Christine De Pizan's Book Of The City Of Ladies

An Analysis of Book of the City of Ladies Like many medieval writers, Christine de Pizan constructs her work, Book of the City of Ladies, as “dream-visions” with several allegoric figures (613). Three characters, Lady Reason, Lady Rectitude, and Lady Justice all address the dark outlook the author has on men and encourage her to build a city of women. Christine often confronts the male dominated culture of the Middle Ages in her writings. She gives a woman’s perspective on biblical and classical text depictions of women throughout history. The publishing of Book of the City of Ladies takes a great amount of bravery from Christine as the perspective of the book by someone living in the medieval time period is bold, empowering and some might say disruptive. Typically, women in the Middle Ages were under educated and stay in the home to care for children and support their husbands. The contrasting feelings of empowerment and distress are parallel to present-day outlooks on Book of the City of Ladies however;

During the medieval period, women were often labeled as inferior to men. Putting forth a woman’s virtues, honoring chastity, and being a woman of God is what the women strove for during the time of Christine’s publication. However, this text was undoubtedly shocking for both genders as a one of the first feminist texts. Because Christine de Pizan is the first women to be paid for her writings, her male audience is sure to feel afflicted over the idea that some of the first published writings by women are deprecating to men. The women of the medieval period feel empowered and relieved to have support by someone with the same insights. However, it is obvious that Christine relates the strong religious culture of the time back to both genders by suggesting, “Praise God for not having the worst and [women] should strive to moderate their vices and pacify them [men]”