Abstract

In her book Feminist Stylistics, Sara Mills (1995) argues that characters in texts are not simulacra of humans. They are merely words which represent men and women in accordance with stereotypes that are found in society. This study takes up D.  Lessing’s short story A Woman on a Roof (1963/1990) and looks at the characterisation in it by using Mills’ model (1995) at the level of discourse. The aim of the study is to find out whether the representation of male and female characters in this story is gendered or not. The results of the study show that female characters are represented negatively while the male characters are represented positively. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that these representational practices need to change in order to bring about a change in the thinking of the people.

Key Words

Feminist Stylistics, Gender, Stereotypes, Characters.

Introduction

The term Feminist Stylistics was first used by Sara Mills in 1995. It is a theory that explores the relationship between language and gender in different literary and non-literary texts. It provides tools to uncover bias against women. It provides a method of analysis which identifies itself as feminist and which uses linguistic tools to uncover underlying agenda in different texts. According to Mills (1995) we need to read texts suspiciously because language in any text is not simply a tool for the expression of ideas; rather it is an entity that may and can shape ideas by itself.

In Chapter six of her book, Mills (1995) proposes that texts should be analysed at the level of discourse. Her purpose is to connect the word and the phrase with a “larger notion of ideology” (Mills, 1995: 123). Mills (1995:123) suggests that the analysis of discourse should be made with regard to gender as “discourse is profoundly gendered”. She also claims that the characters used in different texts carry gender ideology. She asserts that while constructing their characters, the writers make their linguistic choices in connection with gender stereotypes. Normally, it is assumed that the writers imitate real human beings to create their characters.  This assumption is completely rejected by Mills (1995). She asserts that characters are not “simulacra of humans” (p: 123). She views characters as nothing more than words that are constructed and understood on the basis of different stereotypes that exist about men and women in society. In this way, Mills (1995) finds that characterisation, language, and gender are interconnected. 

In the modern world, our actions and thinking are greatly influenced by the characters in different literary forms like poetry, drama, novel, and short fiction. Among these forms, the short story holds a prominent position. It is a very popular form today due to its shortness. Any short story is based upon a few characters. These fictional and imagined characters are constructed in such a way that readers start thinking that they are real; they start identifying themselves with these characters. The readers want to act and behave like the characters that they have read about. That is why it is extremely important to examine these characters to discover if they carry gender ideology as claimed by Mills (1995). Feminist Stylistics provides us with such tools that could uncover the hidden bias in characterisation. This study analyses different characters in A Woman on a Roof (1963/1990), a short story by Doris Lessing, from the perspective of feminist stylistics. It aims to discover whether or not the characterisation in the story is gendered, whether or not the characterisation is informed by stereotypical knowledge about men and women, whether or not there is any bias involved in the production of male and female characters. It also attempts to learn about the representational practices used in short fiction. 

Literature Review

The relationship between language and gender is an interesting and important area for researchers today. Initially, the researchers worked on the distinguishing traits of women’s speech and writing (Coates, 1996; Flynn, 1988; Lakoff, 1975; Rubin & Greene, 1992; Tannen, 1990; Taylor, 1978; West, 1984).  However, in recent years, the research on the distinguishing traits of women’s language has given way to research on the language used to describe women. Now, researchers are more interested in exploring the representation of women in different texts. Siddiqui (2014: 88-97) collects a number of jokes which represent women negatively. There are too many jokes about wives in which wives are presented as boring, talkative, irrational, petty, curious and troublesome. Similarly, there are other jokes which make fun of mother-in-law, presenting her as a prying and cruel creature. Contrastingly, men are given the positive attributes of innocence, wisdom, and helplessness.

Research also shows that women are presented negatively in children’s books as well. Frawley (2008) took a bunch of students and asked them to listen to an audiotape of two Caldecott Award-winning books. After some time all the children were required to reproduce what they had listened. Frawley (2008) found that the students distorted the story to fit into their gender schema. It is clearly shown that children have the dangerous tendency of misinterpreting and distorting characters in children’s stories so that they conform to their conventional gender schema.

