Medieval England was considered to be a Patriarchy, due to the serious gender roles which cast men as superior to women. Margery Kempe attempted time and time again to break the boundaries of the gender roles put in place by society. The men in her life tried to stop her, and bring her back to the social norms of what it meant to be a women living in the time period: John Kempe, her priest, Christ etc. To analyze Kempe, it is first important to note what was expected of medieval women; “the classical females are portrayed as vessels of chastity, purity, and goodness” (O’Pry-Reynolds, 37). She was not your typical female; she wanted to break free from the strict expectations of women; “Men and women of the medieval period and medieval literature …show more content…
John Kempe, the husband of Kempe, was a relationship abuser. Although that term was unknown at the time, there is evidence that he had complete ownership over his unwilling wife. However, it is important to note what some of the laws were of marriage at the time, so they can be applied to the text. “It seems clear, however, that women, then as now, were most vulnerable in the home, at the hands of their own kin. Legislators gave great leeway to the men of the household to discipline their women…” (Bennett, Karras 107). Discipline, at the time, was legal to be given by the man of the house, and there were no repercussions for him to face; “Corporeal punishments of the wife and children were considered natural privileges of the father figure who acted as the king’s and ultimately as God’s proxy within the small family unit” (Classen 195). After giving birth to fourteen children, Kempe wanted to stop having sex, and stop having children. Without taking her wishes into account, John told her that she was not allowed to deprive him of sex. This is an example of how Kempe was used, in order for John to get what he wants: …show more content…
A mystical marriage is, “a vision in which Christ tells a soul that He takes it for His bride, presenting it with the customary ring, and the apparition is accompanied by a ceremony; the Blessed Virgin, saints, and angels are present” (Catholic Encyclopedia). Obviously Kempe was ecstatic about the arrangement, because it was an honor to be chosen. However, even Christ himself was guilty of objectifying Kempe. He tells her, “‘I command you, boldly call me Jesus, your love, for I am your love and shall be your love without end” (Page Number). Jesus is commanding Kempe to be in love with him, which is ownership. He is using his power to make her marry and love him. He also displays denial of autonomy to Kempe, in all of his commands to her. He tells her that if she wants to be perfect, she needs to; fast, stop eating meat, stop praying on beads, weep, and contemplate. He also tells her that it is within her job to love him and lie with him; “I want to be loved as a son should be loved by the mother, and I want you to love me, daughter, as a good wife ought to love her husband” (Page Number). Christ denied Kempe to make choices for herself; he takes away her
Medieval female saints and martyrs were intended to be chaste if they were single and virtuous if they are married. They were also extremely devoted and pure to Christ, not giving in to any temptations. Kempe seemed to be tempted by men, but then immediately followed by shame. On the other hand, she posses’s qualities the saints share like, visions, passion, a desire to be chaste and, commitment. Saint Margaret of Antioch is one of the saints that appears often in “The Book of Margery Kempe”.
What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights.
She behaved the way she felt was right according to her very devout faith and tries to live her life as God instructed her as best she could. She faced scorn from not only her husband, but also her fellow Christians and peers and yet she never backed down. She stood up against great suffering in order to do what she felt was right, much like Christ himself. Margery Kempe was anything but the stereotypical medieval woman; she was a faithful woman of God who was far more concerned with her heavenly pursuits that her earthly life. While she may have annoyed many of her fellow Christians and peers, and may seems fraudulent or insane to a modern reader, Margery Kempe was a genuine mystic who lived as devout a life as she
The marriage between King Henry and Katherine is nothing more than just a medieval political union that brought succession and power in Europe. It seems that Shakespeare played with the interpretation of what’s personal and political involving a person’s union or marriage as the case may be. It can be seen as the personal evolves the political, and then the political evolves the personal. Shakespeare successfully acknowledge the portrayal of marriage in a meaningful characterizations. Both King Henry and Katherine has their own separate point-of-views from two different cultures and way of living, towards conflicts such as power struggles they had in that particular era.
