Changes in gender relations in the early 20th century were a factor in the emergence of modernism. In this period the first wave of the Feminist Movement began with the New Woman as protagonist. The New Woman was an independent figure, relatively sexually liberated and educated. Many women no longer lived their lives according to the Victorian ideal required of them and it became more acceptable for women to be seen unaccompanied outdoors and working in certain types of jobs. The new woman was perceived as a pleasure for men and after the First World War the independence that women enjoyed had a repercussion as women were once again confined within the home and were and were marginalized on the streets. In Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons are examples of new women who were marginalized as well as women who, although living in the modern, embraced both new and old gender traditions. Discussion of modernity tended to focus on the city and the opportunities for adventure, danger or pleasure that the metropolis offered to women. As women became more mobile starting in the 19th century, their presence in metropolises consisted of shopping expeditions or city trips. (Parkins 2001, p77) In Good Morning Midnight, Jean Rhys explores a kind of claustrophobic exile in the character of Sasha Jansen who has been sent back to Paris at the expense of a friend as an alternative to her alcoholic amnesia in London. Sasha wanders aimlessly through Paris, the site of the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her son, half-heartedly trying to re-establish her life. Sasha finds herself at a literal and emotional dead end at the beginning of the novel. ... middle of paper ...... transforms her room by drawing her out of the Victorian world she lives in, into the modern world through the use of modern magazines that offer new things. Aunt Ada comes out of her room dressed in leather clothes ready to travel by plane to Paris. (Gibbons 2006, p 220) Although most of the characters' problems are solved by the traditional method of marriage, Cold Comfort Farm is not a reactionary novel as it tries to present marriage as the best or most suitable outcome for a young woman. Flora, at the end of the novel, leaves to marry her cousin Charles. Traditionally, marriage was considered the most suitable outcome for a young woman. Instead, the author places within the novel “contemporary debates regarding the nature of marriage and alerts the reader to the social constructions of femininity in the 1930s. (Horner and Zlosnik 2002, p 170).