In the novels of De Stael and Constant, women are used as a foil to their male counterparts. Corrine and Ellenore as the main female characters can be seen to be muses but in different circumstances. Corrine’s portrayal of muse is closer to classical mythology whilst Ellenore’s muse seems to be darker and closer to a femme fatale figure. This can be explored in the descriptions of Corrine and Ellenore, their relations to the male protagonist and the portrayal of other women.
Corrine and Ellenore appear to share similar backgrounds, both have been forced to live away from their home country, lack parental upbringing, desire love and have been seen as unsuitable matches by the enlightened society. Despite this, Corrine and Ellenore have different outlooks and motives for life. De Stael creates Corrine as a creative and passionate woman who is celebrated for her artistic ability. This can be seen in the when Corrine arrives in the capital to be crowned:
Corrine was sitting on the chariot, built in the style of ancient Rome[…] Everywhere she went people lavishly threw perfumes into the air; […] everyone shouted, Long live Corrine! Long live genius! Long live beauty! […] At one and the same time she gave the impression of a priestess of Apollo […] and of a woman who is completely natural in ordinary relationships.
This quote illustrates similarities between Corrine and the classical muse. Reference to the chariot connotes royalty and honour whilst Apollo is used to compare Corrine to a follower of the Roman god of music and poetry. Moreover, the celebrations of the people suggest that she is admired and for being both female and intelligent, this is illustrated through the crowd acknowledging her beauty and genius. However, ...
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...argely of his opposition to efforts by others to remove her; la contrainte revives his love and resolution, but his will depends for its energy on an exterior stimulus[...] He denies his own moral responsibility and puts all the blame, both for his loving Ellenore and for not loving her, on forces stronger than himself
This source implies that Ellenore is only desirable because she is forbidden by Adolphe’s Society. This reinforces the theory that Ellenore is a femme fatale figure as she is shunned by society and turns Adolphe on his own family. Moreover, Pomfret argues that the muse is only ‘a male generated vision of femininity’, this suggests that Ellenore is a muse because she is the woman Adolphe choose to fall in love with and because she is the only female character in Constants novel; this suggests that Ellenore is Constant’s vision of femininity.
The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton narrates the tribulations of an unmarried woman in post-revolutionary America. The author Hannah Webster Foster uses the story of Miss Wharton as an allegory of female moral decay. The highly patriarchal demands that women be submissive, domestic, and married. However, the protagonist Eliza Wharton has conflicting ideas of her expectations within the society. She is highly intelligent and yearns for self-determination. Though the novel is about seduction, Foster significantly altered the basic structure of novels at the time by relating it from the female perspective. The result is a novel that explores several significant themes in post-revolutionary America among them, the existence, and the need for female education.
"The sweetness and fine expression of her voice attracted his attention to her figure, which had a distinguished air of delicacy and grace; but her face was concealed in her veil. (page 5)" From the very beginning of the book, Radcliffe lets us know that beauty and attraction will play an intricate part in the development of the story. But she also lets us know that it will not be an open perception, she hints toward an element of intrigue combined with the person's role that they play within society. Through the entire book, we find that Vivaldi is obsessed with the beauty of Ellena. Ellena appears to be so perfect and pure, Vivaldi can not help but to fall in love with her. Here sex and beauty themselves end up being the instigators of deception and destruction.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
From the beginning of The Coquette Eliza Wharton is a headstrong, freedom-seeking woman. Having escaped her impending marriage with the death of her fiancé, Eliza is determined to enjoy herself, regardless of the consequences. Eliza disregards the warnings she receives from those around her, she disregards Major Sanford’s past, and she disregards the societal impact her actions will undoubtedly have. Eliza is reckless with her reputation and virtue and she pays the price.
...n their stories at first, but by the end they both praise them for their ability to act with the virtues that every Roman woman should strive to act with.
Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.
It was a dark, menacing night as she stood there in the shadows. Waiting for the finale of the show that was playing, she glanced toward the exit through which people would soon be leaving. The rich, as patrons of the theatre house, promised her a salary at least for today. Her tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal destitution; the emaciated frame, that presently existed, harked back upon a body she must have once possessed. Driven by poverty to the realms of "painted cohorts," she makes up her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected (264). She is an outcast, a leper, a member of the marginalized in society; she envelops the most degraded of positions and sins against her body in order to survive. As she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet faded despite her present conditions. She was, at one time, a "virtuous" woman, most likely scorned by a dishonest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her prior mistakes, she must turn to the streets and embrace the inevitable - the dishonor and shame from her previous engagement will follow her unto death. Shunned from society she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and sadly finds no love. She is the abandoned, the betrayed, and the lost, embarrassed girl; she is "of the painted cohorts," the female prostitute of the streets (264).