Baron Richard Von Krafft-Ebing, a 19th century German psychiatrist, was quoted as having said, "We find that the sexual instinct, when disappointed and unappeased, frequently seeks and finds a substitute in religion." This may have been the condition of Margery Kempe when she desired to cease all sexual activity with her spouse because of her devotion to God. Instead of performing her duties as a wife, she chose instead to spread her knowledge of God to her community and did so not only in speech, but also in literature. Whatever her motivation for creating such descriptive language, it is evident that her faith in God conquered both her fear of public opinion and the constraints placed upon all women during the period. Living in the 1400s, she steps out of a woman's role and into the territory of a man by living her life publicly, abandoning her position of mother and wife, and recording her life in writing. Fortunately, because she was writing for religious reasons, her work was both permitted and accepted. In The Book of Margery Kempe, she describes her experiences with brilliant imagery, some of which is sexual, all of which is sensual. By using her own senses to portray her spiritual...
...Christian values in her own way in order to justify her character’s actions, in addition to using religion as a way of explaining what she thinks of herself. On the other hand, Margery Kempe was a woman who took religion to a new level as a result of “supposedly” having very intense visions and experiences with Jesus Christ. The result was a woman who believed that she had more religious authority than an archbishop of the church and who possessed the strength to continue on her path, despite allegations of being psychotic.
Medieval society was completely dominated by men, making a women’s life at the time difficult. Medieval law at the time stated that women could not marry without their parents consent, could not divorce their husbands, could not own property unless widows, could not inherit land if they had surviving brothers, and could own no business with special permission (Trueman, “Medieval Women”). When a woman married a man, he would get any property she owned and she would forfeit any rights she had to him. When the husband dies she would get one third of the land to live on and support herself. Unmarried women who owned land had the same rights as men (Hull). Whenever a woman got into trouble it would be her closest male relative who would appear in court, not the woman herself (Medieval).
The problem we find in this story, and in puritanism, is that it presents contrasting views of love. Attachment to earthly possessions, to other people in fact, is discouraged, because everything physical leads to temptation and damnation, and ultimately hell, while the road to salvation of the individual wanders through a spiritual discipline, rigour, austerity. A man should not love his wife more than he loves God; in fact, it is recommended that he not derive pleasure from his wife, but rather seek suffering, in order to redeem himself from his earthly condition, his impure state.
A central component of medieval religion that is evident in even the slightest dissection of the life of Margery Kempe or the directed discipline from the author advising contemplation is an unmistakable desire for religious experience. Even among married men and women who are occupied with family responsibilities, lay people during this time such as we see in the life of Margery herself are seeking more intense religious ways of living. Margery, as the example, lived with her husband with whom she had fourteen children. Growing up influenced by the church, her spirituality came to a heightened level when she and her Jesus began having actual communication with one another. While the church was catalyzing religious experience in medieval communities, upon the realization of direct mystical connection with Christ in the lives of people such as Margery, the desire for the inward search for spiritual satisfaction spread.
“Marguerite needs to undermine the medieval social norms for a woman in order to develop as a person and a ruler.”
And therefore she was glad to be punished with the same person…” (Kempe 132) The concept of Margery doing penance for her youthful lusts is interesting, showing the fact that females were pressured to be chaste. Men were free to pursue the desires of their flesh and women were suited only to fulfill these desires without enjoying them too much for fear of being uncouth. This illustrates once again the presence of a hierarchy in which women are beneath men, their sole role being to please men and remain in the background. For her part, Margery Kempe defended herself from the attempts of men to oppress her and take away her authority.
Women in different societies around the world, during the Middle Ages, experienced different hardships and roles. These hardships and roles helped shape how they were viewed in their society. Some women were treated better and more equal than others. In Rome, Medieval England, and Viking society, women’s legal status, education, marriage and family roles were considered diverse, but also similar. In certain nation’s women have more or less power than women in other nations, but none equal to the power that women have in America today.
The roles of women was an issue in medieval times and in The Canterbury Tales. In A Knight 's Tale, the women were portrayed as objects. To men they didn 't mean much. Women for them were there to help only when needed and didn 't hold an important role in society. Women were treated differently and had not much of importance.
The Elizabethan era gender roles were much different than they are today. Women were regarded as the weaker sex, and men were always dominant. These “rules” are shown prominently throughout Romeo and Juliet, and paved way for obstacles they went through in their relationship. The gender conventions for women and men were prodigiously stereotypical and unreasonable, as they made men out to be the superior gender. Women should not have been perceived as inferior to men, and these unwritten rules for masculinity and femininity were shown throughout the play. Romeo acted very feminine which contradicted his gender conventions while Juliet did not abide by rules and disobeyed her parents. Romeo and Juliet had many ways in which they followed and
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.