Olive Schreiner ( 1855-1920  )

 

a South African Anglophone novelist and radical feminist, was born on a missionary station in South Africa in 1855 as the ninth child of Gottlob Schreiner, a German Methodist missionary, and Rebecca Schreiner née Lyndall, the daughter of a London Congregational minister. Young Olive was raised in a strict Calvinist tradition in the remote mission stations of the Cape Colony. The family was financially unstable and Olive at fifteen left home and worked as a governess and nurse for wealthy Afrikaner families in the Cape Colony. After a crisis of faith, she became estranged from her zealously religious parents. For the next few years years she experienced sexual harassment and denigration that haunted her for a long time. Besides, in adolescence she contracted asthma that impaired her breathing for the rest of her life.

Although Olive Schreiner did not receive formal education,  Emerson. As a teenager Olive started to write her most successful novel, The Story of an African Farm. In 1880, she sent the completed manuscript to her friends, Mary and John Brown in England, asking them to find a publisher for her novel. The Browns sent the manuscript to the Edinburgh publisher David Douglas, who recommended substantial editing and alterations of the text. Schreiner sent the revised manuscript to several publishers, but they refused to publish it.Chapman and Hall, published the novel under the pseudonym Ralph Iron in 1883. The Story of an African Farm, which had 15 editions during Schreiner's lifetime, is considered South Africa's first important novel. Schreiner wrote two other novels, Undine (drafted 1874 and published posthumously in 1929), and From Man To Man; or, Perhaps Only (drafted in 1885 and published posthumously in 1929). All these novels deal mainly with the gender relations, as well as sexual, racial and class oppression.

Schreiner published her pro-Boer views in “An English South African Woman's View of the Situation” (1899), which caused embarrassment to her brother Will, then Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. She also criticised the British invasion of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and as a result, was interned for a year.

In 1911, Schreiner published Women and Labour, a plea for women's emancipation, and one of the most important feminist texts of the early twentieth century. In 1913, she decided to go Italy for medical treatment, but finally arrived in England, where she spent six years, visiting occasionally her lifelong friend, Havelock Ellis, and his wife Edith, who died in 1916. At that time she wrote passionate antiwar pamphlets. In 1920, Schreiner returned to South Africa and died of heart attack in Cape Town in December that year.

ANTOINETT   ; WIDE SARGASSO SEA

Wide sargassso sea of jean Rhys attempts to fill the blank of a fictional charecters life style. Rhys creates a biography for bertha mason. the insane wife of Edward Rochester Charlotte Bronte's  novel jane eyre
Rhys creates a prehistory for Bronte's character, tracing her development from a young solitary girl in Jamaica to a love-depraved lunatic in an English garret. By fleshing out Brontë's one-dimensional madwoman, Rhys enables us to sympathize with the mental and emotional decline of a human being. Antoinette is a far cry from the conventional female heroines of nineteenth- and even twentieth-century novels, who are often more rational and self-restrained (as is Jane Eyre herself). In Antoinette, by contrast, we see the potential dangers of a wild imagination and an acute
 sensitivity. Her restlessness and instability seem to stem, in some part, from her inability to belong to any particular community. As a white Creole, she straddles the European world of ancestorsCaribbean culture into which she is born. She Left mainly to her own devices as a child, Antoinette turns inward, finding there a world that can be both peaceful and terrifying. In the first part of the novel we witness the development of a delicate child—one who finds refuge in the closed, isolated life of the convent. Her arranged marriage distresses her, and she tries to call it off, feeling instinctively that she will be hurt. Indeed, the marriage is a mismatch of culture and custom. She and her English husband, Mr. Rochester, fail to relate to one another; and her past deeds, specifically her childhood relationship with a half-caste brother, sullies her husband's view of her. An exile within her own family, a "white cockroach" to her disdainful servants, and an oddity in the eyes of her own husband, Antoinette cannot find a peaceful place for herself. Going far beyond the pitying stance taken by Bronte, Rhys humanizes "Bertha's" tragic condition, inviting the reader to explore Antoinette's terror and anguish.

