A Feminist Analysis of Perceval, Tristan and Isolt, and Aucassin and Nicolette
Currently, there is a debate among feminists as to whether the demeaning portrayal of women in popular media causes or is caused by negative attitudes in modern culture. A similar debate exists among historians of the late middle ages as to whether the rise in popularity of the cult of the Virgin, her portrayal in art, and the code of chivalry caused or was caused by changing attitudes towards women.
Many factors in the late middle ages coincided to create an entirely new role for women: contact with the Muslim world in Spain, the rising popularity of religious life, and the aforementioned cultural changes. All of these factors are intertwined with the new attitudes that arose around women. Virginity became exalted, femininity was lauded, courtly love turned women into objects of devotion rather than objects of desire. In short, women were placed on a pedestal. The cultural paradox of this shift in attitudes is that by being placed on that pedestal, women became objects rather than individuals. This dichotomy between respect for women as a group and respect for individual women is clearly shown in three Medieval Romances. Perceval, Tristan and Isolt, and Aucassin and Nicolette may vary greatly in plot, tone and style, but the underlying assumption is the same. In the Medieval Romance, women may be objects of devotion, but they are still merely objects to earned, won, owned and dominated.
The first example of this attitude is the saga of the damsel whom Perceval boorishly assaults. This woman, never named, is utterly enslaved and abused by men. Perceval, not heeding her protests, forces her into a compromising situation and then robs he...
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...band is a Muslim. The Christian king of Biaucaire, by contrast, does not honor her right to self-determination. The Muslim roots of Nicolette's relative freedom serve as one answer to the question of whether this literature is derivative of the culture or whether it shaped the culture. From this evidence, it seems that the former is true.
The pervasiveness of the oppressive attitudes demonstrated in these texts show clearly the dichotomous view of women in the late middle ages. The respect of womanhood which was so central to the chivalric code did not translate into greater freedom for women themselves. Modern opponents of feminism claim that the Women’s Movement has reversed this dichotomy, namely that individual freedoms have devalued women as a group. Perhaps we should ask why our culture has a problem with valuing womanhood and valuing women concurrently.
Caroline Walker Bynum raised several thought-provoking claims in her book Holy Feast and Holy Fast, but her main argument of the mindset of medieval women with regards to their status in society was the most intriguing. Rather than simply agreeing with most traditional medievalists, she analyzes the male/female difference in terms of which symbols each gender used, and how these symbols tied in to their distinct religious concerns. She maintains that women accepted their place in society and religion, and instead of succumbing to the misogyny, they used their association with the flesh and humanness to connect themselves to the humanity of God. Her arguments regarding medieval women and their practices also implies that she is accepting of the idea of gender as a valuable category of historical analysis.
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against 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.
It is undeniably true that an equality of the sexes exists today that was not even imagined in the medieval era. However, this rise in respect for women does not guarantee that all of the prejudices and stereotypes from preceding centuries have fallen by the wayside; on the contrary, most of the same archetypes are alive and well, even if modified to suit a new world. From the unattainably perfect virgin to the sexually insatiable temptress, these images appear throughout modern culture-but the disturbing nature of their existence is made far worse by the complacency with which women accept and further them. In many places, control of the image of women has passed into their own hands, yet broad generalizations and negative suggestions continue to fill daily life.
eastwood, kay. women and girls in the middle ages. 305.4. manhattan: crabtree publishing company, 2004. Print.
What exactly is Autism? Well it is one of many mental conditions that affects precisely one in 110 kids in the U.S. More specifically, Autism is a developmental disability. In other
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.
Popular culture depicts Medieval chivalry as a glamorous and high time for women, with knights bending their knees in worship to them in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and the fairness and virtue of women being celebrated in literature. Chivalry is often understood as the elevation of the lady fair, with men taking upon themselves the task of protecting and defending women. In fact, though, this was not an elevation of women but a limitation of their freedom and an undermining even of their intelligence and strength of will. Medieval chivalry, in essence, subordinated women to men while claiming to elevate women. In Lanval and Laustic, women are shown to have a subordinate status to men in three ways: being painted as temptresses, being subject to protection from men, and being subservient to orders from men.
Association, A. N. (2010). Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice. (2nd ed.) Maryland: American Nurses Association. Retrieved January 20, 2014 from http://media.wix.com/ugd/8c99f2_4fde86431966e34f2e03bbb137edfee3.pdf
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.
An Essay: On Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
Autism is a disorder characterized by significant problems in communication and social functioning. Autism is actually called Autism Spectrum Disorder and encompasses a broad range disabilities such as Asperger syndrome, Rett’s Syndrome, and Pervavasive Development Disorder (Dunlap & Fox, n.d.). There are also varying degrees of the disorder from low-functioning (no communication and no social interaction) to high-functioning (some communication and inappropriate but existent social skills.)
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The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).