Early-Twentieth-Century Women

The time period introductions in The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women offer insightful background that is pertinent to understanding the authors’ inspiration and rationale behind their literary works. Two time period introductions that serve this purpose well are “Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” and “Early-Twentieth-Century Literature”. “Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” gives insight into how women were limited in their literary capacity as they “had to struggle against gender definitions” (Gilbert & Gubar 6). Queen Elizabeth I illustrates this in “Speech to the Troops at Tilbury” by stating, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king” (Queen Elizabeth 67). In “The Doubt of Future Foes”, she further reiterates her worthiness by convincingly declaring that her sword shall poll her enemies’ tops if one should try to usurp her power (Queen Elizabeth 66). Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance also dealt with oppression and typically lived unhappy lives. Mary Wroth’s sonnets epitomize the disheartened female that cannot even find happiness in love. “Song” compares love to “a vain thought”, a dead flower and a “causeless curse” (Wroth 1-21).
Women in this era “become ever more powerful” (Gilbert and Gubar 21) and find their true feminist voice. Virginia Woolf asserts her claim to feminist writings in “A Room of One’s Own”. She heeds the call of her time and seeks to understand the history of women and make known female predecessors’ accomplishments. Without finding any great women in the annals of history, she chooses to boldly tell others would-be women writers to form “the habit of freedom and courage to write exactly what we think” (Woolf