                 Bertha mason; JANE EYRE

Jane Eyre by charlotte  bront one of  the great work to english literature.Bertha mason is the protagonist of this novel, lived in jamaica as the daughter of very wealthy family. we get painful experience of her past  life not from her own perspectives; but from the hatred description of her unsatisfied husband, Edward Rochester .Bertha Mason: is she an abused wife, or just "the madwoman in the attic"?

Bertha’s family heritage is complex and puts her in a difficult position. She’s half-Creole and half-English, raised in Jamaica among the British aristocrat half of her family, and already not exactly a part of one world or the other.
She also suffers from congenital insanity . Rochester claims that she was drunken and promiscuous and that her excesses brought on her madness when she was young, but he’s not exactly an objective witness.It’s clear that she and Rochester never really got along and that they hadn’t gotten to know each other at all before they got married. In that sense, they were both screwed over by their families; they were young and silly, and neither of them really thought to slow down and thithey were young and silly, and neither of them really thought to slow down and think about things before saying their vows. As a result of all this, Bertha spends most of her adult life locked in a room—a few years in a room in Jamaica, and ten years in the attic at Thornfield. We don’t know about you, but we’d hate the person who did that to us, too.Bertha’s homicidal pyromaniac reaction, however, is admittedly a wee bit extreme. The fact that she crawls around on all fours making animalistic noises and laughing in a creepy way also suggests that the thread of her sanity has long since snapped. However, she’s still perceptive in some ways: she figures out that Rochester and Jane are going to get married, and she shows herself to Jane by destroying her wedding veil, trying, perhaps to warn her off gently, or at least signal to her that a marriage to Rochester isn’t going to work.
Oh, and she's also, um, kind of unkempt:
"And how were [Bertha's visage and features]?"
"Fearful and ghastly to me—oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face—it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!"
"Ghosts are usually pale, Jane."
Of course, Jane isn't just noting Bertha's (admittedly creepy) rolling bloodshot eyes and dramatically raised eyebrows. She's very problematically being terrified of Bertha's skin color, which is dark.

 Obviously, this has a lot of interesting implications for Bertha as a character, for Charlotte Brontë as an author, and for the "Autobiography" of Jane Eyre.

For Charlotte Brontë, Bertha seems to become a strange kind of alter-ego. Bertha is rejected by the man who was supposed to love her; Charlotte fell in love with an unattainable man (Constantin Heger). Bertha is kept prisoner in a lonely house on the English moors; Charlotte traveled a little, but spent most of her life shut up in her father’s house in Yorkshire, away from any big-city culture. Bertha is only able to show her powers to the world in what seem like insane, destructive ways; women novelists were common but their works were often considered ridiculous and their abilities inferior to those of men. The parallels are too strong to ignore, and perhaps Bertha does double-duty, both representing the restrictions that Charlotte felt and becoming Charlotte’s wish-fulfillment of breaking through those restrictions to inspire fear and awe.
 who narrates this entire novel and describes it as her "autobiography." Could Bertha represent Jane if she’s also Jane’s antagonist? Of course! We’re never more like someone than when we consider them our mortal enemy.
Think about it: Bertha is locked in a room for ten years and goes crazy "like some wild animal"; Jane is locked in the red room for five minutes and completely freaks out so that she’s "like a mad cat." Bertha sneaks around Thornfield at night to thwart Rochester’s plans of remarrying; Jane sneaks around Thornfield at night to thwart Rochester’s plans of using her to commit bigamy. Bertha’s supposed to be insane; Jane hears voices.
So here’s the thing: if Jane and Bertha are actually very similar, and if Bertha’s pyromaniac madness represents the incendiary potential of the woman writer telling her story, then it seems entirely possible that Jane could end up like Bertha, but that Jane just has the good fortune of being a little more desirable to Rochester and thus escapes Bertha’s fate.

            A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN ; REVIEW 

Virginia woolf (1882-1941) was a English author, essayist, publisher ,and writer of short stories. and she was a central figure feminist criticism .her most famous works include the novels mrs Dalloway , to the light house, and orlando .

