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Feminism in the ancient greece
Probelms with gender equality within ancient athens
Gender in greek mythology
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Women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex compared to men. It has been demonstrated in history itself and throughout literary works. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Homer’s The Odyssey, however, portray women to be more powerful than men, even when their society thought otherwise and underestimated them because of their gender. Lady Macbeth, The Three Witches, Queen Arête and Penelope demonstrate the astute, charming, and ambitious side of women that was overlooked by men when it came to having power and making decisions.
Gender role is basically an arrangement of societal standards directing what sorts of practices are by and large viewed as satisfactory, suitable or alluring for a man in view of their real or actual sex. In this paper I will focus on the gender roles with reference to the mini-epic” the tain” This piece of Irish literature presents a very good distinction between the old period and the medieval time period. Formerly, men were the protagonists, leaders or the saviors in the literature. A man had to go to the wars and fights, to preserve the territory and honor (women) was their duty.
In many societies today, individuals are led to believe that the concept of women possessing their own strength or independence is abnormal. As a result, women experience the world in a constrained way in comparison to men, even if they are in higher classes of society. However, these extensive aspects of females are contradicted in some ancient Greek literature. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer portrays women as a vital and powerful force through the characters Penelope and Circe, who counter the normality of misogyny in Homer’s time. Penelope’s character displays how some women are able to exceed society’s standards and show strength and cleverness when it is necessary.
Societies are built to be a safe, welcoming and an accepting environment, but sometimes end up to be harsh, cruel and irrational places. In John Wyndham’s novel, The Chrysalids, we are introduced to a world we can never imagine being, yet we live in a world that is actually not very different. David Strorm lives in post-apocalyptic world as a telepathic who is regarded as a mutant and goes on a tough journey with his cousin Rosalind to escape from their non-accepting community. The Waknuk society is indeed very similar to our world considering that today’s society also fears things they do not know about, do not always accept differences and has major issues with dealing with sexism. By comparing Waknuk to our world, the similarities
The roles and social status of women in ancient times are being described by many well-known playwrights and poets. Yet, different works shows different opinions towards “women power”. In this essay, I am going to compare Homer’s Iliad and The Code of Hammurabi along with Sophocles’ Antigone.
She voices women’s loss of power over their bodies and economies. And how they became trapped in the their own household. Medea explains, “With an excess of wealth it is required/ For us to buy a husband” and notes to not take a “master” is worse (L 232-234). Here she passionately speaks out against the injustices she faces as a women.
The woods is apart from society and it is here that women’s stereotypical gender roles start to break. By going into the woods to run off with Lysander, Hermia is committing the ultimate crime, disobeying not only her father’s orders, but also the orders of the duke of Athens. It is here that Hermia makes a decision of her own and where she is finally free of the stereotypical roles of women. It is also here where Helena takes control of her life. Usually, the stereotype is that the man goes after the woman, not the other ways around, and that if a man tells the woman to go away, the woman must go away; however, Helena turns these ‘rules’ upside down.
Medea and the women of Corinth both share, to a different extent, the experience of being unfairly categorized as the caretaker of the family, which aids Medea in persuasion because she can be trusted as a woman to speak on the patriarchal society. She continues as ‘’of all creatures that have life and reason we women are the sorriest lot’’ (229-230) of all the living things Medea describes women as the ‘’sorriest’’ which suggests that women are pitied and helps Medea to allure the Chorus to be on her side. Medea suggests to the Chorus that Females ‘’must at a great expenditure of money buy a husband and even take on a master over our body: this evil is more galling than the first. ’’(231-233) Medea is arguing that women must sacrifice a ‘’great’’ amount of money to ‘’buy’’ their partners. This conveys the patriarchal community in Corinth.
Women of the Medieval Times Women have always had a significant role in history even though they were treated horrible in most cases. During the Medieval Times was really the first time women were allowed to become more than just a house wife. The fight for equality has always been a struggle and even in today’s society is still an ongoing battle. Although women of lower and middle class were treated poorly in the Medieval Times, some powerful women held great responsibility and were looked up too by both men and children; despite being admired, “men were thought to be not only physically stronger but more emotionally stable, more intelligent, and morally less feeble” (Hopkins 5). “The position of women in the Medieval Society was greatly influenced by the views of the Roman Catholic Church” (Heeve).
Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; both have underlying meanings when it comes to defining what the role men and women in a good community should be. Or in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women during the medieval time period, by suggesting that one gender had more power over another. However, these two narratives take alternative paths when expressing their views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when telling the experience of a woman that is highly different from other women in her time. Furthermore, another difference that is appealing to the reader’s eyes, besides the way the two narratives reflect to women’s role in medieval times, is that men become the hero in Beowulf, while “the wife”, so a woman, becomes the authority figure in the story of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” I want to first introduce the two main differences between the two narratives and then I will explain how regardless of the differences, both of these narratives’ main goal is to show that women had less power and a good community back that time was male dominated.
Different societies view women in different lights. Therefore, a woman’s position is greatly different from one society to the other. The societies in question do not necessarily have to exist at the same time. Even in the same time frame, two societies could exist, where one treat women as equals to men, and another that treats women differently than men, whether better or worse. The societies in question are: Mesopotamia, Greece, China, Rome & Europe, and this essay aims to study different societies’ viewpoints on women, and to compare and contrast them against each other.
Known as an epic war poem, The Iliad delves into topics concerning masculinity, heroism, and bravery. Women play a modest but important role that forms the structure of the plot. Helen’s character aids in expanding Menelaus and Paris’ characters. Homer does not delve into the lives of women like he does with the men, speaking to the notion of inferiority between the sexes. Homer displays women as tangible items through male interactions with one another.
More than six hundred years later the same issues of inequality and misogyny are still present in our society. The movement to fight against anti-feminism is not new. Thus, it only proves that the discrimination of women is more than centuries old. Written in 1405, The City Of Ladies is an allegorical story in response to the attack of men against women. Christine De Pizan highlights how a women are capable of good and moral character despite to the contrary of what male philosopher claimed to believe.
Margret Atwood’s short story “Lusus Naturae” is known as a work of fiction in which a monster uncommonly plays the role of the protagonist. Discussing character dynamics, it is interesting to examine the symbolic meaning behind the girl as a monster in this story. Is this text simply a fantasy created with the goal to serve solely as a horror story with a typical ending, or does this tale have a deeper meaning encompassing the treatment of women and their sexuality throughout history. Through close reading of “Lusus Naturae,” I plan to use evidence from the text to illustrate symbolic parallels between the unusual protagonist and the known historical role women held in society. To begin Atwood grabs attention by opening her story asking the
Today, men and women have equal rights, but that does not mean life has always been simple for both genders. When Shakespeare writes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are roles, behaviors, and expectations for the dominant men and submissive women. This literature portrays the major changes in the lives of both sexes throughout the years, which shows the advances women gain with time. The gender issue of men being dominant and women being submissive used in the drama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shows the differences in the roles, behaviors, and expectations appropriate for each gender and is an example of an outdated stereotype.
