The Presentation of Women in La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Mariana Though both poems have the common theme of unrequited love, Keats and Tennyson assign very different characteristics to the women in their poems. In "Mariana", the woman is submissive and a victim of cruelty, whereas La Belle Dame in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is the more powerful of the man and woman in the poem, and the one inflicting the cruelty. In both poems, the landscapes mirror these characteristics, and even the feelings of these two women. The landscape is also symbolic of Mariana, as she is mortal and will eventually die as plants die, and seasons change. She is therefore more naturalistic than the mysterious Belle Dame is. Her mystery is further enhanced by the Arthurian flavour which Keats associates with her, just as Tennyson writes of the Mariana in Shakespeare's "measure for measure". Mariana is presented by Tennyson as passive due to the lack of action she takes in her situation. Instead, she simply wishes she were dead, and does not even take action into killing herself, showing he...
Were the Witch-Hunts in Pre-modern Europe Misogynistic? The “YES” article by, Anne Llewellyn Barstow, “On Studying Witchcraft as Woman’s History” and the “NO” article by, Robin Briggs, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community,” will be compared, and summarized.
In the poem "To the Ladies," Lady Mary Chudleigh demonstrates affinity between wife and servant (1) through the use of a controlling metaphor. She describes a wife’s role by depicting it through ideas that are strongly associated with slavery. Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction, her description of the wife’s submissive actions, and her negative attitude towards the perceived future of a woman who gets married show the similarity among wife and servant (1). Chudleigh presents this poem as a warning to women who are not yet married, and as an offering of regret to those who are.
Although these poems are both centered around the theme of love, they each contain a different meaning. Lord Byron's “She Walks in Beauty” is dedicated to conveying love through the use of metaphors. Keats' poem, “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” on the other hand, tells a story about how love can be deceiving. Despite their differences, these poems have similarities as well. They each have three parts that progress a story along through the use of literary techniques. Each poem was also written in the early 1800's. These poems both implicate the reader to make a connection to everyday life by relating possible experiences of love.
Joan of Arc, a well-known Catholic saint and French national heroine, is a figure worthy of historical attention. Born in Domremy, France, sometime around 1412, Joan lived as a peasant with her family on fifty acres of land. At the end of her short life of nineteen years, Joan revealed in a trial that her rise to power in the Anglo-French conflict was due to a series of visions she had as a young girl. These visions, which were religious in nature, helped Joan to turn the Hundred Years War into a religious conflict. Despite her efforts to turn the tide of the war and helping to win a pivotal battle in Orleans, Joan was captured and put on trial for heresy. After a trial that lasted for months, Joan was officially labeled a heretic and burned at the stake in 1431. It would only be centuries later that Joan would gain sainthood in the Catholic church and become formally recognized as a woman of power, even centuries after her death. Joan of Arc’s life can be examined in three distinct parts: her early life’s revelations of religious visions, her entrance into the Hundred Years War as a leader of the French army, and her death as a heretic and eventual entrance to sainthood. The combination of these events convinces observers that Joan was a woman of power ahead of her time, and in each part of her life, Joan took on a role normally expected of men. Joan of Arc thus was a major contributing catalyst for feminist action, serving as a visionary, military hero, and eventual martyr.
Joan of Arc is perhaps one of the most well-known and influential women in Western history. Arthur Conan Doyle argued that “Next to the Christ the highest spiritual being of whom we have any exact record upon this earth is the girl Jeanne" (Denis 5). Her fearlessness and devotion to God has been praised by iconic figures such as Winston Churchill, Pope Benedict XVI and Mark Twain. Her accomplishments are immortalized in history books, art and pop culture. Unlike any other, Joan stands as a feminist leader and an inspiration to all Christians.
Women in Pre-1914 Prose I am going to show different aspects of women as them being victims, villains and heroes, all throughout the stories. Writers in the 19th Century were writing to a small portion of the audience, as few of them during the time were literate. 19th Century stories were published for many different reasons from today. They wrote to be famous and wrote to make money; these are the same reasons as writing today. But keeping in mind, unlike today, where entertainment is the main factor.
Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domremy in 1412. Like many girls her age she was taught like many other young girls her age not how to read or write but to sew and spin. but unlike some girls her father was a peasant farmer. At a inferior age of thirteen she had experienced a vision known as a flash of light while hearing an unearthly voice that had enjoined her to be diligent in her religious duties and be modest. soon after at the age fifteen she imagined yet another unearthly voice that told her to go and fight for the Dauphin. She believed the voices she heard were the voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret and many other people another being St. Michael. She believed they also told her to wear mens attire, cut her hair and pick up her arms. When she first told her confessor she did not believe her. When she tried telling the judges she explained to them how the voices told her it was her divine mission help the dauphin and rescue her country from the English from the darkest periods during the Hundred Years’ War and gain the French Throne. She is till this day one of the most heroic legends in womens history.
Women in The Count of Monte Cristo possess unique personalities, but intensely similar restrictions. Currently, women in the United States, as well as other countries, are able to have jobs, travel, and participate in many other activities that the ladies Dumas portrays are not allowed to. Feminist analysis of this book reveals the ways of the time and the delicate balance of society’s typical structure. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas realistically conveys that when women violate their traditional roles, the balance of life is disrupted. This is evident through descriptions of instances in which females are in the home as well as when they are not.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest provides dialogue that portrays the social expectations and stereotypes imposed upon women in Elizabethan times. Even though the play has only one primary female character, Miranda, the play also includes another women; Sycorax, although she does not play as large a roll. During many scenes, the play illustrates the characteristics that represent the ideal woman within Elizabethan society. These characteristics support the fact that men considered women as a mere object that they had the luxury of owning and were nowhere near equal to them. Feminists can interpret the play as a depiction of the sexist treatment of women and would disagree with many of the characteristics and expectations that make Miranda the ideal woman. From this perspective, The Tempest can be used to objectify the common expectations and treatment of women within the 16th and 17th Centuries and compare and contrast to those of today.
In the 1600s, married women were expected to do anything for their husbands. Husbands were urged to be good heads of their families and to treat their wives with kindness and consideration. The woman were considered to be the 'weaker vessel ' and thought to be spiritually weaker than men and in need of masculine guidance. During this time, women were treated as inferior being who were meant to look after the house and were to children . Women were treated with little dignity. In “The Tempest,” William Shakespeare was able to show the oppression of women throughout the play. Scenes with Prospero and Miranda have shown significant hidden evidence to prove that the colonial era was a time of female oppression. Shakespeare uses Prospero as an
The women in Othello are synonymous with Venetian societal standards. Only three women are characters in Othello: Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca but the roles these women play give the reader an idea of how women were portrayed, not only in Shakespeare's Othello but in society in general.
Evaluate and respond to the presentations of women in the Romantic period. Feel free to discuss presentations of women, by women (such as Austen’s Persuasion) as well as presentations of women by men (such as the “she” in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”). Consider the following questions: are these presentations problematic? What do they tell us about the values and briefs of the Romantic Period? Do any of these presentations subvert (complicate, or call into questions) the time’s notions of femininity?
Although, over time females presences has become very prominent in the world, seemingly this trend first started appearing within stories. First making their appearance as maybe a motherly and caring damsel in distress character archetype that was meant to push the main male protagonist forward on his quest. However, this stereotype was broken and barriers were left behind within True Grit and The Personal Recollection of Joan of Arc. In both these novels the main characters were in fact females and acted ahead of their times in terms of creating equality within a male dominant society, otherwise known as feminism.
The play Othello is presented as a male-dominated society where women are only recognized as property; objects to own and to bear children. Women in the Elizabethan society and in Shakespeare society were not seen as equal to men and were expected to be loyal to their husbands, be respectful, and to not go against their husbands judgements or actions. Shakespeare presents Desdemona, Emilia , and Bianca as women in the Elizabethan time where they were judged based on their class, mortality, and intelligence. Shakespeare makes his female characters act the way they would be expected to act in an Elizabethan society. The role of these women in Othello is crucial because they show how women were treated and how unhealthy their relationships between men really were in both Elizabethan and Shakespeare's society.
Women in the Romantic Era were a long way from being treated as equals; they were expected by society to find a husband, become a typical housewife, and a good mother. So what happens when women get tired of being treated horribly and try to fight back towards getting men to treat them as an equal? Both Mary Robinson’s, “The Poor Singing Dame” and Anna Barbauld’s “The Rights of Women” show great examples of how women in the Romantic Era were disrespected and degraded by men, whereas all they wanted was to be treated with respect and dignity.