Female Sexuality in Literature

English > Analysis
Women Studies > Culture

Examining the struggle for control over one's own sexuality, as experienced by the women in the novels by Sylvia Plath ("The Bell Jar") and Alice Munro ("Lives of Girls and Women").

1,880 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2001 Canada

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the struggle of Del and Esther to understand and assert their sexualities in a society that pressures them to repress their desires and submit to men's desires. It shows how both characters succeed in becoming actively sexual people, even though they are pressured to stay virginal until they are married, to subdue and ignore their sexual desires, and to be submissive to male sexuality.

From the Paper:

"For a young woman, coming of age and exploring her own sexuality is confusing enough without being bombarded by sexual stereotypes and gender-specific expectations. Del and Esther, the respective protagonists of Munro's Lives of Girls and Women and Plath's The Bell Jar, are two such women, who are faced with the pressure of conforming to a certain "feminine" expectation of sexual behavior (or lack thereof). As much as Del an Esther fumble their way through their first sexual experiences, they manage to take control of their sex lives by overcoming the burden they feel to resemble the image of society's sexually passive woman."

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APA Citation:

Female Sexuality in Literature (2012, January 15). Retrieved February 13, 2012, from http://www.academon.ca/Analytical-Essay-Female-Sexuality-in-Literature/25292