Hudson once said; literature is a fundamental expression of life through the medium of language. It is quite enthralling to be able to experience the reality of life through a heightened expression (of language). Literature is the foundation of life. it focuses on life of man and man’s soul in general. It expands your thinking and power of reasoning and makes you feel ‘validated’, ‘connected’ and ‘accepted’ with people all over the world. Speaking of people and their lives, gender is one of the things that comes in our minds. Deliberations on gender politics is a hot take not of the olden times but in modern day era as well. Wouldn’t it be amazing if every man exercised his/her own rights in accordance with their own will? Without any external pressure or sexual discrimination? We hope to have such society but unfortunately the gender disparity between the male and female has calcified to such an extent that even in some societies today, we experience such sorry sight. Literature shows us this very binary through its literary works. In the olden times, men and women were poles apart from each other. Men had an upper hand in the society and were granted with every best opportunity. Even the families of son bearers felt pride in having male figures in the house. However on the other hand, women were penalized in all walks of life. they were bound within the four walls of their home. The sole purpose of their lives was to learn household chores, get married, bear children and look after her husband. She was given much exposure of the practical world. As a result, men grew up to be stout and sound and women grew up to be frail and vulnerable. They were used a means of commodity. They were sexually objectified with minimum human rights to live. Even in the old English literature, they are shown as seductive beings responsible for the destruction of man and someone who lives to please and satisfy a man’s carnal pride. For instance, characters like Grendel’s mother, Thirth and Welthow in Beowulf fall a victim to the misogynic view of men (of those times). Clair A. Lees in her essay “At A Cross Roads: Old English and Feminist Criticism” throws light on the fact that “where Anglo Saxon is concerned, the lives of women we do not know are bound with men and their families. Which is why Grendels’ mother, is not given a name on her own but is associated with her son’s presence.” Another example of this can be illustrated through the example of Telemachius of odyssey. During his father’s funeral, he asks his mother to go inside and manage the house while her husband is lying dead outside. which shows that even her own children had power over her. Women were sick of this victimization. They wanted to get out from the ditch of despondency. Therefore many progressive minds from women emerged as writers and provided a polemic against the patriarchal norms through the power of pen. They wanted to be seen and respected and therefore became of voice of change. This shift of sexual perspective was seen after the literature of renaissance period. Women started emerging in fields of writing and politics. Their social and personal rights were being slowly restored. However, their main picture among the society was shown as someone submissive and oppressive. Someone derived from the chambers of her passions. Someone made to live for someone else. For instance, in Pride and Prejudice of Jane Austen, women are shown to be raised for only one purpose; marriage. Whereas, Mr. Darcy being an aristocrat and a male gets to enjoy his privileges in the society. Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is shown quite unconventional where she denounces her job as a mother and hates being a wife to Macbeth. Similarly, writers like Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson etc. portrayed women fighting for their existence and living in an urge to turn their scars into stars. All in all it can be said that literature, through its immaculate world building, has always been in an endeavor to create a safe ground for both the sexes to co exist. Moreover, every piece of literature speaks of womens' wish no to succeed men but to have a social standing of their own. They don’t wish to be like men but to be considered human and be treated in a humane way. Rabiya Mazharis a 19-year-old undergraduate student of English literature with psychology at GC University, Lahore. she is a freelance writer and a journalist at Blueblood International newspaper. Rabiya is an enthusiastic and devoted person.
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