Another domain where women have been represented negatively is that of fairy-tales. Siddiqui (2014) shows that in a number of fairy tales, women are completely absent. Siddiqui (2014) links this fictitious exclusion of females with the literal exclusion of females in real life. Siddiqui (2014) also claims that the male characters are represented positively; they are presented as powerful, agile and dominant. However, female characters are described as sentimental, weak, irksome, and wicked. Similarly, women are associated with unprofitable professions like making brooms and baskets and spinning wheels. All the profitable professions are controlled by men. Similarly, males are the saviours while females are saved. Not only that, the hero saves a girl and marries her as a reward for his bravery. 

Print and electronic media are very important elements of today’s world. Media actively participate in the construction and perpetuation of gender stereotypes. According to Renzetti and Curran (2002: 146), a quick glance at the print news media can tell you that this is a patriarchal world in which we live. They hold that the feminine activities are not treated as news; women are placed at a secondary section of the paper. Similarly, cosmetic advertisements present women in negative colours. Wykes and Gunter (2005) observe that in the early 20th century, the advertisers propagated the ideal image of a woman; thus ordinary women were made to realise that they were imperfect. The solution for this imperfection was to use a particular product. In this way, Wykes and Gunter (2005: 43) assert, women “were asked to buy themselves”.

With the advent of Mills’ Feminist Stylistics in 1995, many researchers started using it as a tool to investigate the representation of women in different texts. Ruth Page (2010) looks at the potential of feminist stylistics for exploring gender politics which works in different online texts. The online text which she selects for her study is a sex blog by Zoe Margolis. According to Page (2010), the author of the blog claims a feminist stance for her work, but deep scrutiny of the language which is used for sexual experience suggests that this feminist stance has its limitations. The woman is presented as “the acted upon participant” by the verbs which Margolis uses for sex acts (p. 81). Similarly, Margolis’ discourse of feminist deliverance is very limited; it fails to handle many oppressive sexual practices which are used in the real world (p. 81). Through this analysis, Page (2010) demonstrates that feminist stylistics is very useful as a tool to analyse different texts (p. 81). 

Ufot (2012) highlights the importance and timelessness of feminist stylistics by analysing two novels: Pride and Prejudice (1813/1981) by Jane Austin and The General’s Wife (1991) by Hume-Sotomi. According to Ufot (2012) feminist stylistics uses the concepts of literary and linguistic theories to provide a feminist interrogation of texts. It is a systemic method for the analysis of a text which uncovers issues of sexism through the examination of words, sentences, and discourse. It brings forth the relationship between linguistic patterns and power, especially the way language is used for the domination women in texts. Ufot’s (2012) study shows that both novels use feminist lexico-grammatical tropes to highlight the rejection of male stereotypes. By doing so, they highlight the continuity and timelessness of feminist stylistics as these works were written in two different ages.     

Another application of feminist stylistics on the genre of the novel comes from Sara Khazai, Beyad, and Sabbagh (2016). They make a feminist stylistic analysis of discourse and power relations in Gaskel’s North and South (1854/2012) by using speech act theory. The study shows that “despite the period’s very strict codes of conduct and etiquette governing women’s behaviour and interactions with the opposite sex, they nevertheless found ways and means of manipulating language to control situations in an intelligent fashion and maintain power” (p. 7). The analysis of the conversational interactions between the main characters of the novel reveals that “the female character actually creates an opacity of link between discourse and ideology, thus empowering herself and naturalizing her ideology for the male to make it seem common-sense” (p. 9). 

Arikan (2016) uses feminist stylistics to analyse fairy tales. She chooses Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber (1981) for her study. It is a collection of rewritten fairy tales which are based upon traditional ones. The analysis is made at three different levels, as proposed by Mills (1995). Arikan (2016: 129) finds that in these stories Carter (1981) topples the age-old gender ideologies and stereotypes. Arikan (2016: 129) adds that Carter (1981) realises the power of language in producing sexism and deconstructs the sexist themes in traditional fairy tales by providing alternative tales. Thus Carter (1981) constructs a new system in which females are powerful, brave, cruel and even evil”. Arikan (2016) concludes that both Mills (1995) and Carter (1981) have the same objective. 

Another interesting study in this regard is carried out by Nur Syuhada Mohd Radzi (2017). She looks at the relationship between cosmetic names and gender stereotypes by using Mills’ (1995) model at the levels of word and clause. The study examines the way advertisers exploit language to represent women. Radzi (2017) finds that women are described negatively in these names. The names of different cosmetics highlight stereotypical female traits and male dominance. According to Radzi (2017: 35), advertisers are “propagators of gender ideologies”. She believes that women will always be occupying a secondary role in society if the advertising practices are not changed.  

