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Women in ancient literature
Ancient greek womens roles in stories
Ancient greek womens roles in stories
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In tales like “Odyssey”, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and “The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Baths Tale”, women play an important role that contribute to many events of the story. The women’s role in these tales use the actions of their feminine psyche to persuade men to do things that they, of the time, supposedly would not usually do. The characters of these women greatly enhance important elements. Women in these tales were generally valued, but vastly for their sex appeal and or beauty. I will discuss the comparison of Lady Bertilak, Guinevere, Penelope, Clytemenestra, Calypsos and other women’s character and roles in these tales.
In the novel of “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” Lady Bertilak is described as “more beautiful than Guinevere” who was early described as “…the most beautiful queen there was…” in this poem. She is the seductress (or so to seem) that temps Sir Gawain the knight to have inappropriate encounters with him. Lady Bertilak is the wife of Lord Bertilak, whom accepts Sir Gawain into his home during his quest to find the Green Knight. During each morning of Lord Bertilaks hunt, Lady Bertilak plays a promiscuous role, invading Gawain in his bed. In the bedroom, the Lady is not only archetype suggesting certain moral associations but also testing his chastity and a real object of courtly love as well as testing his courtesy. As she presses him more and more aggressively as each day passes, the conflict between his spiritual love and courtly love becomes apparent. On the third day she "pressed him so hard, Lured him so near to the edge …" (1770) that the conflict is made clear. Although Gawain does not give into temptation for sex, he accepts her trade of the sash, bearing him to rely on enchantment...
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...ed, disloyal, and unfaithful. Her adulterous love for Aegisthus is the cause of her husband’s downfall and death giving Aegisthus Agamemnons thrown until his own vengeful death by the hands of Oerestis (son of Agamemnons). One would say that she was the downfall of Aegisthus as well.
The women of these tales, some ideal, some treacherous, others a combination of both hold either an aspiring position in their character or a greatly disliked position. Either way, these women have an effective role in the turns these tales took. Although the roles of each women vary in some ways than other every role that each female portrays has been one with holding feminine power. The hero in these tales performance would be altered and would or would not be able to perform great works. Whether overtly or covertly, women represent a vaguely hidden currency of power in these myths.
Lady Bertilak’s deceptive seduction of Gawain demonstrates this truth and illuminates her motive in seducing Gawain as her flirtatious behavior that “urged him so near the limit” (1771) is clearly an attempt to reacquaint Gawain with his natural feelings. In Camelot, men and women are so civilized that their emotions appear false and manufactured. By seducing Gawain with spontaneity and passion, Lady Bertilak strips Gawain of this control over primal urges. While Gawain attempts to resist these urges that contradict his courtly ways, his submission to kiss lady Bertilak and eventually accept her chastity belt reveals that he has submitted to his natural feelings. With such an orderly and distinguished knight proving vulnerable to his emotion and temptation the author imposes the idea that perfection in terms of morality and way of life is unattainable as feelings cannot be controlled. Lady Bertilak further clarifies the intent of her relationship with Gawain by shaming him for “refusing to love a lady”(1779-1780). This shame is clearly unwarranted as Lady Bertilak is breaching moral statues herself by being unfaithful to her husband; however, the claim does succeed in connecting her seduction of Gawain to the ideas of empathy and genuine affection, revealing the statement as selfish manipulation motivated by the lady’s desire to expose Gawain’s most natural emotions. By
Marie de France’s “Lanval” is a brilliantly witty and captivating narrative poem—one illustrating a knight’s unyielding honor and loyalty to his king as well as his enduring chivalric devotion to the woman he loves. Written in the twelfth century, amidst a time when women were looked down upon and considered useless and unnecessary, Marie’s portrayal of a knight needing to be rescued by his female lover breathes comic irony into this otherwise misogynistic and antifeminist world. In addition to this cleverly depicted romance, a further literary work, Geoffrey Chaucer’s early fifteenth century “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” extends its own explicitly satirical outlook
Lady Bertilak enters into his room as he is changing and she attempt to seduce him. Not only does this test his courtly love and respect for woman, but also loyalty to the chivalric code in a whole. He is frightened first, but then approaches her with more confidence. He eventually says that he cannot do much of anything with her, "So good a knight as Gawain as rightly reputed, in whom courtesy is so completely embodied, could not easily have spent so much time with a lady without begging a kiss, to comply with politeness, by some hint or suggestion at the end of a remark" (1296 - 1301). Gawain would be breaking the chivalric code of courtesy, showing his change in loyalty. After their talk, she presents him with a green scarf and says that it embodies powers and could save him. This is where Gawain’s perception on his life is truly changed. He accepts the article of clothing, and wears it. She states that it will protect him, and he wishes to accept that it will change his fate. The scarf of “gay green silk, with gold overwrought” (1833) would give him fortune in his conflict with the Green Knight, but he would not remain loyal and honest to the chivalric code. His new personality of greed was broken as the girdle was hit through with the axe at the last swing. His dishonesty did not allow him to win, and he will eventually wear the girdle as a sign of sin. Due
In considering the relationship between the meanings of myths and their representation of women, we learned that the major role in shaping the narratives was played by men. Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we come to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man. Reading through the various stories on Goddesses and queens, monsters and more. Princesses, we learn that there are three major levels of women in Greek mythology. The first level is composed of the divine beings known as the goddesses.
