"American literature is masculine. To read the canon of what is currently considered classic American literature is to necessarily identify as masculine; our literature does not leave only women nor does it allow them to participate." Judith Fetterley (Walker, 171) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Mark Twain's writings fall under this criticism in the minds of many literary critics, especially those of a feminist mindset. As for Twain's art, the charges against him on this front are familiar: his female characters tend to be severely limited, stereotyped, and flat. Meanwhile, all of its truly interesting and most well-rounded characters – with a few key exceptions – are male. (Fishkin, 58) But it would be a mistake to equate the limited range of roles Twain assigned to women in his work with the idea that women had limited importance in Twain's mind. Twain's relationships with women, both in his life and in his writings, were far more complicated and interesting than this narrow image conveys. (Fishkin, 53) Mary Ellen Goad defined the role Twain wanted women to play in his life to illuminate his creation of female characters: Twain saw the role of women in a particular and, to the modern mind, strange way. He operated on the theory that the male of the species was crude and uncouth and needed the softening influence of a woman or, if necessary, many women. The primary function of woman was therefore the reformation of man. (Walker, 173) In Twain's stories, women often represent the moral standard by which men are measured. Changes in perceptions of the reality of women's lives over the past hundred years reveal that, although Twain may have used idealizations of women as the basis for many of his female characters, such characterizations play a vital, if underappreciated, role in society's which they are part of. apart. Although the male characters in the story may perceive these roles only as occasions for rebellion or opportunities for heroic action, the women represent both positive and negative values ​​of the society in which they live. (Walker, 174) Twain came under much criticism for his portrayal of women. However, although women's shortcomings have always been a major theme of humorists, Twain is rarely cynical in this regard. He doesn't point out flaws or make fun, rather he creates characters to represent the specific aspect of the society he wants to criticize. There are many passages in which Twain expresses his respect and consideration for women. (Wagenknecht, 125) The most important criticism against Twain's women, however, is the stereotypical way in which they are presented. When Goad discusses the female characters in Twain's work, he argues that they are simply flat and stereotyped and that they actually represent one of Twain's failures as a writer. “Twain,” she says, “simply couldn't create a female character, of any age, of any time or place, who was anything other than wooden and unrealistic.” (Walker, 173) Similarly, Bernard DeVoto states, “none of Mark Twain's unmarried girls, young women, or young matrons are credible: they are all bisque, sappy, or tearful.” (Fishkin, 58) Stereotypical female characters may be the norm in Twain's collection, but there are occasions when he struggled to move beyond the gender conventions he usually conformed to. This is especially evident in his portrayal of black women. Overall, its charactersBlack females tend to have more depth and importance in the works that feature them. However I will talk about this in more detail later in the document. The other time Twain obviously stood up for women was during the fight for women's suffrage. Twain always had a soft spot in his heart for women. There is an interesting passage in his autobiography in which he states that the entire population of the United States is now financially rotten, but he quickly adds that, of course, he does not mean to include women in this statement. Indeed, most of the time when Mark Twain denounces the human race, he is generally understood to be denouncing only the male half of it. (Wagenknecht, 126) While he may favor them, that doesn't mean he always felt they should have the right to vote. Before 1870 he was an outspoken opponent of the women's suffrage movement, and his articles ridiculing the women's rights movement won applause and laughter from male audiences from coast to coast. (Fonder, 88) He recognized that justice was on the side of women's suffrage activists, but insisted that voting in the hands of women would only increase mediocrity and corruption in government and, at the same time, would lowered the status of women in society. (Fonder, 88) However, his views on this issue were obviously wavering. On one occasion, when his satires elicited a response from a woman in defense of the suffrage movement, his humorous response was extremely weak. He admitted privately "that her task would have been easier if she had not had all the arguments on her side". (Fonder, 89) This hesitation eventually led to her acceptance and support in the fight for women's right to vote. In a public speech in 1901 he declared: "I would like to see the time when women will help make the laws." I would like the whip, the vote, to be in the hands of women. As for the government of this city, I don't want to say much, except that it is a shame, a shame; but if I should live twenty-five years longer, and there's no reason why I shouldn't, I think I'll see women handle the vote. If women voted today, the state of affairs in this city would not exist. (Wagenknecht, 126-7) Twain began speaking about the issue frequently at public meetings for the cause. He now argued that the influence of women in politics would reduce corruption and raise the caliber of elected officials: I think it would suggest to more than one man that if women could vote they would vote on the side of morality; they would not sit idle at home as their husbands and brothers do now, but they would; create some candidates