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Essays on romanticism in literature
Essays on romanticism in literature
Essays on romanticism in literature
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“True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen,” Francois de la Rochefoucauld once said. As part of his novel Satyricon, the short story “The Widow of Ephesus” was written by Petronius. The story revolves around a woman who is so devoted to her husband that she has become famous for her fidelity. So famous in fact that women from neighboring villages and towns come just to see her. One day, her husband dies and she becomes known as the widow of Ephesus, mourning all day and night in his tomb. When assigned to guard the bodies of three crucified thieves, he hears loud moaning and is led to the widow whom he manages persuade to live and gains her love (DiYanni 45). This story seems romantic at first. However, in between the lines are some negative traits: misogyny, vulgarity, and betrayal.
One negative aspect of this short story is that it is misogynistic. The story puts women in a very bad spotlight by depicting that they are dramatic and ridiculous. “Although her extremes of grief she was clearly courting death from starvation, her parents were utterly unable to persuade her to leave, and even the magistrates, after one last supreme attempt, were rebuffed and driven away” (DiYanni 44). This shows that even the attempts of the magistrates, who are similar to modern-day cops, could not get the widow to leave the tomb of her husband. “The Widow of Ephesus” also makes women seem cheap, like their love can simply be bought. “The soldier repeated his arguments and pressed her to take some food,” which her maid takes (DiYanni 45). This leads to her helping the soldier in persuasion and ultimately, he instant love connection between him and the widow.
This story is also very vulgar due to the actions...
... middle of paper ...
...kes women seem melodramatic and easily bought. Vulgarity is seen in the widow’s actions. She and the soldier sleeps in her husband’s tomb and she is quick to hang her husband to ensure her lover’s safety. Lastly, betrayal is apparent. The widow’s devoted maid breaks their hunger strike and accepts the soldier’s food. Then, the wife’s fidelity to her husband is compromised when she and the soldier sleep together. Though at first it seems that the widow was truly in love with her husband, it may have just been another one of Rochefoucauld’s ghosts.
Works Cited
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd ed. Boston:
McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
Lateiner, Donald. “Gendered and Gendering Insults and Compliments in the Latin Novels.”
EuGeStA. 2013. Web. 13 February 2014.
“True Love Quotes.” Brainy Quotes. n.d. Web. 14 February 2014.
The book then talks about viewpoints of women, both real and those who face tragedy. Women during this time were very secluded and silent, but the heroines contradicted that. This chapter talks about the images of women in the classical literature in Athens, and the role they had in society. Many tragedies were ones that formed by mythes during the Bronze Age. It showed the separation in what made women heroic, rather than average. While viewing other Scholarly sourcese, Pomerory writes her own theory, she used others
This paper will offer a commentary on Herodotus’ Histories 2.129-135. Book Two of Histories concerns itself with Egypt; specifically chapters 99-182 detail rulers of Egypt both legendary and actual. Book Two is distinct from the other books in Histories as it is in this book that we predominantly experience Herodotus as an investigator. More precisely it is in Book Two that Herodotus treats first person experience not as direct evidence but as a method of assessing the accounts of others. Chapters 129-135 provide us with the tale of King Mycerinus as recounted by whom Herodotus refers to in 2.127 as simply ‘ÆGYPTIOI’. These Egyptians are referred to at various points in Book Two and at times appear to refer to what might be termed ‘Egyptians in general’ . However, we can make a reasonable assumption in this instance, given what has been stated before at 2.99 and what is stated later at 2.142, that the Egyptians that provide Herodotus with the tale of King Mycerinus are probably priests. It should not be assumed that priests are any more reliable than the lay Egyptian in Histories however; the Egyptian priesthood did not necessarily concern itself with historical accuracy. Indeed the inclusion of priests may simply be a Herodotean literary device designed to reinforce his reader’s credulity.
