Wharton and Cather: Battling the Literary Struggle of Confronting Gender Roles and the Patriarchal Construct of Society

This essay received the Wake Forest University D.A. Brown Award for Excellence in Writing.

Edith Wharton and Willa Cather are two female authors that use unique writing styles to explore the complexities of depicting the role of women and the patriarchy in literature. These authors carefully combine well composed passages and purposeful language to convey the intricacies of both male and female characters within their respective roles. In Summer, Wharton highlights the potential of a female character to challenge both the patriarchy and the male roles in her life. However, she falls back on the patriarchal power as a saving grace and diminishes her female characters potential to succeed without male influence. In contrast, Cather does a convincing job of challenging traditional gender roles in society through her writing in My Ántonia. Although there is less female submission in Cather’s characters, she does not completely ignore the importance of recognizing the influence of patriarchal ideals. Both authors take a different approach in acknowledging both acceptance and opposition of a patriarchal society. Despite these different approaches, each literary work challenges the reader to examine each text with a refined lens. Their writing encourages the importance of remaining open to evaluating the struggle between traditional and unconventional roles of women in a literary context.

Cather combines both traditional and nontraditional roles of women in the context of life on the prairie in the 1880s. During this time, the patriarchal construct of society expected women to take on the role of homemaker and caretaker while leaving fieldwork to the men. However, in Cather’s novel, there is room for an interesting exploration within Mrs. Burden’s role in relation to these expectations. There are many passages involving Mrs. Burden where she conforms to the traditional view of women and other passages where she challenges, often without conscious effort, these expectations. A consistent role of Mrs. Burden is that of a housewife and caretaker for her grandsons and husband. However, she challenges the single-dimensional aspect of this role by not only being the caring housewife but by arguably also being the head of the household. Her presence seems to demand respect without asking for it and she is not a submissive character, particularly in situations where decisions must be made or actions must be taken.

Although this analysis can be made and supported with textual evidence, it is interesting to question if Mrs. Burden is intentionally defying typical female expectations and if she would consciously support an anti-patriarchal perspective. She gives Jim approval for friends based upon if they meet her expectations and when he dances with the country girls, Mrs. Burden worries that she will be judged for raising him incorrectly. She conforms to the community view of these girls as “a menace to the social order” (Cather, 229). Her aversion for these types of girls is further evidence that Mrs. Burden may be unintentionally challenging the traditional female portrait.

The conflict between gender roles and patriarchal constructs is further evident in the relationship of Jim and Ántonia. Ántonia directly counters her expectations when she says "Oh, better I like to work out-of-doors than in a house! I not care that your grandmother say it makes me like a man. I like to be like a man" (Cather, 105). Although this is early on in the novel, Ántonia carries this mindset throughout the entirety of the novel. She continues to be a headstrong female working in the fields and providing for her family, particularly following the death of her father. As an adult, Ántonia continues this atypical role as a woman while also having a husband and children. Through Ántonia, Cather is not only criticizing the expected role of women but she is also alluding to the belief that the portrait of women does not have to be on one extreme or another. Ántonia ends up playing a housewife role while also remaining in the fields to do work and assist her family through which she creates a balance of traditional and nontraditional ideals.

In contrast, Jim Burden indirectly expresses his general expectation of women shortly after Ántonia begins working on the farm when he says that “Nowadays Tony could talk nothing but … how much she could lift and endure. She was too proud of her strength. I knew too, that Ambrosch put upon her some chores girls ought not to do…” (Cather, 96). Despite this quotation, it is important to criticize and question Jim’s assumed patriarchal mindset as he has many subtle moments where he does not conform to these ideals. The above quotation about Jim’s impression of Ántonia’s chores took place when they were both young children. At this point, he acted primarily based on the “expected” role of women through the lens of his grandmother’s beliefs (although as previously stated, her challenge to these expectations may be mostly unintentional). He expresses his distaste for these traditional perspectives with his statement that “… people saw no difference between her and the three Marys; they were all Bohemians, all ‘hired girls’”(Cather, 228). As the reader sees Jim mature and gain life experience, there is a direct contradiction with his childhood mindset of women as wives and homemakers. However, he only acts on these opinions when is older and pursues a relationship with Lena, known for her promiscuity and straightforward with her intentions to remain unmarried. Although Jim seems to prefer the traditional portrait of women in the beginning, Cather develops his mindset as he ages and gains experiences outside of his grandmother’s household.

Throughout this novel, Cather creates a complex narrative in which various characters seem to both support and oppose the traditional mindset. She creates individual growth among each character in an effort to show the difficulty for both men and women to live in a society with such distinct gender roles. Although she does not develop Ántonia into being a headstrong woman without need for a family, she develops this character in such a way that illuminates the beauty of finding balance between both roles. Cather also highlights an interesting aspect of the feminine portrait by adding intricate detail to Jim’s narrative that creates more understanding in regard to how male characters may be influenced by these societal norms.