fit to be voted for by decent human beings. (Fonder, 90) Although Twain was obviously idealizing the role women could play in politics, this does not mean that he considered all women above criticism. At the time of writing The Gilded Age, Twain jokingly advocated a women's party, not so much a positive good as a way to assuage the fact that "both great parties have failed." (Fonder, 90) In the winter of 1868-69 Twain discovered a type of politicized woman who did not require appropriations to supply Congress with “paregoric, Jayne's carminative, sugar plums, etc.,” as he had heard in his youth. Rather, he found the scoundrel who would work and corrupt "with all his might", not however as a voter or elected representative, but as a behind-the-scenes manipulator. (French, 111)The woman he created was Laura Hawkins. In her role as a lobbyist, Laura Hawkins is drawn with the utmost precision. Laura was on excellent terms with many members of Congress, and there was an undercurrent of suspicion in some quarters that she wasa lobbyist, but "what beauty could escape slander in a city like that?" (French, 112) Both for fiction and perhaps for historical accuracy, Twain decided to cast Laura as the most influential type of sophisticated lobbyist, who would lure her prey with sex bait and knew how to use sex as a weapon. (French, 114) In this case, Laura is not the simple stick or misrepresentation so often held up. She is a carefully constructed historically significant lobbyist, and her life story and motivations are not far from reality. (French, 116)Laura is the first female character that Twain developed in depth and one who, if only temporarily, has the potential to become a well-rounded figure. However, it fails to transcend conventional stereotypes. As Susan Harris writes: Never a literary feminist, Twain's portraits of women are persistently expressed in one or another stereotypical way, making them reducible to one or another literary paradigm and consequently controlled in a way that most characters are not self-creative. Not only Laura but all the women are other-directed in Twain's work; he could not imagine them except in relation to men. (Fishkin, 59) Harris also believes that Twain killed Laura because he could not allow the presence of a “trickster” woman to add to the chaos of the male world. She feels that Laura, this alienated woman, threatens to destroy Twain's schema in which women's primary function is to provide security for men. (Fishkin, 61) Twain's The Innocents Abroad shows a variety of stereotypical women. In a way that is not true to his private experience of the journey, Twain omits the friendships he made with women on his actual travels. Yet women are not entirely excluded from The Innocents Abroad. The encounters with female figures that he describes revolve around the perception that women are angels or demons. Furthermore, he dramatized his encounters with European women in terms that emphasized the privileged status of an innocent American male in contrast to experienced and sometimes repulsive European femininity. (Stahl, 36) The sexual undertones are nowhere clearer than in the tale of his encounter with an attractive young office worker in a scene in Gibraltar. Here the woman is more of a demon than an angel. A very beautiful young woman in the shop offered me a pair of blue gloves. I didn't want blue, but she said they would look really nice on a hand like mine. The observation touched me tenderly. I stole a glance at my hand, and somehow it looked like a rather attractive member. I tried on a glove on my left and blushed a little. Evidently the size was too small for me. (The Innocents Abroad, 41) She teases him by pretending that the glove fits him perfectly, and that he hasn't ruined the glove because it was too small. His friends continue to tease him relentlessly by repeating the woman's praise for her ability to wear gloves. The women featured in this travelogue are one-dimensional and only appear in short episodes in which they play only minor roles. However, in A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, Twain devotes more time to his female characters. However, each of them still represents a stereotype about women. In A Connecticut Yankee, Twain seems to suggest that in men the attenuation of pride and cruelty (the will to rule) is positive. Meanwhile, he also suggests that the only alternatives to women's victimization are domesticity or heartless female cruelty, which he displays through the characters of Sandy and Morgan. (Stahl, 98) The Connecticut Yankee also delves into the traditional roles of father and motherhood. This shows that the father can assimilatethe qualities of the mother, but the mother does not dare to usurp the qualities of the father. Several episodes highlight the mother-child bond as the primary characteristic that defines women. However, the qualities that men and women can share to varying degrees, especially kindness and compassion, make men human but women angels. (Stahl, 117) The women in this novel display incredibly stereotypical roles. Court ladies are instinctively described as decorative, "that massed flowerbed of feminine spectacles and frills." (Stahl, 94) "Sandy; he's a shallow simpleton." (Fishkin, 59) He continues to ramble without reaching any intelligent conclusions. His incessant conversation with Hank is a "mill", his tongue and jaws are "his own works", with the fatal flaw of "ending without result". (Stahl, 102) Hank's way of thinking is linear and intentional, while Sandy is a comical representation of an opposite way of female expression. Another stereotypical figure in A Connecticut Yankee is Morgan le Fay. This woman has a ruthless, evil and cruel role. Morgan is the demonic woman, beautiful and cruel. Hank emphasizes her attractiveness as a woman: "To my surprise, she was beautiful; black thoughts had failed to make her expression repulsive, age had failed to wrinkle her satin skin or mar her flowery freshness." (To Connecticut