Lope de Vega’s play touches upon several key components and ideas that were brought up in many of the other stories read throughout the semester. This included the role of gender and how men and women are viewed differently in the Spaniard town of Fuenteovejuna. Another topic included the importance of family, love, and relationships and their connection on loyalty, trust, and personal beliefs. The last major influence found in other literature and in Fuenteovejuna, were the political and religious references made throughout the play. Even though Lope de Vega didn’t make these views obvious, the reader could still pick up on their connotation and the references made towards these specific ideas. With all of this in mind, each of these components played an important role in each civilization read, and even over 1,000 years later it continues to be a social topic as well as a large part of the culture. The only difference a reader or scholar could make for this particular piece of literature is its authenticity and how it was based on a true event. Regardless, new views on power and how one obtain it become apparent through the dialogue between characters like Laurencia and the Commander. The "natural" or "normative" structures in Spain during Lope's life include Catholicism, monarchy, imperialism, and hierarchical class structures. Each of these reflect themselves in Fuenteovejuna. “Rodrigo, you would do well to surprise those how say that the cross you bear is too grave a weight for your weak shoulders.” Consider the Counts of Uruena from whom you are descended and let the laurels they won urge you to equal fame.” (490) This specific quote touches upon the idea and importance of lineage when Rodrigo becomes the next... ... middle of paper ... ...ken, but he will find me tough meat for his table. I do not want his so-called “love,” Pascuala. I had rather have a sizzling rasher of bacon for breakfast, with a slice of my own baked bread, and a sly glass of wine from mother’s jar.” (491) However her stand off attitude reveals the strength and invulnerability of the women in this society. Instead of going with any man’s request, Laurencia questions the men’s power and authority and looks at their personality instead of their familial lineage. This was important at the time because a woman still didn’t have as many rights or the same level of respect as men. From the Commander’s perspective, these women were nothing but things he could use and “throw away”. He didn’t have any compassion or respect for the women and instead he saw them, as well as the rest of the community of Fuenteovejuna, beneath him.
During this time period women were not respected at all and were belittled by all med in their lives. Even though men don’t appreciate what women they still did as they were told. In particular, “Women have an astoundingly long list of responsibilities and duties – th...
Women were auctioned off as “merchandise” to the best suitor they could get in town. Beauty, though important, was not as important as the dowry the woman possessed, because it was the dowry the family provided that could exalt a man’s societal status to all new heights. Once married, women were expected to have son’s for their husbands in order to take over the family business. A barren woman was not an option and could have easily been rushed to the nearest convent to take her vows of a nun, for no honor could be brought otherwise. No woman could run from the societal and legal pressures placed upon them. Rather than run, some chose to accept their place, but, like Lusanna, some chose to fight the status quo for rights they believed they
The matriarchal structure of Juan and Lupe’s families are key factor in the molding of each of them into each a unique person that just so happen to fit with each other perfectly.
Lafaye sets the stage of his story by putting New Spain into context Lafaye emphasizes the peculiar nature of New Spain and its intricacies with in that society. Lafaye presents New Spain not as an intermediate between Indian Mexico and modern Mexico, but rather as transitional period that changed the composition of that society. The author cites the myths of Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe as one of the most complex and original creations to come out of that period. The development of syncretic myth making according Lafaye to offered an answer to the question of the origins of an orphaned people. These new myths also are telling of a search for legitimacy in Mexican
The role of women in learning and education underwent a gradual change in the Afro-Eurasian world and the Americas between the 11th and 15th centuries. As societies in Africa, Middle East, India, China, Europe, and America grew more complex they created new rights and new restrictions for women. In all regions of the world but the Middle East, society allowed women to maintain education in order to support themselves and their occupations. Women slaves in the Middle East were, however, prized on their intelligence. In Africa, women were trained in culinary arts. In India, women learned how to read and write with the exception of the sacred verses of the Vedas.
