ipl-logo

Patriarchal Society In Janet Lewis's The Wife Of Martin Guerre

1067 Words5 Pages

Topic: Bertrande’s position as a woman in a patriarchal society makes her choices impossible. Discuss. Janet Lewis’ novella, The Wife of Martin Guerre presents a hierarchical society that disregards the voice of women in society who seek justice. Throughout the novel, Bertrande is depicted as a strong, independent women however, her ability to express her objections is restricted due to feudal system being an important part of the 16th century. Furthermore, although the French parochial lives under the patriarchal system, Bertrande is able to strongly express her decisions when taking the case of Arnuad du Tilh in court. It is also evident that Bertrande is willing to hold up her position is society when her husband suddenly decides to leave, yet she has knowledge that …show more content…

Bertrande expresses her true thoughts and decisions internally, but is unable to openly share them with society due to the feudal and patriarchal society being a barrier for women like her. Bertrande has a strong link to Catholicism and when Arnuad du Tilh is faced in court, they have no option but to give him a death sentence. However, Bertrande completely opposes this case in “not demanding [Arnaud 's] death.” Regardless of Bertrande’s choice, no one listens to her as they believe it is the for the best that Arnuad du Tilh should not live anymore due to the sins he has committed. This signifies that although Bertrande has voiced her opinions there is no possibility that she is going to have a significant impact on society that deters women from their choices and decisions. This scene is followed by when Bertrande feels she is being dragged “down at every step,” by the “burden of her sin.” This shows that

Show More
Related

Return Of Martin Guerre Quotes

1027 Words | 5 Pages

With Martin, she only ever stuck to the duties a woman normally sticks to, but Arnaud is a merchant. When a woman’s husband is a merchant, she is allowed to engage in merchant activities as well, thus with Arnaud Bertrande’s sphere of freedom expands. She gets more opportunities to experience the world around her aside from the normal confinement a woman has to her house. Bertrande seizes this chance for independence to the fullest, and “What Bertrande had with the new Martin was her dream come true,” (44). For not only does she get more freedom with him by being a merchant, but she also fulfils her previous more mature independent desire for a partner she genuinely likes.

Read More

The Return Of Martin Guerre By Natalie Zemon Davis

921 Words | 4 Pages

Davis depicts the marriage between Martin Guerre and Bertrande de Rols as a miserable attempt by both parties to better secure personal wealth and status. For Davis, Martin is an impotent and apathetic husband who abandoned a family for whom he cared little for, and Bertrande is a cunning, deceptive peasant woman who maneuvers to better her condition and retain her honor in the male dominated society of the time. The Martin Guerre imposter, Arnaud du Tilh is in Davis’s view an opportunist seeking a better life, who falls in love with the wife of the man he proclaims to be. Davis proposes that a woman such as Bertrande could not have been fooled by the skilled acting of the Martin imposter, especially after three years and the conception of a child. For Davis, Bertrande and Arnaud where accomplices in the deception, Bertrande accepted the imposter has her husband to escape the troubles of living as an abandoned wife.

Read More

Arnaud Du Tilh: A Brief Summary

576 Words | 3 Pages

On September 16th, 1560, a man named Arnaud du Tilh was executed for adultery and fraud. This execution does not appear to be too unusual a crime for 16th century France until one notes the extraordinary events that preceded it. The common literature on this unusual event maintained that Tilh managed to trick an entire village that he was the peasant Martin Guerre, even the wife (Bertrande) of the man he was imitating. Historian Natalie Zemon Davis sought to analyze the social and cultural conditions that could yield such an apparently strange and fraudulent act. Through her research, she surmised that Bertrande was not simply duped by Arnaud, as previous writers have assumed, but rather, she was a willing collaborator in the marriage deception.

