When She Was Good
What view of women does the Roth novel suggest? Is Lucy like any of the female characters we have studied? We made a huge leap from 1897, but has the view of women changed--or is there enough evidence in the novel to make the judgment?
posted by Dr. Battles at 9:36 AM
4 Comments:
I think that this is first novel we have read where we mainly only get Lucy's view of things. I am still really not sure how to take this novel. I can't really tell how Roth was wanting to portray her. She starts out as a strong woman, being able to stand for herself and even standing up to her father, however, later on she winds up falling into the typical female role of being a "homemaker" and starts to go crazy as we discussed in class. I think that she had more control over her circumstances than the other women we have read about but in the end she still wound up dead and lost to a man.
I think that Roth portrays women as crazy and unpredictable. Women are never happy no matter how satisfying their lives are. This is the first book that portrays a women that definately has mental issues. After finishing the book and based on what was discussed in class, she had signs of a mental illness early in her life but because of the time period, it was not recognized and she was deemd unhappy over everything instead. I don't think that there was enough evidence to support the claim that the view of women had changed but based on Lucy's behavior, one thing is certain and hasn't changed, the theory that women are evil.
The novel suggests that women are emotional, jealous, demanding, and apparently crazy. I think Lucy resembles Mrs. Bovary (not Emma) in some ways because both women are demanding and they want things done their way. Lucy is so afraid to turn into her mother that she micromanages everything her husband does. Likewise, Mrs. Bovary feels she must control her son’s life. I think Lucy (had she not gone insane) would have turned into Mrs. Bovary when her children were grown.
Since the novel is told from Lucy’s point-of-view, she seems like the normal one during most of the story, which makes it difficult to understand what Roth is trying to say about women since we don’t see how others view Lucy.
Given what I can understand about how Roth portrays women, I do not think the view of women has changed much over the years. Women are still seen as weak (mentally or physically) and emotional.
I am not sure what Roth's true feelings are about women but the novel tells me that women are not who they are first thought to be. In the beginning, as we discussed in class, Lucy was strong and independent. Later in the novel, we learned that she was anything but. I feel like Roth had been involved (at whatever levels) with women in his life and then they turned out to be something they weren't when they first got together. I guess this novel is proof that you never really know somebody.
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