Literature has always been a powerful way for people to express their ideas, opinions, and feelings. Authors often use literature to depict aspects of society that can affect a man or woman’s life. In the stories, “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” Life in the Iron Mills, “Barbie Doll,” and The Awakening the women of the stories do not seem to adapt to societal expectations. The inadequacy of the women of these stories to meet the view of society has lead to either a rebirth or ultimately a drive to suicide. In D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” rebirth is a central theme of the story.
Lawrence uses his main character, Mabel, to take part in this transformation. Mabel’s role in society is defined by the death of her mother, her father’s occupation, as the title suggests, and how her life is altered by the death of her father. She finds herself alone, her household in ruins, and all her money gone. She is constantly being pressured by her siblings to come to terms with what she will be doing with the rest of her life. Her brothers are eager to make sure she or someone else takes responsibility for her life. Mabel feels the pressure of having to prove herself.
She is impassive and almost paralyzed with fear about her future. It is because of her unappeasable life that she seeks a way to find fulfillment. The only way she feels she can pursue this is to be reunited with her beloved mother. When she goes to the graveyard where her mother is buried she carries with her shears, a sponge, and scrubbing brushes to clean the headstone and in a sense prepares herself for her own death. While she is at the grave sight Dr. Ferguson passes by. He is moved by the way she takes responsibility for her mother’s plot.
At this point he realizes how in touch she is with the nonliving world. One analyst says, “His quick (alive) eyes sees her tending the grave as if spellbound, and he is touched by her conjunction with the world of death” (Meyers 347). At the same time Mabel with her life in ruins, her parents gone, her brothers close to striking out on their own, and all her financial resources gone, decides it would be better to be with her mother by taking her life. She plans to do this by drowning herself.
In three encounters Dr. Ferguson’s role in Mabel’s regeneration are defined. The first was when he meets her at the family farmhouse and asks her of plans for the future. The second time was at the graveyard when he sees how tenderly Mabel cares for her mother’s grave. At the gravesite he immediately feels connected to her when their eyes meet. The third and most important life altering encounter is at the pond when he sees Mabel immerse herself into the water to drown herself. Detailed descriptions of how Dr. Ferguson slowly and carefully entered the cold, foul smelling water were given.
The cold being a metaphor for death. Meyers says, “Lawrence describes, in a series of o’ sounds, how the doctor slowly enters the world of the dead and restores her to life: The cold water rose over his thighs, over his loins, upon his abdomen. The lower part of his body was all sunk in hideous cold element. And the bottom was so deeply soft and uncertain, he was afraid of pitching with his mouth underneath’ (928)” (347). When he reaches her and drags her out of the water he breathes into her mouth and before long she is breathing on her own.
It is almost as if with a kiss he awakens her; “In this poignant passage Lawrence alludes not only to the awakening of an enchanted princess in a fairy tale but also to three classical myths, Persephone’s emergence from Hades in the spring of each year, Orpheaf attempted rescue of Eurydice from the underworld, and Hercules wrestling Alcestis from the arms of death” (Meyers 348). Dr. Ferguson takes her from the water to dry land, which represents life. When she is revived and sees him hovering over her she flings her arms around him and proclaims her love.
She asks him if he will ever leave her and he without even realizing his own true feelings he says “never. ” Mabel’s rebirth begins at the moment of her rescue. From being immersed in the cold of the water to firm dry land, from the cold smelly clothes to being naked and warm, from unloved to loved. Mabel asks Dr. Ferguson if he saved her, “Did you dive into the pond for me? ” (Lawrence) Dr. Ferguson says no, however he tells her he walked in but went under the water, maybe meaning he went under the water physically and fell in love with her emotionally.
Mabel asks and answers her own question about his love for her, by telling him that she knows he loves her. From this episode she concludes that because he loves her she now has a reason to live. “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” is a story of renewal through love. Both Mabel and Dr. Ferguson in a sense saved each other from lives of loneliness. When Mabel finally gets Dr. Ferguson to admit his feelings for her she opens him up emotionally as he has never been before. Despite their cold, wet, stagnant odor they embrace and she weeps for joy.
After they change their clothes they realize what has just happened and what a life altering experience the test of their love has been. She now knows what true love is for the first time in her life. Love is what ultimately enabled Mabel to have a rebirth. In Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis the central theme does not revolve around a rebirth but it is an important aspect in the novel. The main characters in the novel are Hugh Wolfe and Deb. It is his life in the iron mills that is the basis of the story. His cousin Deb, who is a good-hearted person, has an unrequited love for him.
He could never come to love her though. Deb, from working in a cotton mill is deformed. She has distorted physical features such as a hunchback. Hugh appreciates Deb for all the domestic care she gives but is absolutely repulsed by her haggard appearance. One critic says, ” Hugh cannot look long enough at Deb, nor love her, so even when she appears in loving desperation, with a power akin to beauty,’ his command is, Go back, I do not want you here’ (43)” (Hughes 128). Deb is unappealing to Hugh. Deb leads an insatiable life. She assigned herself to a guardianship of Hugh. This is of course due to the love she feels for him.
