Even when Claudine acts out, she is often doing so within a framework designed by men. This meta-textual bondage reflects the limited agency women writers possessed during the period. IV. The Breaking of the Bonds
Claudine’s life becomes centered around Renaud’s needs and his social circle. Her "bondage" here is the traditional Victorian-era expectation that a woman’s identity is entirely subsumed by her husband’s. III. The "Bondage" of the Male Gaze claudine in bondage
The city imposes a dress code, a social register, and a performative femininity that Claudine finds stifling, marking the beginning of her symbolic "bondage" to urban artifice. II. Marital Servitude and the Power of Renaud Even when Claudine acts out, she is often