In another research, Al-Nakeeb (2018) looks at the use of fragmentation in a Yemeni novel. The analysis makes use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study finds that male and female bodies are equally fragmented in the novel. However, male and female characters are represented differently. Female characters are constructed with regard to their beauty and sexuality; contrarily, the male characters are presented with the help of their colour, physical deficiencies, skills, personality features, and their social and physical power. In a similar study, Al-Nakeeb and Mufleh (2018) take up three Yemeni novels and look at the collocations and collocational networks of characters in these novels. They conclude that all the male characters along with one female character are cheerful, expressive and lively. However, most of the female characters are presented as victims; they are depicted as unimportant and dependent upon others.

Asmat Sheikh, Fatima Ali, Nazia Suleman, Hira Ali and Hanvia Munir (2019) investigate the representation of women in Pakistani short fiction. By using Mills’ (1995) model of analysis, they find that male Pakistani writers are more sexist in their vocabulary when they depict female characters. This sexism is evident in the naming practices: the names of female characters are either derived from male names or they are based on the physical features of females, like their beauty. The jokes used in the stories also show sexism. These jokes make fun of female bodies. The conversation between male characters shows that females are considered to be “male property and their bodies are objects for verbal denigration” (p. 26). However, such sexism is not to be found in the stories penned by female writers. 

Methodology

The text selected for this research paper is A Woman on a Roof (Lessing, 1963/1990). In her book, Feminist Stylistics, Mills (1995) proposes three different levels for analysing texts: word, phrase/sentence, and discourse. In this research paper, the analysis is carried out at the level of discourse only. 

The study uses the following toolkit extracted from Mills’ Feminist Stylistics (1995).




Gender Roles

The society expects men and women to perform different roles. That is why different texts present women as housewives and men as workers. It is thought that women can only take care of their husbands, wash dishes, clean the house, cook a meal and rear children. In case, they are shown as working women, they are given only insignificant jobs: teachers, office secretaries, air hostesses, etc. All the profitable jobs are reserved for men.




Fragmentation

Fragmentation is a technique that is often employed in pornographic texts. The female is looked at not as a unified being but as a collection of different parts. The focus remains on her hips, legs, breasts, back, cheeks, lips, etc. Fragmentation is responsible for a number of effects. Firstly, the female character is depersonalised and action cannot be described through her viewpoint. Thus the female experience is completely ignored. Another effect of fragmentation is that it arouses males’ sexual desires. So, the female is looked at as an object for the satisfaction of males’ sexual desires.




Description of Body Parts 

According to Mills (1995) in the case of male characters, the focus remains on their head, hair, and eyes. They are described in terms of their overall size. But the female characters are portrayed, usually, through their lower body parts. 




Description of Clothing

Mills (1995) observes that clothes are used to produce a certain image in readers’ minds. For example, the leather jacket suggests strength and polished shoes evoke a sophisticated personality (p. 125). Contrary to this, women’s clothing suggests sexuality, beauty and tenderness. 




Cataloguing

Cataloguing refers to the fact that language provides numerous terms for the description of women. For example, the words blonde, brunette, redhead and auburn are used to describe women on the basis of their hair colour. These terms are not only used to depict a character, they are also used to connote sexual availability and beauty. 




Objectification/Sex Objects

In romantic literature, different parts of women’s bodies are compared with lifeless objects. Such a comparison with lifeless things depersonalises women; they assume the characteristics of these objects. They become inactive and inanimate like those objects with which they are compared. When they are objectified, they are thought to be an object for the sexual gratification of men. 




Passivity

If we look at the actions which are performed by both male and female characters, we find that females are presented as inactive while males are shown to be active, energetic and vibrant. Males are depicted as the doers and women as the recipient of actions performed by their male counterparts. 

The text of the story would be scrutinised closely, looking at the linguistic choices made by the writer in the construction of different characters because as discussed above, characters are nothing but words. The above-mentioned toolkit would be used to bring out the representational practices used in the production of these characters. 

Discussion

This section analyses the story, A Woman on a Roof (1963/1990), in accordance with the methodology described above. 

