Title Here It is apparent in ancient society that women were seen as lesser than men, that their value was based off of who they were married to or who their father was. There was no way for a woman to have her own power, they could not do anything alone. The series Game of Thrones is set to be in medieval times, though not in our universe. It very blatantly shows themes of the time period, which are still seen in society today to a point. Blatant misogyny is shown throughout the series as the stronger female leads have to deal with this prejudice as they grow. The first character ever introduced in the series is Daenerys Targaryen, she and her brother and the last one’s to have their name. Her brother, Viserys Targaryen, is a power hungry …show more content…
man bent on restoring his family's power to the Iron Throne (which has been taken by the Lannisters). Viserys is desperate to get any sort of power he can, so he decides to marry off his sister to a warlord named Khal Drogo, he is the leader of a people called the Dothraki. There people are the best horsemen in the land and agree to help Viserys in exchange for Daenerys. Against her will she is forced to marry this much older man whom does not ever speak the same language as her. She is thrown into an alien culture and is forced to cooperate by her brother no matter how abused she is by Khal Drogo. Through this Daenerys slowly learns the Dothraki language and culture, she comes to love Khal in an almost stockholm syndrome kind of way. Daenerys actually ends up killing her brother, and losing her husband, and comes to be the leader of the Dothraki people. Through her efforts she liberates thousands of slaves and gains control of a half dozen cities. She is doubted during this time, and must continue to prove to her people that she can be feminine and powerful at the same time. Arya Stark is the youngest daughter of Eddard Stark, who is the Lord of Winterfell, she excels at things that would be deemed “boy trades”.
Arya is better at archery than her brother, though she is chastised for ever doing anything other than wearing dresses and learning embroidery, which she hates. When Sansa is betrothed to Joffrey, she goes with her father and sister to King’s Landing, where the Iron Throne is, right into the heart of the Lannister’s power. The Stark’s and Lannister’s are are at odds with each other, and Eddard is framed and beheaded because of this in front of his two daughters. Arya is able to escape with her sword her brother gave to her and ends up travelling through the lands. She cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy to keep herself safe. Arya ends up travelling with a powerful man called The Mountain, as she creates a revenge list to avenge her father. She proves again and again to The Mountain that she is more capable than he or anyone else thinks. Arya over time learns to be a killer, and can expertly wield her weapon. She ends up leaving The Mountain to die and going to Braavos to rid herself of the name Arya Stark and become an assassin. “A long time ago, she remembered her father saying that when the cold wind blows the lone wolf dies but the pack survives. He had it all backwards. Arya, the lone wolf, still lived, but the wolves of the pack had been taken and slain and skinned.” Arya develops this mentality over time after she has been …show more content…
through abuse while being held captive by multiple parties. Sansa Stark, Arya’s older sister, is betrothed to Joffrey Lannister. At first she is overjoyed at this fact, but then she get’s to know him, she sees how evil he truly is and begins to endure his abuse. She was forced into the marriage after watching her father’s beheading and is completely under the fist of the Lannisters. Eddard tells his daughters they’re not safe and plans to return them home to Winterfell, though Sansa, ever being so in love with Joffrey, tell his mother Cersei of her father plans. Her father is executed and she is told that she will marry Joffrey when she “flowers”, which fills her with so much fear of womanhood that she never wants it to happen. She is being manipulated by Cersei and sees this after the Hound speaks with her, “The Hound is right ... I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me.” After the battle of the Blackwater, Cersei calls off the engagement and says that a marriage with the Tyrell house would make much more sense than Sansa. She is forced to marry Tyrion Lannister to keep her hostage in the castle. Eventually Joffrey is poisoned and dies at his wedding to Margaery Tyrell. Dontos and Petyr Baelish help Sansa to escape while the commotion over Joffrey is happening and she ends up travelling with Lord Baelish who promises to keep her safe. She goes on a long tedious journey and ends up at her aunt's domain, the Eyrie. Where Lysa Arryn, Lady Catelyn’s sister, helps to disguise her. At this point all of Sansa’s other siblings beside Arya are dead, leaving her as the sole heir to Winterfell. Lysa dies and Sansa takes over as Lady of the Eyrie. This is when Lord Baelish reveals his plan to help her reclaim her home. Brienne of Tarth is a knight, the only one in the world that is a woman.
