More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on feminism in literature
Introduction to feminist literary criticism
Overview of feminism and its place in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Christine de Pizan was the first woman to earn a living from her writing. She single-handedly confronted the tradition of misogyny that permeated medieval society by attempting to enlighten men and women alike and reverse those current anti-feminist ideas in her most important work, The Book of the City of Ladies. Christine was born in Venice in 1364. At a young age she and her family moved to Paris when her father, Thomas, was appointed as doctor to King Charles V. Her father was an advocate of education and taught her to read and write and she was encouraged her to use the king’s royal library. As she read through these books, she found that the authors – mostly educated men – had expressed vile insults about women and their morally wrong …show more content…
behavior. Christine believed that one of the reasons women were perceived as inferior to men was the way women were depicted in books. She thoughtfully examined the behavior and character of those women she was friendly with and could not rectify their natural good nature with the claims of the male writers. She believed that if women had written these books, the perspective would have been very different. At twenty five, Christine lost her father and her husband, and spent the next thirteen years fighting the courts for her inheritance. With a family to support, she decided to try and earn a living as a writer. Her poems and ballads were well received which encouraged her to continue, eventually becoming the first professional woman writer in Europe. In 1405, Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies was published.
She argued that male historians had given a false impression of the role of women in history and she endeavored to rebalance those scales by portraying a very positive view of women and their achievements. Christine used stories not only of the women of her day but went back into antiquity to illustrate the undeniable virtue of women, defending them from male attacks on the female sex in general and also to establish a sense of self-esteem in her female audience. She used three allegorical women to help her construct The City of Ladies: Reason, Rectitude, and Justice. Her City was a home for virtuous women; a place that would withstand and defend them against all attacks by the misogynist male writers. Christine’s women, the foundation of the city, were virtuous and valiant scholars, artists, wives, warriors, and saints. Stories of their achievements and accomplishments came from their portrayals in the Bible, in history and also mythology. They each had a place in her city with a duty to stand strong and …show more content…
united. Medieval men were intent on protecting their place and position as rulers and leaders in both the social and political circles. In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine cited examples and stories of great women – past and present – to emphasize that their intellectual, spiritual, and physical qualities were no more faultless or admirable than the best or worst of men. She believed that all humans had the ability to choose to act morally correct and make intelligent choices and they were also capable of the conscious decision to sin. Sin was not solely female trait. Christine used the construction of a city to demonstrate that as far back as antiquity women have made significant contributions in the development and advancement of society. The stones she used for the foundation were laid by strong, independent women, role models whose qualities were presented for her audience to mirror. She endeavored to empower women by persuading them to strive for these virtues. “Prove them all wrong by showing how principled you are and refute the criticisms they make of you by behaving morally.” (The Book of the City of Ladies, Part III, Chapter 19) Christine presents her female readers with the guide to achieving this. Although she did not expect that her ideas would change the norm and culture of the times, she used her words to show that contemporary women could emulate the qualities of the extraordinary women on whom she built her city in their daily life. It would be in their everyday role as wife, mother, daughter that they would be instrumental in making significant changes in society. The book took the form of a dialogue between Christine and the three Virtues often provoking them in an interrogation in which she, as a devil’s advocate, made arguments for the misogynist.
Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, though, quickly countered her theories with reason and logic. In this way, she was able to provide a counter strategy to any argument and proved that she could take on the best male adversary. In Part I, Christine honored the heroines who used their intelligence to invent the alphabet which provided a means of communication and education among people. This developed into written laws which helped civilize humanity and brought an order to what was a chaotic society. In Part II, Rectitude took this language and transformed it into a code of moral lessons which encouraged women to support their fathers and husbands. In Part III, she praised the deeds of the heroic women who, through their martyrdom, were remembered as having taken on the task of saving the non-believers from eternal damnation and converted as many souls as
possible. The Book of the City of Ladies was Christine de Pizan’s vehicle for self-reflection. She provided valuable insight into the expectations of women and their roles in society. She championed their individuality in a changing world which moved toward an emphasis on education and self-improvement. Christine set out to rectify men’s perception and trivialization of women by highlighting women’s virtues. Through her heroines, she made it her mission to encourage women to find contentment as homemakers and in their place in society while consciously maintaining their individuality. Christine de Pizan spoke to women of every age; she celebrated their accomplishments and laid the foundation for future generations of women to remain strong and united and maintain the high standards that made the construction of the city possible.
