Women In Montaigne's Cannibals

What is it like being a woman in Utopia? What about the women that live in Montaigne’s cannibal nation? The women in Utopia and Of the Cannibals have many similar traits but at the same time they have many differences as well. What I am arguing is that the women in More’s Utopia have a better life than the women in Montaigne’s Of the Cannibals. One similarity between the two how much love and appreciation the husbands have for their wives. In More’s Utopia the women are “encouraged and even praised” (104) by their husbands for being brave. They’re “praised” because of how brave they were for willingly joining their husbands in battle. Similarly, the woman in Of the Cannibals, although they do not fight with their husbands, are still appreciated in what they do. The men are taught to “love their wives” for “it is they who keep their wine warm and seasoned” (Montaigne 101). So it’s important for the men to much appreciation towards the women in their nation.

In More’s Utopia the men and women are “strictly monogamous” and they feel “they might hope to lead a happier life” (93) with someone else they are encouraged to divorce. Any person caught in an affair is put into slavery. For the women in Montaigne’s of the cannibals it’s different. The men in Of the Cannibals “have several wives, and the higher their reputation for valor” (103) the more wives they acquire. At the same time the women encourage their husbands to have more wives, so they too can have “as many companions as they can” (103). Underlying the fact that the women in Montaigne’s Of the Cannibals are definitely