The first point which catches reader’s attention is the presentation of traditional gender roles in the story. All the female characters serve as typical housewives. It is their job to be within the house, performing household chores. There is no outside activity for them. The main female character in the story, named as the women, does nothing except lying on the roof and tanning her body. She only smokes cigarettes and kills time by reading newspapers. Another female character, Mrs Pritchett is also a housewife. She remains within her house and even does not want to go on the roof of her house. It is due to this reason that Stanley appreciates her as he does not want any freedom or exposure for women. She provides shade to the three men by giving them a blanket. This shade or blanket is symbolic of relief which men expect from women. It is one of the typical roles of women to provide relief to men working outside. Another nameless woman in the story is managing her household. She is shown watering a yellow window box. In contrast, the male characters are out of their houses, working and earning for their families. They are sanitary workers. They are busy replacing guttering on the roofs. Another male character, Mrs Pritchett’s husband is airline pilot. Thus traditional gender roles are upheld in the story.

The writer has used fragmentation for describing female characters in the story. However, the bodies of the three male characters are not that much fragmented; they are presented as having whole bodies. There are very few references which the narrator makes about the parts of male bodies. Thus, it is the male point of view that is presented in the story. However, the body of the nameless heroine is completely fragmented; she is objectified for the male eyes. All the parts of her body are foregrounded: eyes, thighs, breasts, buttocks, face, hands, chin, legs and arms. The parts of her body are mentioned forty-seven times. Thus, she is depersonalised and her point of view cannot be described in the story.

Connected with fragmentation is the issue of the description of body parts. Mills (1995) says that there is a difference in the description of the body parts of men and women; women’s legs and sexual organs are focused while men’s upper body is described. In this story, women are described through their lower and sexual parts; the focus is on their legs, breasts and back: “her breasts” (p. 110), “a flushed solid back” (p. 110), “the legs” (p. 111), “the women’s legs” (p. 112), “her hips” (p. 113), “her legs” (p. 112), “her back” (p. 113) “her buttocks” (p. 113), “Her legs” (p. 117), “her breasts” (p. 117), “her back, her thighs and her arms” (p. 118). But in case of men, it is their upper and front body which receives all the attention: “the men in vests, with reddening shoulders” (p. 112), “His sun-heated face” (p. 112), and “Stanley’s face was hard” (p. 113). One interesting point in this regard is that different parts of the heroine’s body are referred to as if they were persons in themselves. They are detached from the woman’s personality. Look at the use of definite article instead of the possessive pronoun in the following example: “the legs did not move” (p. 111). Similarly, her back is also treated as a person: “he enquired of her glistening back” (p. 117). Thus it seems that the woman did not have legs but the legs had the woman. It shows that men are interested in the parts of a woman’s body and not the woman herself. 

The description of clothing is a very important aspect of characterisation. It often supports the gender stereotypes which are prevalent in society. In this story, we find that men’s clothing shows their strength and elegance while women’s clothing highlights their sexuality, casualness and beauty. The pieces of clothes which the woman is wearing are those which satisfy men’s sexual desires. The first item that is mentioned is a scarf which she uses as a brazier (p. 110). This scarf is again mentioned more explicitly when the narrator says that she “wore a red scarf tied around her breasts and brief red bikini pants” (p. 110). When her dressing is mentioned again, even the word pants diminishes into “scarlet triangle on her buttocks” (emphasis added; p. 113). Even when she is shown to be wearing clothes, she is wearing casual clothes, like a “white dressing gown” (emphasis added; p. 113). When Tom imagines being with the woman, she is wearing “a black filmy negligée” (emphasis added; p. 114). Again the emphasis is on casualness and sexuality. The next reference to her dressing shows her in “white gown” (p. 114). Near the end of the story, it is again a scarf that foregrounds her sexuality; this scarf has bound her breasts tight and “brown flesh bulged around it” (p. 117). The dressing of other female characters in the story also focuses on their beauty or sexuality: the middle-aged nameless woman is wearing a “flowered summer dress” (p. 114). Similarly, the legs of the women sitting on the roofs are “stockingless” (p. 112). In contrast to women’s dressing, men’s dressing shows either their formality or strength, but not beauty and sexuality. The men sitting in the sun are wearing “vests” (p. 112). They are again shown wearing “shirtsleeves or vests” (p. 114). Similarly, in the beginning, the three men are wearing “coats” (p. 110). They are wearing “thick socks and boots” (p. 110). As the story progresses, the reference is again made to the boots of these three men: “their big boots” (p. 112). Use of the adjective big suggests strength. These men take off “their shirts and vests” to “expose their chests” (p. 114). Shirts and vests suggest formality and strength. So, the difference is quite evident. In case of women, the dressing evokes beauty, casualness and sexual desires while in case of men, it suggests strength and formality.  

