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THE SKYLIGHT ROOM BY O. HENRY AND SERVANT GIRL BY ESTRELLA ALFON: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE STRUGGLES OF WOMEN IN
A MEN-DOMINATED SOCIETY
DR. LOUIE B. VILLANUEVA
Mariano Marcos State University, College of Teacher Education Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines lbvillanueva@mmsu.edu.ph
Abstract
Generally, the role of women in society is constantly questioned. For centuries,women struggled to find their place in a predominantly male-oriented world, but literature bridges a lens of how it feels to be a woman surrounded by stereotypes. It fictionalizes women's lives, ideas, and actions throughout specific periods, but it is often truthful in many ways and levels. Given the stance that literature reflects women's lives, this study, specifically in the form of comparative analysis, seeks to provide an in-depth scrutiny to showcase the hardships and struggles of women presented in the two stories, "The Skylight Room" and "Servant Girl." In the account of these works, one overlapping nature that is evident is the social condition in which both characters share the struggles of a woman living in a man-dominated society. In exploring intertextual connections and at the same time taking various points of view into account, Feminist criticism is utilized as a literary approach that is concerned with how literature and other cultural productions reinforce or determine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women; thus, these two stories are written and perceived, on this ground, to paint a picture of gender struggle.
Keywords: Feminism, Feminist Approach, Gender struggles, The Skylight Room, Servant Girl
INTRODUCTION
Essentially, literature is a mirror that reflects life and society as it deals with humans regardless of race, religion, gender identity, or age. It introduces us to a rich language, empowers us to discover a sense of self, underscoring societal problems from a critical perspective, and understands the globe and culture's value. It also enables us to see the world through the eyes of others, which enlightens the mind to be adaptable and critically reflect on opposing viewpoints, especially on crucial issues and themes. Its onset starts with the creative minds of authors who weave their outlook into works of literature.
As the saying goes, everything evolves; otherwise, it dies, and literature is no exception. It changes over time in many areas and evolves. One aspect of literature that has led to its reform is its subject, specifically how it portrays particular characterization and themes. Historically, from having men as main heroines, it gradually grew its perspective on the lives and perspectives of women but before this transpired, men dominated the focus of literature. For instance, due to unyielding roles that made men to the public sphere and women to the private sphere during the Middle Ages, this period is tagged as a patriarchal society (Stoss, 2013), emphasizing the point that in earlier centuries, literary pieces were led by male characters because they wereviewed and portrayed as solid, competitive, and courageous individuals who were skilled at concealing or controlling their emotions. On the other hand, women are stereotyped as weak, being physically inferior, smaller, more fragile, and needing assistance and guidance (OHCHR Commissioned Report, 2013).
Sparknotes (n.d.) claims that the obsession with patriarchal history pervades Beowulf, one of the oldest living works of English literature. The main characters in the story were men because they were known as brave warriors or knights who fought for their country, and women were always to be a damsel in distress. Men always had to be the heroes and save the people who were in danger. Early feminist notions, such as the right to education and the ability to exercise some legal rights,
may be seen by the 16th century, inspiring authors such as Shakespeare to portray women more
broadly. By the 18th century, one can see a rise in published female authors and more women assuming
respectable roles in literature,though not meeting today's feminist theory standards seeking ultimate equality (Arinder, n.d.).
For a long time, literary works only included biographies of men and ignored the stories of women. Because female authors were scarce, most books featured women and cast them in stereotypical roles. However, women's roles in society have changed and revitalized over time, as evidenced by recurring literature. The development reckoned from the bold beginnings of some feminist writers such as MaryWollstonecraft, who crafted one of the earliest feminist works, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.), which was published in 1792. This paved the way to other feminist writers to heighten the landscape of such theme where more crafts established their popularity like The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
By the twentieth century, feminism-driven changes such as rewriting literature guided by feminist literary criticism became more accessible. They touched a considerable number of readers, even in novels that were considered groundbreaking at their publication (Purdue Writing Lab (n.d.). Intrinsically, "The Skylight Room" by O. Henry and "Servant Girl" by Estrella Alfon are two exemplifications of the apparent evolution. In a nutshell, both literary works are about a woman's life, depicting hardships and struggles. The two stories define societal realities in which the less fortunate are mocked by the affluent. In "The Skylight Room", Miss Leeson is a typist who rents a room in Mrs. Parker's boarding house. In this room, she can see a star named Billy Jackson, which serves as her source of hope.
