Re: Charlotte's Feminism
Posted by Cassia on October 12, 1997 at 14:39:03:
In response to gaskell is indispensible..., written by greg on October 10, 1997 at 18:46:52
] ...She was still angry at the assuptions of her society until she died, IMHO. All of my suppositions are based are her published letters to Mrs Gaskell.
] ]
CB's feminism is strong. She felt the lot given to women wa too small, especially for those who had talent. But I think her rage is still greater. CB was an angry woman not just in the feminist sense but in many more. If she'd been born a little later she would be a Fabian or something akin. She finds the world she inhabits too small, rude and perhaps, a bit maliious. In a way she uses her anger to keep herself sane, safe, or both. Yet, she envied her sister Emily because Emily was angelic and ineffectual; so she must have felt the loss of softness in her own life. Puzzling woman. Then again, maybe not, if we were to look at CB in modern term she'd be the female exec who fought her way up the corporate ladder and insists on the purest silk next to her skin.
I think that is one of the question feminism fails to answer: how do you fight to get what you want all day, yet take on the part of traditional upperclass womanhood at night? Can a woman have a "man's" sucess by day without losing some ancient part of herself?
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