She never gets any kind of love in return, nor will she ever because of her deformities. She will do just about anything for Hugh, from delivering dinner to him at the mills to the extent of stealing from the Bourgeoisie. It is said, “She is the characterpoor, disfigured, femalewho suffers the most profoundly” (Hughes 124). The void in her life can never be filled completely. When she and Hugh were placed in jail for the crime she first initiated, as an act of love, she suffered. It is said, “Deb has both a privileged body of knowledge and a classic text of pain, in whose suffering is revealed the inexpressible divine” (Hughes 127).
She was in agony everyday not because she herself was in jail but because Hugh was there and miserable. While Hugh was unable to cope with life and decides to end his suffering once and for all Deb is strong. The critic comments, “She is the only one who can bear to look such suffering in the face, in the faces of those around her, and go on” (Hughes 124). It is this aspect which in the end saves Deb. After Hugh takes his life, Deb is concerned about where he will be buried. A Quaker woman comes to the jail cell and befriends Deb. She promises Hugh’s body will be buried on the hills.
This is when Deb’s rebirth begins. The Quaker woman tells her it is too late for Hugh but, “thee shall begin thy life again, –there on the hills. I came too late but not for thee, — by God s help, it may be” (Davis 63). This is a promise for a new life for Deb. Her rebirth is not one of love as we have seen in “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” but one through religion. As we have seen, the women in these two stories have not met societal standards whether it is due to economic status or physical deformities, yet each is able to attain a new meaning for life through rebirth.
This though does not happen in every case, at times there may not be a rebirth but a death to escape the pains of society has burdened people with. The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy enables readers to witness at first hand a suicide do to the destruction of self by society. The title of the poem can put the idea of perfection into the reader’s head. For what is more perfect than a Barbie Doll; she is beautiful, has great features such as a small waist and big breasts, she is thin and can just about do anything. This is where the adversity begins.
The girl in the poem was living a normal life when one day in her adolescence, as she was going through puberty, a classmate told her, “You have a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy). This of course, as it would any other girl this age, was very bothersome to the girl. She was not a perfect Barbie and could not understand why. No one could see past her big nose and fat legs to see how smart and talented she was. She was even advised to exercise and diet. This did not help, for as time went by and she began to only see a big nose and fat legs so she did the only thing she could to get past it, she killed herself.
She cut off her nose and legs. She let society get the best of her. While she was in the casket with a putty nose and the mortician’s make up on, only then was she recognized as pretty. To her the ends justified the means. This powerful poem is relating a message: not everyone can be a Barbie Doll, perfect all the time. Society has placed this phony image of beauty in a plastic doll. In the poem “Barbie Doll” suicide was the main theme the author wanted to convey. In the late 1900’s women had distinct roles in society.
Edna Pontellier, Kate Chopin’s main character in the novel The Awakening is an abnormal reflection of the society of her time. Most women of this time were considered property of their husbands. They were expected to bear children, take care of them, and tend to the house. Edna goes against these traditional roles. One critic says, “Chopin’s characters found themselves questioning conformity and duty versus freedom and personal identity” (Green 56). She does not play into society’s hands because she has the eagerness to be free of any obligations.
It is said that, “Edna thinks about herself as separate from her family and society. She challenges the role society has forced upon her and courageously turns her back on it” (Green 56). Edna does not fear any kind of consequences for her actions. She has an affair and does feel guilt or remorse because she has unconventional views about society’s rules. She feels incarcerated with her role as wife and mother, “She feels oppressed by it and tries many avenues to escape from its restrictions” (Green 59). Her personal desire to break away from society leads to her down fall.
The goals Edna is striving for are difficult to reach. She wishes to be her own person rather than just a wife or mother. She pushes her limits until she exhausts herself. Her destruction is an effect of her oblique endeavor to breakout from being her husband’s property, physically and financially. When she reaches the point where she can no longer go on living the hellish life that she cannot stand, she decides suicide is the answer. She turns to the ocean, which she had once been afraid of, to assist her. “Many critics feel Edna’s suicide was an independent victory over society’s limitations” (Green 57).
She takes her own life to escape the only life she knew for the life she could only dream about. Literature deals with many aspects of society. In the works “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” and Life in the Iron Mills, both Mabel and Deb experience a rebirth that challenged society to accept them as they accepted themselves. In the two other works which I have discussed “Barbie Doll” and The Awakening both the girl and Edna disobey society by committing the ultimate act of suicide to free themselves of the burden of society. In all the works, the main female characters denounced society’s expectations in order to gain personal pleasure.