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... the mills to the extent of stealing from the Bourgeoisie. It is said, "She is the character-poor, disfigured, female-who suffers the most profoundly" (Hughes 124). The void in her life can never be filled completely. When she and Hugh were placed in jail for the crime she first initiated, as an act of love, she suffered.
It is said, "Deb has both a privileged body of knowledge and a classic text of pain, in whose suffering is revealed the inexpressible divine" (Hughes 127). She was in agony everyday not because she herself was in jail but because Hugh was there and miserable. While Hugh was unable to cope with life and decides to end his suffering once and for all Deb is strong. The critic comments, "She is the only one who can bear to look such suffering in the face, in the faces of those around her, and go on" (Hughes 124). It is this aspect which in the end saves Deb. After Hugh takes his life, Deb is concerned about where he will be buried.
A Quaker woman comes to the jail cell and befriends Deb. She promises Hugh's body will be buried on the hills. This is when Deb's rebirth begins. The Quaker woman tells her it is too late for Hugh but, "thee shall begin thy life again, -- there on the hills. I came too late but not for thee, -- by God 's help, it may be" (Davis 63). This is a promise for a new life for Deb.
Her rebirth is not one of love as we have seen in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" but one through religion. As we have seen, the women in these two stories have not met societal standards whether it is due to economic status or physical deformities, yet each is able to attain a new meaning for life through rebirth. This though does not happen in every case, at times there may not be a rebirth but a death to escape the pains of society has burdened people with. The poem "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy enables readers to witness at first hand a suicide do to the destruction of self by society. The title of the poem can put the idea of perfection into the reader's head. For what is more perfect than a Barbie Doll; she is beautiful, has great features such as a small waist and big breasts, she is thin and can just about do anything.
This is where the adversity begins. The girl in the poem was living a normal life when one day in her adolescence, as she was going through puberty, a classmate told her, "You have a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy). This of course, as it would any other girl this age, was very bothersome to the girl. She was not a perfect Barbie and could not understand why. No one could see past her big nose and fat legs to see how smart and talented she was. She was even advised to exercise and diet.
This did not help, for as time went by and she began to only see a big nose and fat legs so she did the only thing she could to get past it, she killed herself. She cut off her nose and legs. She let society get the best of her. While she was in the casket with a putty nose and the mortician's make up on, only then was she recognized as pretty. To her the ends justified the means. This powerful poem is relating a message: not everyone can be a Barbie Doll, perfect all the time.
Society has placed this phony image of beauty in a plastic doll. In the poem "Barbie Doll" suicide was the main theme the author wanted to convey. In the late 1900 's women had distinct roles in society. Edna Pontellier, Kate Chopin's main character in the novel The Awakening is an abnormal reflection of the society of her time. Most women of this time were considered property of their husbands. They were expected to bear children, take care of them, and tend to the house.
Edna goes against these traditional roles. One critic says, "Chopin's characters found themselves questioning conformity and duty versus freedom and personal identity" (Green 56). She does not play into society's hands because she has the eagerness to be free of any obligations. It is said that, "Edna thinks about herself as separate from her family and society. She challenges the role society has forced upon her and courageously turns her back on it" (Green 56).
Edna does not fear any kind of consequences for her actions. She has an affair and does feel guilt or remorse because she has unconventional views about society's rules. She feels incarcerated with her role as wife and mother, "She feels oppressed by it and tries many avenues to escape from its restrictions" (Green 59). Her personal desire to break away from society leads to her down fall.
The goals Edna is striving for are difficult to reach. She wishes to be her own person rather than just a wife or mother. She pushes her limits until she exhausts herself. Her destruction is an effect of her oblique endeavor to breakout from being her husband's property, physically and financially. When she reaches the point where she can no longer go on living the hellish life that she cannot stand, she decides suicide is the answer. She turns to the ocean, which she had once been afraid of, to assist her. "Many critics feel Edna's suicide was an independent victory over society's limitations" (Green 57).
She takes her own life to escape the only life she knew for the life she could only dream about. Literature deals with many aspects of society. In the works "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" and Life in the Iron Mills, both Mabel and Deb experience a rebirth that challenged society to accept them as they accepted themselves. In the two other works which I have discussed "Barbie Doll" and The Awakening both the girl and Edna disobey society by committing the ultimate act of suicide to free themselves of the burden of society. In all the works, the main female characters denounced society's expectations in order to gain personal pleasure. Works Cited Davis, Rebecca Harding.
Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1985. Green, Suzanne D. "The Awakening. " Novels for Students. 56 - 66. Hughes, Sheila Hassell. "Between the Bodies of Knowledge there is a Great Gulf Fixed: A Liberationist Reading of Class and Gender in Life in the Iron Mills. " 1997. web quarterly / v 049 / 49. 1 hughes. html.
November 15, 1999. Lawrence, D. H. "The Horse Dealer's Daughter. " Meyers, Jeffrey. "D. H.
Lawrence and Tradition: 'The Horse Dealer's Daughter'. " Studies in Short Fiction. Ed. Gayle R. Swanson. Newberry, South Carolina: Newberry College, 1989. 346 - 351. Piercy, Marge. "Barbie Doll. "
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