The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate the descriptions of characters and settings in four autobiographies. The main question is: What picture of women and men, of the West and the Orient do these books provide? To answer this question we have formed three sub questions, which are: In what ways are main and minor characters described? In what ways are the key settings, and the Western and Oriental societies described? Which themes are dealt with, and from what points of departure? The theoretical framework is based on a postcolonial theoretical perspective, where the concept of binary opposites and Edward W. Said’s ideas about orientalism are crucial. The method used is a textual analysis. To analyze the material, a number of analysis questions were designed with the main question, and its sub questions, as a basis. The result shows that descriptions of characters and settings have dramaturgic functions of forming a background to the story. Accordingly, the same features may be described in either negative or positive terms, due to what aspect of the story the book currently deals with. The conclusion suggests that colonial stereotypes are evident today in popular literature, such as these autobiographies, in fact, they are even stronger than they used to be. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Based on the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible treats a historical event that could be considered overflowing with patriarchal oppression. Despite the author’s clear disapproval of the historical cruelty, the play continuously reveals patriarchal structures and shows misogynist tendencies in its depiction of women. This essay suggests that the two main female characters Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor function as representations of binary oppositions based on the patriarchal assumption of two categories of women: the ‘bad girl’ and the ‘good girl,’ which both reinforce the idea of women as unnuanced objects rather than multifaceted subjects. By arguing that Abigail and Elizabeth represent the binary pairs ‘selfish/sacrificing’ and ‘promiscuous/frigid,’ the essay finds that the two women are depicted as ‘either/or’ and that the unnuanced portrayals result in an unsympathetic reading of them. Finally, the essay concludes that regardless if the woman is a ‘good girl’ or a ‘bad girl,’ she is socially punished or given unflattering characteristics in order not to compete with the male protagonist in terms of reader sympathy. / Arthur Millers pjäs The Crucible skildrar häxprocesserna i Salem 1692-1693, en historisk händelse som kan anses vara genomsyrad av patriarkalt förtryck. Trots författarens uttalade förakt gentemot häxprocessernas grymhet finns det tydliga och återkommande patriarkala strukturer i den stundom misogyna pjäsen, särskilt i dess kvinnoporträtt. Denna uppsats visar hur de två kvinnliga huvudkaraktärerena Abigail Williams och Elizabeth Proctor fungerar som representationer av binära motsatser baserade på den patriarkala idén om två kategorier av kvinnor: den ’dåliga flickan’ och den ’duktiga flickan’, vilka förstärker synen på kvinnor som onyanserade objekt snarare än mångfacetterade subjekt. Genom att argumentera för hur Abigail och Elizabeth representerar de binära paren ’självisk/självuppoffrande’ och ’promiskuös/frigid’ finner denna uppsats att Abigail och Elizabeth är porträtterade som ’antingen/eller’ och att den onyanserade karaktäriseringen resulterar i en osympatisk läsning av dem. Slutligen påvisar uppsatsen att oavsett om kvinnan är en ’duktig flicka’ eller en ’dålig flicka’ blir hon socialt bestraffad eller försedd med osmickrande karaktärsdrag i syfte att inte konkurrera med den manliga protagonisten om läsarens sympati.