Identity Struggles

Identity struggles in “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” by Jeanette Winterson, “Cat on the Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams and poems by Christina Rossetti.

Identity struggles are widely presented in different types of literary works. It is especially true for works that deal with the author’s biographical issues, for every talented and peculiar person has something to struggle with. In this case, identity struggles of women look far more complicated than other representations of this theme in literature – it is intricately connected with the fact that women typically have many duties, and society has a number of very strict expectations for them, which they sometimes cannot (or consciously do not want) to meet. A woman who has to fight for her self-realization and fulfilment (in family or private life, or in her artwork) is a common image for “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” by Jeanette Winterson, “Cat on the Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams and poems by Christina Rossetti. Works by Winterson and Rossetti, though distant in time and thematically, analyze a complicated individual struggle of a talented young woman who is under constant pressure of the community, and in both cases these experiences turn out to be autobiographical. In turn, “Cat on the Hot Tin Roof” deals with a family matter of a young wife who is extremely dissatisfied with her position in her own marriage and among her other relatives. All these works show how its main heroes struggle to live up to their own expectations, accepting or denying expectations of their peers.

The very title of the play “Cat on the Hot Tin Roof” underlines the complexity of the situation with its main female character, Maggie – this is how she identifies herself. It is important that almost all facts connected with Maggie’s identity can be understood ambiguously. The character’s life, as it is suggested in the play, has never been easy. The fact that she was raised in a poor family but managed to marry a...