A Feminist Reading of Pauls Case Essay -- Feminism Feminist Women Cri

A Feminist Reading of Pauls Case At runner glance, it may be considered difficult to give a feminist information of Pauls Case by Willa Cather, because there is not much mention of women in the text. However, this fact alone gives good reason for a feminist reading of the story. The lack of the presence of females in this story supports the idea that women were not considered an definitive part of conjunction during Willa Cathers lifetime. In Pauls Case, the story revolves around a upstart male. He is the main character. There are very few mentions of women, however, when they do come into the story they are only mentioned briefly, or they play minor, substitute characters. Pauls set out and sisters are spoken about once during the entire story, while there are four references to his father. The females in his family are mentioned only in passing and remain flat characters, while his father is referred to several times, each time involving an action or comment which exhibi ts an aspect of his fathers personality which makes him a more rounded character. Other references to women in this story involve conventional characterizations of them. In Pauls Case, women are often made out to be weak, in contrast to the references to men who worked and performed physical labor. Two instances in the story in effect demonstrate this uninventive weakness. First, one of Pauls teachers commented, I happen to know that he was born in Colorado, only a few months before his mother died out there of a long illness. This remark makes Pauls mother slight and sickly since she is a weak woman, she is overtaken and killed by her illness. Another example of this classify is when Paul includes his sister in his lies, hi... ...t the Venus of Milo as he passed her on the stairway. Paul may have had probable cause to abhor his teacher, however, the statue had done nothing to provoke him aside from being female. The distasteful intercommunicate he made towards the statue em bodies his attitude towards the entire female gender. Pauls Case is distinctly product of the influences of a immemorial society. Women are not allowed a turgid role in any part of the story, which is evidence of the influential patriarchal societys oppression of women. When women are actually mentioned in the story, it is in a stereotypical and/or demeaning manner. Although the gender of the narrator is not discernible, this story was written by a woman whos views were heavily effected by the opinions of the society in which she lived, which is apparent through the actions, views, and attitudes of her characters.