In this Chapter, I will discuss John Milton’s ideas on sexuality and gender to deduct whether his representation of women in Early Modern Literature can be seen as misogynistic. I aim to identify his motives and question his portrayal of Eve in Paradise Lost. I will also contrast the ideas of Milton’s critics in order to deduct if the stigma of misogyny was an underlying factor in his ideas or just a consequence of the time. I will do this by studying and researching not only the work of Milton, but of his contemporaries including Aphra Behn, Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer and Edmund Spenser.
John Milton was a highly educated man, a political campaigner and a deeply revered thinker. His poetry and prose have been critiqued and studied by most, if not all those who show interest in the canon of literature. He was a libertine and revolutionary, who embarked on works of epic proportion and religious statement. I hope that by after reading this chapter you will gain an insight into how women were perceived in the 17th century and deduct if Milton himself was conforming or subverting from misogynistic thinking.
It is an understatement to say Milton had a prolific influence on writers and critics in Early Modern Literature. His religious and political ideas helped to shape one of the most densely saturated eras of literary history. The reformation was a time of apocalyptic questions and contradictory answers, one very debatable question in this instance is: What role did women play in society of this time and what was seen as acceptable?
The word misogynist comes from the Greek misogynes, literally meaning “woman hater” and is known to have come into the English language around 1610. The hatred of women is a literal definition, althou...
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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.
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
For centuries women have been perceived as overshadowed figures who remain in a separate sphere from men. The term “separate spheres” refers to the distinct, conventional characteristics associated with gender differences. The public sphere of men is associated with commerce whereas the domestic sphere for women is linked with the household. However, there is more than just one perspective on feminism. The feminist view is influenced by three main voices: the French, American, and British. French feminists focus their attention on language; American feminists analyze the literary aspects; and British feminists examine the historical processes (Murfin 296-299). Using these perspectives, we can see the oppression of women conveyed in many different texts throughout literature and in history. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for instance, exhibits not only a feminist view in the text, but also in society during Shelley’s time period as displayed by her negotiations with the separate spheres. Voltaire’s Candide also conveys powerful gender differences and reveals the oppression of women throughout the novel. Therefore, a correlation can be seen between the view of women in the two novels and how it reflects the culture and time period in which the novels were written.
When readers reflect on the poetry of the seventeenth century, poets such as John Donne and the
...to mankind in Paradise Lost - one of the fundamental concepts in Christianity and vital to Milton's objective to "justify the ways of God to men" (1, 26) - the gods in the Aeneid are continually reminding Aeneas that he cannot afford to be distractive by the temptresses that are women because the future of Rome lays in his hands. Milton's God, on the other hand, allows Eve to fall and her blatant transgression caused the loss of paradise and all of creation has to experience the consequences of original sin. In Paradise Lost Eve was expected to submit to her ultimate authority, Adam. Rather, it is Adam in Book IX who submits to Eve's unreasonable discourse on separation. Indeed, the implication of a man (as a superior being) succumbing to feminine wiles and passion is an intense concept which - for both Virgil and Milton - threatened the very basis of their society.
Therefore it’s hard to believe that Shelley, a daughter of one of the leading feminists of the day was responsible for presenting women as the submissive role to their male counterparts. How ironic it is that that she was not subservience to her male counterparts in her own life, because although of her father’s disapproval of her partner Percy Shelley, who was already married and to his pregnant wife. She fled to France with him, and disowned herself from her family.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley lived in a sexually separated early 19th century Europe when she wrote her classic novel “Frankenstein”, and many ideas of her society reflect in her novel. Mary grew up in an English society where the role of women was primarily limited to the home while their male counterparts were out and about doing whatever such work he did (“Women in the 19th Century”). Much paralleling true society, gender roles in “Frankenstein” are very much different for men as they were for women. In volume I of “Frankenstein”, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, refers to nature as a female – “I pursued nature to her hiding places”(Mary Shelley, 49) – partaking in a gendered segregation whose consequences are everywhere evident throughout the novel; the affects of the separation of genders lead to destruction time and time again in the novel, possibly illustrating the beliefs of Mary Shelley of the consequences of this segregation. “Whether Shelley intended it or not, Frankenstein offers formal and thematic echoes of the revolutionary philosophy that made cultural room, of an ever-evolving shape and nature, for the fictional interventions in political and social realms,” (Batchelor, Rhonda) says Rhonda Batchelor in her essay reviewing feminine voice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is quite possible that Shelley had no intention of including her views on male directive, but there is greater evidence pointing to the fact that she did in fact include her beliefs in her novel to include into the newly founded woman's movement of her time. This essay will argue that Mary Shelley adds intimations in her novel "Frankenstein", clearly indicating her perception that men viewed women as a feeble second class in the...
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.
... allows the present day reader to gain insight into commonly held beliefs regarding women during the 14th century. By allowing Alison to have a sense of humor and joke about aspects of her marriage, Chaucer was able to make numerous points regarding women that would not have been acknowledged had a female author created them. By making Alison a laughable character, Chaucer was able to make points about women such as the unfairness of double standards, the acknowledgement of female desire, and the reality of women marrying well to improve their economic situations. Chaucer also provides us with detailed examples of commonly held stereotypes regarding women that are still relevant approximately seven centuries later.
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One of the most prominent themes in Fragment VII of the Canterbury Tales is the attitudes of the pilgrims towards women. There are two distinct sides in the dispute: that women are simply objects of lust that must never be trusted, and that women are highly respectable and loving.
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