Tale of Genji 1. The men expected the "hidden flower" to be from the upper class, however, middle class was acceptable. Being in the lower class was totally unacceptable. The woman must have flawless beauty, intelligence, faithfulness (even though this was hypocritical), and submission. Submissiveness is a wishy-washy characteristic because Genji was most attracted to those that rejected him and did not accept his advances as Murasaki and Aoi did. Genji wanted to mold the perfect woman or "hidden flower" out of Murasaki. She was hidden away and he kidnapped her to make her into who he wanted her to be. Genji seemed to enjoy the chase and challenges involved with women. He seemed to move from one woman to the next to boost his self esteem and solidify his image as a man. Each woman had admirable traits; however, each woman had very distinctable flaws to Genji, which discredited her from being the "perfect" woman. For example, Murasaki was very young and not submissive due to her immaturity. Aoi was very harsh and provided no chase for him because she already belong...
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
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness uses character development and character analysis to really tell the story of European colonization. Within Conrad's characters one can find both racist and colonialist views, and it is the opinion, and the interpretation of the reader which decides what Conrad is really trying to say in his work.
Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600)." While this view may have been extreme even for the Greeks, they were convinced of the physical and intellectual inferiority of women. Thus, they believed that it was better for all--...
Based on Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji” the ideal man and the ideal woman of the Heian Court can easily be discerned as not truly existing, with the main character, Genji, being the nearly satirical example of what was the ideal man, and descriptions of the many women in the story as prescription of the ideal woman with the young Murasaki playing a similar role to that of Genji in the story.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
By the beginning of the 18th century, there was an unmistakable feeling in the American Colonies that its intemperate society had become too comfortable and assertive, and had forgotten its original intentions of religious prosperity. The result was a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s, a movement known as "The Great Awakening". This revival was part of an evangelical upsurge occurring simultaneously in England, Scotland, Germany, and other inhabitants on the other side of the Atlantic. In all these Protestant cultures, a new Age of Faith had arisen contrasting the currents of the Age of Enlightenment, advocating the belief that being truly religious meant relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason.
During the 1920’s, the role women had under men was making a drastic change, and it is shown in The Great Gatsby by two of the main female characters: Daisy and Jordan. One was domesticated and immobile while the other was not. Both of them portray different and important characteristics of the normal woman growing up in the 1920’s. The image of the woman was changing along with morals. Females began to challenge the government and the society. Things like this upset people, especially the men. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing their long-term dominance over the female society.
When questioning whether or not Joseph Conrad was an imperialist, a racist or both for that matter, the answer should be quite obvious after reading some of his works, such as, Heart of Darkness. Everywhere you look in this book, there is both imperialism and racism illustrated. Through Kurtz, Conrad's imperialist side breaks through and likewise, through Marlow Conrad's racist views come to life.
The Novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is about an Ivory agent, Marlow, who is also the narrator of his journey up the Congo River into the heart of Africa. Marlow witnesses many new things during his journey to find Mr. Kurtz. In Apocalypse Now, the narrator is Captain Willard, who is also on a journey to find Kurtz. The Kurtz in the movie however is an American colonel who broke away from the American army and decided to hide away in Cambodia, upon seeing the reality of the Vietnam War. The poem “The Hollow Men” talks about how humans’ “hollowness” affects their lives and often leads to the destruction of one’s life. These three works all deal with similar issues, and are related to one another in many ways, and also share somewhat similar themes.
It is clear that women of the Renaissance experienced hardships and injustices throughout their lives. Women had to be "perfect" and not question the authority of men. Obviously, the times have changed but we should never forget how the women of the Renaissance were treated and how much improvement was
people were becoming bored of the religion and it just became a past time for
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Support to this view was to be found in the Bible (which, not incidentally, is written by men), and although Dew is not so concerned with them, there were two other main characteristics of the perfect Victorian woman; piety and purity, characteristics that "delight and fascinate". Apart from subtle allusions such as "...at her shri...
Two hundred years ago a fearless leader named Takamori Saigo drew his sword and hurled a final challenge to Japans Imperial army, outnumbered and outmatched the samurai were inevitably obliterated and Takomori Saigo became a hero symbolizing devotion and principle. The samurai were a group of elite warriors in Japan that died out soon after the Mejia era. A movie came out depicting the samurais final stand .When The Last Samurai hit theaters in 2001 it was fairly well received by movie critics earning a seven out of ten by Internet Movie Data Base. On the other hand Historians had mixed feelings about the film. The reason for this was that it was not very consistent with what had actually happened in history. The Last Samurai was a movie that depicted the samurai’s last stand during the spread of western civilization in Japan. Although the movie did portray some things that might be historically accurate it was mostly a romanticized movie that distorted reality as many Hollywood movies do. This movie was far from historically accurate because of its characters, settings, and plot. While the movie is titled The Last Samurai it does not mainly revolve around the character Katsumoto that depicts Takamori Saigo the leader of the samurai during the Satsuma rebellion ironically it revolves around Tom Cruises character Algren a US Army Captain which is completely fictional. Because The Last Samurai’s plot had many inconsistencies with what had happened during the Satsuma Rebellion it is not historically accurate.
King Leopold II of Belgium is known for being one of the most brutal racists in history. His inhumane treatment of Africans in the Congo was revealed in photographs that surfaced and that were taken to emphasize his cruel behavior over the Africans in the Congo. His motive for this inhumanity was pure greed. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, although does not embody the vicious behavior of King Leopold II, contributes to the racism of that period in other ways. Because of this, the novel can be interpreted in different ways from a racism standpoint. In my opinion, I both agree and disagree with Chinua Achebe’s statements concerning Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and feel that it can be viewed in some ways as both racist or not racist.