Eupriedes, Medea and Sappho’s writing focus on women to expose the relationships between a variety of themes and the general ideal that women are property. The main characters in both pieces of literature demonstrate similar situations where love and sex result in a serious troll. These themes affected their relationship with themselves and others, as well as, incapability to make decisions which even today in society still affects humans. Headstrong actions made on their conquest for everlasting love connects to sacrifices they made to achieve their goal which ultimately ended in pain. Love and sex interferes with development of human emotions and character throughout the course
The speech itself highlights women's subordinate status in ancient Greek society, especially in the public eye." When Medea points out that women, especially "foreign" women, "require some knowledge of magic and other covert arts to exert influence over their husbands in the bedroom," she argues for a kind of alternative power that women can enjoy. A power that remains invisible to men and unknown by society, yet sways each with unquestionable force. Medea also supplies a method for interpreting her own character towards the end of her speech (lines 251-257): we should read her history of exile as a metaphoric exaggeration of all women's alienation; in fact, her whole predicament, past and yet to come, can be read as an allegory of women's suffering and the heights of tragedy it may unleash if left unattended. Under this model of interpretation, Medea portrays the rebellion of women against their "wretchedness." Such a transparent social allegory may seem forced or clichéd in our own contemporary setting, but in Euripides' time it would have been revolutionary, as tragedy generally spoke to the sufferings of a generic (perhaps idealized) individual, rather than a group. It would be a mistake, however, to claim that Medea's speech elaborates a clearly progressive political message, as her concluding remarks appeal to women's natural talent for devious manipulation (line 414). While Euripides' play manifests many revolutionary political sentiments, its social criticisms remain sporadic, forming just a part of some of the many trains of thought he follows.
Lysistrata, on the contrary shows women acting bravely and even aggressively against men who seem resolved on ruining the city- state by prolonging a pointless and excessively expending reserves stored in the Acropolis. The men being away at war would come home when they could, sexually relieve them selves and then leave again to precede a meaningless war. The women challenge the masculine role model to preserve traditional way of life in the community. When the women become challenged themselves they take on the masculine characteristics and defeat the men physically, mentally but primarily strategically. Proving that neither side benefits from it, just that one side loses more than the other. It gives the impression that the women are heroes and the men are ignorant, which contradicts what Euripides said but is chiefly written to entertain.
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound portrays a greek god detained by a superior for disobedience against the latter’s rule. On the other hand in Euripides’ Hippolytus portrays lust and vengeance of the gods and the extent that they can go to to avenge it.
The myth of Eurydice is a sad story in which two lovers are separated by death. After his love dies, Orpheus journeys into the underworld to retrieve her, but instead loses her for good. Playwright Sarah Ruhl takes the myth of Eurydice and attempts to transform this sad tale into a more light-hearted story. However, despite humorous lines and actions throughout the play, the melancholy situation of the actual tale overwhelms any comicality present. Although meant to be funny, Sarah Ruhl's “Eurydice” can be seen as a modernized tragedy about two lovers who are separated forever by a twist of fate.
When we all hear the name Aphrodite, we can all reach agreement that the first point that comes to mind is love and beauty. In the “Ancient Roman Mythology” book, she is des...
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies, music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being. In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes of Love; Agathon enunciates that the correct way to present an eulogy is first to praise its nature and gifts.
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period. Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry. The first idealizes women as a catalyst to male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity. The second fears and mistrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then re-forms [sic] itself around the certainty of men’s shared victimization (Neely 127).
Although written in the olden times, one of Apuleius’s story collections in the book of Metamorphoses entitled "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche" relates to the modern age issue of marriage and relationship. It reflects and gives hope to some relationships that started wrong but ended up good. I will examine the story of “The Tale of Cupid and Psyche” and will relate its relevance to the modern times. “The Tale of Cupid and Psyche” is a tale about the relationship that the God of Love, Cupid, has with a mortal named Psyche. Venus, the Goddess of beauty and the mother of Cupid, was offended when people believed in a rumour that Psyche, the most beautiful of the three daughters of the king and queen, is Venus’s daughter from a union with a mortal.
In Playboy of the Western World by John M. Synge, Widow Quin is an intriguing woman under suspicion for her husbands sudden death. Widow Quin has a goal throughout the play to formulate a relationship with Christy, a mysterious Playboy of the Western World. Putting this goal in front of much else, Widow Quin uses her devious voice and manipulative characteristic in her attempt to achieve this goal. Although mistaken as sympathetic at times, Widow Quin is constantly striving for this goal; and always has personal, selfish reasons for each statement crafted. Although some audience members may think that Widow Quin is a humane and sympathetic character, Widow Quin uses her manipulative tone to sneakily pursue her goal and deviously assert the