Daughters in literature requires a thorough analysis of gender roles and norms. The concept of daughter is directly linked to gender roles, as being a daughter entails specific social and familial responsibilities. Daughters' rights, roles, and responsibilities vis-a-vis their male siblings can therefore become a gendered lens, which is used to read literature. This is true even when the daughters in question are not protagonists. For example, Sonya in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is not a protagonist but her supportive role has a tremendous impact on main character Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. Likewise, no one of King Lear's three daughters is the play's protagonist but they nevertheless propel the plot of the play and are central to its outcome. Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse barely features any of the Ramsay daughters, and yet there are ample textual references to the role of daughters in families and correspondingly, the role of...
[ View Full Essay]