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Library's collection Library's IT development CancelThe Setting of Ellen Glasgow’s novel entitled Barren Ground is Virginia,
Southern America in the early 20* century, where the image of an ideal woman
must reflect propriety and gentility. However, Dorinda Oakley as the main female
character of Barren Ground does not reflect this image so that the writer is curious to
know what her extraordinary attitudes toward job and marriage are, which make her
different from the ideal image of Southern women. The writer is also curious to
know how Dorinda’s extraordinary attitudes make her successful financially but at
the same time feels emptiness in her life. Hence, the writer wants to prove that
Dorinda Oakley can be considered as a feminist because of her extraordinary
attitudes toward job and marriage by analyzing her character and her conflict with
her mother and the Pedlar’s Mill society. The writer also wants to find out in what
way her feminist attitudes toward job and marriage lead her to financial success and
emptiness in life. In this case, the writer uses two literary theories, namely
characterization and conflict. In the analysis, the writer uses the theories of
characterization and conflict in order to show Dorinda’s extraordinary attitudes
toward job and marriage. The writer also uses the theories of feminism as the
supporting theories in analyzing this novel. In this case, feminism, according to
Maggie Humm’s definition, is both a doctrine of equal rights for women and an
ideology that identifies the sexual division of labor as the cause of oppression on
women. The writer uses the feminist theories in the analysis in order to show that
Dorinda Oakley’s different attitudes toward job and marriage reflect her feminist
side. In conclusion, the writer finds that Dorinda is a feminist in her job and
marriage because she refuses to do women’s job, and instead, she prefers doing
men’s job, that is becoming a plantation owner. Moreover, she does not get married
for a long time after her fiance jilted her, and when she finally marries, she does it
only for convenience and never has any children of her own. Furthermore, she
seldom takes care of her stepchildren or does the housework. Thus, by being a
feminist in her job and marriage, she has a lot of time to manage her plantation and
dairy ferm and earns a lot of money from them, even though in the end she feels that
her life is empty.