Final Paper

For my final paper this year I chose the generic topic of what I know now that I did not know before taking this class. When I started thinking about what I can write on, nothing stood out as a new topic in itself. After many drafts of papers I realized what I learned that I did not know before was how I liked to analyze stories. This literature class is the first one that forced me to make connections between different stories, no matter if they were told through novel, children’s book, or major motion picture. After coming to this realization, narrowing down a topic was a much less daunting task. I want to talk about stories in literature, but even more I want to talk about how the male and female roles are portrayed in literature. I skimmed through our text for the class and settled on three pieces, “To His Coy Mistress”, “ Where Are You Going And Where Have You Been”, and “Araby”. I chose these three particular stories because each role is conveyed a bit differently in each story. My focus when looking at the difference between roles is going to be on the role of the female. Being a female I have a different opinion on each feminine character.

In Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” the female takes on the role of the villain or the trickster. She is a woman living in sin, committing crimes of passion and only being selfish in doing so, yet she is spoken of so fondly? My immediate thoughts on this “mistress” after reading the poem is that this women is a misunderstood fool . Yes, she is doing something wrong as most aware mistresses are, but if it has turned into love with her “mister” is it maliciousness or foolishness that keeps her? I am going to play the devil’s advocate part and say that is ignorance that keeps her falling into the bed of a married man. Not that I am trying t make excuses for this mistress, but in this story I do not believe that she is the real trickster seeing as to our knowledge, she is not the one breaking an oath. My thought is that in this particular story, the man plays the trickster and women takes the role of the fool. She is spoken of so fondly it is almost easy for me as the reader to like her, which makes me think that the author speaks of her and to her with kindness and love and therefore is playing both sides. Some could see her as a temptress, but I know a story with a better temptress.

In “Araby” by James Joyce, our temptress takes form in a nameless beauty. Mangan’s sister plays the role of the seducing temptress without ever really knowing. The main character in Araby is a young boy with a very large crush on a friend’s sister. He claims that “ … her name is like a summons for his fools blood”. In this story the women plays a very natural role. She is simply the love interest of the hero. In the very beginning she is tempting him by simply just going along with her everyday life. The second she becomes distressed (Sophia character) our hero rushes into action. Mangan’s sister is not able to visit Araby and becomes incredibly upset; our hero catches wind of the problem s of his love and immediately saves the day. He goes to Araby late at night, he walks courageously and determined into the dark, unfamiliar streets. He only goes in search of a gift to bring Mangan’s sister and put a smile on her face. Although in the story Mangan’s sister is supposedly unaware of the boy’s large crush on her. My bet is that she is fully aware that this boy lusts for her, otherwise I don’t believe she would bring up her disappointments about missing the bazaar to a boy she has only shared a few words with in the whole time they have known each other. I am not trying to add any evil or manipulation to her character because she fills both the temptress and the Sophia role beautifully, however it is sometimes hard to think of characters in a short story in much depth compared to watching them develop in a longer story or even a novel.

A story where we got a little better chance to get to know the characters was in Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “ Where are you Going and Where Have you Been?” . The feminine character I am looking at in this story goes by the name of Connie, a fifteen year old beauty with an outgoing personality in a scary world. As Connie innocently flirts at the mall like all fifteen year old girls do, she encounters a stranger that is barely even a blip on her radar. This character is the villain and the trickster and any other scary archetype that exists. He is bad news! Being innocent and naïve Connie does not react defensively when this character reappears at her home. She is now playing the role of the sweet innocent Sophia. The true and actual dangers don’t scare Connie because of her sweet trusting nature. The day Arnold Friend came into her life was the day she should have started running for the hills. This story takes a sad turn when we realize that there is no hero to save our sweet Sophia, and Connie is whisked away to an unsettling unsure future.

In all these stories the women fit into the Sophia, the temptress, or the villain. Society has a strange outlook on the female species and we are typically stuck in those three archetypes in life as well. Some may think it is degrading that women only play the bad guy, the innocent one, or the slut. But what people fail to realize is that each of these roles posses a power that many underestimate. A women as a combination temptress and villain have incredible powers over the male hero, the female hero however will not fall for her lusty tricks. A Sophia character has the power of numbers. Not only is a hero going to want to save her but odds are, because of her sweet charm that there are many others on her side as well. Everyone wants to help the nice girl. I had a lot of fun and could make a lot of personal connections after writing this paper. It made me more confident in trusting in my own powers as a women.