Meanwhile, Rosa, the protagonist in "Servant Girl," is a young woman living a miserable life as a servant. Her fantasies are seen in how she believes that the 'angel' who once saved her romantically sees her. This shows that Rosa never really knows what kindness is, which only leads her to be broken, baffled, and severed.
Hence, this study will closely examine literary texts in the theory that these texts will reveal the same gender and social issues in all societies. Furthermore, how the focus of literature shifted over time. With the utilization of Feminism criticism this paper will examine various determining factors that have shaped social reality and aspects that are existent to substantiate grounds. This study must address how social institutions condition people to live and behave in specific ways by employing said literary theory.
Two Authors' Overlapping Influence
People are influenced by the world which reiterates that fundamental reality that literature is influenced by the environment, the society, experiences and the historical frames of the world. O. Henry and Alfon's literary works have features that depict societal issues such as poverty, involvement of history, psychological issues, and feminism that carry out as a reflection of their personal accounts, encounters and empirical observations. Personal Encounters into Writings
The two authors' experiences served as one of their grounds in writing but varied in how they inscribed and weaved these details into their papers. The experiences molded the direction in pinpointing the theme, sketching the characters, illustrating the setting, and strategizing the plot. The essence of involving experiences in writing can be exemplified as a source of ideas and path for writers that were both depicted by the two authors.
Initially, O. Henry moved to New York, where his most intensive writing period occurred, and successfully wrote almost 400 short stories. His tales romanticized the commonplace — particularly the life of ordinary people in New York City. His perspective of scrutinizing these fellows inspired O. Henry to creatively portray them in his piece, including the life of Miss Leeson as a typist in the same city (Britanica, 2021).
Moreover, as illustrated in the story, Miss Leeson is a hardworking freelancer, which is parallel to O. Henry's experience. He explored life into earning an amount by working multiple jobs such as clerk, bookkeeper, assistant draftsman, bank teller, and even cartoonist as a side job. With these opportunities and events in his life, he delivered his way of inscribing his experiences through the character of Ms. Leeson. The adventures of O. Henry are the reincarnation of the stance of Ms. Leeson
and provide a preview of the reality that his life was not easy at all. He needed to work several jobs to meet halfway through his everyday life, similar to how Ms. Leeson strived hard to better her life, regardless of the difficulties she encountered as an applicant and a worker.
Similarly, Alfon's writing style was inspired by the experiences, not only hers but all the experiences that occurred during the Japanese occupation in her country, the Philippines, which led her to create the short stories and other plays. Since Alfon was one writer who unashamedly drew from her own real-life experiences, she typically integrates the first-person narrator as "Estrella" or "Esther. But for "Servant Girl," the story wasn't explicit enough to discuss its historical and sociological inspirations but based on some elements and salient details; some hints offer a considerable gist. The story's setting occurs in the mistress' house and along an unspecified road where some tarnilla are roaming around. Historically, tartanilla symbolizes Cebu's century-old transportation heritage with the kuchero and the pasahero, so it can be concluded that the sphere ofthe story is grounded on Alfon's peripheral as a Cebuana during her time. Alfon illustrated a portrayal of social relevance through writing as she was able to portray ashort story by observing the environment, she got to live in. As she witnessed and experienced the drastic changes that society inflicted, the main character served as a reflection of women who were poorly treated.
RESEARCH METHODS
Gender is one thing that drives how characters are portrayed in literary pieces with men always being seen as superior and women as weak. The reality of these gender labels inspires the formulation of feminist criticism that highlights the stereotypical illustrations of genders. Nasr (2021) claims that in 1970s, Feminist approach focuses on the mechanics of patriarchy and the cultural attitude that leads to gender inequality. It goes into works of literature and attempts to evaluate them through a feminist lens in order to expose issues between genders.
This study involved a combination of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include the stories texts of "The Skylight Room" by O. Henry and "Servant Girl" by Estrella Alfon. Secondary sources include scholarly articles, literary criticism, reviews, interviews, and other relevant materials related to the topic. These sources would have provided the necessary information to support the analysis of the feminist features and unveiled themes replicated in the literary pieces. The researcher also utilized thematic analysis and trailed the following steps: familiarization through reading and taking initial notes; coding to categorize contents; generating themes after identifying patterns; and analyzing these themes. (Maguire & Delahunt, 2017).
