What is “normal”? We spend enough time, collectively, trying to figure this out, but if women think it's complicated now, what about the women who are blazing a trail ahead of us? Expectations were rigid, gender roles carefully defined, and opportunities much more limited. In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963), Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman (1969), and Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman (1798), we quickly understand how great societal pressure was on women and how this pressure could -- and in the case of the three female protagonists examined here, it led to significant emotional distress. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original Essay It's not as if the three characters of Atwood, Plath, and Wollstonecraft aren't aware of their struggles and the difficult battles they face, simply because of their gender, quite the contrary. It's this awareness, coupled with each character's desire to buck gender-specific expectations, that leads to a certain degree of instability, whether paranoia, depression, or simply increased awareness. Each of these characters tests the limits, but not without consequences. As they question their roles and push for independence, their struggles result in a multitude of insecurities and the development of significant emotional problems. The first signs of insecurity arise with a “triggering incident” that prompts each of the characters to question their identity, including their role as a woman and a wife (or future wife). This turning point inspires a period of introspection that results in a major change in professional and personal motivation, personality and even the establishment of self-esteem. All these periods of introspection are linked to men and the protagonists' relationships with these men. The most apparent emotional distress fueled by a man is that of Marian McAlpin in Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman. Atwood's character is a typical mid-century modern woman stuck between career and relationship. She doesn't love her job, but she is nevertheless on the path to a girl's career: "Sometimes, I am sure that I am being prepared for something higher, but since I only have vague notions about the organizational structure of Seymour Surveys, I can't imagine what” (p. 13). Atwood demonstrates that although Marian is responsible, she has difficulty following his direction. She has a stable, well-paying job, but it seems like she's unsure of her next step and isn't entirely happy with her options. She knows she seems more organized than she appears, commenting that when she met her fiancé, Peter, "He had been quite formal and asked me what I was planning to do. J "I talked about career, making it much less vague than it was in my mind, and he told me later that it was my aura of independence and common sense that he appreciated." (Atwood p. 61). Marian's confusion about herself - what she looks like and what she really is - is reinforced by those around her. They are an exceptionally indecisive group, men and women, single and married. Through Marian's eyes, we witness her fiancé's distress over the engagement of his last single friend, her single roommate's determination to get pregnant, the desperation of the three "office virgins" to meet men and. hasher college friend's ambivalence toward an ever-growing relationship. , chaotic family. Some are looking for love, others are looking for personal fulfillment, and still others don't know where to look at all. Marian's interaction with these individuals, however, is far from pointless. She contrasts her experience with that of others and hears anecdotes that prompt self-examination. Everyone is going in a different direction. From Marian to her roommate Ainsley, we get the impression that each character is struggling to flourish and meet the expectations of others. For example, Joe, the husband of Marian's college friend, comments that every woman should proceed carefully when getting married, saying, "'I think it's harder for any woman who has been to the university. She feels like she has a mind, her teachers pay attention to what she has to say [...] when she gets married, her core is invaded [...] The center of her personality, this which she built; her image of herself, if you will” (p. 259). Marian is in the thick of the wedding herself and is at first delighted, telling her fiancé, "'I'd rather leave the big decisions to you'" (p. 94), then she transitions into a nervous wreck: "Everything from Subsequently, she was afraid of dissolving, of falling apart layer after layer like a piece of cardboard in a puddle in the gutter [...] She was afraid of deforming, of spreading out, of no longer being able to contain herself" ( p. 240).Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar, who is studying for her bachelor's degree at a prestigious university, also claims to be losing what defines her. She says, “The only thing I was good at was winning scholarships and prizes, and those days were coming to an end” (Plath p. 73). Esther laments the end of her academic career and knows that one of her options is “a happy husband, home, and children” (p. 72). She seems confused by the prospect of it all, but also vulnerable, and she views her life as a series of mutually exclusive choices. Like Marian, she wonders which path to take and realizes that many women lose their jobs after marriage or remain single if they refuse to give up what they love. Greenwood is also troubled by her interactions with her boyfriend Buddy, including those related to sex. When Esther asks Buddy if he's had an affair, he tells her that he has a lot of experience in bed. Esther thinks: “After that, something in me froze. [...] Actually, it wasn't the idea of ​​Buddy sleeping with someone that bothered me [...] What I couldn't stand was Buddy pretending I was so hot and that he was so pure, while all the time he “I had been having an affair with that tart waitress” (Plath ch. VI, para. 67-71). Esther experiences a similar period of doubt brought on by an experience with Constantine. When she considers sleeping with him, she begins to question the expectations and implications of her choice: "This lawyer said [...] Of course they would try to persuade a girl to have sex and would tell her that they would marry her later, but as soon as she gave in, they all lost respect for her” (Plath ch. VII, para. 45). Before this pivotal moment, Greenwood reflected on his future: "I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in history [...] A fig was a happy husband and home and children, and a other fig was a happy husband, home and children. famous poet and another was a brilliant teacher” (ch. VII, para. 20-21). She concludes: “I wanted every one of them, but choosing one meant losing everything else” (par. 22). Marian McAlpin and Esther both find problems in their relationships based on how men perceive them sexually and how theirexperience differs. of their partners. McAlpin feels unsettled from her first meeting with Peter in