As already alluded to in the introduction to this paper, the character Don Juan was first invented by Tirso de Molina. His play El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de pietra, dates back to the 17th century, the Siglo de Oro, the golden age of Spanish culture and art (Schneider). It introduces Don Juan as a self-centred seducer, always searching for a new adventure of erotic pleasure. Thus, he can be seen as a rebel against the ecclesiastically dominated social order of his time. Religion is indeed a huge part of the play as Don Juan's misdemeanour is constantly promulgated by his servant Catalinón who functions as Don Juan's external conscience ( Bork 89). In the German translation, Catalinón says about his master:
Vertrauen könnt Ihr ihm, wenn Ihr ihm nicht ein Mädchen oder sonst ein junges Ding in Obhut gebt, nur hierin ist er grausam, sonst zeigt er sich als echter Edelmann. ( De Molina 35)
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The trickster is a universal figure in literature that appears independent from diverging conventions and norms of writing (Schneider). Although he represents positive character traits as for instance creativity, he usually causes trouble for other characters in the story by being recalcitrant when it comes to social conventions ( Babcock-Abrahams 147). Babcock-Abrahams also says that “ [l]iterature's "heroes" are always those who depart from the norm. In our plays, our myths, and our stories we idolize, condemn, or laugh with and at the deviant” (147). This is most certainly true for Molina's Don Juan. He is ignorant of the social rules of his time, and the reader either condemns his mistreatment of women or admires him for his seducing powers. Moreover, he causes trouble for the ladies he seduces, their families, as their sense of family honour is deeply insulted by the defilement of the four women and his own family, deeply rooted in aristocratic moral designs
In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period. Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry. The first idealizes women as a catalyst to male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity. The second fears and mistrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then re-forms [sic] itself around the certainty of men’s shared victimization (Neely 127).
The band of characters is drawn from every level of the class system. Unique interactions among characters from different social standings are conveyed, from the distressed, kindly gardener, to the impertinent daughter of the village innkeeper, to the prosperous de Luce family, and to the royalty. What appealed to me was that Flavia could trace her family’s history back many generations, and for one to be able to make these personal connections is extremely rare. Of course, this awareness of their past is correlated to the de Luce’s chain of affluence.
Palmas, at this time, took the task of retelling a traditional religious tale with his own twist, and that twist allowed him to entertain as well as criticize his own material. Criticizing religious folklore with methods of “costumbrismo” was vital in teaching his Latin American audience to be able to find the humor and irony in what they absorb through literature, and that is especially important with religious text. In a time when social and political reform went hand in hand with Latin American writing, Palmas did not just want to entertain with this humorous and enthralling piece, he wanted his audience to learn to be able to challenge religion in literature, and finally and most importantly, within the government in order to form a more liberal, secular
Professor’s comment: This student uses a feminist approach to shift our value judgment of two works in a surprisingly thought-provoking way. After showing how female seduction in Malory’s story of King Arthur is crucial to the story as a whole, the student follows with an equally serious analysis of Monty Python’s parody of the female seduction motif in what may be the most memorable and hilarious episode of the film.
