Lady Justice Quotes

The many different faces of Lady Justice

The Book of “City of Ladies” one of the successful novels from Christine de Pizan. The author defends women by putting together a wide range of famous females throughout history. One day Christine read a book published by a male author name Matheouls. She is hurt when she reads his derogatory comments on his perception on women. Matheouls had distorted and horrible views of women. The Book depicts three symbolic goddesses Lady Rectitude, Lady Reason and Lady de Pizan and Lady Justice. The goddesses asked the author to build the city where all the noble women can live. These goddesses represent symbols of prejudices that some men believes about women.

The goddess I found most fascinating is Lady Justice. Lady Justice is a larger than life symbol in American society. Christine uses Lady Justice to assist with the top of the roof, and brings in great women from history, and women saints. One important need that Christine desired was for Lady Justice to assist in making the city women praise virtuous women, that the women can also become virtuous. Lastly, Christine wanted Lady Justice to be viewed as a form of encouragement to the other women.
Lady Justice who was a goddess, symbolize justice and was originally called Themis. On page 2 ____ it states in Greek Themis means ‘order’ (Gilbert E Barrer,2). This phrase meant that she symbolize fair and equal treatment under the law, and without the law, they would not be any order. Without “Law and Order”, justice cannot be served appropriately. On page 2 _____ in states, Lady Justice began in Greek mythology about 800 B.C. as one of the Titan Goodness’. She had the power of law and order and gave advice to the Greek government when things were going astray. Lady Justice would make final decisions when it came to the laws of man and nature. In our legal system, we inherited her ideas and folk tales. There is a huge difference in Christine Pizan’s vision of Lady Justice, where she portrayed her as a goddess in her book, more than a Greek original.
Lady Justice is more of an allegory figure, as she represents the Church of God, and spiritual mother to all the women in the city.

In the book, the three Lady Justices is the last one to help Christine to complete the City of Ladies. Lady Justice states in book one “My friend, I am Lady Justice, the singular daughter of God, and my nature proceeds purely from His person” (Christine Pizan 1.6.1). In this quote, Lady Justice claims to be a direct descendant of God who gives encouragement to women. She believes that the women lack power, independence and a voice. She worked to confute the pessimistic ideas that men authors voiced about women, and showed that women could be very successfully in a man’s world. Christine read the grievances that Matheolus and other male authors raised in book one, which stated “They all concur in one conclusion: that the behavior of women is inclined to and full of every vice ”(Christine Pizan 1.1.1). Interpreting this quote in the book, Lady Reason does admits to some woman acting horrible, which is presumable wrong, however, for century men have made inaccurate conclusion about women because women have not been given a strong voice to state their opinion. The author Christine is known as the first women in the history of western culture to voice her concerns about the unfair treatment against women. She was aware that women were powerless and controlled by

men.
The other grievance quoted by Christine states “Perhaps this man who called himself Matheolus in his book, intended in such a way, should certain things be taken literally, it would be pure heresy. As for the attack against the estate, not only by Matheolus but also by others and even by the Romance of the Rose, where better credibility is averred because of the authority of its author, it is evident and proven by experience that the contrary of the evil which they posit and claim to found in this estate through the obligation and fault of women is true. For where has the husband ever been found who would allow his wife to have authority to abuse and insult him as a matter of course as these authorities maintain(Christin de Pizan 1.2.2)”. In this quote, Christine addresses the grievances said by men to uphold their argument, which was a direct source for defaming marriage. Men authors claim if they knew the back history of marriage they would of never tie the knot. Men authors even called women vile, which means disgraceful human being that God created.
Lady Justice goes as far as to say “I am in God and God is in me, and we are one and the same”(Christine Pizan 1.6.1).

Lady Justice is helping Christine by making each woman gets what she deserves in life, and by helping through encouragement. Lady Justice takes the opportunity to talk about all the grievances that men have made against women. She states the grievances cannot stand and tells the stories of St Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Lucy as example of women, whom Jesus Christ dearly loved. She also gives other examples, indicating that Christ loves women, the same way he loves men, and ultimately gives women the power to be morally excellent. Lady Justice galvanized the women by telling inspiring story about Euphrosyna. Lady Justice notes on “likewise, there lived in Alexandria a virgin named Euphrosyna, who God had given to Paphnutius, her father, a man of great wealth, thanks to the prayers of a holy abbot and his monks from a nearby monastery. When his daughter had grown up, her father wanted to marry her off, but she, in her total dedication to God, was determined to remain a virgin and so she fled, dressed like a man. She asked to be receive into the monastery and gave the abbot to believe that she was a young man from the emperor’s court who was eager to be admitted. Impressed with her devotion, the abbot gladly received her”(Christine Pizan 3.13.1) . The story of Europhrysina demonstrates, that the stereotyping of women misbehaving is

false because women are capable of being obedient, which would allow them to be seen as virtuous women. Lady Justice also added that although men authors scrutinize women, one man has not, and that is Christ. Christ says delightful things about woman in the Bible for example, the first person to witness Christ resurrection was a woman, and to stand with him during his crucifixion. These events show that woman played an important role in the Bible similarly to men. In the end, this is exactly what Christine de Pizan wanted each person to receive, what they deserve based on their personal merits, and not on their gender. Lady Justice is the ultimate character, demonstrating why she was deserving based on her merits and not her gender.
Overall, Lady Justice wanted women to demonstrate to men that they were capable of being noble and good. She wanted to present herself as a shining example, showing the city women how to live morally and virtuously. Men would ultimately have no choice but to change their opinions of women, which would eventually lead to women being treated more fairly.