On the other hand, Wharton draws an interesting contrast with her portraits of women and patriarchy in her novel, Summer. From the beginning, Mr. Royall’s role in the novel paints a portrait of the patriarchal dominance within his household. After taking a young girl in to save her from her abandonment, his decision to name her Charity is a patronizing choice that serves as a constant reminder that she is in debt to him. He also has a severe drinking problem which he uses as an excuse to act inappropriately towards Charity, once exclaiming "You whore-you damn-bare-headed whore, you!” (Wharton, 103). Despite this, it is from their relationship that we see Charity’s headstrong characteristics. She often mocks Mr. Royall and stands up for herself by attacking him with words and defying his attempt to dominate her. Charity also dreams of leaving town and starting a new life on her own without Mr. Royall. This dream challenges the idea that most women are complacent and do not desire more for themselves outside of their roles within the household.

 However, Charity seems to struggle with continuing her challenge of the traditional role she is expecting to assume. Her relationship with Lucius Harney is an aspect of the plot in which Cather appears to diminish the qualities of Charity that liberal feminists would applaud. Her desire for a romantic fantasy with him brings out aspects of her that the reader would not anticipate based on her relationship with Mr. Royall. Charity states that “she could imagine no reason for doing or not doing anything except for the fact that Harney wished or did not wish it. All her tossing contradictory impulses were merged in a fatalistic acceptance of his will" (Wharton, 175). This submissive view point had not been seen in Charity until she meets Harney.

Although Charity morphs into a more submissive female character through this relationship, her desire for Harney is a direct defiance of the idea that traditional women should not be sexually explicit. The reader sees this in the scene where she is outside of Harney’s bedroom. Charity’s sexual desire for Harney awakens as she spies on him from the window, “Her heart jumped and then stood still. He was there, a few feet away; and while her soul was tossing on seas of woe he had been quietly sitting at his drawing-board” (Wharton, 69). She continues to admire his physicality but is interrupted by her internal conflict when she realizes that her desire to enter his bed room “…was the thing that did happen between young men and girls, and that North Dormer ignored in public and snickered over on the sly” (Wharton, 71). Upon realizing this, she decides not to make her presence known to Harney and leaves. Although Charity wants to be sexually explicit, she leaves out of fear of the public opinion and the expectations set for her.

Throughout the novel, Wharton highlights Charity’s battle with her internal conflict between her desire for Harney and the accepted portrait of women in society. There is a moment where the reader hopes that Charity and Harney will ignore the traditional construct of their society and become married to each other. This hope is crushed once Harney deceives Charity and announces his engagement to Anabel, the picturesque woman to marry – beautiful, wealthy, intelligent, and sophisticated. Charity’s once strong-willed character soon becomes unraveled once she becomes pregnant and seems to have no choice but to accept Mr. Royall’s marriage proposal to avoid negative public opinion. At this point, Mr. Royall condescends her fragile state when he asks, “Do you know what you really want? I'll tell you. You want to be took home and took care of. And I guess that's all there is to say'" (Wharton, 271). Charity is in another state of mind and unaware of what is going on when Mr. Royall takes advantage of her situation, a scene that evokes pity from the reader.

Charity’s struggle with the portrait of women and the patriarchy could be due to her lack of a strong female force. Although she had an opportunity to rise above societal expectations and make a new life for herself, she failed to do so. Her entire life has been centered around men and her role in either pleasing them or escaping them. Once Mrs. Royall dies, she has no motherly figure to look up to. Her birth mother abandoned her and her hopeful attempt to find her was quickly destroyed once she learns about her death. Throughout the novel, Charity keeps the reader on edge with the anticipation that she will stick to her instinctive independence and successfully challenge the role of men in her life. Although Wharton highlights these opportunities, she ends the novel arguably worse than she started it – with Charity, now numb and emotionless, under the power of Mr. Royall more so than before.

Wharton and Cather are noteworthy authors to draw comparisons to in regard to their differing portraits of women and the patriarchy. Cather’s novel is arguably more successful in criticizing the traditional roles of women due to Ántonia’s success as a working mother, who does not submit to outside opinion that she should remain in the house. In contrast, Wharton does a nice job of taking the reader on a journey through Charity’s struggle of sexual desire and independence, an unfortunate battle in which she ultimately loses. Both novels also highlight other characters and their influence on these women in an effort to emphasize the intricacies of being a woman in a male-dominated society. It is also interesting to note that the goal of analyzing the patriarchy within these novels seems to be similar, yet neither author uses a female narrative. The points of this essay underline each author’s unique attempt to confront patriarchal issues from a literary standpoint. Although they are both successful in different aspects of tackling this confrontation, the question remains unanswered – how can an author build a constructive narrative that both draws in a wide audience while simultaneously criticizing an aspect of society that many are still comfortable with?

References:

Cather, Willa. “My Ántonia.” Vintage Books, 1994.

Wharton, Edith. “Summer.” Scribner, 1998.