Read More

Examples Of Guile In The Odyssey

789 Words | 4 Pages

This patriarchal system reveals the double standard in society, but also reveals the social statuses in this time period that oppressed women and bounded them from being able to change the

Read More

Examples Of Exemisia By Susan Vreeland

1231 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the 15th century through the 17th century the status of women is exemplified to be that of a subordinate position through the readings of “The Passion of Artemisia” by Susan Vreeland, McKay textbook chapter 13 reading and the DBQ “Did Women Have a Renaissance”. Traditional societal values and ideals, blinded many to the accomplishments and potential of females and continued to perpetuate a culture that valued and identified women with domestic work and motherhood. The institutionalized ignorance and ingrained bias of society helped to propel forward the systematic oppression of women whos minute sphere of influence equaled to less political power and property ownership. Subjected to violence, ridicule, discrimination and

Read More

Summary Of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Française

1324 Words | 6 Pages

They didn’t have a say in things, so much so that they have to be with someone whom their parents arranged for them to marry, as with Nemirovsky’s character Lucile who was married to Gaston Angellier, “She had never loved him; she had married him because her father wished it” (202). They belonged inside houses performing house chores all day and taking care of the men and their children, “Charlotte Pericand, who ruled the family’s daily life with an iron hand, whether it was managing the household, her children’s education or her husband’s career” (5). But because of the war and under the collaborationist Vichy government, Kaplan stated, “the domestic policy of France moved in a direction that reinforced and sharpened the most conservative attitudes towards women’s role (2). Women were involved in all of the major organized Resistance movements, as Kaplan

Read More

The Wife Of Marin Guerre Analysis

441 Words | 2 Pages

As a feminist growing up in a increasingly feminist society, The Wife of Marin Guerre struck a note for me more so than the movie. Love is beautiful, however, when someone gets a love they don’t deserve from someone they don’t deserve, that lacks justice, and justice occurs naturally around us through the principle of karma. Bertrande is a strong and empowered woman. This wasn’t an ordinary personality trait for women in the 1500’s. In fact, in countless towns, it was frowned upon.

Read More

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards A Feminist Figure Of Humanity?

1075 Words | 5 Pages

It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

Read More

Tartuffe Analysis

633 Words | 3 Pages

Figuratively, Damis and Mariane are prisoners of dichotomous; emotionally and intellectually because they are powerless when it comes to deciding on their life partners. As a result, the author of the article presents the power of reasoning as it is displayed in the play by Moliere. More so, Orgon’s fuddle judgment is in question because of his religious beliefs. “Ah, brother, the man’s a strangely fashioned creature… who seldom is content to follow nature…” However, Cleante analyzes Orgon 's religious because of its surplus. "

Read More

Eliza Haywood's The History Of Miss Betsy Thoughtless

1550 Words | 7 Pages

Her insight is not limited just to the eighteenth century but is currently very relevant in the context of women attempting to gain an equally liberal standard as men regarding their

Read More

Comparing Desiree's Baby And The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

634 Words | 3 Pages

Kate Chopin is an American writer known for her deception of impacts, the restricted view of the nineteenth-century society, had on women. At that time, people were very restrictive about the perspective of a women’s place in the society. Women did not have a voice of their own. They were trained to believe that the goal of their life is to serve their husband. In the stories “Desiree’s Baby” and “The Story of an Hour” Chopin has portrayed how this condition of the society affected women and their view about marriage and life.

Read More

Juxtaposition In Antigone

446 Words | 2 Pages

This sparks the topic of fate vs free will and Ismene’s reference to the “poor suffering” of her brothers as “their common destiny” is indicative of her deep-seated belief in the role of

Read More

The City Of Ladies Analysis

1646 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

Women And Their Rights In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

791 Words | 4 Pages

Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies. In 1894, when this story was formed, culture had its own structure on marriage and the conduct towards women. Gender roles play a major role throughout our history. They would decide whether a woman in colonial times would be allowed to join the labor

Read More

Women In The Victorian Society In Tess Of The D Urbervilles

1162 Words | 5 Pages

Rosemarie Morgan thinks that continuous censure, criticism and frustration is precisely what increased his sympathy towards women who were coerced to conform to the men 's world (Morgan, 2006, p.15). This chapter of the paper makes an attempt to discuss the importance and the influence that the society with its prejudices had on the portrayal of women in the novel, with special focus on the protagonist Tess of the d 'Urbervilles. Social influences and prejudices include the oppression that Tess receives from her family, the church 's denial of a proper burial for her baby, and the society 's judgments on being a mother of an illegitimate child. The second one is gender restraints, illustrated through male

Read More

More about Patriarchal Society In Janet Lewis's The Wife Of Martin Guerre

Related Topics

Open Document