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‘And Women Must Weep’
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in ‘And Women Must Weep’, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up
“‘And Women Must Weep,’” a story of a young girl’s first ball in Australia around the turn of the 20th century, is fundamentally about an adolescent experience. Dolly’s youthful naivety and innocence shine through her confidence and excitement for the dance. Her enthusiasm reflects her hopes for the opportunities that her entry into the “grown-up” world will bring her. But the ball doesn’t proceed as Dolly wishes, which reflects the difficulties of transitioning into…
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Women, Beauty Standards, and Patriarchy
While “‘And Women Must Weep’” concentrates on an episode from one young girl’s life, the story is also concerned with women’s position in society on a larger scale. Through Dolly’s experience of her first ball, the narrative highlights gendered double standards in a patriarchal society that impose strict, reductive, and detrimental social limitations on women but not on men. In the story, women’s value depends on whether or not their physical appearance measures up…
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Social Pressures vs. Internal Desires
In “‘And Women Must Weep,’” pressures to look and act in socially approved ways are pervasive. At the ball, Dolly must look pretty, smile, present herself as cheerful and gracious at all times, dance without mistake, eat daintily, and catch the interest of young men. These social expectations are taught to Dolly and externally enforced by older women. Auntie Cha and Miss Biddons frequently remind Dolly of the importance of meeting these expectations, and they…
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