Power Struggle

 

            A Woman, by Sibilla Aleramo is a captivating novel in which the narrator looks back upon the events of her life. As she looks back upon the events she analyzes the impact they have had. The novel emphasizes the power struggle between males and females. From the beginning of her life the narrator sees the difference in power of her mother and father. When talking about her parents she says, “I took my love for my mother for granted, but for him I felt boundless admiration, and I was aware of this difference in my feelings without ever trying to explain it.” (Aleramo 1) This separation between her view of her father and her mother comes from power. Her father was in charge making the decisions while her mother did as she was told, never really making decisions for herself. When working at her fathers company she describes her hairstyle, “my hair fell in curls over my forehead but had been cut short at the back, making me look like a young boy- at my fathers suggestion.”(15) Looking like a boy helped her in the factory, her father included her on company decisions and the factory workers respected her. At this point she feels in great power because of the respect she receives from her father. Once the narrator starts to grow into herself, becoming increasingly beautiful as well as womanly, her father loses respect for her and starts treating her harshly, as if she were a factory worker. The narrator then responds by using her beauty to gain power over the male office workers, mainly her male office friend. When he compliments her she feels in control and “would deliberately lure him into discussions where I could quickly put him at a disadvantage” when she felt control had been lost. (29) When her office friend tells her of his fathers affair with another woman, she is lost and very vulnerable. He takes advantage of her vulnerability and rapes her. At this point she has no control, as well as no one to confide in. When she decides that she will marry the same man who raped her, she gives up any control that she had left. Her role as a wife is completely controlled by her husband who takes advantage and constricts her to the house. She becomes pregnant and starts to feel in control again, and takes on the responsibility to raise the healthiest child possible. Her husband starts to abuse her as she slips into a depression until she realizes she needs to gain the control by leaving her husband. Her husband tries to keep her from leaving, using her son as bait. She makes the choice to leave her child in order to gain back the control that she has lost because of her husband. The difference between male and female figures is apparent throughout the novel, portraying the female figure constantly struggling for power over the male figure.