The emergence of the romantic novel in print culture at this time is caused by gradual revolt from the traditional patriarchal structure of society. By illustrating what love and romance can be like, readers are beginning to ask why they cannot have those wonderful feelings for themselves. Women are beginning to stand up to society and resist arranged marriages in hopes of finding a true love like they read about in novels.
It is surprising to me that women have any desire to search for love. In almost every single text we have read the female characters falls into a depression if not death after being mistreated by a man who they thought was in love with them. Personally, the texts scare me into wanting arranged marriages again! I admit that allowing my father to choose a husband for me would certainly take a lot of pressure off of me, but is it worth loosing the opportunity to find a soul mate? The truth is heartbreak is not the end of the world, even though it surely feels like it at times. But these texts don’t give the other side of the story. We never see the women learning from her mistakes and finding a new love that was better than the previous man. We see the heartbreak as the absolute end. By showing a more positive side to the end of relationships, perhaps women today would feel more confident in perusing the next.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
First off, yay Grey’s Anatomy!!!! I think you make a really good point about the fact that these texts are one-sided and perhaps exaggerated by the severity of the women’s ends. Maybe this was done to try to hold on to the patriarchy and the institution of arrange marriage. Maybe if they allowed for the possibility of romantic love (well at least the women were truly in love), then they could get a readership. But if they just let all the women find love and then live happily ever after, it would have overthrown the system. They had to warn the women to still be careful of the men around them. “Reader beware! Your lover is a rake!”
I love the Grey's Anatomy reference.
I agree with your points but it's also important to think that while yes, heartbreak isn't the end of the world, for these women it is because men (at least in these texts) seem to brag or at least not conceal their relations and ruin these women's lives as no man during this time would have respected them or wanted them knowing they had already been with another man. So in a sense, socially their lives are over as they don't get the chance at finding real love having already been deceived by false persuasions of love. I'd hate to live during that time, I'm sure there were so many pressures on these women and they probably never found the real love they were looking for and just settled for a "good" man to keep their reputations.
Post a Comment