Literary representations of women in Mill, Browning, and Wollstonecraft

¶ … Woman Question float

John Stuart Mill, Elizabeth Browning, and Mary Wollstonecraft on Sarah Ellis' "The Woman Question"

In the essay, "The Woman Question," author Sarah Ellis presented a contemplative thought on the nature of female characterization in most literary works in 19th century. Explicating her thoughts in writing, Ellis reflected on how literature had been an influential medium through which patriarchy was validated and women suppression was further reinforced. Her observation included the assertion that all women, specifically literature's female characters, were "held up in universal admiration." This admiration stemmed from the fact that female characters were often depicted not as "accomplished women, women who could solve problems, and elucidate systems of philosophy," but instead, these females were those "who have gone down to honored graves...women who were dignified with the majesty of moral greatness." Ellis' analysis led to the realization that literature had blatantly shown the continued subjugation of women -- a social order that arose from the dominance of patriarchy in the 19th century, a condition that influenced literary writers of this period.

John Stuart Mill, in his discussion of women subjugation in the essay, "The Subjection of Women," laid down the conditions in which women had developed their dependence on men. Mill asserted that while he acknowledges that women are suppressed in the society, this condition, he said, was only the result of the social conditions and behavior in which women survive everyday. He considered "the object of being attractive to men" is the "polar star of feminine education and formation of character," which reflects that while they are suppressed, women had actually been influential and instrumental in furthering their oppression -- that is, the marginalized aid in their own marginalization. Thus, due to women's continued dependence on men in order to survive in society, women inadvertently helped create the thinking that they cannot survive and live within their own means, not without the help of society, most particularly, men. Mill's discussion of male-female relations may be blatantly honest in acknowledging women oppression, but his arguments were strong in that he was able to specifically determine the factor which made women suppressed by men (that is, socio-economical dependence).