In the debate between Christine and Reason, Christine represents the misogynistic notions that are embedded in each citizen’s mind. For instance, a commonly accepted misconception of the time was that “women are by nature fearful creatures, having weak, frail bodies and lacking in physical strength” (De Pizan 33). Reason refutes Christine’s widely accepted viewpoint by arguing that “it doesn’t necessarily follow that a fine, strong body makes for a courageous heart” (De Pizan 34). Such a didactic exchange allows De Pizan to directly communicate with the women reading her book. Subsequently, as Reason gradually disproves the sexist arguments of Christine, the prejudice that exists in the readers’ minds is also logically deconstructed. The ultimate purpose of the didactic dialects is to encourage readers to initiate an acceptance for the novel feminist doctrine that De Pizan is presenting in the creation of the City of Ladies because it is not based on passion nor emotions alone, but logic and
While reading the works of Hesiod, it is impossible not to notice the way that women are characterized and discussed. In his two major poems, the Theogony and Works and Days, he makes no attempt to make his contempt and abhorrence of the female sex a secret. In Works and Days, Hesiod includes the story of Pandora – a woman created by the Greek gods meant as a punishment for the human race – in his discourse to his brother, Perses. The Theogony – through an account of the creation of the universe and the origins of all the gods – presents depictions of women as monstrous and wicked. The negative and misogynist views of women exhibited in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days give insight into the similar views of women that existed in ancient
...s and upheld her views, even though she began to experience spiritual isolation and a great deal of criticism from many of the clergy, modern day feminists who disagreed with her methods and ideologies, and the general public, leading her to publish The Women’s Bible in 1895, a study of sexism in the Old Testament. The Women’s Bible consisted of all the texts concerning women and the main purpose of this revision was to expose the contradictions and the traditional teachings and interpretations in regard to women of the time.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
Historians and scholars often overlook the part that women played in the Renaissance. Did women have a Renaissance? The period did not occur in a male only vacuum; women played an important part in the changes taking place across Europe. No matter a woman’s station in the class system, women, were still considered the sinful daughter of Eve, the downfall of man. Into this world stepped Isabella d’Este, one of the great women of the Renaissance.
When I observe literature works of Medieval and Renaissance period, a man success is determine by the roles of women. I heard a famous quote say "behind a great man there is a amazing woman". As I examine literature works, in the Medieval time of "Sir Gawain and Green Knight "and the Renaissance period of The Faerie Queene of Book I. We have two extraordinary Christian like figures Sir Gawain and Red Crosse who represent Christianity in their respectably time period . Both men endured several tests and have sinned against God. While these men were in the mist of their downfall, they had significant woman who guided them along way to find Christ again. I will view the roles of women like Lady Bertilak of Sir Gawain and Una of the Red Crosse
Historian's could use this work to compare how woman today are treated, and what changes, if there are any have been made to adapt to these modern times. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq(1522-1590), was a European diplomat who resided in the sixteenth-century Istanbul for six years. He's also known as a patron of history and literature.
Audre Lorde In our class discussions and reading, I learned that women were once in charge of the human race, women were a part of a community, no race was inferior or superior, there was peace and harmony in the world until the patriarchal era came, planning to embed itself in the ground for a long time. Women were raped for their identity, their race and their status in society. Men ruled the biblical stories, leaving Mary out. Hence, the war started between the races, women fought to gain their identity back and to do so, they started writing.
Any examination of women in Livy’s writing demands not only a literal interpretation of their character development and values, but also must account for their symbolic importance—thus creating a much more complex representation. Livy, an ancient historian, authored The Early History of Rome to be an exploration of Rome from its foundation, focusing on historical events and societal organization. In it, he examines the patriarchal society that stabilized Rome throughout its dominance. However, as a result of this explicitly defined hierarchy in Rome, women were seen as secondary figures in society. Most were viewed as submissive and passive, and it was well within the rights of men to assert their dominance—many women even agreed with these values. This can be seen in Livy’s portrayals of such women as the Sabine women, Horatia, and Lucretia. Yet Lucretia provides an interesting complexity to the exempla of women. On a symbolic level, Lucretia is an important catalyst in affecting the political organization of Rome. This representation is furthered with Livy’s descriptions of Lavinia, Rhea Silvia, and Verginia. Despite the work of Livy to create an accurate portrayal of women in ancient Rome, other authors showed women to actively defy this patriarchal society he describes. However, Livy’s effort to create the most accurate explanation of early Rome through a historical representation drives this discrepancy in characterization through genre. Therefore, Livy’s work serves as both an accurate and complex examination of the role of women in ancient Rome. According to Livy, a woman’s role was defined by her sacrifice; culturally, women were to be subordinate to men in the patriarchal structure of society, but also served as important...
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.
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles and discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic and learned how important the role of woman in Greek Mythology. In presenting the feminist theory to the class we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept.
Ancient literature often is used as a lesson for future behaviors as it is filled with moral lessons. The Bible has been a source for definitions of gender and morality for centuries. In the Holy Bible: New International Version, the book of Genesis does a good job of showing how history told by men writing history ca...
It is often in the past that women get short credited. In today’s society women were the last to get rights and have often been held from doing somethings. In the past women and been viewed as property of their husband and had no say and have been held on a pedestal. Women have been used to unite kingdoms and women have broken kingdoms apart. Women have played many different roles in the past, and that is what is going to be examined in this essay. What were the roles that women played in The Bible, The Quran and Dante’s Inferno and how do they differ from book to book?