Her book length essay A room of ones own published in 1929 The essay is generally seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by men.her famous quote " a woman  must have  and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". The title of the essay comes from Woolf's conception that, "a woman must have and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" ^.Woolf notes that women have been kept from writing because of their relative poverty, and  freedom will bring women the freedom to write. through this work she reveals that true nature of woman and  true nature of fiction.the nerrater sits on the banks of river at oxbridge pondering the question of woman and fiction. she   represents metaphorically in terms of fishing.'thought ...had let its line down in to the stream" of mind ,where it drifts in the current and waits for the tug of an idea. she scurries back to her proper place on her gravel path remarking that while" no very great harm " had been done, she had lost her "little fish"of  an idea.The essay examines whether women were capable of producing, and in fact free to produce work of the quality of  shakes pears addressing the limitations that past and present women writers facen delivering the lectures outlined in the essay, Woolf is speaking to women who have the opportunity to learn in a formal, communal setting. Woolf lets her audience know the importance of their education at the same time warning them of the precariousness of their position in society.

one part , Woolf  explained a fictional character, Judith, "Shakespeare's sister," to potrays that a woman with Shakespeare's gifts would have been denied the same opportunities to develop them because of the doors that were closed to women. Like Woolf, who stayed at home while her brothers went off to school, Judith stays at home while William goes off to school. Judith is trapped in the home: "She was as adventurous, as imaginatives. But she was not sent to school. Woolf's prose holds all the hopes of Judith Shakespeare against her brother's hopes in the first sentence, then abruptly curtails Judith's chances of fulfilling her promise with "but." While William learns, Judith is chastised by her parents should she happen to pick up a book, as she is inevitably abandoning some household chore to which she could be attending. Judith is betrothed, and when she does not want to marry, she is beaten and then shamed into marriage by her father. While Shakespeare establishes himself, Judith is trapped by the confines of the expectations of women. Judith kills herself, and her genius goes unexpressed, while Shakespeare lives on and establishes his legacy.

In the essay, Woolf  again potrays  a historical account of women writers. Woolf examines the careers of several female authors, including Aphra behn , Jane austen, the bronte sisters,  Goerge  eliot In addition to female authors, Harrison is presented in the essay only by her initials separated by long dashes, and Woolf first introduces Harrison as "the famous scholar^.

 The essay quotes  Oscar browning  through the words of his  biographer H.E wortham the impression left on his mind, after looking over any set of examination papers, was that the best woman was intellectually the inferior of the worst man.'In addition to these mentions, Woolf subtly refers to several of the most prominent intellectuals of the time, and her hybrid name from the university of oxford and the university of cambridge- oxford has become a well-known term, although she was not the first to use it.The narrator of the work is at one point identified as  mary beaton  and mary setonor Mary Carmichael", alluding to the sixteenth century ballad mary hamilton  In referencing the tale of a woman about to be hanged for existing outside of marriage and rejecting motherhood, the narrator identifies women writers such as herself as outsiders who exist in a potentially dangerous space. It is important to note that Woolf's heroine, Judith Shakespeare, dies by her own hand, after she becomes pregnant with the child of an actor. Like the woman in the Four Marys, she is pregnant and trapped in a life imposed on her. Woolf sees Judith Shakespeare, Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael, as powerless, impoverished women everywhere as threatened by the spectre of death.

Nerration

          why  my daughter is like this? 

 

Today is Ashtami day ,when young girls are worshipped as the living incarnations of Devi.a Tikka of red powder  on the girl's foreheads,the aarti ceremony is done by waving the sacred flame around their faces.all girls must do it.but my daughter badly behave and she is opposing this holy ritual.its happen as I hope,because  some days ago in a situation she was question why  the girls are suppressed like this...?.she is such a naughty girl...!today  the girls must offering to the goddess. but ....she...it is a sin .. why my child like this, how she is like that?all girls must put tikka on forehead.but she does'nt obey. it is a heritage and ritual of our community.when Naani calls her to put tikka on her for head she rejected and she asks when you people don't love girls then why do you pretend to worship them?.whtat massi is thinking about her? oh...god ..please change this attitude of my daughter

film:The day I became a Women 

Director:Marzieh mesh kini 

The day I became a women is a iranian film.The film tells three episodes and each one tells the story of three womens at a defferant  stages of her life- Involving a girl on the edge adolescence,a wife not to be ruled over by her husband and a wealthy widow who declares ''what ever I never had I will busy for myself now .These three stories told in direct and simple terms.  

