No.14 The Woman's Rose (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note

The Woman’s Rose analysis

In the exam, you will be asked to answer one question from two options. Both questions will be on a different text from the selection of ten texts in Stories of Ourselves Volume 2. 

Because there are so many text options, make sure you read through the exam instructions carefully, and look for the questions on Stories of Ourselves. 

The following guide to The Woman’s Rose by Olive Schreiner contains:

• Plot summary

• Themes, ideas and perspectives

• Writer’s methods

• Key quotations

Plot summary of The Woman’s Rose

Olive Schreiner was a South African writer, born in 1855. Her short story, The Woman's Rose, published in 1891, focuses on female relationships, particularly within a male-dominated society. 

It opens with the first-person narrator describing a wooden box. The box contains precious keepsakes, which include a faded white rose. The rose reminds her of a significant moment in her past, which the narrator goes on to relate. 

As a teenage girl, she visited a small town. The settlement was largely dominated by men, and there was only one other woman of similar age to the narrator living there. The woman was beautiful and attracted the men’s attention. However, when the narrator arrived, the men’s affections and attention suddenly moved away from the woman and towards her. She explains that this placed a barrier between the two women. Instead of becoming friends and allies, they did not speak to each other. In fact, the men’s behaviour created a sense of rivalry between them. 

The night before she left the town, a party was held. It was at this party she and the woman finally spoke to each other. The woman placed a rare white rose (taken from her own blonde hair) in her black hair, saying that flowers look better in darker hair. 

Although she never saw the woman again, the narrator explains that whenever she feels a sense of despair, she looks at the rose and remembers their friendship, and this brings her strength and renews her hope.

Themes, ideas and perspectives in The Woman’s Rose

For top marks, you need to form a critical understanding of the text’s themes and ideas. This is best when it includes personal judgements and evaluations of the themes, ideas, and perspectives of the text. Here are some of the key ideas you will need to understand in Olive Schreiner’s The Woman’s Rose. 

What are the key themes in The Woman’s Rose?

Writer's methods in The Woman’s Rose

How does Schreiner present her ideas and perspectives?

Schreiner’s story The Woman’s Rose is an allegory about male and female relationships and the idea of female solidarity. 

Key quotations in The Woman’s Rose

The mark scheme for the CIE IGCSE Literature in English Paper 1, Section B asks you to showcase your knowledge of the story in the question. To do this, you should refer to the text through references and quotations. Remember, though, summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words, and referencing plot events are all considered valid supporting evidence for your points. 

The best way to revise quotations is in connection to a theme. Below you will find explanations and analysis of some key quotations from Olive Schreiner’s The Woman’s Rose, arranged by the following themes:

• Gender

• Hope

Gender

Schreiner’s story criticises fickle and superficial attitudes to female beauty through her presentation of a teenage girl in a male-dominated world. At the same time, the story depicts how two women’s shared experiences of male rivalry bring them together.

Meaning and context

• The adult narrator says that they are sometimes confused and weakened

• When their belief in women wavers (“flickers”), or when life is painful and the future desperate, the smell of a “dead rose” helps them find strength

• Even though the rose is “withered” and dead, the smell comes back, and this  reminds them of a significant moment 12 years before

Analysis

• Schreiner uses polysyndeton to emphasise the many times the narrator feels distressed by the female experience:

  • Sensory imagery contrasts the “scent” of a rose with the idea of death

  • This dramatic line presents heightened emotions 

Meaning and context

• The narrator remembers how the men shifted their attentions from the woman with the “light” hair to her when she arrived in the new town

• She says it was because she was someone fresh whom they had never seen

• She says they “forsook” (abandoned) the woman and “followed” her instead

Analysis

• Through the frank and intimate monologue of a teenage girl, Schreiner conveys men as impulsive and shallow when it comes to their relationships with women:

  • The narrator, aged 15, calls the 17-year-old “old”, which highlights how quickly women were judged by appearance and novelty, while also reflecting her naive, adolescent perspective

• The word “old”, though, has been explicitly used to contrast “new”, suggesting the men got bored of the woman and she has now lost her value:

  • In contrast, the narrator is a novelty to them

Meaning and context

• The narrator remembers how the male rivalry over the women, and their superficial affection towards her, made her hate them

Analysis

• Schreiner’s story expresses the thoughts and feelings of an honest, young girl

• The short sentence emphasises the extreme reaction to the men’s actions 

• This presents a harsh criticism of male and female relationships

Hope 

Meaning and context

• Looking in a special wooden box of keepsakes, the narrator says that lots of women have a place to keep memorable objects

• She says, though, that her rose is special, and unique to her

Analysis

• Schreiner begins her story by indicating the significance of the rose 

• This creates suspense, and highlights the importance of the rose’s story

Meaning and context

• The narrator describes the woman she meets at her going-away party

• The woman was in “white”, wore a “white rose”, and had pale skin

• Her hair was shining in the soft light

Analysis

• Schreiner’s imagery alludes to purity and light to present the woman as innocent and angelic, which signifies the woman’s influence 

• Her “white” dress and “bright hair” contrasts with the narrator who is described with dark hair and in an “old black dress”

• This highlights the initial disconnect between the women and shows them as rivals in oppositional positions 

Meaning and context

• The narrator repeats similar ideas at the beginning and end of her story

• As she comes to the end of her memory, back in present day, she concludes that the rose, a “small, withered thing” has great power:

  • At times, when she loses faith, feels no love and generosity of spirit, and sees no future in “heaven”, she remembers the rose

• The rose reminds her that there is always spring after winter, and, thus, hope

Analysis

• Schreiner’s story is cyclical in nature:

  • It begins and ends with the narrator looking at the dead rose the woman gave her when she was a teenager

  • The story shows the timeless power of memory by evoking the smell of a “withered” rose

• The symbolism of “spring” is used throughout the story to represent hope and rebirth:

  • Schreiner draws connections between the reliability of the changing seasons and the ever-lasting power of the rose to represent the female bond

Sources

Wilmer, M (ed.), 2018, Stories of Ourselves: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Stories in English Volume 2, Cambridge University Press.