<P> Specifically in recent decades, the study of the poem has increased among feminine studies in opposition to the assertion of these spheres . Rather than studying the poem for its depiction of the woman's lifestyle, it is studied to examine the masculine writer's prejudices, his view of these feminine roles and why men held women to these roles . Following the publication of Patmore's poem, the term angel in the house came to be used in reference to women who embodied the Victorian feminine ideal: a wife and mother who was selflessly devoted to her children and submissive to her husband . The term then evolved into a more derogatory assessment of antiquated roles with critiques from popular feminist writers like Virginia Woolf . </P> <P> Adèle Ratignolle, a character in Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, is a literary example of the angel in the house . </P> <P> Another example is in the What Katy Did novels of Susan Coolidge about a pre-pubescent tomboy who becomes a paraplegic . They are based on her own life in 19th Century America . Katy eventually walks again, but not before she learns to become the "angel in the house", that is, the socially acceptable "ideal" of docile womanhood . </P> <P> In Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, Thomasin Yeobright is also described as' the angel of the house' . Thomasin is the antithesis to Hardy's main female protagonist, Eustacia Vye, who is the opposite of the Victorian female "ideal". </P>

Coventry patmore's poem the angel in the house