The Role of Women: A Personal Perspective Based Upon Imagery and Informal Diction

Kohorst

The role of women in many societies is one of oppression and though many women remain silent about their desires for equality, some refuse to accept their societies’ views. The characters of Esther Greenwood and Ramatoulaye Fall both recognize what society expects of them, due to certain events in each character’s life. Esther, a character in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, begins to recognize her dismay with what is expected of her because she is a woman, and therefore she accepts her journey towards understanding of her society but yet living on her own terms. Mariana Ba portrays the character of Ramatoulaye, in the novel So Long a Letter, as an independent woman struggling to find reason with her husband’s acceptance of the Muslim tradition of polygamy. Both women search for understanding of their respective societies’ views of women, and through their quest, they become aware of whom they are as people and come to recognize the importance they each have as individuals. The novels in which these characters grow towards personal acceptance of what their roles in society illustrate this through informal diction and imagery, which both serve to assist in a better examination of their roles as women in society.

While examining her role as a woman in society, Esther focuses mainly upon her independence with sexuality. Throughout most of the novel, Esther forces herself to reject the relationship she has with Buddy in order to physically isolate herself from any remnants of the society that expects her sexuality to be preserved for her husband. As Buddy and Esther visit throughout the time they are both in college, the narrator uses the image of Buddy naked in order to illustrate Esther’s rejection of his false purity, “Buddy’s pretending I was so sexy and he was so pure, when all the time he’d been having an affair with that tarty waitress and must have felt like laughing in my face” (Plath 71). With Esther’s rejection of Buddy, her strong will is shown and with that comes the assertion that Esther views Buddy as the perfect example of society’s pressure upon women. Even Buddy’s mother is illustrated as sexist, “What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security,’ and What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from,” (Plath 72). Not only does Esther address the standard that women should remain pure for their husbands, but also she examines the realities of what women are labeled as, if they refuse society’s view of purity. Esther examines how women are treated overall, and with common language, the narrator places a sarcastic tone when Esther witnesses a woman’s birth. The doctor tells the birthing mother, “that’s a good girl,” and Plath uses a sarcastic tone to illustrate this sexism (Plath 66) . As Esther’s character progresses through the plot, she grows increasingly schizophrenic and her view of society is clearly altered into a state of confusion. As she returns to mental health, she encounters her first opportunity to prove her sexual independence and does so through losing her virginity. Esther does not feel changed through this experience, and recognizes that her sexuality does not give her the independence from obeying society’s laws, but instead understands that she can disobey society whenever she pleases. As she is with Irwin, the man with whom she has the affair, she thinks to herself “I had no idea if this was proper, but after months of wholesome, dull asylum diet, I was greedy for butter,” showing her almost necessity to leave the asylum and experience life on her own terms (Plath 227). This is not a malevolent attempt at disagreeing with society, but instead a personal realization that she is personally responsible for her actions. Although it may be argued that Esther is not mentally well, she maintains the stance that she will not be told how she should act throughout the entirety of the novel, which enables the constant reexamination of Esther’s role within society. Through her consistent will to keep her sexuality independent, she finally is able to examine how she can live within society while maintaining her independence from what is expected.

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As with Esther, Ramatoulaye experiences her own examination of her role as a woman in her society through epistolary structure of her letters to her close friend. With the epistolary structure, Ramatoulaye is able to illustrate the personal issues in which she finds herself, therefore enabling the drawing of connections between Esther and herself. Ramatoulaye lives in a Muslim society that openly accepts polygamy, and she finds herself having to question her religious stances in order to define her role as woman in her society. As she refuses to accept polygamy with her husband, she becomes increasingly aware that she has no choice in the matter. Although she openly disagrees with her husband, she is shocked to find out the repression of women’s equal status in society. As she comes from a lower class than her husband, Ramatoulaye tolerates much with her husband’s family, “I tolerated their spitting, the phlegm expertly secrete under my carpets,” and illustrates her understanding of adversity because of her love for her husband (Ba 19). ygWith Ramatoulaye’s ability to relate to her friend Aissatou, she grows towards the understanding of her religion as still a necessary part of life, and she also examines the role of God in her religion. As in The Bell Jar, Ramatoulaye addresses the issue of women’s submissiveness and inferiority to men through sexuality. She asserts that men are beings of sexuality and women are beings of responsibility, therefore causing the assumption that she has defined her sexuality. Ramatoulaye grows toward acceptance of her religion as it is, “My heart concurs with the demands of religion. Reared since childhood on their strict precepts, I expect not to fail” but becomes aware that although the relationship between she and her husband cannot change, “May their evocation not soil the state of purity in which I must live,” she is able to hope that someday the customs of her religion and the equality of sexes may merge (Ba 8-9). With Ramatoulaye’s examination of the connection between her religion and her sexuality, she is able to define what her role is in society as a woman, “People stared at the middle-aged lady without a partner. I would feign indifference, while anger hammered against my nerves and the tears I held back welled up behind my eyes” (Ba 51). She becomes aware of her husband’s flaws but is able to recognize her friend Aissatou’s husband who maintains respect for his wife. Therefore, with her journey through letters with her friend, Ramatoulaye is able to personally grow towards her own understanding of how she must submit to her religion while stile fighting for her independence.

Both Esther and Ramatoulaye examine their roles in society through the role of sexuality within their lives. With personal connections, the narrator is able to use imagery and informal diction to more closely allow relation to the characters and their struggles. With the comparison between Esther and Ramatoulaye, one is able to see the differences between the situations but yet draw a parallel between their struggles towards becoming independent from societies they both see as oppressive toward women. Through their journey toward independence, they both realize and understand the importance of self-discovery. Esther falls into a state of schizophrenia and this symbolizes her struggle with society’s acceptance that she must be pure for her marriage. Ramatoulaye questions her most sound doctrine, her religion, in order to examine her role as a wife to a man that chooses polygamy. Through these struggles, the women are able to more wholly understand how to live within the society while still fighting against it.

Works Cited

Ba, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Trans. Modupe Bode-Thomas. Oxford: Heinemann,

1981.

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.