The female characters in Molière’s Tartuffe display feminist behaviors years before the feminist movement emerged historically. Many of their actions, words and behaviors are completely out of character for women of their time. Moliere makes a strong statement with this play by presenting female characters that go against convention. The gender inequality when the Enlightenment began was extreme. The women in this play try to fight against this inequality and in the end it is the patriarch of the family that is fooled by Tartuffe yet most of the female characters remain un-fooled throughout the play. Two of the female characters in this play, Doreen and Elmire play significantly different roles in the home. They have different personalities, different household duties and drastically different social standing. As different as these women are, they both show signs of early feminism. To various degrees they fight for want they believe is right. Dorine speaks her mind openly and does not hold anything back. Elmire is sneakier and uses her sexuality to get what she wants.
She does not spew out all the reasons why she loves Othello or say that she is unavoidably attracted to him as she could have. Instead, she picks a practical reason –
...her Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman writers, and ultimately illuminating the differences between the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman cultures.
`Plays and Poetry by early modern women are primarily concerned with negotiating a position from which women could speak. A concern for ideas of gender, language and silence is, therefore, central, though its expression is sometimes open, sometimes covert.' Discuss with reference to Aemilia Lanyer and / or Elizabeth Cary.
Challenging gender roles has been an arduous task. As Virginia Woolf notes, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” The structure of history, particularly that of war, has placed women as useless in comparison to men and as having no purpose beyond pleasing their partner. Euripides, for example, places women in the aftermath of the Trojan War as helpless in the face of the victors. Moreover, Macawen’s adaptation of the tragedy Trojan Women and Evans’ Trojan Barbie both discuss the docile attitude of women after a period of war. Aristotle signals diction and plot, two of the six parts of tragedy, which interprets events through the language and the actions that take place. Through the use of diction and plot, both Macewen and Trojan Women and Trojan Barbie, both Macawen and Evans challenge gender roles through the character of Helen, shows she will do whatever it takes to survive an atmosphere of male dictated war.
Miranda’s character in the play represents the ideal woman of Elizabethan era. She is portrayed as a goddess among the men. “Most sure, the goddess/Oh whom these airs attend!”(1.2.425-426). Fer...
Now in Comoria was a great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the Cor, over the nations and the seas. But in the last days of a haughty king, Comoria began to regard the gods of war, growing insolent and began to exceed the arts of metals, the art of the sea, for only Comoria built the great warships that plowed the Gallian Sea. They mastered the horses, and built gold war chariots, and archers, and the sword, and armors, the hundred men spearmen lines, the art of siege towers, that could scale the walls of great cities, and the ram, that destroyed the doors of any gate. So Comoria ruled with the spirit of fear, that vexed the whole of the peaceful nations of Cor, and in the end, the dark priests brought the goddess Ashra, Dero, her husband, Com and Coom, the twin sons, and the Three Daughters, the worship of obscene gods, to prey on the fears of men. But later there occurred THE FINAL disregard for the gods of Cor, and in one night the Citadel, the house of the gods was made desolate by the Priest of
To begin, the one true reason the Trojan War began is because of the astonishing queen named Helen, whose angelic loveliness sparked the tension between Troy and Greece. Helen was the queen of the Greek city-state Sparta, married to King Menelaeus. In Heinrich Schliemann’s book “The Search for Troy” he announced that “Helen was considered to be the most gorgeous mortal in the entire world” (Schliemann 36). Her godly looks were adored all around, but one man was jealous of Greece having such a beautiful queen, and wanted her all to himself. The mighty prince, known to be the prince of Troy, named Paris had traveled to Sparta and kidnapped Helen, and returned to Troy along with her; little did he know that soon his dreadful decision would foreshadow the future of Troy and its citizens. Once the Greeks had discovered that their beloved jewel was missing, and had found where she had been taken to, the Greeks immediately launc...