In this essay I will be analysing and discussing the representation of women in the Welsh novel of The Mabinogion, in particular; the portrayal of the calumniated wife, a theme which is recurrent through Medieval Welsh literature. I will focusing in particular on how women’s speech is represented and how their relationships with other women and men are portrayed. I will also be looking at different female protagonists’ self-government and autonomy throughout the four branches. Throughout my research I am expecting to find at least two different portrayals of women. One being a strong, influential and sure woman, and the other being a more passive individual and more stereotypical of a maiden in Welsh literature.
The first female character whose representation is especially important in the first and third branches of The Mabinogion is that of Rhiannon. Rhiannon is a classic character throughout Medieval Welsh literature and is prominent figure throughout The Mabinogion. The name Rhiannon derives from the old Celtic name of Rigantona meaning great Queen (Campbell and Campbell: 2013). The name has also been said to resemble the Irish Elysium goddesses (MacCulloch 2005: para 101). This suggests that before we are introduced to Rhiannon that she will dominating and powerful.
The first time Rhiannon speaks in the first branch she immediately conveys herself as a respectful, strong and sure woman. ‘I will wait gladly, and it would have been better for the horse if you had asked that a while ago!’ (Davies 2007: 10) Rather than slowing when pursued, Rhiannon only stops when Pwyll himself addresses her. (Wood 1996: 71). This promptly displays her as a woman who has respect for herself and her status. It also show how she expects men to t...
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Ford. P, (2008), ‘The Mabinogi and other Medieval Welsh Tales’, illustrated, annotated, California United States of America, University of California Press
McKenna. C (2006), The Theme of Sovereignty in Pwyll, Bulletin Board of Celtic Studies
Wood. J, (1996) ‘The Calumniated Wife in Medieval Welsh Literature’ In: Sullivan. W.C, illustrated, The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays, Sussex, England, Psychology Press pp. 61-79
There are many different roles for women shown in “The Canterbury Tales” and “The Decameron”. Both books take place around the same time frame, 1300AD. “The Canterbury Tales”, takes place in London, England and “The Decameron” takes place in Florence, Italy. It would be just to think that since both books take place in a western civilization, both books would reflect the same morals and daily life styles. This is not the case at all. Throughout this paper I will attempt to show how these two books portrayed a totally different lifestyle.
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
One of the aspects of the Middle Ages which is explored by numerous scholars today is that of the antifeminist stereotypes which pervaded literature and cultural mores during the period. In an era governed by men, the fact that women were treated as inferior is unsurprising; archetypal visions of femininity fit neatly into medieval history. However, most people would like to believe that such pigeonholing has been left in the past, allowing for more liberated times in which women are portrayed realistically and as the equals of men.
Lefkowitz believes that the Iliad wouldn't be complete without the role of women. In comparison, Michael Murphy, author of Vows, Boasts and Taunts, And the Role Of Women In So...
Abstract: This is an analysis of celtic mythological motifs or themes (usually found Arthurian romances) in the medieval romance Yvain and the victorian classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland .}
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.
It is often misread that women in Beowulf are presented as compliant to men, displaying them as the weaker gender of the human species. In the world of Beowulf, women serve as peace-weavers, cup-bearers, gift-givers and even monsters, all of which at first glance appear as inferior roles. Many examiners of Beowulf, who have touched on the role of women, have criticized on the words of Gillian R. Overing who believes they are "marginal, excluded figures." Although the women in Beowulf aren't as prominent as men are, they are not "excluded" from the picture as a whole. In fact, the roles these six women presented in Beowulf have, can be compared to real Anglo-Saxon women who held together nations, bring heirs and future generations into the world, all qualities that are necessary for the Anglo-Saxons to continue to strive. Wealhtheow and Hygd play the role of cup-bearer along with the political stance of queen allowing them to have equality among men. Freawaru and Hildeburh are what Anglo-Saxons consider peace-weavers which mend together nations if handled the right way. Then there are Grendel's mother and Modthryth who are described as monsters due to their aggressiveness as women, which is sought to be an unnatural trait that only males should hold. Lastly we have the few unnamed women that play roles similar or equal to the ones mentioned above but with little coverage or knowledge from the author for them to have no name. This essay will go further into the world of women in Beowulf and how their roles play in not only the poem, but also in Anglo-Saxon culture using Seamus Heaney’s translation.
I will give some information about both ancient Celtic women and modern Irish women in order to be able to conduct a further investigation and also to compare and contrast the subject. They lived in a better condition than most of the women live today, but they had some problems, too. I will explain these problems with reasons and results by comparing and contrasting with modern Irish women and their conditions.
In the past of humanity, women's status have always been ambigious. Either they were worshipped as goddesses or despised as unworthy workers. In this research I will analyze closely what it means to be a female in our age and in medieval period by means of two sagas: The Saga of The Volsungs and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki.
The roles of women are seen as not as important as the role in which men play. Focussing on the roles of a lustful temptress and a trophy wife in the Miller’s Tale, the roles of a hostess and monster in Beowulf, and the role of being passive and a sex symbol in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight of which the roles women had to be condemned to play in society at the time of these two text.
Just as this genre exemplifies the masculine ideal, it also promotes the feminine ideal, largely by casting female characters who do not meet this ideal in an antagonistic light, and thus maintains the male-dominant system of the societies which produced these works. This paper therefore argues that female characters in epic poetry, namely The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, and Vergil’s Aeneid, play the role of an antagonistic “Other” group by employing their agency to act beyond the established gender roles of their societies, thereby disrupting the social order and creating obstacles for the male protagonists.
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
A nameless servant, bed mate to a war hungry lord, waits for her husband’s return; this is the average interpretation a modern day woman will have of women of the Middle Ages. As a woman of the Old English era, many believe that the influence of women was not valued. However, the relevance of culture is an important factor in the address of the typical female figure. While old tales depict more negative views on women such as, adulterous, hags or servants; females actually served a much greater and accepted purpose. Although it is inevitable that some women were not pardoned by men due to their discrepancies toward them, most women maintained dignity within the household. In the story of Beowulf the accepted roles of women revolve around remaining loyal and serving men.
Milton, John. "Lycidas." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. 646-51.
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.