She is constantly mocked for this and her looks, being called “mannish” because of her broad features, short hair and height. She joins Renly Baratheon on his march to King’s Landing and is mocked by the other knights. Though in the great melee of 116 knights she defeats Loras Tyrell and a few of the other knights that had been mocking her, proving her worth through the only way she had ever know how, through combat. After this battle, Renly is dead, and she gives her sword to Lady Catelyn. At this time Jamie Lannister is Lady Catelyn’s prisoner and she agrees to let him go in exchange for her daughters. She appoints Brienne to escort him back to King’s Landing, though Jamie doesn’t respect her at all. Over the course of their journey they grow a mutual respect for each other. After Catelyn dies, Jamie gives Brienne the only sword made of precious Valyrian steel, and sends her to go find Sansa to fulfill her original quest of finding the stark girls. She begins her royal mission looking for Sansa, thinking of Catelyn the entire time “I will find her, my lady. I will never stop looking. I will give up my life if need be, give up my honour, give up all my dreams, but I will find her.”, showing how noble she has become through her arc as a
character. Over the course of the female lead’s character arcs they face sexism at every corner, though they are able to grow and become strong in their own individual ways. Quotes from George R.R. Martin’s series A Game of Thrones.
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
The role of women in learning and education underwent a gradual change in the Afro-Eurasian world and the Americas between the 11th and 15th centuries. As societies in Africa, Middle East, India, China, Europe, and America grew more complex they created new rights and new restrictions for women. In all regions of the world but the Middle East, society allowed women to maintain education in order to support themselves and their occupations. Women slaves in the Middle East were, however, prized on their intelligence. In Africa, women were trained in culinary arts. In India, women learned how to read and write with the exception of the sacred verses of the Vedas.
Misogyny is a very important idea in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The word misogyny literally translates to the hatred of women. In this medieval romance, Gawain references biblical characters who have been deceived by women, and shows his feelings of how women are evil. For example, the story of Rebekah shows the inferior social position and lack of political power in a society where men ruled. In the Bible, Rebekah was married to Isaac who was the son of Abraham. They had two sons named Jacob and Esau. They were born together, but were completely different from each other. Esau was a skillful hunter, and was always out in the fields, but Jacob was peaceful and stayed indoors in the tents. Isaac favored Esua more but on the other hand, Rebekah favored Jacob more. Then one day, Rebekah was eavesdropping outside the tent, and heard Isaac telling Esau to hunt and make him a stew so that he could gain strength to bless him before he died. At that time, Isaac was fairly ill and was blind so he did not know when he was going to pass away. At ...
A woman was not seen as being equal to a man. This is clear in the laws dealing with marriage. Women were contractually obligated to remain with their husbands only, while their husbands were permitted to have a mistress or second wife. If a woman was caught with another man, she would be drowned (“The Code of Hammurabi”). Another thing that shows that women were not equal to men is the fact that they could be sold into slavery by their husbands at any time. Women did, however, have some rights such as the right to own property and the right to inherit and pass down that property. They also played very important roles in society. Some of these roles included shop owners, bakers, or scribes (Judge and Langdon,
Men exemplify heroic qualities in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, however, women are depicted differently in the two stories. In Beowulf, women are not necessary to the epic, where as in Green Knight, women not only play a vital role in the plot, but they also directly control the situations that arise. Men are acknowledged for their heroic achievement in both stories, while the women's importance in each story differ. However, women are being equally degraded in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
What if women never established rights? The world would not be the place it is today if that was the case. Women are able to do just as much as men are and even more. What if men were treated the same way as women were one thousand years ago? They would have felt just as the women did, hurt because the treatment between men and women was unfair. The fact that men and women were not treated equally was wrong in many ways, but that was the way of life during those times. In the British culture, from the Anglo-Saxon to the Renaissance time period, the men were respected on a higher level than women, and women were to always be subservient to men, which were demonstrated throughout many works of literature.
It can easily be seen that while men were considered to be the most powerful and wisest humans and gods, women had the power to significantly influence these men. From Uta-napishti's wife who convinced Uta-napishti to tell Gilgamesh about the plant that would make him young again to the examples mentioned above, several women were put in roles that had important effects on the men they encountered. Of course, this is not much different from the society we live in today. While many may believe that women have still not reached the point of true equality, it is hard to say that they are inferior and the significance of their roles in society is undeniable.