Susan Migden Socolow’s The Women of Colonial Latin America provides a comprehensive account of the varied roles of women in the colonial societies of Spanish and Portuguese America, spanning the three centuries between the conquests of the late-fifteenth century and the commencement of independence in the early-nineteenth century. Professor Socolow writes that “the goal of this book is to examine these [gender] roles and rules and thus understand the variety and limitations of the female experience in colonial Latin America” (1) and manages to carry this argument clearly and convincingly throughout the work. She argues that the patriarchy, Iberian patriarchy in particular, was encompassed in the church, laws, and traditions of colonial society
Valle’s most significant contribution to the Spanish theatre is his invention of the literary style of esperpento, which is best represented in one of his most famous plays, Luces de Bohemia. Valle created esperpento with the aim of representing the harsh realities of Spanish twentieth century society through the concave lens of grotesque deformation, so that he could present the lives of the Spaniards in the light of mockery and absurdity. During his writing of Luces de Bohemia, the Spanish society has been brought to a halt, along with the lack of political progress and social improvement, therefore this concerning political situation has influenced and steered Valle towards his literary evolution, the exaggerated grotesque, which he though was the only suitable way to represent the shocking reality and problems of Spain. In this way, he could alarm the people to terminate their complacent acceptance of this reality and he could also produce a distancing effect which renders the reader immune to the play’s purpose, thus making the artistic experience more tolerable. His experience in the killing fields was what made him t...
The opening lines of the novel shows the motive of passion. In the novel, later, Mme. de Clèves asks for further explanation for the love between a woman and the king with “several other lovers” (1039). This passion forms the “political and social effects” (1039) that change the norms in the court. The court mixes this false “event into its own structure, so that the implausible now becomes the n...
Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.
Another major theme in the play is that characters are reluctant to tell the truth because they are afraid of the consequences. In the play there are several occasions when one or more characters don’t want to tell the truth because they are afraid of the consequences. For example, Jocasta says, “Stop- in the name of god, if you love your own life, call of this search! M...
Men and women were held under drastically different expectations in Spain and the Spanish colonies in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These set gender roles are effectively demonstrated through the life of Catalina de Erauso, who experienced the entire spectrum through her adventures as a transvestite in this time period. Opportunities and freedom in culture, politics and economy, and religion varied greatly between men and women. Men were capable of living out their lives independently and ambitiously. Women, on the other hand, were taught to be reliant and mild-mannered characters in the background. De Erauso shatters this idea of a woman’s role by fulfilling a life of adventure and power. In doing so, she briefly dispels the obligations of gender roles, if only for herself. Catalina de Erauso was a nun, a lieutenant, and a history-maker.
In the book “Bless Me Ultima”, by Rudolpho Anaya, there were two families represented, the Marez family and the Lunas family. These two families were very different, but were brought together by the marriage of Gabriel Marez and Maria Lunas. Through the eyes of their son Antonio one may see the comparison of the two. The differentiation of these two families is very clearly noticeable, such as in their personalities, the expression of their religion, and their everyday ways of life.
Federico García Lorca’s poem “La casada infiel” depicts the story of a gypsy who makes love to a married woman on the shore of a river. When looking deeper into the poem, Lorca appears to provide a critical observation on the values of the conservative society at the time in which he lived. The woman, at her most basic reading, is treated as an object, elaborating on the sexist values in society at the time. Lorca addresses issues of sexism as well as issues of sexuality within society mainly through the poem’s sexist narrative voice, objectification of the female character and overriding sense of a lack of desire throughout the poem. His achievement to do so will be analysed throughout this commentary with particular attention to Lorca’s use of poetic techniques such as diction, personification and imagery.
For this essay, I am going to exercise my opinion of how power and control generate the play and how different characters use it, especially Iago. I’ll also take a look at how power and control may shift between the characters throughout the play. Shakespear's play Othello regards social customs through the relationships between characters. By taking a look at these characters relationships, through an analysis of race differences, gender status, and social class, an argument that, as in all other communities of people, particularly in Europe, Venetian consists both of given power to a particular party, arises. These relationships, such as Othello’s, Iago’s, Emilia’s, Desdemona’s, Bianca’s, Cassio’s, or Lodovico’s and a few other characters, are shown through speech verses and actions.When being shown in interactions of all kinds such as speech, discussions, etc.
In Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, a tyrant woman rules over her five daughters and household with absolute authority. She prevents her daughters from having suitors and gives them little to no freedom, especially with regard to their sexualities and desires. They must conform to the traditional social expectations for women through sewing, cleaning, as well as staying pure and chaste. While, as John Corbin states in The Modern Language Review, “It was entirely proper for a respectable woman in [Bernarda’s] position to manage her household strictly and insist that the servants keep it clean, to defend its reputation, ensure the sexual purity of her daughters, and promote advantageous marriages for them,” Bernarda inordinately