Portrayal of New Woman in Selected Stories fromDream Vision and Realities
Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central Department of English
Abstract
This paper makes an attempt to analyze the issue of representation of New
woman in five selected short stories from the anthology Dream Vision and Realities
edited by Stephanie Forward. The stories are: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Drawing-Room” by Mona Caird, “The Man in the
Scented Coat” by Sarah Grand, “The Revolt of ‘Mother” by Mary E. Wilkins and
“The Storm” by Kate Chopin. The study is based on the theoretical concept of New
Woman by Henry James who used it to describe the evolution of educated,
independent and revolutionary woman in western society. As the research finds, the
writer portrays thewoman as new woman to showcase the rise of changed female
personality who no more remain under the domination of patriarchal society. Finally,
the research concludes that all stories begin with submissive woman characters and
during the progression of plotthe characters gradually change to new woman, so in
that sense all the stories focus on the process of being new woman.
Key Words: New woman, Patriarchy, Revolutionary Woman, Victorian Society,
Womanhood, Conventional
Description
Keywords
New woman, Patriarchy, Revolutionary Woman, Victorian Society