Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England. The poem begins by Marie immediately introducing and defending herself as a writer. She declares that in her culture, People should praise anyone who wins admiring comments for herself but anywhere there is a man or a woman of great worth, people who envy their good fortune often say evil things about them. (5-10) This introduction reflects the negativity her society has against female writers. Where Marie de France comes from, many people disagree with women having power through literature.
The Role of Women in “The Odyssey” It seems if it weren’t for women in Homer’s The Odyssey all forms of empathy, love, war, or compassion wouldn’t exist. Although women held an entirely different position in society compared to men, they too held influence and power. “The Odyssey” revolves around Odysseus’ quest to return home to Ithaca and back to his wife Penelope, which has been overrun by suitors. Within the poem there are three basic types of women the goddess, the seductress, and the good hostess/wife. Each role adds a different element and is essential to the telling of the story.
All three stories barely compared, they all just touched on different aspects on how woman were supposed to be for their husbands, and how it would be if they did do as said. Like, in d’Arthur when Guinevere was to be killed. One can also see while reading each piece that each author all have an interpreted feeling that they feel against women in their writings. Like in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte d’Arthur, one can get the idea that the authors have a “don’t trust women” set of mind. One can get that idea, being that in both pieces the woman are having an affair with another man, although Sir Gawain and the Green knight was just a joke, it was mostly trying to “teach a lesson” or make a point to men, why one should not trust a women, because of the trickery and games they hold up their sleeves.
A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems. Harwood battles against the traditions that she believes support this downgrading by continually returning to the issue. In “Home of Mercy” there is a line in the poem. Here I believe she is talking about the Magdalene Asylums. It was a place of slave labor laundries from the 18th to the late-20th centuries to house "fallen women", a term used to imply female sexual promiscuity.
This type of discrimination prevents many from attaining their goals of reaching the American dream. There are people that believe one gender over the other is simply more valuable and useful compared to the other, which unfortunately lead to unequal opportunity. Gender discrimination is usually targeted towards woman in most cases, many believe that women are of weaker nature and therefore cannot perform better than men could. Marissa Salazar had been a recent target of gender discrimination in her workforce, much related to the issue of Mr. Palmer. Gender discrimination leads to psychological and emotional disturbance, resulting in demoralization and descend in performance standards.
Since the dawn of man, societal roles and behavior have differed between the sexes. Even in today's modern and progressive society, women continue to be judged more harshly than men for their behavior, particularly when it comes to sexual impropriety. Not only are a woman's actions judged more critically, but within the American society, we often see other women acting as a woman's harshest critics. This societal characteristic is all too pronounced in two literary works: "Daisy Miller: A Study", and "Roman Fever". In both stories, women are painted as the ultimate judge of morality; but the women, not men, seem to be the only ones judged and held accountable to society for their actions.
A patriarchy is defined as a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. Such systems currently exist in several forms and areas around the world; however, the most common place for these patriarchies is in our literature. Men are distorted by patriarchy both in being socially labeled as aggressive but, also shamed as they look into the mirror and see themselves. Shakespeare uses polarizing examples of feminism in Hamlet. He depicts women as completely sexual creatures and also devalues women in the eyes of men.
Tessie Hutchinson, one of the main characters represents women who are being tyrannized by society because of their gender. Devices such as symbolism and plot illustrate the condemned roles of women in the gender hierarchy. Also, the use of ideas such as betrayal within the strong marriage bond due to the traditional sacrifice, the senior figure of society, and the following of tradition passed down from generation demonstrate the power of females in this generation are brought up to the podium to be arguably conversed. The plot of “The Lottery” is that men had the most dominance over political decisions. This left no room for woman’s input or acknowledgment.
The Discrimination against Women Identities Throughout history, female were considered lesser beings and nothing more than the property of their husband. In the short story, Blank Spaces by Joanna Cockerline, the acknowledgment of female being inferior creatures in comparison to men is highlighted. Struggle against misfortunes, Elizabeth is oppressed by the social inequality due to the fact that she is a girl. In Blank Spaces, the social inequality implied by the narrative severely impacts Elizabeth’s career hierarchy, character traits, and life experiences. Like many feminist writer, Cockerline focuses her emphasis on how social norm discriminate women by inhibit their job opportunities.
The personality and strong character of the female archetypes on Othello can be seen through the Feminist point of view. The three main female characters; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca; are all affected and oppressed by society in different ways. Desdemona; the faithful wife; and her servant, Emilia are suppressed by the society’s male domination, and its views that women should be owned by men as if they are property. Bianca, on the other hand, has more freedom than of an average woman due to her role as a courtesan. However, she, also is suppressed by the society due to her work as a courtesan.