The Role Of Women In Female Fences, By August Wilson

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

As Rose Maxson, Viola Davis performs a powerful performance and justifies all of her sacrifices she has made for her husband. Described in the story, Troy reveals his affair with another woman as well as his child with her. In analyzing the play Fences by August Wilson, the movie is an important way to understand the emotions behind the complex marriage of Troy and Rose. There is often a disconnect between the true emotion portrayed by the characters and the dialogue in the play. It is the words of the play that do not convey the emotion. Rose’s facial expressions help to conveyed the pain in which she is feeling. As well as her facial expressions, her body language characterized the anger she had felt towards Troy. Often her true thoughts and feelings were distorted or flat in the play but they were clear in the

When Troy sheepishly says, “...we can figure it out” (Wilson, Fences, 68) when it comes to him impregnating another woman, she boldly fires back, “All of a sudden it’s ‘we.’ Where was ‘we’ at when you was down there rolling around with some god-forsaken woman? ‘We’ should have come to an understanding before you started making a damn fool of yourself.” (Wilson, Fences, 68) Rose is a strong woman whose definition of a Good Life is one dedicated to protecting her family so even though she can boldly tell Troy everything he has done wrong she still puts family first and helps raise Troy’s baby and lets Troy live in the house.

For an example in scene one, Troy had to complain to the Commissioner of the union since only white people were hired to drive the garbage trucks in town, while the African American workers have to do the difficult work of handling the labor. “You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain’t no paper job! Hell, anybody can drive a truck…” (Wilson, 1550).

‘Women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy.’ To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you are studying?

changing attitudes toward life and the other characters in the play, particularly the women; and his reflection on the

Fences, by August Wilson takes place in the 1950's; a time where gender roles where strict. Wilson sets the issues that transpire within the play in a time period that wasn’t ideal for women to speak out. The irony of the play's setting correlates to the issues that the women characters within the story face. Fences can be viewed as a one-sided male perspective that gives little acknowledgement to the woman characters. Wilson's plays have been controversial because some say that he depicts woman as subservient and subordinate. However, taking a closer look into the character of Rose, I can argue that Wilson does not paint a stereotypical depiction of woman. Instead Wilson uses the woman's sexuality, maternal instinct, and intuition, to insinuate their strength and empowerment through the woman’s actions contrary to the belief of the woman in his plays being seen as weak and voiceless.

As the roles of an African American men begin to evolve during the post-slavery time period, women’s roles remained unchanged. In this case, in August Wilson’s play Fences, Wilson’s perspective on gender roles explains the traditions of both men and women, the oppression and objectification of women, and the social roles. For instance, “Indeed, Wilson’s perspective on responsibility might appear dubious to those unfamiliar with his decidedly male ethos, which he links to the history of black male-female relations in America” (Shannon 199). Conflict arises between Troy and his family because of his representation in gender roles that were traditionally meant to play. This is the view on how Troy communicates with his wife, Rose throughout the play. Furthermore, because of the strict gender roles, Troy has a narrow view as how African Americans are being treated in the society and a tunnel view on what he believes on how the world operates.

Although Rose was able to illustrate the authority that women can have within society, Troy possessed an abrasive and caustic personality, in which he often scolded his wife, showing male dominance and patriarchy. Fences is set in the 1950s, a time in which men typically reigned over women, and that was simply the way society worked. Men typically held a majority of the authority in their households, as most of them

In the film Fences by August Wilson, the audience is presented with a country that is fast evolving, with oppression, prejudice, and poverty remaining a common factor. Most scholars argue that sexism is the dominant theme in Wilson’s plays due to the portrayal of female characters occupying the stereotypical, male-fantasized roles of the domestic, powerless, or submissive mother figure rather than an empowered, complex, or realistic woman. However, a closer review of the character of Rose in Fences shows that Wilson has not embraced these stereotypes. In fact, he has aimed at subverting them by allowing domestic behavior,

The role of the women in the play.Really isn't that many women in the play that had a big

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

Rose Maxon is the female character in the play ‘Fences’ by August Wilson. She is married to Troy Maxon and together they have a son named Cory. The play takes place in the 1950s and it focuses on racism, oppression, family problems, unity, and infidelity. Particularly Rose, who is a Black woman in the 50s, without an education, a housewife, and is expected to behave as the caretaker for everyone. Rose Maxon: duties include being a mother/caretaker, house taker, wife. Puts herself aside for everyone else’s needs. She experiences the struggle and constant wariness of her family’s safety. Troy, is a garbageman who witnesses much of the racism and segregation that occurs during the 1950s. He provides for his family, and he is considered the

Shakespeare uses language to explore the controversial gender roles. His use of two distinctively opposing female

Fences took place in the 1950’s, during that time the role of women in the 1950 was repressive and constrictive in a lot of ways. Society placed a very high significance on different expectations on behavior in public as well as at home. Women were to be homemakers, caring mothers, and to be an obedient wife to their husbands. A wife was only considered a “good wife” if she did anything and everything her husband asked for and agreed with everything the man would say. This was the type of way Troy treated Rose in fences and how he thought of women and their roles. This essay will reveal the womanistic and feministic aspects that were introduced in the play. The purpose of this essay is to examine how August Wilson portrayed women in the play, to examine the themes and issues blacks dealt with in the 1950’s, to see how a female playwright might write the play differently, and to compare the roles of woman in August Wilson’s “Fences”to Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”.