Marguerite of Navarre was a very influential humanist Catholic reformist. She married King Henry II of France, making her Queen of Navarre in 1527. Marguerite’s most famous work is her book The Heptameron, a series of short stories told to pass the time while stranded in a monastery. Her book was published 9 years after her death, in 1558 (Elmer, 2000, p. 56). One of the stories she wrote was “Novel XXX,” a cautionary tale about what can happen if one doesn’t stay pure. With Marguerite of Navarre’s influence, the inclusion of “Novel XXX” in The Heptameron say a lot about how sex and celibacy was perceived in the Renaissance.
The story of “Novel XXX” begins with a widow so devastated by the loss of her husband, she vowed to remain unmarried and celibate for the rest of her life. In order to avoid temptation, she moves her son and herself to a devoted society. One day, a young woman approached the mother, explaining that she was the son’s mistress. The mother, not believing the girl, told her to set up a late night meeting with the boy. Come evening, the young man went to the bedroom and climbed into bed with the woman he found in his mistress’ bed. Unbeknownst to him, his mother was waiting for him there. The mother got so caught up in the moment, she slept with her own son and got pregnant that night. So
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In fact, Marguerite wanted to name her book The Decameron after Boccaccio’s work out of admiration. However, her book was given its official name in 1559 by Claude Gruget when he restored Marguerite’s book. (Flameng, 2007). However, It has also been said that Marguerite only wrote her book “to rival Boccaccio and to produce what has been called an anti-Boccace, a work based deliberately on different moral and literary principles” (Diffley, 1995). Regardless if out of respect or competition, it is obvious that Marguerite’s book is conceptually very similar to
This essay will explore the social interactions between characters, the effects of appearance on their relationships and how this drives them to make certain decisions. This includes how the claustrophobia of their society is portrayed and its effects through form, style and literary techniques. All four texts explore the conflict between public and private selves. In Othello , Shakespeare reveals the taboo surrounding an interracial sexual relationship between a black man and a white woman during the Sixteenth Century. In Hardy’s Nineteenth Century novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles , we see the clash between sexuality, laws and codes of the time. I will compare these texts to The Franklin’s Tale and Pride and Prejudice , looking at how the rigid codes of courtly love impact on male and female behaviour within relationships and how the social and cultural attitudes and values of Regency England influence young women in their marriage choices.
“‘La magnificence et la galanterie n’ont jamais paru en France avec tant d’éclat que dans les dernières annèes du règne de Henri second.’ (p. 35)... However, this image of classical perfection is quickly fractured by the mention of the event that guides the life of the court-the passion of Henry II for the Duchesse de Valentinois Later in the narrative, the heroine, like the reader, asks for further explanation for this unusual passion between a woman not only much older than the king, but one who, in addition to having been Henry’s father’s mistress, also has several other lovers..” (Judovitz, 1038-1039)
Bloch, R. Howard. Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991.
Accordingly, I decided the purposes behind women 's resistance neither renamed sexual introduction parts nor overcame money related dependence. I recalled why their yearning for the trappings of progression could darken into a self-compelling consumerism. I evaluated how a conviction arrangement of feeling could end in sexual danger or a married woman 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, regardless, ought to cloud an era 's legacy. I comprehend prerequisites for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the area of women into open space and political fights previously cornered by men all these pushed against ordinary restrictions even as they made new susceptibilities.
The seventeenth century marked the beginning of modernity in social hierarchy. King Charles II had come back from the continent after ten years in exile with a new thought on how to treat women. “These women were intimately connected with the king. They would experience the most immediate and profound effects of the restoration. In order to see these effects, be a major member of the royal court, and gain a higher social standing, women became royal mistresses. The women of Charles’ court had gained celebrity, independent wealth, and influence, and this was unrecognizably modern for this age and time.” Charles had learned about how to have a successful marriage and many relationships with his mistresses from the aristocratic women of France. Women in France were not only playing a prominent role in French court but they were gaining respect for it. French aristocratic women were debating and writing about what they wanted from their relationships. These novels of allegorical love were guidebooks to help men get well on the...
An act of infidelity was no disgrace, always provided that one preserved the form of polite society…Any knight who contented himself with wedding a virgin before himself having grown practiced in adultery and carried off several trophies of the chase was unworthy of his spurs. Adultery was a social diversion for the upper classes. A knight had to have a lady whom he worshiped…Church and state tolerated the adulterous relationship…It was the thing to choose a celestial patroness…(1)
Naivety as well as the longing to fit into society with a loving man and stable, well-to-do peasant family deceived an honorable woman. Bertrande de Rols’ young marriage had difficulties from the start. With the guidance from family, the Catholic Church and Basque customs, Bertrande attempted to follow the sixteenth-century expectations for women, but was misled by her own fear, loneliness and catastrophic past.