Connected with clothes is the idea of nakedness. The word naked is used again and again for the woman: “stark naked” (p. 110), “nearly naked woman” (p. 111), “naked” (p. 111), “all naked” (p. 113), “nearly-naked woman” (p. 117). Thus, the word naked is used five times for the woman. The point here is that this word is never used for men. Even when they take off their shirts and vests, they are not called naked or nearly naked, unlike the woman; they are said to have “exposed their chests” only (p. 114). Thus, when the males take off their clothes, the word expose is used for them but for females the word is naked. It seems that clothes are more important for women than for men; the absence of clothes is nakedness for women but not for men; thus nakedness relates only to women, they can be naked or nearly naked but men are never naked even when they are not wearing clothes. 

Cataloguing has also been used in the story. Women are described through their body colour and hair colour. The elaborate use of colour for women contrasts with the lack of colour for men. The nameless woman is described in the beginning as having “black hair” (p. 110). The colour of her hair is mentioned again at two occasions: “her black hair” (p. 117), “her black hair” (p. 118). Although the word Brunette is not used explicitly by the writer, the focus on the blackness of hair suggests the same word. In contrast to this woman, Mrs Pritchett is described as “a smart blond” (p. 115). Thus the two women are distinguished on the basis of their hair colour. Another way of cataloguing women is through the colour of their skin. Again, we see that the narrator uses different colours to describe the skin of the female characters: “she was white, flushing red” (p. 110), the men could see “two pink legs” (p. 111), “a scarlet and white woman” (p. 111), “a brown woman” (p. 111), “healthy brown woman” (p. 112), “a brown woman” (p. 115), “her brown shoulders” (p. 116), “brown flesh” (p. 117), “Her legs were brown” (p. 117). Similarly, the women who had come to sun themselves had “scarlet legs” (p. 112).  So, nine references are made to the colour of women’s bodies. In contrast, there is only one reference to the colour of men’s body: “the men in vests with reddening shoulders” (p. 112). At other times, when colour is associated with men, it is to describe their emotions and not bodies: “He felt her unfairness pale him” (p. 117). It is evident that the use of colour highlights women’s sexuality. Men want to categorise women in terms of their body and hair colour; it suggests the sexual availability and attractiveness of women.

Women are often thought to be consumable objects and not persons. It is clear in the naming practices which are used in the story. All the men are referred to by using their proper names: Stanley, Tom, Harry, Mathews. Only one woman is given a name, Mrs Pritchett. The heroine of the story does not receive any name from the writer. She is referred to as the woman. It is her sex which is used as her identity. That is how the males look at the woman; for men, the most important thing about a woman is that she is a woman. This lack of identity makes her an object, an object to be used by the eyes of men. Again this objectification of the female character results in her voicelessness- the story cannot be focalized from her perspective. The male characters are treated as humans and not as objects and due to that reason, focalization keeps with them. That is why the narrator is omniscient and limited simultaneously; the omniscience of the narrator is in operation when it comes to the male characters; the narrator takes us into their minds and tells us what they are thinking and feeling. However, the inner world of the women is left without any comment. We do not know what is going on in their minds and hearts. Particularly, the nameless woman is presented from outside only, through what others think about her. By excluding female thoughts from the story, the narrator suggests that a woman has no thoughts; she does not have any other aspect of her personality except how she looks like. She is only an inanimate object to be looked at and either appreciated or depreciated. That is why the major characters in the story are either the lookers at or the looked at. Quite obviously, Lookers at are male characters while the looked at is a female character. Thus, the female body is used as an object for male gaze. 

