Commentaire Littérature en Langue Etrangère (anglais) héros-anti-héros

This work is composed of 2 novels and a painting, theses three works present the attitude of girl in their century. First, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen published in 1813, then, East of Eden written by Jonh Steinbeck in 1952 and finally, The Young Lady with a Shiner painted by Norman Rockwell in 1953.We can include these 3 works in the following notion : The character and his/her avatars. It will question to how the behavior of girls changed and progressed in the course of time.

To begin with, I am going to introduce an heroin, in particular Pride and Prejudice's heroin : Elizabeth Benett. This woman created by the famous writer Jane Austen, shows a girl totally respectful and follow the rules, the role and the attitude that her parents gave to her and still teach to her. The society at this period was patriarchal and subded women to men wishes, like staying at home and give birth to children that she raised alone without the help of a man, because it was her role.We found this part of behavior in Elizabeth, because she is the perfect stereotype of the impeccable girl : kind, clever, pretty and want to get married. The XIX e century had a different perception of woman than the XX e century, the beginning of the rebellion against these thoughts imposed by men since their childhood. I am going to present two others characters who are considered “ society outlaw “ by their attitude. First, Cathy, East of Eden’s anti heroin appeared in 1952, presents a 16 years old girl who decided to drop out and never go again at school, she finally has an argument with her parents who don’t understand her reaction. They try to make authority on her but she is expressionless front of her parents’ reproaches. Mr and Mrs Ames are powerless front of the mysterious behavior of their daughter and don’t know how to make sens on her and how to fight against her true colours. Then, I am going to introduce Sue, from The Young Lady with a Shiner, a painting by Norman Rockwell in 1953 which is present a girl who totally looks messy and mischievous, because she has a black eye and smiling, she looks like a tomboy because she probably fought with somebody.

We can compare theses three works and see what are the differences and the common points between them. First we can observe that Elizabeth is not unrespectful to her parents whereas Cathy that is staring at the ceiling, showing that she doesn’t care about her parents’ remarks. Then, these 2 girls have a different report of marriage, one of them, Pride and Prejudice’s heroin, has on the mind to get married when she fell in love with Mr Darcy but contrary to Elizabeth, Cathy really wants to be independent of all the obligations that society imposes. Jane Austen’s main character is not violent and doesn’t want to fight with anyone whereas Sue, who fought with somebody and seems proud of her. Afterwards, The way that looks Elizabeth and Sue is completely opposed, Elizabeth is well dressed and neat contrary to Sue, her braids are disheveled and her shirt is outside to her skirt. Finally, Elizabeth replies always to people who talk to her even if she doesn’t want like Cathy who not answers at all to her parents when they asking something or just talk to her, she doesn't at them.  

To conclude, a long period was sprended since the moment of the publication of Pride and Prejudice and East of Eden and The Young Lady with a Shiner, women claim ownership her rights and fight for them, even if it is still a debate today. They take possession of their own existence and equality between them and men. During the XXe century, women rebelled to be independent, as we can see, their behavior changed to be as powerful as men.

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