Abelard And Heloise Essay

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise details the relationship between Abelard and Heloise, whose relationship is, from a personal perspective, tragic at best. This paper will explore Abelard and Heloise’s relationship through their correspondence and will demonstrate how Abelard and Heloise view the societal roles of women in a patriarchal Christian society, how Heloise is able to negotiate the constraints placed on her gender by society, and how this is reflected in the letters of Abelard and Heloise.

Peter Abelard was born in about 1079 and Abelard was “one of the most original minds of his day, that the medieval university of Paris arose out of his fame as a teacher and that his theological views brought him into conflict with St Bernard of Clairvaux” (Introduction xiii). Heloise too was an educated woman and eager to learn, “her keen intellect can analyse herself and her problem clearly, but the feeling behind the words is passionate and painful,” (Introduction xxxi). The twos love story is reflected in a series of letters (The Letters of Abelard and Heloise letters 2-8), they were as intelligent as they were religious. “The two are representative of the best of their time in their classical knowledge and the way they express themselves, in their passionate interest in problems of faith and morality, and in their devotion to the Christian Church which ruled their lives” (Introduction xiii).

During Abelard and Heloise’s time (during the 12th century) religion and education were still heavily intertwined and connected with one another. Although reverence towards the clergy was more heavily emphasized, “everyone knows too that the divine benefits of the sacraments administered in the church are ascribed particularly to the effecti...

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...s…a woman should realize that if she marries a rich man more readily than a poor one, and desires her husband more for his possessions than for himself, she is offering herself for sale” (Letter 2, 52-53).

Throughout Abelard and Heloise’s correspondence in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, their discussions of virginity, fornication, punishment for sins, and relationships with God and the clergy shed light on the societal roles of women in the patriarchal Christian society. Abelard and Heloise’s letters, especially Heloise’s letters, help to shed light on the restraints that are put on women by religious and social bounds during the 12th century, particularly in regards to marriage and virginity with how the 12th century the patriarchal Christian society helped to make women seem more as if they were second rate citizens in comparison to their male counterparts.