I was going to make this a comment in Zoe's post just below, but it got lengthy enough to merit its own post. I strongly recommend reading that one before this one. Here goes!
As Zoe said, the biggest flaw in the fairy tale part of our Old Woman Magoun presentation was the prince archetype, cause it definitely wasn't really there. We saw the lack of the prince too, and the fact that it's mostly absent is actually an important thing to consider when contemplating the themes of the story. Men are painted in a completely negative light throughout the tale, not just through Magoun's opinions but also by the male character's personalities themselves, as Freeman described them to us. If there was a prince at all (when Lily was first attracted to and comforted by the stranger) he was abruptly and somewhat cynically transformed into a predator hunting for innocent Lily, which further stressed just how bad men are supposed to be. But then at the very end of the story, it's only the biggest male enemy, Nelson Barry himself, who screams for someone to help his dying daughter. So what could Freeman really be saying about gender roles? Assuming she doesn't agree with the evil step-mother that all men are nothing but wolves, what part of the binary is Freeman really mocking, if she is?
While there's never an answer that's more right than the other, it could be argued that Freeman really means to make Magoun the bad guy by the end, maybe even the only bad guy in the whole story. She's judgmental, probably uneducated, and a very masculine woman in her assertiveness, which is usually considered a negative trait during the period the story was set in. She controls Lily, not allowing her to be married and lose her innocence and childlike charm simply because she doesn't trust the men around her. She claims the right to choose whether Lily lives or dies, and carries out her execution. I don't think that Freemen is simply taking a shot at woman instead of men, because that's definitely not the case. Maybe she's just criticizing hypocrites.
I think that Freeman is just commenting on how Magoun's solution to the problem was not correct. It is a criticism of the "radical feminism." She believes there should have been another option other than killing Lily. Magoun truly believed that all men were horrible, and could not bear the thought of letting her daughter, or her granddaughter, grow up to live with one. While some men were certainly corrupt, like Nelson Barry trying to trade his daughter for a card debt, they are not all bad, and Magoun was incorrect to assume that. Therefore I believe that Freeman is criticizing intolerance, for both genders.
ReplyDeleteI think the ending can be interpreted in different ways. First of all, I agree with Erin that Freeman may have been attempting to critique "radical feminism". The fact that Magoun persistently feels obliged to shelter Lily from the men in the town reveals her view on the natural characteristics of men. Because all of the men in the story share these same "evil" qualities, according to Magoun, I think that there can be no prince in this fairy-tale comparison.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in a contrasting approach, I think that Freeman may have been trying to say something else. Personally, after rereading the story, when Magoun took Lily's life, I was relieved. Although by no means was this the only option for Magoun, I think that Freeman wanted to imply that message. Her death may be seen as an atrocity, but her life would have been much worse under Mr. Willis. She recognized this, and consequentially, took Lily's life.
In conclusion, I do not think that Freeman was necessarily only critiquing "radical feminists" or men. I think the best view for this is one like Erin's, that Freeman was recognizing the intolerance of both genders.