The Edible Woman. In his apartment, after he expresses remorse about his friend's recent engagement and they make love, she wonders how he sees her: "Or maybe – and this thought was chilling – that he intended [to have sex in the bathroom] as an expression of his desire. my personality. A new corridor of possibilities opened before me: [...] what kind of girl did he think I was? (Atwood p. 63). As Esther Greenwood and Marian McAlpin question their futures, Maria in Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman knows what she wants and she understands the expectations placed on women. She is socially conscious and, in many ways, more confident in her role than Esther or Marian. Perhaps as a woman of a certain status (arguably of a higher social class than the other two), she is simply more confident. It may also be because she has much more time to think, imprisoned in an asylum. Nonetheless, Maria is comfortable with her voice and her opinions – comfortable enough to become intimately involved in a legal matter. As Wollstonecraft notes in chapter 17, “Maria took upon herself the task of leading the defense of Darnford. She asked her lawyer to plead guilty to the adultery charge; but deny that of seduction” (para. 1). Maria is not only participating in what Colleen Fenno in “Testimony, Trauma, and a Space for Victims: Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria: Or the Wrongs of Woman” calls a “participatory justice system,” but she is taking part in a new movement of legal reforms, including improvements to criminal justice (para. 6). And yet, in Wollstonecraft, Maria begins with questions. From the first chapter, Maria “strived to prepare her mind for the force and to ask herself what would be her employment in her dreary cell? Was it not to escape, to come to the aid of her child and to thwart the selfish plans of her tyrant, her husband? (ch. 1, par. 5). Despite her supreme confidence demonstrated by her appeal to the courts at the end of the unfinished book, Maria was not always so confident. Plath, Atwood and Wollstonecraft's characters speak out against the status quo. Each woman is introspective, self-aware, and highly intelligent: Marian in The Edible Woman has a bachelor's degree (only about 138,000 women had a bachelor's degree in 1960, compared to 254,000 men in the United States, as reported on Statista.com). In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood completes her studies in the late 1950s, while Wollstonecraft's Maria is multilingual and self-taught. These women are trained to question and examine – and they do. Part of this question is whether they are "normal" or not, which ultimately raises serious concerns in their own minds about their mental health. In The Edible Woman and The Bell Jar, the female protagonists question their stability after going through a period of self-exploration. On the one hand, Marian, this is caused by an engagement; for the other, Esther, it is triggered by new relationships and changes. Although the two characters are not considered unusual by the general public, there is debate over whether or not they "deserve" that description. We have the impression that the two characters believe they are hiding their deep flaws, a bit as if they were “deceiving” the general public. In The Edible Woman, Marian becomes preoccupied with her flaws and continues to ask her peers whether or not they consider her unusual. In it, she perceives others as stable, healthy individuals, while viewing herself asimperfect in a profound and unchanging way. In the book, Marian asks her roommate Ainsley, her fiancé Peter, her college friend Clara, and her volatile acquaintance Duncan whether she's "normal" or not - and when no one says she's not. isn't, she becomes convinced that they are somehow wrong: “She had been thinking about the other people she could talk to. The office virgins would be intrigued and want to hear everything, but she didn't think she could give him constructive advice” (Atwood p. 224). Marian is even more troubled when she discovers that, even though describing her problems to Clara, she cannot feel entirely satisfied with the response: "Even if she was sure that Clara's explanation [on the bride's nerves ] was not the right one, she felt better” (Atwood p. 226). In Jinal Sanghavi's article, "Madness In The Edible Woman," the author claims that Marian's struggles are actually caused by her "struggle to assert her identity and identify her role in society" (Sanghavi, summary, para. 3). only the case in The Edible Woman, but in The Bell Jar and Maria. In each of the novels, the female character struggles with internal change. This internal change is seen as abnormal by the characters themselves, while the resulting "normalcy" and balance during their period of transformation is seen as abnormal by their friends and family. Marian realizes that her relationship with Peter is unhealthy, but after telling him "'You tried to destroy me [...] you tried to assimilate me'" (p. 299), he retreats in fear - - and Marian feels better than she has in some time. Esther Greenwood accepts "the corpses, Doreen and the story of the fig tree" (Plath p. 226) and, instead of forgetting, finds inner peace despite being told by Dr. Nolan that "many people would cure me" . cautiously, or even avoid me, like a leper” (p. 226). Maria's involvement at court would have seemed very unusual, and yet it appears to be cathartic. In each of the books, the characters question their sanity more as the books continue and interactions with men become more numerous. Each of the novel's protagonists falters because of a triggering event, then becomes more uncertain after continuing unsatisfying relationships. For Marian, her relationship with Peter and her engagement continue to negatively affect her. Instead of feeling the "normal" excitement over the engagement, Marian begins to question her relationship, Peter's intentions, and whether what the future holds for them is what she really wants: "If it's is really what Peter is, she thought, as she walked down one of the corridors, will he have a belly at forty-five? (Atwood p. 267). Maria's relationship with Darnford also raises some questions. The young woman was abandoned by her husband and, despite Jemima's horrific tales of mistreatment and anguish at the hands of men, she still finds herself drawn to her companion in the asylum. Wollstonecraft writes: “She had not shown marked affection to Darnford; the fear of distancing himself from his own, a sure proof of love, often made him take on a coldness and an indifference foreign to his character” (ch. 4, par. 5). Maria struggles with her desire as a woman, to marry Darnford, and her desire to live with him in what people of that time would consider a "sin." In chapter 16, Wollstonecraft reflects: “She wished to confess her affection to Darnford, by becoming his wife according to the established rules; not to be confused with women who act from very different motives, although her conduct would be the same without the ceremony as with it, and: ~3000