In apparent association, the short stories, "The Skylight Room" and "Servant Girl," portray characters' personalities and struggles that can be clearly exposed through grounding on feminist theory.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS The Typist and the Servant Woman through Feminist Criticism 1. Personalities of Miss Leeson and Rosa
Living a life that offers a lot of pain and difficulties is something both Miss Leeson and Rosa are facing in their own stories. Notwithstanding them being different characters in different accounts, some similarities in their personalities or character as women are evident in the literary pieces that are perceived to be an apparent reason for the poor treatment they received.
In "The Skylight Room," Miss Leeson, a typist, is portrayed as "a very little girl,with eyes and hair that had kept on growing after she had stopped" (para. 7). Despite being a poor little working girl, the main character stays kind and optimistic as she "was gay-hearted and full of tender, whimsical fancies' (para. 19). This is withal evident in the way the very little girl sweetly responds, "they're too lovely for anything" (para. 14) while "smiling in exactly the way the angels do" (para. 14) to the attempted insulting statement of Mrs. Parker with her devilish smile to Mr. Skidder, "I didn't know you were in. I asked the lady to have a look at your lambrequins "(para 13). With these personalities, Miss Leeson is often admired by the men in the boarding house. The gentleman roomers rejoice "whenever Miss Leeson had time to sit on the steps for an hour or two" (para. 20), and "the men
would quickly group around her "(para. 20).
The little working girl being kind is perceived by the other roomers as an opening gate for them to take advantage of her, and they think that because the girl is kind, the girl can quickly agree with them. Many people often mistake agreeability with kindness. He also asserts that people with rougher personalities don't respect others who are too friendly and agreeable because they are viewed inconsequentially. The other roomers, especially women, view her kindness as her vulnerability because she does not fight back against their teasing, which is showcased when Ms. Longnecker, a tall blonde public-school teacher, cockily responds to the little girl naming a star, Billy Jackson. Miss Leeson clearly shows enthusiasm while sharing her idea and admiration about the star with the other roomers - both women and men - in the lines, "It's that star," explained Miss Leeson,pointing with a tiny finger. "Not the big one that twinkles--the steady blue one near it. I can see it every night through my skylight. I named it Billy Jackson' (para. 26); however,this enthusiasm showed by the little girl only receives a sarcastic response from Ms. Longnecker which is, "Well, really!" said Miss Longnecker. "I didn't know you were an astronomer, Miss Leeson" (para. 27).
Furthermore, the sarcasm becomes more evident in the next take of the tall blonde when she tries to point out the actual identification and meaning of the star, "Well, really!" said Ms. Longnecker. "The star you refer to is Gamma, of the constellation Cassiopeia. It is nearly of the second magnitude, and its meridian passage is —"(para. 29) that is cut by the other men roomers. These reactions of Ms. Longnecker show an insult because she sees these ideas of Miss Lesson as irrelevant.Aside from this, the line, well, really, that Ms. Longnecker always tells throughout the story also adds up in disrespecting the stand of Miss Leeson. Still, no part in the whole text shows that the protagonist tries to fight back against the woman roomers teasing her, which only shows that kindness is something that she displays regardless of the treatment she receives. Clearly, the very young little girl, Miss Leeson, is portrayed in the story as someone kind and tender despite how the other roomers treat her. Like Miss Leeson, Rosa of Servant Girl, who is a maid, also has a kind personality, which drives the other women in their place to shamelessly tease her to Sancho, who is portrayed as a maniac in the story. This is seen in the line, "the women said to each other 'Rosa doesnot like to be touched by Sancho' and then slapped their thighs in laughter" (para. 4). It is shown in the story that Sancho tolerates this behavior of the women as "he always spoke to her (Rosa) about not being angry with the women's teasing" (para. 18).
Moreover, the mistress of the servant girl also takes advantage of her kindness.The mistress is horrible and verbally and physically abusive to Rosa. Scolding the kind servant girl once is not enough, as the mistress, without remorse, nags at Rosa too much in the story, which is shown in the lines, "her mistress came upon her thus and,shouting at her..." (para. 2), "a little later her mistress' shrill voice told her to go to the bathhouse for drinking water" (para. 3), "her mistress' voice came to her, calling impatiently, and she tried to hurry" (para. 6), and "Rosa's mistress made her usual bad-humored sallies against her fancied slowness" (para 19). The mistress also hits the servant girl twice in the story which is evident in the lines, "... and before she quite knew what she was doing, she slapped Rosa's face (para. 6), and "sudden anger at the waste and the loss made her strike out with closed fists, not caring where her blowslanded until the girl was in tears" (para. 20). Rosa being kind, does not fight back or return the pain the mistress gives her, which is shown in the lines, "it never occurred to Rosa that she could herself strike out and return every blow... Rosa's strong arms, used to pounding clothes and carrying water, could easily have done her hurt" (para. 21). Even being maltreated, the servant girl still displays kindness.
