Both extracts revolve around the theme of proposals and rejection from one of the key female protagonists. Our Mutual friend by Charles Dickens takes a much darker approach to the rejection of a proposal, in which the female character is rendered powerless against the obsessive character of Mr Headstone. However, Dancing at Lughnas presents woman as the dominating sex in this item, the contrasts a result of the time period difference of 125 years between texts as the representations reflect society at the time.

Victorian reputation was extremely important in 1865 when Our Mutual Friend was written, making it significantly difficult for a penniless Lizzie to get the upper hand of a man with such a “high reputation”. His “quite easy” circumstances contrast heavily against Lizzie who finds herself “yielded to the entreaty” that is societal norms expected of her, ‘yielded’ repeated twice as if to emphasise this point. This expectation of society is evident in Lady Chatterley’s ‘Lover’ by D.H Lawrence, in which the narrator enthuses ‘women must yield’ having but no other alternatives against the “sex” driven males, accentuating the helplessness of women against societal norms. Mr Headstone proposes his high ranks would act as a “shield” for Lizzie.

The military language places Mr Headstone in a masculine position of dominance when attempting to woo Lizzie, suggesting that it’s a male’s role to protect the weak and feeble woman. This presumption of males being indebted to protect females is evident in Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy in chapter 11 when Alec d’Urberville “enclosed” Tess in “his arms to support her” suggesting the fragility of females who need a strong male to support them. Similarly, there are aspects of male dominance in Dancing at Lughnasa in the first section of the extract in which Gerry cuts of Chris’ sentences, repetitively silencing her objections he “suddenly take her in his arms and dances” as the stage directions state. By requesting a dance, suggests Gerry is leading Chris which could be symbolic of their relationship in which he leads her on. This interpretation is emphasised by the sisters realistic view of Gerry’s idealised proposal when Kate observes he is “leading her astray again”, repeated by Maggie who nebulously states “she’s easily led” which could be interpreted as meaning Chris is easily led in the dance by the charming Gerry, or as meaning Chris’ the easily led on, submissive gender within their relationship.

However, despite this male dominance, Gerry soon becomes the submissive character as Brian Friel inverses the sexes. Lizzie demonstrates her ability to resist Gerry’s “beautiful” charm as observed by her sisters, firmly rejecting his advances , stating “I don’t think so”. Her newfound dominant role in the extract is highlighted when her imperative tone instructs Gerry to “just dance me down the lane” and then “leave”, her initiation of the second dance suggesting she is now leading the dance. This is similar to the modern text the Life and Loves of a She-Devil, following the character of Ruth who is introduced as being so pliant to Bobbo’s desires her neighbours often remarking she is “lucky to have him” but soon asserts her authority over her husband much like Chris.