Artemisia, a man living in his wife’s house and being exposed to a woman’s independent spirit is too much for him. In a A Woman the ultimate sacrifice is the loss of son in exchange for her freedom, “All right, I could go; but not the child, he would stay.” (Aleramo, pg 212) The Second Sex has literally depicted how women are second to men in Artemisia and A Woman. Fathers control their daughters and husbands control their wives. When circumstances change for the women because of an income of their own, equality is demanded and the system is tested. There is the loss of a child for one woman because ultimately the husband has control over his child. Another loses her husband because a woman cannot be in control. Her fury cannot be understood. The struggle continues because traps are laid throughout the countries, some more evident than others. At times a woman is astonished when she finds herself in one, more often than not, she is not surprised at all. The Second Sex continues to explain. Now, what peculiarly signalizes the situation of woman is that she – a free and autonomous being like all human creatures – nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of the Other. De Beauvoir Banti cries out what marriage is to a woman, “