Although all three men look at the woman as an object to be controlled or to be had, it is Tom, the youngest in age, who looks at the woman as a sex object. When he looks at the half-naked woman, he is “excited and grinning” (p. 110).The narrator says that Tom’s “mind was full of the nearly naked woman” (p. 111). It is her nakedness which he is after; he catches her when she is rolling down her pants (p. 111). She looks like “a poster, or a magazine cover” to him (p. 112). Here he objectifies the woman by comparing her with lifeless objects: a poster and a magazine cover. He wants to possess this object. He finds that there is a huge crane at work behind the woman. He wants to pick the woman through that crane and drop her near him (p. 112). Thus, he wants to own her by sheer force, treating her like an object to be picked. Last night, he had dreamt that he was treated tenderly by her. He starts hoping that he would be invited into her house. As she is a very precious object for him, so he does not want to share her with anyone else. He already starts possessing her as when he cannot find her on the roof, he feels that she “betrayed” him by her absence (p. 114). He had again imagined that he was invited into the woman’s house and she had been kind to him (p. 113). When he comes to know she had hidden from them, he is delighted because he thinks that “she was more his when the other men couldn’t see her” (p. 115). Having thus possessed her imaginatively, he starts thinking about possessing her sexually. So, as soon as he finds an opportunity, he approaches the woman. But he is disappointed to know that the woman did not have any feelings for him. Now, panic sets upon him because he had daydreamt that “she had held him in her arms, stroked his hair, brought him where he sat, lordly, in her bed, a glass of some exhilarating liquor” (p. 115). From these images, it is quite obvious that he wants to use the woman for his sexual gratification. But when the woman refuses to be possessed, he starts hating her. (p. 118). It is clear that his love depended only upon sexual desires. As soon as she rejects his desires, his love turns to hatred. 

Another thing which can be observed is that the male characters are shown working actively while the female characters are shown to be passive.  All the significant actions are performed by the male characters in the story; they are the doers. On the other hand, the half-naked woman only receives the actions. The men scream, yell, and stare at her; they even approach her, they annoy her in every possible way. Contrary to them, the woman does nothing at all. She can only hide from them. So, men act and the woman receives. 

Conclusion

The research paper aimed at analysing characterisation in a short story A Woman on a Roof (Lessing, 1963/1990) by applying Mills’ (1995) Feminist Stylistics at the level of discourse. The toolkit used for analysis comprised of fragmentation, gender roles, description of body parts, clothing, cataloguing, objectification and passivity. The analysis shows that women are represented negatively in the story. Women are shown to be sitting within their houses: they are housewives. On the other hand, men are shown to be working actively outside their houses. Secondly, women’s bodies are extremely fragmented, while men’s bodies are not that fragmented. This fragmentation results in sexuality. This sexuality is quite evident in the description of the body parts of the females as well. Women’s breasts, legs and back are focussed while men’s upper and front parts are described. Similarly, clothing leads towards the sexuality of the female characters; male characters’ clothing shows their elegance, strength and formality, all the positive attributes. The idea of nakedness is also related with females only; it seems that the absence of clothes results in nakedness for females but not for males. Cataloguing has also been used in case of female characters. Similarly, women are looked at as objects for the sexual satisfaction of men. Women have no identity in the story. Their only identity is their sex. Thus they are depersonalised. Moreover, the female characters are passive recipients of actions committed by the male characters. Men act and women receive passively.

The analysis unravels the negative representational practices used for describing female characters in the story. One can argue that the writer has done so for the sake of realism. However, Mills (1995) rejects this argument by saying that the characters are not the “simulacra of human” (p. 123). These characters are created and received in accordance with stereotypical ideas found about men and women in a particular society. Thus there is no realism in the description of the characters. Another point can be raised here that the writer may have presented these characters in this way deliberately in order to satirise the male characters. The question arises that whether such satire results in correction or it furthers the same stereotypes which are satirised. If the readers are made to imagine a woman with pink legs, breasts, hips, buttocks and back, it will surely satisfy the lust of the male characters as well as the male readers. Notice the zest which is found in the following image: “The scarf across her breasts bound them tight, and brown flesh bulged around it. Her legs were brown and smooth” (p. 117). Thus, even if the purpose of the writer is to satirise men, she is still furthering the same old practices. 

Such negative representational practices need to change. In order to change, these practices must be pointed out. Thus, feminist stylistics can be and should be used to uncover such practices in different literary and non-literary texts. 

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