Parallels between Real and Fictional Women’s Modes of Resistance to Injustice and Oppression
Parallels between Real and Fictional Women’s Modes of Resistance to Injustice and Oppression

Summary/Abstract: The position of women in society has always been a sensitive topic as women have had to fight for their rights and recognition for centuries and this fight, evidently, has not reached its (happy) end yet. There were many rules, norms and laws limiting the rights and roles of women in families and in society, in general, determining every aspect of the society and its hierarchy and thus, making women’s lives insecure. In adopting a comparative approach, the paper aims at deciphering and identifying any inclinations to or attempts at resistance against the injustice that was generally accepted as natural, and against the long-established and deeply rooted stereotypes. To this purpose, it presents the fictional world of literature represented by the works of Jane Austen, more particularly by the way her fictional female characters inhabiting the English countryside struggled with the hardships brought upon them by the rules and limitations women were subject to in the real world and Austen’s attempts at slipping in her own standpoints, which often did not conform with the generally accepted rules and views. This fictional world is then confronted with the real-world and personal experience of the writer Beatrix Potter who, though of a younger generation, had to fight hard for her personal and professional independence and recognition. The findings are briefly supported by references to other female writers by emphasizing the similarities in their lives.

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