The first story is about Hava,(Fatemeh cherag akhar) a girl on her ninth birthday .As a child she has played freely with her best friend , a boy.As a birthday gift Hava's parents has brought her a Chador, but on this day she must to wear the chador., the garment that protects her head and body from the sight of men. And she can no longer play with boys.Hava refuses to understand what is supposed to have suddenly happend to her life overnight.Her transition to woomenhood change her everything According to her religion ,today she is a women,and must obey societies rules.Her mother (shahrbanu) and grandmother (amenah pasand)give her a reprieve, until  noon.they put an stick on the ground and tell her that when its shadow disappears,her girlhood is over.And parents forbid to play wih her boy friend (Hassan). 

The second episode is Ahoo's(ShabnamToloui)  married life . She is taking part in a cycling race.her husband persuade her to stop cycling and come home.It begins with an image of a group of women,all cloaked from head to toe in black, furiously pedal their bycicle down a road next to the sea. a ferocious man on horseback pursues one of the women, Ahoo who is in the lead .This is a women's bycicle race ,.Husband shouts at her, at first with solicitude( she should not pedal with her bad leg)and then with threats (a bike like is "the devil's mount,",and he will divorce her)  .She pedals on as the husband is joined by other family members,who finally stop her forcibly. 

The third story is about Hoora ,(Mahram zeinal zedah) An elderly widow who has inherited a great deal of money. It is a "silent comedy" episode. As a young boy pushes a wheelchair  containing an old women Hoora , Who is alert a bird. She directs him to stories when she is buys things- a refrigerator, Tv, Tables, and chairs-and soon she is at the head of aparade of boys pushing carts filled with cunsumer goods,  She inherted a lot of money and plants to spend it while she can , on all the things she couldn't buy    while she was married . As she floats out to a waiting ship , free from the bonds of womenhood, , She is watched two of the young women from the bicycle race, and Hava, now wearing her Chador . The story concludes with a felliniesque image I will not spoil for you. 

The title of Meshkini's film refers to the first story.These three stories say a lot about female experience with in  iranian society. however images and sound are used in this film bring us closer to the realities of the women's lives.It gives us snapshots , clear cut situations involving problems that we in the west are hardly aware of it. Marzieh meshkini has chosen tree females to depict in  her film, in order to portriat of the of the life circumstances of iranian women. They are three stories of equal significance, which are not interconnected in terms of content, but whose narratives have certain points in common. 
      

          She was in tears when this little girl said what happened to                   her mom but never expected what happens

Do you like my dress?she asked me of a passing stranger."my mummy made it just for me." she said with a tear in her eye.

'' Well,  Think it's very pretty, so tell  me little one, why are you crying?"

With a quiver in her voice  the little girl answered."after mommy made me this  dress,she had to go away"."well now ,said the lady,with a little girl like you waiting for her, I'm sure she 'll be right back.
"no ma'a,m ,you don't understand,"said the child through her tears, ",my daddy said that she's up in heaven with grandfather."

Finally the women realized what the child meant,and why she was crying.kneeling down she gently cradled the child in her arms and together they cried for the mommy that was gone.then suddenly the little girl did something that the women thought was a bit strange.
she was stopped crying ,stepped back from the women and began to sing.it was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard. after the child stopped singing she explained to the laddy ,"My mommy  used to sing that song to me before she was went away,and she made me promise to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop.

As the women turned to go ,the little girl grabbed her sleeve,"lady ,can you stay just a minute?I want to show you some thing,"

Pointing to a spot on her dress,she said,"right here is where my mommy kissed my dress,and here,"pointing to another spot,"and here is another kiss,and here,and here.mommy said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would have her kisses for every boo-boo that made me cry".

  Then the realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress,no, she was looking at a mother....who knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get. so she look all the love she had for her beautiful little girl and put them into this dress,that  her child now so proudly wore.she no longer saw a little girl in a simple dress.she saw a child wrapped in her mother's love.