Representation of Gender in Books

Introduction

Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper both highly represent gender, in similar and different ways. Through research and study of these texts, it is now clear how class, race and culture relates to gender in the character's identities.

Feminism is the belief of inequality between men and women. The ways in which literature reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women is referred to as Feminist Criticism. Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism that is informed feminist theory and by the politics of feminism. It uses the ideology and principles of feminism to critique the language of literature.

Feminist theory refers to the ideas and ways of thinking about and critiquing gender inequality and discrimination. Post-structuralist feminist theory examines the way that gender operates in language.

In the 19th century, women were seen as the weaker gender. The ideal women were to support her husband and stay at home. Upon marriage, women became the property of their husband. The division of gender had the effect of keeping women in a childish state of ignorance and preventing their full development.

Race is a way of socially classifying people based on their physical appearance. It was developed during the 19th century in a way that supported colonial expansion and economic profit and activities such as the slave trade. As such, it was used to justify the treatment of non-European people.