Despite living as different characters, the protagonists in the two short stories mirror each other as both shows some similarities in their characterizations. Kindness is one thing they own which is one of the factors that other characters in the stories use to manipulate and disrespect them. Miss Leeson being kind makes the roomers in the boarding house use this personality as a chance to tease and invalidate her stand. On the other hand, Rosa being kind makes the other women and her mistress use this personality as a chance to ridicule and abuse her. This being said, both characters are portrayed as victims of their personalities, being kind women.
2. Poor Treatment from People
Women of all backgrounds and professions are often perceived as weak, regardless of how hard they contest the stereotype. Also, there are uneducated and poor women who lack the opportunities men luxuriate from and worsen their status. Women are submissive to men, making the social norms of men define them. Trotman(2022) claims that, unfortunately, for some, kindness and compassion are an unnecessary expense and an unavoidable weakness, proving that both Miss Lesson and Rosa, being kind and compassionate, make them seen and concluded as weak people making them easier to abuse and trample on.
Aside from being kind, Miss Leeson of "The Skylight Room" is also an impoverished woman, which adds to the discrimination and abuse she faces in the boarding house. This impecunious and pitiful woman is inferiorly treated as she is only poor, unlike the other people living in the boarding house. Being poor, Miss Leeson has problems financing her needs primarily for shelter and food, leaving this penurious woman with an option to live in a shaft coal mine-like room called the skylight room that only costs two (2) dollars. Moreover, the short story also tells how superior a man is compared to a woman and so much more to a woman who is poor like Miss Leeson,which is evident in, "you would not dare to interrupt her description of their advantages and of the merits of the gentleman who had occupied them for eight years" (para.1). This line only creates a sexist image that emphasizes the dominance of men, that Miss Leeson being the only poor living in a two-dollar room, cannot be compared to the men living in a more expensive room; therefore, this piteous woman cannot argue nor assert on how she is discriminated in the boarding house. Men are portrayed as superior to women as they are given the advantage in the boarding house that the poor Miss Lesson could not argue about.
Furthermore, being a typist leads her to another act of unfair treatment or discrimination as she is not fitted to the likings of professions Mrs. Parker, the landlady,requires, which can be seen in, "you were neither a doctor nor a dentist. Mrs. Parker's manner of receiving the admission was such that you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents, who had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker's parlours" (para. 1). This yells discrimination against another profession, making other works sound less important and less decent. The settling of profession standards creates a division or a stereotype of those low- income paying jobs or occupations (Gonzales et al., 2019), like the job of Miss Leeson as a typewriter. Hence, in this time, doctors and dentists are perceived as jobs for men, and this is yet again another punch of discrimination against women as they are left with the low-paying job or professions, like Miss Leeson's job as a typewriter, which is typically a 60% lower-paying job that of the doctors and dentists. Moreover, as a woman, Miss Leeson is seen as weak and submissive, someone whom a man can trample on and someone a man can take advantage of for his likings and desires, which is observed in the lines, "as she stepped into the hall Mr.Hoover met her and seized his chance. He asked her to marry him, and his fatness hovered above her like an avalanche. She dodged, and caught the balustrade. He tried for her hand, and she raised it and smote him weakly in the face" (para. 40). Being weak and submissive women gives the men the authority-like to treat women as they please, to take advantage of, or abuse them because they can do that as women are frail and malleable. Similarly, as Miss Leeson struggles from being a poor woman, Rosa's story in the other short story, Servant Girl, is similar as this pitiable lady also experiences the struggle of being a poor woman. Like Miss Lesson, who has been verbally and financially discriminated by Mrs. Parker, the landlady of her boarding house, Rosa is also being discriminated against verbally and even physically by her mistress. Rosa is maltreated and abused by the loathsome but sometimes kind mistress, which is evident in the lines, "her anger mounting with every angry word she said, she finally swung out an arm, and before she quite knew what she was doing, she slapped Rosa's face" (para. 6). This shows how unfortunate Rosa is, being even more miserable than Miss Lesson as this submissively necessitous woman has a mistress who is worse than the landlady, who does not only abuse Rosa verbally but also physically. In addition, there is a portrayal in the story of how easy it is for a man to take advantage of a woman's weakness and hurt them from it. Just as Mr. Hoover in The Skylight Room tries to take advantage of Miss Leeson's femininity, Sancho also tries it on Rosa of Servant Girl, which is evident in the lines,
"she had bent to hold a foot up... Anyway, she had looked up to find Sancho looking into the neck of her dress, helaughed, short angry laughter, and called her back name for name, and he had slipped out of her way and himself slapped her instead" (para. 23). This implies how easy it is to manipulate a woman into believing a man, just as how Rosa does to Sancho, whom the servant girl thinks Sancho just plans to accompany her for a walk, but the story immediately reveals how maniac of a person is Sancho, which only adds to the suffering of Rosa. Hence, this highlights the thought that a man can hurt a woman emotionally and physically when they don't get what they want. In this case, it implies that men are superior to women for they think they are entitled and have the permission to hurt and trample on women.