Yankee, 96) Her power as a woman, her sexual attractiveness, and her wickedness are inseparable. She is an absolutely evil and menacing figure not only because she is a cold-blooded killer, but also because she is completely in charge. (Stahl, 104) Of course, one of the novels for which Twain received a lot of criticism is Huckleberry Finn. The subject of praise, bans, and harassment in the hundred years since its publication, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has not exactly been seen as a novel about women in nineteenth-century American society. Women tend to be at the back and sides of the novel, nagging, providing inspiration, or often crying or hysterical. (Walker, 171) Most female characters derive from traditional and usually unflattering female stereotypes common to authors and readers. The novel could serve as an index of common attitudes towards women reflected in stereotypical images. (Walker, 172) As members of the gender responsible for upholding the moral and religious values ​​of civilization, even when those values ​​sanction slaveholding, women enable men's lawlessness and violence. (Sloane, 113) The Victorian definition of women's role as moral guide would explain characters such as Miss Watson, the Widow Douglas, and Aunt Sally, part of whose function is to "civilize" Huck. There are twelve women in Huck Finn aged fourteen or older. (Walker, 175) Of these, many are simply stage characters. For example, Emmeline Grangerford's sister, Charlotte and Sophia, and Mary Jane Wilk's sisters, Susan and Joanna. Sophia Grangerford is one half of the Romeo and Juliet couple whose escape triggers a renewal of the feud between the Sheperdsons and the Grangerfords. She is described as the stereotypical young woman in love, always blushing and sighing. The most obvious reformers in Huck Finn are the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Aunt Sally Phelps. They are all vaguely defined civilians who care about manners, dress, and religion. However, the key to the differences between these three is their marital status. (Fishkin, 59) No matter how devoutly some women of the era clung to a state of “unique bliss,” marriage was the only widely sanctioned state for an adult woman. (Walker, 176) Widows fared a little better than spinsters in the eyes of thepublic. At least at some point they had had a husband. The image of the widow, once a wife and probably a mother, is a little softer. The supposedly unwanted spinster is presumed to be ossified. (Sloane, 104) The married woman, presumed to be in her proper element, provides the most contented image of the three, and is therefore likely to be the gentlest reformer of all. In Huck Finn, however, the relationship between Huck and women is more complex and dynamic than a simple response to stereotypical figures. Miss Watson is a constant and annoying presence, particularly concerned with Huck's manners and education. The widow is a much kinder reformer than her unmarried sister and often intercedes between Huck and Miss Watson to ease the other's severity. But Aunt Sally, because of the particular stereotype on which she is based, is an ineffective reformer, although reforming is clearly her function. (Watson, 179) Huck's response to Aunt Sally's discipline is to ignore her. He says it, "it didn't help anything." On the other hand, his reaction to Widow Douglas' disappointment at his relapse earlier in the novel was to try to "behave for a while" if he could. (Walker, 180) The Widow managed to touch Huck's humanity, but Aunt Sally only touches his backside with a switch. That Huck can ignore Aunt Sally's feminine authority testifies both to his unique lack of significant maturity and to Mark Twain's awareness of the ultimate uselessness of women in his society. (Walker, 181) All three women who attempt to conform Huck to the rules of society stem from traditional stereotypes of women who can be superficially seen as maternal figures of the same social mold. (Sloane, 122) However, Huck's more complex and ambivalent relationships with them highlight the social realities they represent. His own immaturity as a boy at the end of the novel manifests itself through his ambivalence towards women. (Walker, 172) Although Twain's white women characters tend to be static and stereotyped, there is nothing static or stereotyped about some of his most prominent black women characters. This is specifically shown through "Aunt Rachel" in "A True Story" and "Roxy" in Pudd'nhead Wilson. “A True Story” serves some obvious purposes. Two of these must make clearly evident the dignity of the black woman and the love of the slave family. In the course of her narrative, Aunt Rachel emerges as one of Twain's most complete character creations, and she lives up to the expectations provided by her description: she was of powerful build and stature; he was sixty years old, but his eyes were not dimmed and his strength did not diminish. She was a cheerful and friendly soul, and laughing was no more difficult for her than it is for a bird to sing. (A True Story, 95) Aunt Rachel is one of the noblest characters Twain ever created. Anyone who could endure all that he had and yet emerge with such a healthy, wholesome, and even happy attitude must possess much of "what Maynard Mack calls the qualities of a true hero." (Fenger, 41) She is more than a good person, because she has suffered much of man's inhumanity and it has not broken her or made her cynical. She is a powerful, proud, articulate woman whose emotional depths dwarf those of the gentle narrator - "Misto C" - who introduces her. (Fishkin, 62) His final revelation, "Oh no, Mixed C-, I had no trouble. And no joy!" It's bitterly ironic. (A True Story, 98) He has had many problems in life, but he is still able to feel joy. It made her superior to the mass of men, capable of laughing at human stupidity and giving the impression of never having had problems in sixty years of life. Although Aunt Rachel's story is sad,.. 1985.