He enforces his possessions and his role as a Victorian Age husband. He defies and remains blind to feminist action. He even expresses dissatisfaction to his own wife. “He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.” (5) Leonce is a man who values the worth of a “perfect husband.” He provides money for Edna, departs on long trips, and on cares for his children. He favors the image of marriage far more the reality of it. He doesn’t deny what others ordain, instead he is just a player of the game. He follows along with the norms of society. In result, he finds absolutely nothing wrong with Edna’s position in society. He could not detect Edna’s urge to escape the society he encourages. For example, he refers to Edna more as an object than an individual. (5) He is blind and oblivious regarding Edna’s actions. He is a figure sought just to manipulate Edna along with the rest of society. Astonishingly, he isn’t obliviousness to the nature of society. “Why my dear, I should think you’d understand by this time that people don’t do such things; we’ve got to observe the conventions if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession.” (51) In one word, Leonce is a simpleton who follows under the rules established by society. He is heavily focused on
Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are
However, Gawain's journey away from Camelot and back is framed by references, in the first and last stanzas, to the journeys into exile of Aeneas and of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain, that complicate this apparent opposition. As this paper will argue, this framework complicates the poem's presentation of gender and sexuality. Rather than a clear opposition between, say, marital sexuality and everything else, we find a situation in which potentially adulterous acts and kisses among men are vested with varied--and shifting--values. The poem uses references to the (imagined) British past to complicate any simple reading of the tale it tells in terms of sexual morality or transgression.1
The period is the early 19th century; those involved and discussed in this essay are for the most part Russian gentry. Increasingly relaxed social mores in the “developed” world, including the greater freedom to choose to whom one gets married to as well as increased women’s sexual rights, were much more uncommon during the time that War and Peace takes place. Tolstoy, an outspoken critic of arranged marriages, uses the characters in his novel as a way of exploring the various types of love, and in general the interactions between men and women of the time. This essay will attempt to focus on these relationships in an effort to get a better idea of Tolstoy’s views on the proper roles that men and women should play as friends, lovers, or spouses. By exploring the male/female relationships among the noble families, a detailed picture of both the expectations and realms of acceptable behavior will be established.
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.
Don Quixote is one of the oldest forms of the modern novel. Written in the early 17th century it follows the adventures of Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza. In Don Quixote, Cervantes satirizes the idea of a hero. Don Quixote sees himself as a noble knight among the ignorant common folk, but everyone else sees him as a bumbling idiot who has gone mad. Therefore, the novel’s longevity in the western canon is due to the humorous power struggle and the quest of a hero Don Quixote faces throughout the story.
In spite of being ruled by men in her entire life, Penelope remains patient and not only dexterously runs Odysseus’s state, but also cunningly manipulates the suitors in the ploy of shroud weaving. In addition, Atwood depicts the melancholy life of Penelope in the chapters of her childhood, marriage, slanderous gossip and suitors stuff their faces, where she struggles for her dignity and existence. Thus, the author often favours matriarch, opposes the double standard between genders and the roles imparted to boys and girls from their early age. Therefore, Atwood wonders that why women not men have to deal with violence, patriarchal oppression, infidelity, and objectification along with indifferent roles as well as duties in the society. Subsequently, Atwood exhibits the face of gender biased society and how female is treated as mere object of pleasure and child birth. As girls learn domestic work such as craft or to do things with hands, whereas, boys get training in bravery or war acts. Similarly, all twelve maids spend their childhood as slaves with no parents or playtime, sing of freedom, and dream of
When Cervantes began writing Don Quixote, the most direct target of his satirical intentions was the chivalric romance. He makes this aim clear in his own preface to the novel, stating that "..[his] sole aim in writing..is to invalidate the authority, and ridicule the absurdity of those books of chivalry, which have, as it were, fascinated the eyes and judgment of the world, and in particular of the vulgar.” Immediately after the beginning of the novel, he demonstrates some of the ridiculous and unbelievable writing of these books: as Alonso Quixano--the man who decides to become the knight Don Quixote, after going mad from reading too many of these romances--sits in his study, tirelessly poring over his belo...
Don Quixote gets so caught up in his fantasy world that he “… Sold many good acres of his land in order to buy himself more volumes of romance, in which for days together he would bury himself, blind and deaf to all of them.” He would get so immersed in his books that he started to ignore everything around him and neglecting his duties. He also has a tendency to transform the everyday life into a more epic, dramatic version of them. For example, when he travels to the inn he “Decided that the frowzy inn was a magnificent embattled castle, and the girls were two noble ladies who were taking the evening air at the castle gates” (Cervantes 13). Don Quixote gets taken advantage of by the innkeeper and the two women merely to entertain them.
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.
Contradictions and hypocrisy was prevalent between the lives and values of the bourgeois gentlemen. Prostitution and gambling were extremely popular and widespread, at the same time they were being publically condemned. Men were expected to have mistresses whom they supported financially; but they were expected to conceal that fact, and they were expected not to fall in love with them.