Moreover, the teasing of other women in the bathhouse for Rosa to Sancho is an act of insult. This is evident in the lines, 'Rosa does not like to be touched by Sancho, then slapping their thighs in laughter... and the women roared again because we are here, Sancho, she is ashamed" (para. 4). This implies how poor and low of a person Rosa is to everyone including fellow women, that anyone could tease her to just anybody and think that the poor woman could be easily taken. Furthermore, when the pitiful woman stumbles and hurts herself, no woman from the bathhouse cares enough to extend help, which is evident in the lines, "she could stand but she found she could not walk. The women had gone back to their drying, seeing she was up and apparently nothing the worse for the accident" (para. 10). This implies that people living in the lower class are often treated as nobodies and women cannot get the full support of other women. As seen in the passage, the pitiful maid receives no care and help from the other women who are present in the scene. The reality that women candrag other women down holds an implication of misogynistic perspectives and attitudes of women towards fellow women —an occurrence in the society that the more money someone earns, the more likely they are to be respected by strangers; and viewed as interesting. Respect commonly appears to be directly proportional to earnings. Given these points, if a person does not have an economic endorsement, it can be difficult for their character or views to be taken seriously by society (The Schoolof Life, 2015). A person facing their life a bit harder and being treated wrong than the usual by reason of being a woman and financially unprivileged shows the phenomenon of how society divides respect to people, depending on their gender, status, and capability. Concerning this, Miss Leeson of "The Skylight Room" only portrays how people, the other characters of the story, find it easy to manipulate her as she is frail and submissive.
On the contrary, Rosa of "Servant Girl" portrays how men and wealthy people take advantage of her status as a weak woman and an unprivileged person. Moreover,kindness is also one thing that both of these women characters own, which turns out to be the weakness of both as people around them see this as their vulnerability and an opportunity to abuse and hurt them. Everything considered women, especially those with low socioeconomic status, are given unfair treatment compared to men and those who are privileged and titled with high-paying jobs. 3. Deprivation of Opportunities
Digging deeper into the two short stories, Miss Leeson of The Skylight Room and Rosa of Servant Girl are unquestionably poor as they do not have any affiliation to education as per the stories, which makes them labeled as uneducated women. As a result, the two protagonists are confined to low-paying jobs, and their opportunities to achieve a better life are lesser.
The two main characters portray how women who belong to people who have low socioeconomic status are seen as inferior as there is not enough opportunity for them to have more professional or higher-paying jobs. The job of Miss Leeson in The Skylight Room is being a freelance typist, and this is not enough for the character to make a living. In the first paragraph of the story, discrimination is already received by the main character which is shown in the line, "then you would manage to stammer forth the confession that you were neither a doctor nor a dentist... you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents, who had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker's parlours." Being a typist, Miss Leeson does not receive proper treatment from the boarding house owner when the main character is still looking for a space. In several countries, although more poor women are working outside the home to have incomes, they are not necessarily experiencing greater autonomy, empowerment, or involvement in
households orcommunities (Narayan, 2000).
Apparently, the cost of living for an individual gets higher, and if this happens, Miss Leeson being a typist, does not have any options anymore but to accept it. The low-paying job does not give much help, and the state she is in and the treatment she is receiving from the other people only add up to her difficulties. Before working, she needs to search for clients asking for their papers to make copies with her typewriter first. This only means that the nature of work of Miss Leeson is only a freelance, which is primarily revealed in the lines, "Every day Miss Leeson went out to work. At night she brought home papers with handwriting on them and made copies with her typewriter. Sometimes she had no work at night, and then she would sit on the steps of the high stoop with the other roomers" (para. 19).
