Monday, April 02, 2007

Ford's theme of Sex-Antagonism

Anne Marie Flanagan writes that throughout the novel, Sylvia is pictured as a woman of unnatural sexual appetites. Grossly underplayed, however is the fact that Tietjens, her husband, has refused to have sexual relations with her for several years after he discovers that she has been unfaithful to him. At the heart of the difficulties between Tietjens and Sylvia lie sexual frustration and antagonism. Ford adopts the women's movement theme of sex-antagonism, but by exploring it through a character who has no inclanations toward the movement, he is able both to reflect his society's concern about the effects of the suffrage movement on the relations between men and women and to do so without blaming the movement.

(Source: Anne Marie Flanagan. Winter 200/2001 Journal of Modern Literature:Vol 24. University of Sciences in Philadelphia.)

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