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Book Of The City Of Ladies Analysis

1260 Words6 Pages

Throughout history women have been portrayed in various ways; nevertheless, women have been predominantly viewed as weak, feeble creatures. However, in The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, in addition to being viewed as weak, women are also viewed as wicked by male authors. This is historically incorrect, as in reality fifteenth century women were not thought to have been vile but rather compassionate and moral creatures. The Book of City of Ladies, although a pioneering work in the feminist movement, does not portray fifteenth century women’s social struggle completely accurately. Christine de Pizan exaggerates the misogynistic views of women in order to demonstrate their need for defense and stimulate compassion among her readers.
. De Pizan would not have been able to write The Book of the City of Ladies if she had not been faced herself with some of the misjudgment women faced in the text. In her …show more content…

Women were wrongfully blamed for things that went wrong in their relationships. By showing unhappiness in their relationships, they would suggest that something was wrong with them because they couldn’t maintain a successful marriage. This shows the dominance of men in relationships and that women were subservient to them; men could do horrible things in marriage and still get away blameless as their wife would be the one deemed responsible for the problems in the marriage. A similar situation is explained in The Book of the City of Ladies, when de Pizan rhetorically asks “how many women are there, and you yourself know this, who because of

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