Margery Kempe did something that many people (especially women) would not dare to do- she broke away from the identity that her society had molded for her. The Book of Margery Kempe is one of the most astonishing documents found of the late medieval era and is the first autobiography to have been discovered. Margery Kempe does not shy away from telling the story of the personal and intricate details about her adventurous life. It is hard to say what influenced Kempe to go through such lengths to have her book written. Many think she wanted others to understand and witness how difficult it was to live through the social norms and expectations as a typical wife and mother of the 14th century. Little did she know, her life story would travel through history and show how molding of society influences social norms and self-identification, which are prominent, combating issues today.
Game of Thrones is a fantasy piece, set during the medieval times, which takes place in a country called Westeros. Although it is set in a different time and place than where we are today, the show still has the same constructs, and built by the same fabrics that define our gender roles here in America. This show is a great example of gender roles, and what happens when people follow these rules or stray from them. Taking an in depth view of the season one opener, “Winter is Coming” helps reveal many of the social constructs not typically thought of that build our daily lives. This episode also portrays that gender roles are not just dependent on sex, but on social class, and physical characteristics.
Men are seen as superior, while women are the inferior sex. The two are sorted into their specific gender roles as they were many years ago, and still are today. Jobs and duties are especially gendered in the show. For example, men are seen as warriors and are very strong. Women, on the other hand, are only meant to cook the food and clean the house, or in the case of highborn women, provide heirs for their husband. Noble women’s opinions are not completely trusted the way the men’s’ opinions are: “My mother wishes me to let Lord Eddard join the Night 's Watch. Stripped of all titles and powers, he would serve the realm in permanent exile. And my Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father. But they have the soft hearts of women. So long as I am your king, treason shall never go unpunished. Sir Ilyn, bring me his head” (“Game of Thrones”). In this particular scene, Lord Eddard is to be shown mercy so long as he swear featly to King Joffrey. His mother, Queen Regent Cersei had previously advised him to not execute the prisoner, as it would start a war that he would not be able to win. Nevertheless, the King believes that the opinions of the women are not valid and executes Eddard, starting a war. In this society, gender roles are very divided, but not as much as they used to be: “We typically accept ‘masculine men’ and ‘feminine women’ as normal. That is, we expect
The women characters in Beowulf show that during the time period in which this was written, the roles of women were clearly defined. While, the author's views on women may never be fully revealed, it is made apparent that he believes in male superiority, and disobedient females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females were to exert minimal power and influence, but should always keep the drinks coming.
“Tears aren’t a woman’s only weapon. The best one’s between her legs. Learn how to use it.”
Game of Thrones is a book series written by George R.R. Martin, HBO has turned the books into one of the most widely followed television series on cable today. The book is set in a fantasy world that somewhat resembles what we know as the medieval era. The story follows around a vast cast of characters as they all fight to gain the “Iron Throne” in order to rule over the land. This paper will follow Daenerys Targaryen’s story during season one as she tries to get back her family’s throne. A she goes on her journey we will analyze how her story conforms and later on resists common themes of gender.
The Middle Ages did not offer women many options of lifestyles. During these times women could either be virgin martyrs and sacrifice themselves in religious rituals, or become wives and mother. None of these options offered women a real chance to live, to create, to enjoy. New options emerged, these options allowed them not only to live free of male dominance, but also to be educated and to use their creativity in areas like music, theater, science, and philosophy. These options were monastic life, mysticism and life among the Beguines. Among the women who opted one of these ways of life, were: Hrotswitha, Hildegard and Teresa of Avila, whose work was among the most famous and recognized in the Middle Ages.
Hi, I think was so disrespectful that medieval women were obligated to held unwanted attitudes such as the Common law and the Cannon law. The common law visualized married women as properties.So, the fact was that women' properties trespassed to their spouses right after getting married. So, medieval married women had no authorities over their own properties. Even more they could not dispute about this law because that was a social norm in the Middle Ages and it must be respected. In the case of the Canon law this affected women societal attitudes due to regulations established by the Cristian authorities and gave power to husbands.For instance, according to the Cristian church's position on this matter was followed the Biblical texts of