'Study Sources B and C. Does Source B support the evidence of Source C about the Suffragette campaign? Explain your answer.'

‘Study Sources B and C. Does Source B support the evidence of Source C about the Suffragette campaign? Explain your answer.’

Source B supports the evidence of source C about the suffragette campaign as both of them do not agree on women’s voting. Like for example, Source B, an extract from a book by Marie Corelli talks about how ‘women were and are destined to make voters rather than to be voters themselves’ i.e. Corelli is against the fact that women should be voting and thinks that instead they are responsible for making their sons good voters rather than become voters them selves. She preserves the seriousness of her argument and shows that she does not have anything against the Suffragists and Suffragettes and understands why they act the way they do, as she says that ‘It cannot be denied that women suffer great injustice at the hands of men.’ And she goes on to saying that women suffer by their own hands, and that ‘this is a result of the way in which mothers have reared their sons and still continue to rear them.’ i.e. they don’t still learn what their mistakes are, and still continue with them. Therefore they make themselves suffer. Also, Corelli, in the title of her book ‘Woman or Suffragette’, divides Suffragette and woman as if they were to be two different things. She is probably hinting that, Suffragettes don’t act the way women are meant to act in the eyes of society, as delicate, silent (not have a freedom of speech), Angelic and obedient.

As for Source C, a cartoon drawing by Bernard Partridge, even though it agrees with the message Source B puts across, Partridge puts his message across in a more different and mocking way. Firstly, it looses its seriousness, for being a cartoon and secondly, it agrees in a more secretive way, as for Corelli, she presents her views in a more blatant and obvious way.

Partridge pretends to be in the Suffragists side, against the Suffragettes by stirring in between them, and masking his views. For example calling the Suffragist a ‘sensible woman’, and calling the Suffragette a ‘Shrieking Sister’. As for when the ‘sensible woman, says’: ‘YOU help or cause? Why, you’re its worst enemy!’ Partridge is probably trying to create a brawl between the two groups.

In the cartoon the suffragist is dressed up finer than the Suffragette, as she is adorned in fur, a flowered hat and a veil over her face, giving us an idea of the types of women who asked for a vote in those times, mostly being the Second class.

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As for the Suffragette’s clothing, it is all tattered and she is shown to be an old lady, raising her hands and arms, with an unsatisfied impression on her face, that could be symbolising what Partridge thinks of the Suffragettes and what type of character he thinks the Suffragettes might have for using violent ways, for example, old ladies reaching their dotage, being Imbecile and always grumbling, and never satisfied, as for the Suffragist a young lady, fighting for her rights in a more mature and noble way. Under all this we know that he, (Bernard Partridge) is doing this just to create a tussle between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes, and of what they think of each other. Suffragists thinking that Suffragettes do not help, but instead they cause and are the reason why the women cant get the vote, due to their violent methods. And so, Partridge probably assuming that the Suffragettes will not accept the way the Suffragists see their ‘sisters’ and so a fight will develop.

There are many similarities between the two sources. For example, in Source B, it mentions that the Suffragettes are ‘a number of discontented ladies’ and in Source C the old lady, portrayed as a Suffragette, also has a discontented impression on her face, and the fact that she is old makes it more obvious that she is discontented, as when old ladies have reached their dotage, they tend to be more grumpy, unsatisfied, miserable and wicked, loosing their patience and the fragile, Angelic look about them.

Marie Corelli, like Bernard Partridge, in Source B, could in fact be setting a fight between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes, as she does not recognise the Suffragists and just refers to them as one whole, the ‘Suffragettes’. This is shown in the title of her book, ‘Woman or Suffragette’ as she does not mention Suffragists in her title, or in the extract of her book. It cannot be that she is only talking about the Suffragettes in her book, as she disagrees with the idea of women voting in the first place. This could create tension between the two groups, as the Suffragists could say they are not recognised and are put into the same category as the Suffragettes, who are remembered for the violent methods and ways they use.

Another similarity is that, Source C uses ‘THE SHRIEKING SISTER’ to describe a Suffragette and Source B uses ‘shrill cry’. These both mostly describe the way in which the Suffragettes protest with violence against the sexist society.

The reason why, both sources labelled the Suffragettes with the word ‘Shrieking’ or ‘Shrill’, is because it is the opposite of what a woman should have been like in those days, describing them as to being loud, disobedient and wicked. The title of the book ‘Woman or Suffragette’ by Marie Corelli from Source B is probably because of this, as Source C also has something similar to that, as Partridge shows the Suffragette as being a Lunatic, and cuts the line between a Suffragette and a woman.

However, there are also some differences between the two sources too. As Source B is an extract from a book by a woman named Marie Corelli, while the Source C is a Cartoon drawing, by a man named Bernard Partridge. This makes Source B more serious than Source C as she explains her views, and shows that she can look on both sides, rather than just being biased, and that she can even see why the Suffragettes act the way they do, as she says that they ‘suffer great injustice at the hands of men.’

She also explains on why she is against women’s voting, as she says ‘that Women were and are destined to make voters rather than to be voters themselves.’ But as for Source C, it lacks all of this as it is a cartoon, and can not do more and explain its views but to just put them across.

The fact that Corelli uses a capital letter at the start of the word women in the middle of her sentence, ‘But the truth is that Women were and are destined to make voters…’ probably shows the importance she gives to women, even though she doesn’t think they deserve the vote. The fact that Corelli is a woman herself too, can also add to those reasons. As for Partridge, he does not use a capital letter in the middle of his sentence for the word woman, for example, ‘the sensible woman says…’ this could be because the cartoonist is a man.

The dates the pieces of work were produced in, are also different, as for Source B, it was produced in 1907 a year after Source C was produced in 1906.

Source B bluntly shows that she is against women’s voting and does not take sides between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes and just puts them all under the same category of Suffragettes, not recognising the Suffragists, as this is shown in the title of her book ‘Woman and Suffragette’. Whereas Source C, hides his views and masks them out by pretending to support the Suffragists against the Suffragettes, as he is also able to distinguish between them, whereas Corelli was not, as said earlier.

In Source B, the word ‘shrill’ is not in capital letters, as it needs no attention, because Corelli can put her views across, expand farther on her words, and can write in more detail, whereas in Source C, Partridge uses ‘SHREIK’ in capital, to grab the viewers attention, and keep it short and to the point, as you can not expand on your ideas and add more details in a cartoon.

Source B was written by Marie Corelli, and she probably wrote it to protest against the women’s ideas for voting, and thought that this came against the image the society had of women, as being angelic, obedient to their husband, silent, pale and delicate. If women were to vote, than that would mean that they would devote less time to her family, the house will be untidy, the children not looked after, and no dinner on the table. This can be showed through what Corelli says ‘that Women were destined to make voters rather than to be voters them selves’ she probably means that women should concentrate on her family, and what’s going on in the house rather than what goes on outside.

As for Source C, produced by Bernard Partridge, who also probably disagrees with women voting, could possibly think that when women are interested with outside matters such as voting, rather than inside, such as family, they would turn into lunatics. He camouflages his own views with the Suffragist against the Suffragette. This would probably be, as men in those times were less likely to be for women’s voting. The reason why he chose the method of putting his point across by drawing a cartoon, is probably because pictures last in a persons memory more than a piece of writing, so he can get his message across in a more effective way, compared to Source B, as a piece of writing might slowly fade in a persons head.

In general, the messages the two Sources put across to the audiences are both quite similar.

Overall, I think Source B, and Source C agrees with each other on the main points, but not entirely, as they do have some major differences, and how each source presents their views to the audience is what also counts.

By: Saimecan Ali Y/11-1