Patirarchal Oppression On Women

Like other literary genres, drama is in a constant state, forever working to mirror humanconditions in a certain cultural surrounding, which finds a convincing proof in the progression ofthe American drama. A retrospect on the first twenty years of the20thcentury can find thatfemale writers were in a marginalized position or even invisible while male playwrightsoccupied the center stage of American drama. However, since the1930s, with the constantlychanging and intensifying roles of women in society, women playwrights have sent out animportant and contributive voice in American theatre. Their extraordinary productions signify anew thrust in the dramatic world, which earns a special concern on women. In the1960s, thesecond wave of feminism encourages much more women playwrights to have a spectacularemergence. Their literary creations highlight their female experiences and show their specialconcerns on the reality of female existence. Among them, Lillian Hellman is a prominentrepresentative to present her classic creations in which women are the main characters, whichhas influenced and invigorated the field of American drama.Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) is one of the most important American women dramatistsfrom the first half of the twentieth century. She produced many respected plays in a long periodcovering three decades from the1930s to1960s. As a woman playwright who frustrated many inher dramatic career because of her gender, Hellman necessarily gave great attention to thefeminist movement and formed her own views about it. All of these made Hellman frequentlyfocus on Southern women and their fates, which is clearly reflected in the play The Little Foxes,Hellman’s best work. The play, staged in1939, is about the story of the Hubbards family in asmall town in the South when the South was stepping out of the old agricultural era andtraditional agrarian values were going into the new industrial period.Although feminism was not yet a common current in Hellman’s time, it is evident that theissues, most of which are about women’s pursuit of power and gender equality, keep reflecting inher works. The Little Foxes best describes women’s confinement in the domestic context offamily. Circumstances of society set women up as the victims of their own gender in the play. Itpresents the greedy Hubbard family as a cage and the women in it as encaged birds. Hellmanattributes women’s subordinate positions in the families to their economic powerlessness. TheHubbard women, with no access to money, are traded in marriage by the male members, whoseselfish purpose is to acquire more wealth and power. Hellman reveals that under long-timeoppression, all of the Hubbard women bear the same longing to escape.Regina, the central female figure in the play and one of the most bold women figures in American drama, dreams to flee her family and the underdeveloped South for Chicago. Reginaknows well that, first of all, she needs money to fulfill her dream, so she determines to defeat herbrothers and gain the lion’s share in the family business, regardless of her husband’s life and herdaughter’s happiness. The history of the Hubbard family exposes that the distorted impulsebehind Regina’s money hunger is just a result of her social subordinate position and hereconomic powerlessness. A seeming winner, Regina is actually a victim of patriarchal restraint,ending up in loneliness and fear when the curtain falls.This thesis is grounded on the theoretical support of feminism, aiming to explore women’sinferior status in family and patriarchal oppression from male members in the family. Women aredeprived of inherited rights and limited their activities in the domestic scope, so they suffer fromeconomic powerlessness, dependent on men in the family. It shows the importance of money andreveals that women become victims of patriarchal oppression through the description of threefemale characters in the play. Moreover, this thesis, by analyzing the classic work of LillianHellman within the history of American drama, hopes to expose the contributions made byHellman.The thesis is composed of five parts. The introduction provides the necessary backgroundinformation of the playwright. Also it makes a brief statement of her classic play, The LittleFoxes. What’s more, it reviews the scholarly research that has already been made on her, bothabroad and at home. The first chapter begins by introducing the historical traditions and traits ofthe American South. The change of social structure after the war provides a limited living spacefor women who also suffer from patriarchal oppression. It well depicts the American women’ssituations at that time. The second chapter makes a comparison between three female charactersin The Little Foxes, depicting different attitudes to patriarchal oppression. Birdie is indulgent inalcohol and the illusion of the past and her ending is quite miserable. Regina has to sacrifice herhusband’s life and her daughter’s happiness for what she wants, suffering terrible loneliness atlast. Alexandra decides to escape from the control of patriarchy and depart from her home. Thethird chapter reveals that all the three ladies are the victims of patriarchy. They all suffer from thelonging to escape but get respective pitiful endings. Hellman attributes their tragic fates towomen’s economic powerlessness, being dependent on males. The concluding part depicts theliving state of the overall women in American society in the twentieth century by analyzing thethree female characters in The Little Foxes, and reveals that under the patriarchal ethics, societydefinitely has no place for the women who dare to deviate from conformity to social expectations.It expresses the playwright’s attitudes that tolerance isn’t always a virtue under oppression.