Treatment Towards Women in English Literature Essay Example

As the centuries go by,  the treatment towards women in English literature is everlastingly changing. In the mid-1800s the female population faces many difficulties regarding their treatment in romantic literature. Women in the mid-1800s faced many hardships, deserving or not, they are treated with bare disrespect and discourteousness from the men. More specifically, in the stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, and “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, disrespect of the women is portrayed widespread. During the era of the dark romanticism literature time period, respect for women was extremely scarce, and they were evidently portrayed as objects of annoyance, this causes oppression upon the women.

First, in the story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, the narrator shares the lack of respect Rip Van Winkle has for women when continuously telling about the exasperation he has toward his own wife. For example, at the beginning of the story, the narrator shares that Rip Van Winkle is ignorant towards his wife Dame Van Winkle, and doesn’t reply back to the things she says often. The narrator explains, “Morning noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of eloquence” (Irving 10). This quote shows the impertinence he has for her because typically couples are attentive and show value in one another. Initially, this shows the lack of respect that Rip Van Winkle has for Dame Van Winkle because all that is mentioned by the narrator is how annoying she was. Secondly, later in the story, when Rip Van Winkle arrives back to the town after being asleep for 20 years, he has more relief than anything, when learning of her death. The narrator pronounces, “he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle” (Irving 23). This quote entirely shows Rip Van Winkle’s lack of respect towards his wife, because even if an individual’s significant other is pestering them, generally they do not feel relief after hearing of their death. Additionally, as most would agree that Rip Van Winkle is the primary problem, some would say Dame Van Winkle is the causing factor of the disrespect. At the beginning of the story, the author writes about how he is a weak man because all his wife does is pick at him and tell how she is harsh-tempered towards him. The narrator confidently says, “A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and of so Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed” (Irving 8). This quote supports that Rip’s wife is the causing factor for the disrespect between the two, since she is constantly pointing out his flaws and putting him down. Ultimately, though, some people may believe that his wife is to blame. It is accurate that Rip Van Winkle lacks respect towards his wife through his many actions. This story, written in the dark romanticism time period, evidently shows that between his minimal care for Dame Van Winkle and relief of her death, women’s respect is not something that has value, and the fault is in Rip Van Winkle’s hands.

Next, in the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, disrespect for the women is once again shown when the narrator tells how bad Tom Walker’s relationship is with his wife, and only shows his concern for the belongings with her, and not his missing wife herself. For example, in the beginning, while the story sets the scene the narrator shows disrespect towards women, when he talks about how terrible his wife was. The author writes, “He had a wife as miserly as himself, they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other” (Irving 1). This quote alone shows the disrespect towards his wife because no one deserves to be cheated on, or verbally called miserly and terrible. It is inevitably clear that the relationship between Tom and his wife is not stable. Also, shortly after that happens Tom’s wife goes missing and his reaction towards it shows his lack of respect. Tom begins to worry, though he begins to worry over the expensive belongings that she has taken with her. Without the concern for his missing wife, the narrator says, “Tom grew uneasy for her safety, especially as he found she carried off in her apron the silver tea-pot and spoons, and every portable article of value” (Irving 3). This text shows that Tom Walker did not care about his wife, because lacking concern for your endangered wife is extremely disrespectful and Mrs. Walker deserves the bare minimum of his concern for her. Moreover, his lack of respect shows after time passes and Tom misses his valuables and goes to search for her. He finds her apron that is wrapped around the valuables but does not find her. Tom and the narrator say, “‘Let us get ahold of the property,” said he, consolingly, to himself “and we will endeavor to do without the woman”’(Irving 3). The readers are left to assume that she is dead. This shows Tom’s selfishness and greed considering he says to gather the valuables and continue on without her. Ultimately, this shows the lack of respect Tom has for her because he worries more about the valuables than his own wife. Through the course of this story “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the reader can conclude that during this time frame, women were not given respect in dark romantic literature, by the way Tom Walker’s wife was treated by her own husband. 

Finally, in the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator disrespects women by ultimately having his wife as an object to abuse. He explains that as the days continue, the more his mood declines and the more aggressive he gets, which initially results in abuse. As he describes his madness, he begins to disregard feelings for others, especially his wife. The narrator declares, “I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence” (Poe 2). In this quote, he admits that he is abusive towards her. This shows that he is guilty of being disrespectful towards women because no one is able to get away with abuse without classifying it as disrespect to the individual. Furthermore, the narrator shows disrespect towards his wife when he kills her with an ax. As the narrator goes to kill the black cat, his wife blocks him. This makes him extremely angry and then he goes after her.  He says,“..., into a rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp, and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan” (Poe 6). This evidence shows that he has no disrespect towards his wife because he gets so angry that he goes to the extreme to kill her. His anger is over-excessive, and because he chooses to lash it out on her, the reader can conclude that he is disrespectful towards women in entirety. Finally, the narrator shows disrespect towards his wife near the end of the story when the narrator explains how he disposes of her dead body. After he kills her with an ax, he decides that he is going to lock her body up in the cellar of his house. The narrator expresses, “I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the whole up as before, so that no eye could detect anything suspicious” (Poe 7). Even if killing her, in general, was not bad enough, by disrespectfully disposing of his wife, the reader can infer the author of this dark romantic literature was disrespectful towards women. Ultimately, throughout this story, the wife is the supporting detail for the disrespect shown during this time period by the awful way the narrator treats her. 

Conclusively, Through the dark romanticism literature time period, women were highly disrespected and seen as objects, which causes difficulty for the women. The reader is shown this is factual with the examples of the stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, and “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe. All three of these stories have an extreme amount of mistreatment towards women in many ways which shows that the treatment of women in dark romantic literature is extremely minimal.