Saints and Sinners:
Irony and Symbolism in Kempe’s “The Book of Margery Kempe” Throughout history there have been many cases of women who possess strong powers and a passion for God, especially in the Middle Ages. One woman that fit into that category was Margery Kempe, a fifteenth-century visionary, who was a controversial figure in the Christian faith. Margery insisted that Jesus talked to her, while many people thought that she was being possessed by the devil. During the time of The Middle Ages many stories of women saints were being exposed with many differences from Kempe’s life, however there were some surprising similarities as well. 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 seems to be tempted by men, but then immediately followed by shame. On the other hand she posse’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 appear often in “The Book of Margery Kempe”. She is a martyr who death occurred sometime in the late thirteenth century. Unlike the
The image of a young newborn, especially one crying, was symbolized in her mind as Jesus and the pain he suffered throughout his life. She would take them from their mothers’ arms and kiss them while she was weeping. She also cried and felt awful when she saw men in pain, because he represented Jesus as a man in his time of suffering. This is described in chapter 35 “...she should then cry, roar, and weep, as though she has seen Christ in his childhood”. Kempe gets the most emotional when thinking about what Christ sacrificed and suffered through for her personal sake, and for the sake of all
H. Talbot, she states, “Her visions and prophecies show a strong yet imaginative mind, which expressed in this way her moral convictions and her insight into events and character and which gave her the support and comfort she needed to maintain a chosen course of action” (484). It is clear that although Christina of Markyate was in fact a woman, that she was strong minded and that the patriarchal roles in her life were afraid of what she could do. Because she was strong in her convictions, her father trusted her and the Bishop forced her to marry Burthead. Through this, the reader can see that she conquered the patriarchy by making them fear her and what she was capable of, but also did so by respecting her and believing in her character, even though she was a woman. She fully represents a rebel to the social norm in her actions and through her visions. A rebellious medieval woman first and foremost would not marry; they would decide to become a part of the church themselves, rather than being forced to in order to please their Heavenly Father. Through the readings of Christina of Markyate and Hrosvit of Gandersheim’s Mary, the reader can see that a rebellious medieval woman, like Christina of Markyate, would leave her marriage and refuse to consummate it, or like the character of Mary, would become sexually curious and
Caroline Walker Bynum raised several thought-provoking claims in her book Holy Feast and Holy Fast, but her main argument of the mindset of medieval women with regards to their status in society was the most intriguing. Rather than simply agreeing with most traditional medievalists, she analyzes the male/female difference in terms of which symbols each gender used, and how these symbols tied in to their distinct religious concerns. She maintains that women accepted their place in society and religion, and instead of succumbing to the misogyny, they used their association with the flesh and humanness to connect themselves to the humanity of God. Her arguments regarding medieval women and their practices also implies that she is accepting of the idea of gender as a valuable category of historical analysis.
...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.
the part of the Catholic Church to the challenges it faced. The Book of Margery Kempe
To begin with, the structure of Kirk’s article could be divided into three parts. The first part is the introduction of Sor Juana’s background and her achievements. Krik(2008:38) argues that Juana’s uses the vocabulary and the issue of pain and suffering in order to ‘establish an intimate connection between the female physical pain and the acquisition of knowledge.’ In addition, Krik also mentions that female’s opinion does not get enough respect. This suggested in Sor Juana opinions in her works that some nuns are compulsory to be asceticism and are obedient to the ecclesiastical authorities.
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...
...s, who have portrayed her as a voice of resistance to “medieval misogyny”, as an individual standing in heroic opposition to the “hegemony of the Church”, and as an early example of a feminine approach to theology. The analogies, metaphors, and allegorical constructs that Porete uses to express the love between God and the soul, for example, include male–female, female–female, and male–male pairings, as the deity may be portrayed either as a masculine God/bridegroom, or as a feminine ‘Amour’. Overall, the opposite-sex constructs are used when Porete wishes to stress the difference separating the soul from God, or to portray God as a distant and intimidating figure; while same-sex constructs emphasize the proximity and intimacy of the spiritual ‘couple.’ Further, this calls into question the balance of power between the sexes, and the impact each gender has on society.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is treated to an enthralling story of a woman’s lifelong quest for happiness and love. Although this novel may be analyzed according to several critical lenses, I believe the perspectives afforded by French feminists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray have been most useful in informing my interpretation of Hurston’s book. In “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Cixous discusses a phenomenon she calls antilove that I have found helpful in defining the social hierarchy of women and relationships between them in the novel. In addition, Cixous addresses the idea of woman as caregiver, which can be illustrated through the character of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand, Luce Irigaray discusses the different modes of sexual desire of men and women in her essay, “The Sex Which is Not One.” Many examples supporting and refuting her claims can be found in the novel. According to Cixous, the most heinous crime committed by men against women is the promotion of antilove. “Insidiously, violently, they have led [women] to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs” (1455). Their Eyes Were Watching God offers many examples of women in vicious contention with one another, usually involving or benefiting a man. Janie is confronted by the malice of her female neighbors in the very first chapter of the novel, as she arrives back in Eatonville after her adventure with Tea Cake. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if i...
Saint Barbara’s life was undeniably an isolated one. Her parents built a vast tower with all the necessities and accommodations for her to live in 290 AD, in the Anatolian city of Heliopolis, where her father, Dioscuros, was the governor. While locked away, she had two windows in which she could gaze upon the outside world. Every day she looked out of those windows and slowly discovered Christianity by the amount of beauty in the outside world. Even though she was utterly isolated from the outside world, she was still an admired woman. Rumors of her beauty and charm spread throughout and many military officers asked her father for her hand in marriage. Barbara did not like the idea of her father picking her husband for her and once she became aware of these offers for marriage, she told her father that she would commit suicide if she was forced to wed. One day while she was still coming more and more into Christianity, her father left town for another city giving specific instructions and building plans to workers for a new bathhouse for her daughter. Knowing that her f...
This was for a women to take on the role of a Nun and it seems this involved a smaller amount of women due to the smaller amount of monastaries founded in the period between 1200 and 1400. The role of the Nun involved living a life of contemplation, prayer and work and was based upon the suffering Jesus was inflicted with when on the Cross.
In the early stages of Catherine's life the surfacing modern age was bringing with it social turmoil which spread throughout Europe (Giordani 3). During Catherine's lifetime, according to Mary Ann Sullivan in her essay “St. Catherine of Siena,” the center of Catholic rule fluctuated between Rome and Avignon and contributed to a schism between popes in Italy and France (1). Catherine was born 23rd in a line of 25 children and, according to Sullivan “even at a young age, [she] sensed the troubled society around her and wanted to help” (1). While her parents were not exceptionally religious, St. Catherine's biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua discusses Catherine's early zeal for Catholic practices: “When she was about five she learned the Hail Mary, and repeated it over and over again as often as she could…she was inspired by heaven to address the Blessed Virgin in this way whenever she went up and down stairs, stopping to kneel on each step as she did so” (24). Her devotion to the Virgin Mary would become especially important in a vision she had around this time while walking with her brother to visit one of her sisters.
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.
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.
St. Therese was born in 1873 in Alencon France. Therese Martin came from a large and successful family. For example, her dad was watchmaker and a jeweler and her mother began the village of Alencon because of her lace that she made for a living. Therese was the youngest of nine children; however, four her siblings died leaving five girls. Throughout Therese life, her and her sisters were protected by their father because of their mother’s death. However, Therese was her father’s “little queen” and she often got everything she desired.
“Saint Joan” is filled with many religious characters but the only one who truly believes they are doing God's work is Joan. Even though there is no proof that Joan is hearing these voices...