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  • Essay / "The Little Cloud" from a feminist perspective

    Dubliners was published in 1914 and written by James Joyce, born in 1882. When applying feminist theory to the Dubliners short stories, one must keep in mind mind that although feminism had its At the beginning of the 19th century, many formative feminist essays were written after the death of James Joyce probably did not intend for his short stories to be analyzed through a feminist lens and he. We must also consider that it is just as likely that the women were not Joyce's. Understanding this does not take away from a feminist reading of one of James Joyce's stories. In fact, this understanding gives the reader even more. to analyze, as it contextualizes a representation of how men understood women in the absence of women present during the period in which Dubliners was written, was included in the collection. news and featured only one woman in a speaking role in its entirety. The character in question was Little Chandler's wife, Annie, who only appeared. at the very end of the story. However, during their conversation in the middle of the short story, Little Chandler and Gallaher talk about women, and during this conversation reveal their thoughts on women and their expectations of them. Despite the near absence of women in “The Little Cloud,” the novella remains intriguing and complex for a multitude of reasons, representing the contrasting ideals of men and the way misogyny manifests because of those ideals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay “A Little Cloud” begins with little Chandler remembering his friend, Ignatius Gallaher, who left Dublin and found the success elsewhere. They plan to meet and at first little Chandler is excited and delighted with his friend and his prosperity. At first, Little Chandler wants to live vicariously through Gallaher and asks him what life outside of Dublin is like. Their conversation soon turns to what women are like in the places visited by Gallaher, who then asserts that “there is no woman like the Parisienne – for style, for going” (Joyce 72). It is never clear exactly what going means, but we can only assume that it is a colloquial term for a woman who is promiscuous or unscrupulous by early 20th century standards, as Little Chandler immediately insists on the fact that if the women of Paris leave, then the city is an “immoral city…compared to London or Dublin” (72). A double standard immediately appears as, although Little Chandler expresses disgust for Gallaher's lifestyle, he does not indicate that he believes Gallaher is immoral, although it is understood that in order for Gallaher to know that the Parisiennes are light, he should then, by proxy, also be promiscuous. However, Little Chandler does not state that Gallaher is immoral and, in fact, states earlier that although he finds Gallaher vulgar, Little Chandler is also envious of Gallaher's life. This fuels the conflict in little Chandler's mind: he is both repelled and attracted to exotic or promiscuous women, which is only one cause of his later resentment against his life, his wife and his son. at a young age. In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir described the concept of the Eternal Feminine, a standard by which all women are judged but which none can achieve because it is impossible. The Eternal Feminine is made up of too many conflicting ideas for one person to realize them all and by judging women by this standard, de Beauvoir believed it denies real women the right tolive as they are and forces them to live as failures, because the idea of ​​the Eternal Feminine is never false and is "never considered a false entity" (41). On the contrary, it is women who simply fail to live up to the standards that have been imposed on them by men. In "The Little Cloud", the conflict that Little Chandler faces is somewhat similar. At one point in the conversation with Gallaher, the man asks about little Chandler's marriage, to which he blushes and smiles, revealing that "[he] was married for twelve months last May" (Joyce 74). At this point in the story, little Chandler is satisfied with his marriage, his wife, and the life he leads. This indicates that although later in the story Little Chandler dislikes the ways of his wife, Annie, it would be logical to infer that at one point Little Chandler, at the very least, tolerated her primacy . This only begins to change when Little Chandler feels that Gallaher is protecting him and that he wishes to "justify himself in some way, to assert his manhood" (76). This claim manifests itself in a misogynistic way. He begins to lust after “exotic” women, finding them exciting solely for this “exotic” nature. Just as the Eternal Feminine is a standard that can never be met, Little Chandler's standards are similar. He must have, at some point, been attracted to Annie for some reason to marry and start a family with her, so his preference for women changes from a woman like Annie, who is white, well-groomed and clean-cut. woman in her fantasies. , Jewish, exotic and rich. It is just as likely that if Little Chandler had married a Jewish woman, he would also have found her wanting at the end of "Little Cloud" because she would not have been a woman like Annie: white, neat and decent. . He wanted a woman like Annie and married her, but later became unhappy with her lack of passion and his standards could not be met: he looked coldly into the photograph's eyes and they responded coldly. Certainly, they were pretty and the face itself was pretty. But he found something nasty there. Why was it so unconscious and feminine? The calmness of the eyes irritated him. They pushed him away and challenged him: there was neither passion nor rapture in them. He thought about what Gallaher had said about rich Jewish women. These dark oriental eyes, he thought, how full of passion, of voluptuous desire they are! …Why had he married his eyes in the photo? (78). Additionally, little Chandler's idea of ​​a perfect woman harms his relationship with his wife and with his infant son, as he allows his conception of the ideal woman to breed resentment in him when he finds that his wife doesn't meet his standards. . Little Chandler's resentment grows when he thinks he's stuck in a marriage that has left him stagnating, but even more so, married to a woman who isn't exotic. He racializes a Jewish woman's features, particularly her eyes, and begins to lust after those features in particular. By creating the image of the perfect Jewish woman based solely on racialized characteristics, Little Chandler sets himself up for disappointment when women in the real world do not conform and look exactly like the image he created in his head. Just as the Eternal Feminine and the concept of perfect femininity can only harm women when they fail to achieve it, lusting after and idealizing women of color based on stereotypes and racialized characteristics cannot fail women in question only when they look or behave differently from what they are. was assumed from them. We can only deduce that if Little Chandler met a Jewish woman and she,.