In the middle ages knights in every kingdom were expected to follow basic rules set forth by the code of chivalry. According to this code a knight was supposed to show all of the following characteristics; prowess, justice, loyalty, defense, courage, faith, humility, largesse, nobility and franchise. If a man showed these characteristics he was said to be a good "chevalier," a French word for knight (Burgess 1). Marie De France, one of the more well-known female writers of the medieval period, used the term "chevalier" quite often in her Lais when referring to respected male characters. Unfortunately for women, the code of chivalry also meant that women would be held at a lower status than men and traded between the men of the court. In the article "Chivalry and Prowess in the Lais of Marie de France," Glyn Burgess notes that "most of the characters in Marie's Lais belong to the upper classes, and thus issues of loyalty, service and expertise in battle and hunting predominate" (1). These men adhere to the code of chivalry. Sharon Kinoshita, the author of "Cherchez la Femme: Feminist Criticism and Marie de France's `Lai de Lanval'," takes the opposing position and argues that in Lanval, "the title character's ultimate rejection of chivalric society is an expression of Marie de France's feminism" (1). While some male characters in the Lais of Marie De France do indeed show elements of the chivalric code, Lanval goes against the code and is eventually praised for it. In Equitan and Laustic while some male characters adhere to the code of chivalry, in the same Lais, some men defy it. Kinoshita says Marie shows feminism in Lanval by having the male protagonist go against the code of chivalry. Unlike in Lanval, the characters...
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.
"The Victorian Era." History of Human Sexuality in Western Culture. Word Press, n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2014.
During the 20th century in Ireland, girls had to suppress their inner-sexual thoughts and desires becasue Irish girls' personal lives were dictated and controlled by the Catholic church and state. Ireland socially accepted female inferiority as they humiliated and tortured young girls for loving another partner. As seen in Seamus Heaney's poem, Punishment, and the documentary, Sex in a Cold Climate, Irish girls' views of love and sex were forever tainted because of the public treatment and ridicule they received. In Punishment, Heaney describes a personal experience witnessing a young girl tarred-and-feathered in public for loving a British solider. Moreover, Sex in a Cold Climate focuses on four women and their tragic experiences in Ireland's Magdalene Asylums. Furthermore drawing themes from Punishment and Sex in a Cold Climate, I am going to discuss the relationship between sexual desires and punishment and argue that Irish girls were deprived of having a normal love and sex life.
The can-can, cabaret and prostitution dominated Paris in La Belle Epoque. Sex was a commerce, an escape, and a way of life. It's prominence in Parisian culture made sexuality synonymous with power and a tool for obtaining it. The combination of beauty and assertiveness could get you places that hard, honest work simply could not. Both men and women took advantage of this lustful commodityprostitutes and mistresses were seen as status symbols, while flirtatious "femme fatales" had their way with the rich and successful. But love, illustrated in Guy de Maupassant's Bel-Ami, was far from romantic. It was a well-planned out ritual, full of lies, deceit and infidelity. However, the power of sexuality in La Belle Epoque does not stray far from its place in today's society"sex sells," after all.
Suzanne G. Cusick, who considers herself a speicialist in the life and works of Francesca Caccini, argues that Francesca was a proto-feminist and the music she composed for the Medici court contributed to the career of the Grand Duchess Christine de Lorraine of Tuscany. She therefore claims that through her works, Caccini encourages the sexuality and political aims of women in the early seventeenth century.1
During the nineteenth century, women were regarded as ornaments “momentary toys of passion” to the society and properties to be traded within marriage, therefore, Victorian moralists repressed female sexuality. As a result, for a woman to admit she even had sexual desires was considered sinful, let alone acting on those desires - like Porphyria did - was borderline criminal. Moreover, when Porphyria “glided in” she “untied her hat and let her damp hair fall”. Victorian moralists referred to female fornicators as ‘fallen’ women. Additionally, committing adultery was also a sin as it went against one of the Ten Commandments “Thou shall not commit adultery”, therefore, Porphyria ‘letting her hair fall’ could symbolise the boundaries she had willingly chosen to overstep by coming to meet her lover.
My analysis will take as central the moral issues in Pamela, but this is done with a cognizance that how we reflect on Pamela's morality is also closely related to how we read the economic and social aspects of the novel. There have been many works written in response to Pamela, some attacking the eroticism of the novel and others the social deconstruction it implies; however, the most emphatic is likely to be the Marquis de Sade's literary response in Justine (1791) and Juliette (1797). As we've already seen in "Fantomina," the erotic novel is not something new to the 18th century, and examples such as John Cleland's Fanny Hill (1748) provide explicit materials to demonstrate that the pornography and sadism of the day were as explicit as our own. As Shamela illustrates, this erotic aspect of Pamela cannot be overlooked, especially with the physicality of aspects of the letter writing and the reader's 'view' of Pamela's body through this. David Evans describes this as