Desire of the Fourteenth Century Women
Is not what we desire, the most hard to get? It has always been this way. Unfortunately, women’s rights and abilities have been underestimated over the centuries. In the fourteenth century, the status and condition of a European woman depended on her husband’s position. Women had to endure arranged marriages, abuse and male dominance. During that time, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales and taught us about one extraordinary woman whose name is Dame Alisoun. Alisoun is called The Wife of Bath, and she defines what women desired most in fourteenth-century England. She believes that women wish for power over their husbands, and I personally agree with her opinion.
The Wife of Bath, a cloth maker, gets rich after her husbands die and leave her their fortunes. Even though medieval women were still far from being powerful, and had to obey their husbands, Alisoun states that she has power over her men’s bodies and property all her life: “ I have the power during al my life, Upon his proper body, and nat he”(line 164). Alisoun is an exception to the rule because she marries five times and is widowed five times. It is important to mention that there was no divorce for women in the fourteenth century: “She was a worthy woman al hr live. Husbondes at chirche dore she hadde five, Withouten other compaignye in youthe” (line 461). The three first husbands are old, rich and loyal to her. The fourth husband has a mistress: “My ferthe housbonde was a revelour. This is to sayn, he hadde a paramour” (line 459). The Wife of Bath learns that it is very important for a woman to satisfy her man, and she knows how to act to make him obedient and less powerful...
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...nder difference will still have an impact on women’s lives six hundred years from now. What do you think?
Credits:
Abrams M. H, et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Fell, Christine. Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Catholic Encyclopedia. Online. October 24, 2000. http://www.newadvent.org Harvard University. Online. October 24, 2000. http://www.icg.fas.Harvard Luminarium Organization. Online. October 22, 2000.
http://www.britannia.com/history/biographies/guinever.html
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http://www.legends.dm.net/kingarthur
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/subjects/women/women.html
http://www.r3.org/life/articles/women.html
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.htm
http://www.infoplease.com
First, it is important to know a few facts concerning the resources of the state state. The state gets its name from the Mississippi River, which flows along the western boundary of the state. Mississippi is heavily forest except for the Delta area, which is mainly agricultural. Its primary crops in the Delta are cotton beans, rice, potatoes, peanuts, and catfish. Its aquaculture farms produce the majority of the farm raised catfish in the U.S. Belzoni, Mississippi is widely known as the “Catfish Capital” of the world. Mississippi has a wide variety of land forms. Its many lakes and streams make it conducive to attract tourists who are interested in hunting and fishing. The lakes and parks are attractive to persons looking for good vacations spots. The thriving coastal area creates a perfect place to live with a wealth of opportunities along the coastline for shrimps, lobsters and deep water fishing. Within the last 20 years, Mississippi has become a great tourism are, especially along the Mississippi coast. There are casinos at Biloxi, Gulfport, Natchez, Vicksburg and all along the Mississippi River from Tunica to Natchez. Many Civil War Battles were fought in Mississippi. Some are the Battle of Vicksburg, the Battle of Clinton, the Battle of Natchez, the Battle of Jackson and therefore, now serves as memorial area that attract many tourists each year.
This novel was a very long and strenuous read. Solomon included many details about the process of planting and harvesting cotton or the appearance of a man from head to foot, for example. This painted an extremely accurate picture in the reader’s head, however it made the story boring and slow. There were also a lot of old-fashioned words that I had to look up before I understood sentences. Although the novel was slow and old-fashioned, I would recommend this book to students who wished to learn more about this time period because it certainly helps certain aspects easier to comprehend. Twelve Years a Slave gave me a different perspective to slavery, and a different way of viewing it.
Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee with a population totaling more than 670,000. Memphis is considered to be the home of blues music, but the city’s claim to fame also includes the mansion Elvis Presley...
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a play about real estate salesmen who are basically conmen that always just work toward getting the deal closed, whether or not the customer is happy with the deal. They fit the stereotype of car salesmen, always trying to get the deal closed with the customer walking away feeling that they paid way too much. Dave Moss is one such salesman, except that he is the most despicable among the entire group. In a scene of the play this guy actually has the guts to try to blackmail one of his fellow salesmen; a fellow friend. The conversation starts out as would any among friends, bsing about work or not getting paid enough. Then Dave slowly introduces the topic that their bosses are greedy and selfish, to plant the seed of distrust. They talk about this for a bit but then get around to what “somebody should do.” Dave says that “someone” should pay them back, and this leads into robbing the office. He talks about the logistics of this, that they would get a dollar fifty for each lead and such, but disarms the tense situation, saying that we were just “talking” about it. But he slowly leads into that he is actually planning on it, and wants Aaronow in on it. He then says that if he does it and Aaronow isn’t in then he would call him as an accomplice, trying to manipulate him into helping; a fellow friend. The best part of this blackmail is that not only is he going to rob his workplace, he’s going to sell out to another team of salesmen.