In addition, being a freelance typist, the income of Miss Leeson is not enough for her expenses and is not consistent in supporting her living which is why the very little girl is deprived of a good and stable job which is seen in the lines, "There came a time after that when Miss Leeson brought no formidable papers home to copy. And when she went out in the morning, instead of working, she went from office to office and let her heart melt away in the drip of cold refusals transmitted through insolent office boys. This went on" (para. 35). Receiving no more papers to work on and being declined to her constant search for work, Miss Leeson returns to the boarding house,in the skylight room, one day suffering from starvation.
Like Miss Leeson, Rosa of "Servant Girl" also doesn't have a high-paying job as she is only a maid. With this, the second story also depicts how some of the individuals who work for someone with a higher social position than them face enormous difficulties. The difficulties of Rosa are caused by her being a woman and her being poor. Due to financial constraints, the character is forced to work as a maid or servant for an abusive mistress as Rosa has a limited opportunity to have a professional higher-paying job since it has not been revealed in the story that Rosa had educational attainment. Narayan (2000) asserts that, for poor people, insecurity of life is increasing, and these people in the lower class cannot take advantage of new opportunities because of a lack of opportunities, connections, assets, finance, information, and others.
Rosa mirrors a woman seeking a better life, which the protagonist can obtain with the help of a man. As a servant girl, where opportunities are less, being stuck in a miserable cycle and receiving no caring attachment from people in her daily life, Rosa quickly misinterprets a simple act of humanity from a mere stranger to a romantic connection.
Predominantly, educational attainment and a good-paying career may not be the only factors but major drivers in achieving success and reaching a better life. The sweet little girl Miss Leeson and Rosa are struggling to step towards the peak due to personal constraints and a lack of opportunities for them.
The "Skylight Room" and "Servant Girl" are two short stories depicting the struggles of women are into a clearer and unclouded analytic direction through a feminist literary approach. Despite portraying different characters and having other jobs, both protagonists in the two literary pieces are kept down for two reasons: one is for being a kind woman, and another is for being poor. The stories put men to superiority and women to the opposite; however, this is not the only reason why they could be viewed in this approach as it is not only because the protagonists in both short stories are women, but also because both women never lose hope - with Miss Leeson holding onto Billy Jackson, the star, and Rosa holding onto her fantasy to Angel, Pedro - of being liberated from their misfortunes as women. In these two stories, the discrimination between genders is showcased, which has always been controversial in appreciating literary pieces. In essence, even in literature, appreciation always comes with criticism in portraying realistic stereotypical illustrations of genders.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Using Feminism as a literary approach in this study, the personal and societal struggles in the stories of "The Skylight Room" and "Servant Girl" are revealed and examined, especially focusing on the oppression of women. Essentially, women are seen as people who have no capability and ability to stand independently and in decision-making. Their perspectives and beliefs have no space in society. They are treated lowly as an object for pleasure and desires by men.They are classified as weak and
susceptible because women are indeed emotional and submissive as deciphered in the two stories. However, it does not define their worth and value as an individual.
It is very alarming that up to this day, there are still men who think that they are superior to women; they believe that it is only right for women to act based on how they could please them, how they want them to be, and most especially, take advantage the kindness and softness of women. In a society where everything seems to be already developed and modernized, they still intend to manipulate women's assumptions about them for toxic masculinity and pride, which were presented in the two literary pieces.
In view of the study's remit, scholars and researchers can also look into the two literary texts through other existing literary criticisms. Since what transpires in the stories is seen to be a reflection of human life, an appropriate and interesting approach is the Mimetic Theory of literary criticism. The stories of Miss Leeson of "The Skylight Room" and Rosa of "Servant Girl" serve as representations of those who belong to the lower class, are abused, exploited, and suffered because of getting to live as an unprivileged and maltreated member of the society. The struggles of the two main characters in the stories are related to people who belong to the same social class. The difficult life that is full of adversities that both Miss Leeson and Rosa endure portrays the lives of many unfortunates that can be seen in today's society.
These reasons being said, it is deemed recommended to utilize Mimetic Literary Approach in critiquing The Skylight Room and Servant Girl for both of the stories meet the criteria of the said literary approach.
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