The course of history through which the whole of humankind goes cannot help leaving its trace on the products of human activity, such as art or literature. Literature is the most vivid and precise reflection of historical events, attitudes, and values that existed in the period of the literary work’s creation; this interdependence should never be disregarded when a particular piece of literature is considered. These relationships can be also seen in the works considered in the present paper – each of them will be considered separately to reveal and prove the described connection.
The first work to be analyzed is “I Stood Here Ironing” written by Tillie Olsen. The plot of the work refers to the flashbacks that the main character experiences in connection with the reported problems her daughter has at school. She wonders what she did wrong in the period of her up-bringing, analyzes her mistakes and lack of attention she could attribute to Emily in her early years, though her unlimited love is in every word about the first daughter:
“I will become engulfed with all I did or did not do, with what should have been and what cannot be helped…She was a beautiful baby…You do not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in her now-loveliness” (Olsen, 1961)
The woman remembers how hard it was for her to raise the daughter without a husband who left them soon after Emily’s birth, and how she tried her best to survive for six years until she finally gave up and sent her daughter away, to relatives and further on to the convalescent home where she was subject to much spiritual torture (Olsen, 1961). The theme is highly typical for the period of the 1960s when women started to claim their right to have beneficial working conditions due to their necessity of raising children.
The problem was extremely sharp for working women who had no opportunity to attribute enough attention, care, and love to their children, especially in cases when they were single mothers and had to conduct up-bringing alone. They were simply ignored, and their lives were left without support from the state. The short story “I Stood Here Ironing” brings the message of a woman who felt desperate about her inability to remain with her daughter, showing the drama of all single working mothers in the 20th century.
The next work to be discussed is an ironical interpretation of the classical fairy-tale “The Beauty and the Beast” titled “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon”. It was written by Angela Carter. Since the classical version represents the part of folklore, the new interpretation bears the trace of feminism and modernity introduced in its lines. The first theme is shown through the autonomous, strong, and “masculine” character of the Beauty who simply uses the Beast, enjoys the wealth he provides for her family, and does not feel ashamed about her betrayal:
“Returning late from supper after the theater, she took off her earrings in front of the mirror; Beauty. She smiled at herself with satisfaction. She was learning, at the end of her adolescence, how to be a spoiled child and that pearly skin of hers was plumping out, a little, with high living and compliments” (Carter, 1979).
The work is far from a fairy-tale, including such elements as cars, electricity, shops, and hotels, courts that led Beauty’s father to bankruptcy. There are many magic, fairytale-like elements that create the charm of the work, but still, they are so unexpectedly intermingled with modern inclusions that there is no impression of a fairy-tale at all. In addition, the image of the Beast, a traditionally strong creature who then turned into a beautiful prince to make the Beauty happy, is too diminished and oversimplified in the work. This is where feminism is again felt – the traditional juxtaposition of a tender, weak and delicate Beauty and a strong, harsh but decent Beast is converted through the prism of feminism.
The character who is worth pity and sympathy here is the weak Beast who is desolated by the Beauty; then she performs an active role, saving him from death and becoming his wife – the action takes place in such a trivial, ordinary way that there appears not the slightest suggestion of romance (Carter, 1979). Taking into consideration the period when the work was written (1979), it is possible to suggest that it served as a reflection of the strong feminist inclinations of the author. The feminist movement gained popularity and intensity in the 1970s and 1980s, so the work is a true example of feminist literature of that period.
Finally, the last work considered in the present paper is Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily that reflects the governing traditions, values, and attitudes of the Southern community in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. It is enough to recollect the gossipy, country-like voice of the omniscient narrator who tells the story of the “poor Emily”; the woman whose father used to be an honorable member of their town becomes unreachable for taxes, for justice, and the truth. Even the situation known by the whole town about her purchase of arsenic does not get any development; the disappearance of Homer does not produce its impact on the villagers as well (Faulkner, 1930).
The story shows how strong conventions used to be in the local community, how respected people were, but at the same time how distant and indifferent people could be in case the drama was not in their house; it proves how individualistic and intrusive the American human nature may be at times. This picture was especially typical for the period of the 1930s when people still did not feel the impact of urbanization and lived in close communities, knowing everything about each other and making all personal affairs public.
Summing everything that has been said in the present workup, one can pay attention to particular resemblances in the tone of narration, the themes, and dominant motives in the discussed works with the historical periods of their creation. One of them reflects feminist motives, another one calls for the rights of working single mothers, while the third one explores the dark sides of the American rural community at the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, it is evident that the critical analysis of any literary work is impossible without proper consideration of the historical context in which it was written, and strong relationships between history and literature are inevitably present in literary works.
References
Carter, A. (1979). The Courtship of Mr. Lyon. Web.
Faulkner, W. (1930). A Rose for Emily. Web.
Olsen, T. (1961). I Stand Here Ironing. In C. Dickens (Ed.), Hard Times: for These Times. (1997, pp. 209-220). Signet Classic.