Within the play ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, Webster presents a strong female that defies the norms of femininity. The Women’s Liberation Movement changed the expectations of women in society from the ‘traditional expectations’ that would have been seen in the era that ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ was set in. As a result of the second wave of feminism, women were more outspoken while campaigning for different rights, in 1967, this campaigning brought the legalisation of the contraceptive pill and abortions to all women allowing them sexual freedom and gave them the opportunity to broaden their aspirations far beyond motherhood and marriage. This patriarchal view and expectations for women endure and can be seen explored by Fowles in ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ since it is a novel written in the late 20th century but set in the 19th. Women were expected to be loyal and submissive towards their husbands. Jacobeans believed that women were chattels a possession of their fathers until married and chaste virgins upon marriage, then owned by their husbands much like any inheritable objects. Women in the bible are often described as a wife, daughters, or a concubine of the male characters. Indeed, the predominantly male images of God and the absence of powerful women seem to support this. Male dominance possibly could have been invoked through the representation of men in the Bible.
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