Sisters in Literature

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at these two works from the middle of the nineteenth century as they use the device of a pair of sisters for exploring the nature of women and expanding their audiences' understanding of women, their capacities, and the limitations placed on them by convention. The paper brings examples from the writing to illustrate this point.

From the Paper:

"As Armstrong puts it, there is deliberate cruelty in the "way in which the fruit is offered as a saleable commodity and arbitrarily withdrawn" so that "it has to be bargained for, but it belongs to a mystified economy to which both girls are inevitably subject" (Armstrong 349). The world of men is, like the invisible world of the goblins, incomprehensible to women and they are forced to accept the bargain on the terms offered by men. Laura gives in to her own desire for pleasure and accepts the terms of the goblins at face value. The seeming gift of fruit that does not have to be paid for, of course, entails a hidden cost that Laura, if she only paid attention to the example of Jeanie, should have understood. But women also lack full and explicit knowledge and thus Jeanie's example, while it is strong enough to motivate Lizzie, does not really satisfy their curiosity which is the motive that, almost as much as greed, compels Laura to go against her sister's common-sense advice."

More papers on Sisters in Literature:

• Comparison Essay # 5502 : "Feminist Ideals in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 24260 : "Nature of Women in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 71081 : "Sibling Relations in Literature"

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