Resistance Against Patriarchy: Emerging Concept of New Women in Stephanie Forward's Dreams, Visions and Realities

Abstract

The main issue of this study is to analyze the emerging concept of new women in the selected short stories "The Mandrake Venus" by George Egerton, "A White Night" by Charlotte Mew and "Dream Life and Real Life: A Little African Story" by Olive Schreiner collected in an anthology, Dreams Visions and Realities edited by Stephanie Forward. In these stories characters like Venus, Ella and Jannta resist patriarchy and appear to be New Women. The main concern of this study is to analyze how these characters resist patriarchy and how writers of these stories project them as 'New Women'. Concept of new women has been used as the theoretical tool for this study. Female power, virtue and intelligence and self-exploration are the main subject matters of stories and the characters resist patriarchy by using their self- power, virtue and intelligence. Through the characterization of Venus and Ella, Egerton and Mew project the emerging concept of new women and explore the strength of women. Likewise, Jannita, female protagonist of Schreiner's story sacrifices herself for the sake of self- recognition and searches her identity in her family as well as in her society. In this way, the study scrutinizes the three different stories written by different writers and show how the concept of new women developed during nineteenth century Europe with reinterpreting, exploring and sacrificing the feministic issues.