While in America, the influence of Victorian period on the lifestyle, culture, religion and other aspects on America is addressed as the Victorian
America. According to victorian-era.org, The Civil War in America was responsible for bringing about a change in the American culture. The impact of
the Victorian culture can be clearly seen after the Civil War. Some of the popular cities with the influence of Victorian values related to the forms of the buildings
in America are Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, Albany and some areas of Brooklyn http:www.victorian-era.orgvictorian-era-america.html 20 November 2016.
D. Theoretical Framework
The researcher studies about the gender stereotypes experienced by Eva as a woman in Tillie Olsen’s short story “Tell Me a Riddle”. The purpose of this
undergraduate thesis is to answer the problems formulated in the previous part .
Thus, the study of the related theories and studies will be taken as a data to solve the problems
. The researcher uses library research to gather the data and uses liberal feminism approach as the topic is related to how women are treated and
expected to be in the 1950s – 1960s.
First, the researcher uses the theory of liberal feminism as a foundation to view the whole short story, especially on how women are being treated
. Then, the researcher shows how Eva is portrayed as a woman, a housewife, and a mother in
the society with the theory of gender hierarchy and liberal feminism perspectives .
The theory of gender hierarchy is also used to see Eva’s position in the society. This enables the researcher to answer the first problem
.
To answer the second the second problem, the researcher relates Eva’s
conditions in the story with the theory of women as angels and monsters . This
then gives clearer information on how women are basically categorized or stereotyped as angels and monsters
. After that, the researcher ’s analysis on Eva’s
reaction gives better idea on which group she belongs to according to those categorizations
. However, there is a slight reminder that Gilbert and Gubar themselves also mention that these categories do not accurately describe women
.
19
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this research is “Tell Me a Riddle”, a short story written by
Tillie Olsen. It was published as a part of a four story collection in 1961. Tell Me
a Riddle served as the main title of that collection. The research is about gender stereotypes as experienced by Eva, the main woman character in the short story.
This short story consists of 116 pages. As i t received the 1961
O. Henry Award,
Tell Me a Riddle has been called a powerful study of the politics of voice, an American Classic, and described as beautifully crafted and painfully
real in the issues of family that it raises” as a whole collection. The version used for this research is the Dell-Laurel Edition published in 1976 by Dell Publishing
Co., Inc. This version of Tell Me a Riddle consists of 125 pages in total and the short story “Tell Me a Riddle” alone consists of 54 pages.
As mentioned, the story focuses on the marriage of an aging Russian
immigrant couple named Eva and David. As the story took place in the 1950s –
1960s, after the big depression, women’s roles are not that big in the society. The society thinks that women should focus on taking care of the family and their
houses as the men and boys were sent to wars. In the story, Eva becomes a housewife and she falls into the gender stereotyping on how a woman is expected
to be after she gets married. The story then tells about Eva’s struggle to deal with
the stereotypes as a woman in the society.
B. Approach of the Study
To analyze the short story, the researcher uses the liberal feminist approach
.
According to Madsen, this approach concerns with gender justice as second-wave feminism started to take place in the twentieth century. Liberal
Feminists believe that women must maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. They also argue that society holds the false belief that women
are lower than men 2003: 8. Basically, liberal feminists refuses to accept the
thought that men and women are not equal despite the fact that they are biologically different. Liberal feminists also believe that women can make their
own choices and those choices represents their freedom. Women are considered as free if they are able to choose and not being told what to do,
This approach is the most suitable because the short story itself has a woman as the heroine and it happened in the 1950s-1960s
.
From the explanation given, this criticism helps the researcher easier to find how Eva is portrayed as a
woman with the roles of being a housewife and a mother. Later, her reactions to the stereotype towards her roles can also be seen as one of the results
.
Madsen also states that feminism is a social and political movement
.
Feminism is about changing the way that people see male and female rights, and campaigning for equal ones 2000: 3
.
This research then focuses on the relation between the short story and the reality happens in the society at the specific time,
the 1960s, related to the movement
.
C. Method of the Study
The method that is used to collect data for the thesis is library research
.
The study only looks from and collected from library and some from trusted web articles
.
There are two big steps taken in analyzing this research
.
First, the researcher starts with reading and understanding the whole short story
.
The second step is collecting data, references, and theories related to this short story
both from library and online sources
.
The researcher tries to find other sources and apply the theories based on the feminism perspectives
.
From the reading, the researcher is interested with how women are treated in the society during the 1950s
– 1960s
.
Thus, the feminism approach is specified into liberal feminism approach. After understanding the short story, the researcher
applies the gender hierarchy theory and finds that there is a specific standard on how women are expected to be or act since they live in a strong patriarchal society
at that time
.
Through the liberal feminism perspectives, the researcher tries to see how women are being treated during the era
.
Then, the researcher will relate Eva’s
condition with the theory of women as angels and monsters
.
From here, the researcher finds that as a woman, Eva is seen as a figure whose only duties are to
keep her husband happy and take care of the children
.
It goes accordingly to how women are expected to be during the Victorian era
.
In relation to the theory of Angels and Monsters by Gilbert and Gubar, the researcher also finds that women