Women during the medieval period had certain role with their husbands, depending on his social status. The wives were placed into a class according to their husband’s line of work or social status (Time Traveler’s 54). This social status may be favorable, but not all wives were able to make it into the elite social status. Once the woman was committed, and married to her husband, she was totally controlled by her husband. Even though the wife was able to maintain the same social status of the husband, she lost a lot of rights after she married. Women during the medieval period not only lost a lot of their rights, but also became somewhat of a slave to the husband in many ways.
Picture this: a hero of great legends who travels to the underworld and back to get directions to his home from a blind prophet. It sounds like quite an impossible journey, but that is exactly what makes Odysseus all the more fascinating. The Odyssey, an epic poem orally transmitted by Homer, a Greek poet who wrote The Iliad, had to contain some variety of attributes that Greeks valued in a person. That one embodiment of what the Greeks found intriguing in a character is Odysseus. Odysseus is known as what is called an epic hero. An epic hero is a protagonist of a story that represents the most important attributes of a civilization. Odysseus, being based in ancient Greece, is the embodiment of intelligence, loyalty, and strength.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee is located in Sevier County, situated on the northern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The city has gotten the suitable nickname “Gateway to the Smokey Mountains” due to the fact that it sits at one of the two main entrances to the park serviced by one main road through the park. Today, Gatlinburg is seen as a scenic, romantic, getaway that is also bustling with tourism and even an amusement park; however, this was not always the case.
Many ancient laws and beliefs show that women from all around the world have always been considered inferior to men. However, as time went on, ideas of equality circulated around and women started to demand equality. Many women fought for equality and succeeded in bringing some rights. However, full equality for women has yet to be fulfilled. This issue is important because many women believe that the rights of a person should not be infringed no matter what their gender is, and by not giving them equality, their rights are being limited. During the periods 1840 to 1968, total equality for women did not become a reality due to inadequate political representation, economic discrepancy, and commercial objectification.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
The state of Mississippi is a very beautiful state and has a lot of historic facts behind it. A lot of famous people were born and raised in the heart of Mississippi. The food in Mississippi is some of the best in the south, the people have good hospitality and the weather is beautiful. Mississippi is a wonderful place to visit and even better place to live.
Tennessee is the homegrown town for country music and artists. Where you can have a fun time and relax. When I was about 10 years old my family and I went to Nashville for a vacation and had a had a blast. We got to see just about everything that you would die to see. When we arrived, we went and walked downtown to see what everyone always talked about, like how Tennessee is a great place to go on vacation. It was much different than what I thought it would be. I thought it would be boring and just country everything.
After Balian wife committed this dreadful act, he began to examine his faith in God, because he wondered why God would let so much tragedy happen in his life. Balian buried his wife with a cross around her neck even though she committed suicide. Balian was busy with his wife’s burial, as well as dealing with his grief at the loss of his child, and most of all he wanted to atone for his sins, and his wife, as well. When he returns to the blacksmith shop, his brother took the cross off his wife’s neck, and ordered her head to be cut off. His brother wanted her head severed off, since she took her own life, by committing suicide.
In the Wife of Bath’s tale, it tells about a knight’s journey to receive a death pardon from the queen, by finding what women truly desire in a relationship. Eventually the knight succeeds with the help from an Old Hag, saying that women want power. But in exchange for the pardon he must marry the Old Hag and choose either to marry her as ugly and faithful or attractive and unfaithful. The Knight chooses wisely and is rewarded as the Old Hag becomes both attractive and faithful. From this story I learned of the message the author was trying to instill, that women truly desired power in their relationship between a man. This reflected a bit on the reality of that time in that men were often the superior ones in the relationship and that the
North Korea’s extremist actions cannot be excused as simply maintaining homeland security. Instead, North Korea has gone and created a dictatorship where citizens are ruthlessly controlled and isolated to avoid the inward or outward spread of facts contrary to the claims of the imperial Kim family. The brainwashing, restrictions on freedom and communication, and exile from the outside world have created a society in which North Korea’s citizens have lost their basic human rights.