I lit my life

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Literature assignment:


How have the gender roles in the story, 'Martyrdom of Helena Rodrigues', reversed?
Provide analysis of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and psychological aspects of the four characters- (males)Aloysius and George versus (females) Helena and Caroline.

Physical aspects (females):

Generally, both are considered weaker than men.
Helena is has never complained and she was said to be a sweet girl.
For Caroline, she has 'twinkling eyes and an infectious chuckle' and is plump.

Physical (males):
Considered strong, burly or able-builded.
Men are suppose to be the domineering ones as they were bread-winners.
Both has secure jobs.

(i)Mental aspects(females) :
Helena: Firm in wanting her husband and son to be able to listen and do what she said.
Eg, she ' trained her husband into near perfect punctuality for meals.'
This gives impression that she seemed more domineering and wants to take control of them.
She took care of George after Aloysius' death, and made him a 'good boy' to her-considerate to his mother and thinking many ways to satisfy her.
Caroline: Wanted George to marry her, which created stress for him.

Mental aspects(males) :
Weaker than the two female characters.
Gave in to Helena when she wanted to "blackmail" Aloysius.
George was also thoughtful for the car's incident.
Listen to his mother because she did not want to disappoint her and wants to accompany her.

(ii)Emotional aspects(females) :
Helena feels lonely, therefore hopes that her only son could be obedient to him.
Yet, she still tells strongly to George that it was all right to take long bus rides home.
Caroline is cheerful, as mentioned, and she would want to spent her 'effort to laugh off George's scruples into absurdity.'

Emotional aspects(males) :
To the women, they act very considerably towards them.
But they were often guilty of what they have done which might let Helena feel unhappy about.
When Helena was skilful with words, Aloysius and George have the feeling of guilt, thus they still tried their best to cater to her needs.

(iii)Spiritual aspects(females) :
Feels lonesome and need partners to be with them.
But Helena told her son to marry Caroline and not just giving her solely of his time.

Spiritual aspects(males) :
Aloysius tried his best in giving his time to accompany her after work.
George tried to be with his mother other than Caroline and his work because he felt that his mother raised him with hardship.

(iv)Psychological aspects(females) :
Helena wants to be more dominant position in their family and could take control of the two male characters.
Caroline hopes to get George to marry her off and could also manipulate him.

Psychological aspects(males) :
In contradiction, they just hoped to make the two female happy about their lives instead of trying to be more domineering.

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