Lady Mary Wortley Montagu begins her letter about the small Turkish town of Sophia by addressing her recipient. She states that in her new world, everything seem new and different, and that she hopes that the recipient will enjoy hearing about her extraordinary experiences.
She transitions to talking specifically about the town of Sophia since she does not want to bore her ladyship. This town, she says, is famous for its hot baths, which citizens use for health as well as entertainment. She devoted a day to see this attraction, she recounts. She travelled in a coach so that noone would know that she was there. Wooden lattices and gold paint adorned the carriage. The coaches, which held four passengers, were also embellished with small bunches of flowers, short sayings, baskets, and exquisite fabrics, she remembers.
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The structure was comprised of five stone domes joined together; windows in the roof let in adequate light, she explains. She states that a portress monitored the outermost dome. Streams of cold water spilled from marble basins into streams that led to the third room. The next room, by comparison, was so hot that it was almost impossible for her to keep her clothes on, she recollects. The last two domes contained hot baths, which were regulated by the addition of varying amounts of cold water.
Clothed in her riding-dress, she must have looked very out of place to the Turkish women, she postulates. Yet the women were astonishingly polite and civil, she commends. Whereas back home a woman dressed in odd garb would have been met with odd looks and disdain, she says, here she was received with interest and good manners. Ladies and their slaves were sprawled out on cushions and carpets, distinguished by their dress. She compliments the women’s beauty, comparing their bodies to those of goddesses drawn by Italian painters Guido Reni and Tiziano
Through the analysis of Thérésia Cabarus’s portrait, Amy Freund attempts to examine Cabarus’s failure to “create a feminine version of political agency through portraiture” in order to provide insight into the unfulfilled promises of female citizenship during the French Revolution. She asserts that, through the use of a combination of imagery associated with revolutionary femininity, including the emphasis on the sitter’s physical passivity and sentimental attachments, and conventions usually associated with male portraiture, Cabarrus and Laneuville, the painter, attempted to present her portrait as an argument for women to be granted an active role in revolutionary politics. Freund suggests that the portrait failed to achieve its goals because it recalled the Terror and the disunity of France in addition to invoking the “anxiety surrounding the increased visibility of women in post-Thermidorean social life and visual representation.” Because of its relative failure, Freund considers Cabarrus’s portrait a symbol of the “possibilities and limitations of female agency in Revolutionary portraiture and politics” as well as a shift in portraiture; as she remarks, “portraiture after 1789 shouldered the burdens formerly borne by history
Fantham, Elaine, et al. Women in the Classical World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Hill, Barbara. Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025-1204: Power, patronage and ideology. New York: Longman, 1999. Print.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
Robin, Diana, Anne B. Larsen, and Carole Evans, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France and England. Santa Barbara: Abc Clio, 2007.
Lefkowitz, Mary F. and Fant, Maureen. Women in Greece & Rome. Toronto/Sarasota: Samuel-Stevens. 1977. Print
“But Maria had followed me to London, reminding me of a prime fact of my life: you
Any examination of women in Livy’s writing demands not only a literal interpretation of their character development and values, but also must account for their symbolic importance—thus creating a much more complex representation. Livy, an ancient historian, authored The Early History of Rome to be an exploration of Rome from its foundation, focusing on historical events and societal organization. In it, he examines the patriarchal society that stabilized Rome throughout its dominance. However, as a result of this explicitly defined hierarchy in Rome, women were seen as secondary figures in society. Most were viewed as submissive and passive, and it was well within the rights of men to assert their dominance—many women even agreed with these values. This can be seen in Livy’s portrayals of such women as the Sabine women, Horatia, and Lucretia. Yet Lucretia provides an interesting complexity to the exempla of women. On a symbolic level, Lucretia is an important catalyst in affecting the political organization of Rome. This representation is furthered with Livy’s descriptions of Lavinia, Rhea Silvia, and Verginia. Despite the work of Livy to create an accurate portrayal of women in ancient Rome, other authors showed women to actively defy this patriarchal society he describes. However, Livy’s effort to create the most accurate explanation of early Rome through a historical representation drives this discrepancy in characterization through genre. Therefore, Livy’s work serves as both an accurate and complex examination of the role of women in ancient Rome. According to Livy, a woman’s role was defined by her sacrifice; culturally, women were to be subordinate to men in the patriarchal structure of society, but also served as important...
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
The Prioress introduces herself as being like a child who does not know many words. She is going to try to tell a tale as best as she can. This child-like language can be seen through the whole tale. The Prioress speaks her tale in a fluent, sweet tone. Her innocence, like a child’s, can be seen as she tells her tale.
The widow Alisoun was seamstress by trade as well as a liberated older woman of her time in thought and action; for that reason, she traveled unescorted with a caravan of many diverse individuals toward the town of Canterbury. Hallissy submits, “The Wife of Bath’s array is flamboyant for a woman past forty, much less a widow. Her red stockings alone mark her off as improper. Her hat, as big as a shield, her five coverchiefs, her foot mantle about her hips, and her spurs on her feet indicate not only that she is ready for travel but also that she is ready for a new love. Extroverted in manner, assertive in speech, she defies authority by her appearance alone” (103). Each person on the pilgrimage shared a story with the others as a way of making the trip more enjoyable. The person whom had the most interesting tale would receive a complementary dinner at the end of their travel, co...
She asserts the Turkish society’s heterogeneity and makes class and gender discourse a primary decisive factor in constructing her travel narrative. In a letter to her sister she writes: “Thus you see, dear sister, the manners of mankind do not differ so widely as our voyage writers would make us believe.” (pg.) Considering the way in which she claims authority, through class and especially through gender, she legitimates her travel narrative. Her main use for this authority is in the description of the Oriental women and the harem which were engaging topics for the writers as they were both exotic, sensual, mysterious and unfamiliar concepts for the European world. Writers like Covel, Dumont and the others created the common knowledge that the Oriental women were enslaved by the men and suffered. Jean Dumont, the author of “A new voyage to the Levant” (1696) explicitly wrote about the women’s enslavement: ““The Sultan’s wives are lodg’d in a Third Seraglio…. I need not to tell you with what severity they are guarded by the white and black Eunuchs, who never permit’em to enjoy the least Shadow of Liberty” (pg.). Women apparently were under the strict control of the men. Thus, the fantasy of freeing them was ignited in the Western men and intensified the eroticism of the Orient. The non-existing freedom of the female sex was also used to create a difference between
Mary Wollstonecraft was not only a figure during the Enlightenment, but one of the famous