The women during the Medieval and Renaissance periods were treated poorly. Everyone treated them like objects and they had almost no rights. People can see how bad it was being a woman during this time period by reading some of the works. Some authors saw women as things of beauty while others saw them as mere objects for men. This was not a good time for women.
Dante Alighieri, who wrote “The Inferno: Cantos 1-3” actually wrote about women in a positive manner. The main woman mentioned in the story Beatrice (Dante’s beloved) helped guide him through Hell. She is seen as a nice, caring woman one of the one’s blessed in Heaven. Dante sees her as an angel the light of his path, she is extremely important to him. She descended into hell to assist
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The Medieval story “The Inferno: Cantos 1-3” showed an appreciation for women. While in “The Wife of Bath Tale” showed that the women just want to be dominate, but should be ruled over. The “Rules of love” didn’t care how the women should act. They’re just supposed to wait for the men to come to them. While in the Renaissance text, “The Book of the Courtier”. It talked about how a woman should act in a courtier position, that she must be perfect. “The City of Ladies” stood up for the women claiming that they are more than what men say they are. This piece shows how underappreciated they felt during this time. The Medieval stories were on the fence between appreciation and being treated like objects while the Renaissance period completely made women …show more content…
It was a society that was almost completely dominated by men. The women had to know their place and had little to no roles to play within the society. In “The Inferno: Cantos 1-3” Beatrice helped Dante, but she didn’t really play a major role. All she did was come down to hell and sent Virgil to help Dante along his journey. After that she really didn’t do much. Their role was to help the men and look pretty. In “The Wife of Bath Tale” the knight raped the girl without much thought and treated her as if she was nothing. At the end when the old hag said that all the women wanted was to rule over their husbands. This showed that even if a woman desired is to rule over their husbands the men will still rule over the women. Since they had to “know their place” within society. “The Rules of Love” only talked about the men loving women in a correct way. The women had no rules, showing that it really didn’t matter what they did. During the Renaissance era the women had almost no power. Their “job” was to be the ideal women and basically be the personal property of their man. “The Book of the Courtier” showed how the job of a woman courtier was to look pretty and be absolutely perfect. There was more than an abundance of rules and means they had to follow to be deemed worthy as a woman courtier. The role of the women of that time was to be a pretty object. The “City of Ladies” portrayed this more by Pisan showing how much she disagreed
The Renaissance gave more light to philosophy, and philosophers thought everyone is equal. There was a female ruler, and art put women in the public eye. Yet, women weren't allowed to take part as much as men, and upper class women had even less rights than peasant women. Queen Elizabeth affected the West in many ways. She refused to marry until the day she died, and she defeated the Spanish Armada. Her supporting the arts also helped plays and paintings bring women more into the public eye. Still, women still had less rights than men at the time. Most philosophers were men and many of them preached of how men were more powerful than women. And in contrast to popular belief, upper class women had even less rights than peasant women at the time. Upper class women were treated as mere housewives, which limited the rights of women because the most powerful women at the time were illiterate. Giving them little power compared to
In the traditional political history of Italy the people outside of the ruling class of the society were rarely studied. Only with the use of social history did the issues of class and gender begin to be debated by scholars. Numerous recent articles have done a great job of analysing particularly men of high status. In this paper I will look at the lower classes of Renaissance Florence. More specifically, I will center my focus on the lives of women during this era, how they were treated and viewed by people of other classes and how women were viewed and treated by men.
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.
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.
Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Historians and scholars often overlook the part that women played in the Renaissance. Did women have a Renaissance? The period did not occur in a male only vacuum; women played an important part in the changes taking place across Europe. No matter a woman’s station in the class system, women, were still considered the sinful daughter of Eve, the downfall of man. Into this world stepped Isabella d’Este, one of the great women of the Renaissance.
Across Europe, between 1400 and 1650, there were women present in all major styles of time. They worked along side of great artists and were developing new techniques and styles. Women also played a very important role in the Renaissance. Although not as well documented as their male counterparts, women worked along with the other great masters, were just as innovating, and were key in developing new techniques.
...his time. The highest praise which could then be given to a woman was that she had the mind and the courage of men. Although they did earn some rights, women were still forbidden to hold office, paternal powers in the family, receive inheritance and many other things. The wealthy women who were fortunate enough to receive a small form of education potentially could have done much more if they were given the same opportunities that men were given. Labor class women who did everything around the house, from shearing the sheep to raising the children, were also highly depreciated. The Renaissance in Western Europe brought forward new ideas and as Renaissance is defined, ?the revival or rebirth? so was the circle of society surrounding the women. Women were given the chance to take the higher step in society, which they tried jumping on, but were often pushed back down.
...e, although the Renaissance was considered a revolutionary time period that sprung immense developments throughout Europe, this era however did not bring change to the identity and power of Renaissance women. As a result of analyzing the prejudiced regulations of female versus male sexuality, the misogynistic ideologies of society as conferred through literature and philosophy and the life of notable female Renaissance figures, it is evident that women failed to attain an era of rebirth, therefore delaying the development of female strive and liberty. The advances in the Renaissance have only served to mold the female gender even deeper into their ladylike roles; the wraths of men. Ultimately, with the fear to battle against injustice, the vision for absolute equality and strive for full feminine potential have failed to be accomplished in the shaping of our today.
Women felt like they were being confined almost like in a jail, since they were stuck in the house, hidden away from society. Just like in the “Poor Singing Dame” the poor woman got thrown in jail where she died just because she would not stop expressing her feeling of happiness even though she was not wealthy. “Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial Law 's despite” (Barbauld, Lines 1-3) and “He sent his bold yeomen with threats to prevent her, And still would she carol her sweet roundelay; At last, an old steward relentless he sent her- Who bore her, all trembling, to prison away!”(Robinson, Lines 36-40). This shows that women started to feel like they needed to tell men to step aside from their role as rulers and leaders in society, and instead accept that women can rule just as good as any
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
In the past of humanity, women's status have always been ambigious. Either they were worshipped as goddesses or despised as unworthy workers. In this research I will analyze closely what it means to be a female in our age and in medieval period by means of two sagas: The Saga of The Volsungs and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki.
Shakespeare illustrates the injustices done to women by demonstrating the treatment Desdemona and Emilia received after having been framed of adultery. Because both women are though of cheating on their husbands, they no longer fit in society’s model of an exemplary wife. Despite having proved their affection for their husbands countless of times, not having a pure image led to Iago and Othello mistreating of the women they once loved. Once both women began to stand up for themselves and challenge the authority of their husbands, the repercussions of their bravery were both women’s death. Which shows, women’s only source of authority was their reputation as a wife. Once they lost that status, they no longer held any form or respect in society or with their husband’s.
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 play, The Merchant of Venice drastically altered the perception of women during the time as Shakespeare makes women during the Italian Renaissance appear independent and intellectual, such as the beautiful Portia and the young Jessica. This play shows that women are not only beautiful people to look at but also powerful and intelligent individuals. The characteristics of the women in this play show the possibilities of equality between men and