Like in Gilgamesh and the Iliad, women help encourage and influence the protagonists to be the heroes and protectors they are meant to be. Adventures and wars
In the Medieval Romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight imagery reinforces the five basic rules that are fundamental to the “Quest”.
Individuals in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain is, undoubtably, the most varied of the Arthurian characters: from his first minor appearance as Gwalchmei in the Welsh tales to his usually side-line participation in the modern retelling of the tales, no other character has gone from such exalted heights (being regarded as a paragon of virtue) to such dismal depths (being reduced to a borderline rapist, murderer, and uncouth bore), as he. This degree of metamorphosis in character, however, has allowed for a staggering number of different approaches and studies in Gawain. The greatest part of these studies have involved the middle-English text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
In Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
Courtly love was a secret love or romance between the first knight and the king’s lady that would usually begin with something as small as an exchange of looks through eye glances. Next, a declaration is then discussed by both parties to pursue a relationship under the table from their king or anyone else in the castle. “Gawain glanced at the gracious looking woman …Gawain and the beautiful woman found such comfort and closeness in each other company (line 970,1010)”. Sir Gawain had courted Guinevere while he was at kings Arthurs castle but being here in Bertilak’s Castle he now found a much more stunning lady superior to Guinevere, Lady Bertilak. He had really fallen in love with lady Bertilak at first glance and Lady Bertilak was in love with his heroicness. Moreover, the relationship was established, Sir Gawain was to love her and be obedient to all of her commands as well as to always be polite, courteous and to never exceed the desires of the lover. At one point of the story, Lady Bertilak goes to Sir Gawain’s room in the morning while her husband is away and everyone is sleep because she desires to be with him, “I shall kiss at your command ...should it please you, so press me no more (line 1303). Abiding by the rules of courtly love Sir Gawain is to be a good knight and do as she pleases but
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is an example of medieval misogyny. Throughout Medieval literature, specifically Arthurian legends like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the female characters, Guinevere, the Lady, and Morgan leFay are not portrayed as individuals but social constructs of what a woman should be. Guinevere plays a passive woman, a mere token of Arthur. The Lady is also a tool, but has an added role of temptress and adulteress. Morgan leFay is the ultimate conniving, manipulating, woman. While the three women in this legend have a much more active role than in earlier texts, this role is not a positive one; they are not individuals but are symbols of how men of this time perceive women as passive tokens, adulteresses, and manipulators.
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.
Within the writings of Greek mythology women commonly display certain attributes that the Greek society associated with women or femininity back in the day. A common quality demonstrated amongst the women in Greek society, and more specifically in Greek mythology, is deception. Throughout the Greek literature discussed in class, women have commonly showed their deception and trickery in different ways and for numerous different reasons. The Odyssey, Theogony, and Homeric Hymm all displayed Greek women showing some form of deception within the stories and poems. These stories show various ways and reasons for Greek women being deceiving and disingenuous, reasons for which there needs to be more discussion.
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.
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.