As I was reading the Feminist Criticism in our copy of The Dead, I was struck by a new understanding of why I found the work hard to relate to. "The narrative voice has a bourgeois agenda: to produce a flattering picture of Irish middle-class life whose center of security and reliability is Gabriel Conroy, a paterfamilias to a family of women." This excerpt from page 193 made me realize that part of the reason I could not enjoy the work was because I was not someone who would be affected by any of the agendas set aside by the narrative voice. I feel that if the story had been told from Gretta's view, then I might have gotten more meaning from the text.
On page 195 you read of the narratives attitude towards Gretta. From this portion of the criticism I was able to add cause to why I could not appreciated the comments that Gabriel had made about Gretta. Gretta was used as an object and a symbol, which might seem romantic to many but to me the dehumanization was disrespectful. I can not help but think of all of the crude comments that are made by a man who sees a woman that he believes to be hot or sexy. Why not beautiful? Pretty? Gorgeous? Why do men feel the need to use rash words to describe their feelings towards a woman? I was able to realize that another reason that I could not empathize with Gabriel in the story was because he was often belittling the women or his wife. Was this a constraint for the rest of my female peers out there?
I think if we had a version of The Dead in Gretta's point of view, we would understand her character better. Maybe it would've been more meaningful reading it from a female's perspective. Reading a story from different perspectives truly affects the way you understand it, in my opinion, and maybe sometimes it means something completely different in one version than another. I think Gabriel described Gretta this way because he wanted to reconnect with her. It's possible that he thought of her this way to rekindle his feelings for her.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my own blog post, I personally don't think that Gabriel making Gretta into a painting or an object was really that big of a deal. I understand why it is to you, but it really doesn't bother me at all. I also don't feel the same way about "rash words" as you called them. I don't really care one way or another. I tend to be pretty "chill" about things like that.
ReplyDeleteI still didn't relate to Gabriel though. Maybe if the times were more modern or it was set in a place other than Ireland, perhaps one I had visited, I could. He just didn't pertain to my life.