Lopez-Navarro British Lit. 2322 4 October 2012 The Role of Women in Two Tales If you study several literary works across the centuries, you will note women’s roles have differed. The legendary work Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as the Wife of Bath’s Tale, include female characters with very distinct roles. Even though the women do not portray significant characters in these works, they do serve to create intense interest. The knight’s tale, an alliterative romance and one of the better-known Arthurian stories, and the wife’s tale, the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, give insight into the specific roles of women in the late Middle Ages.
It also suggests that she misses her past through the use of a rhetorical question which makes the reader feel sympathy for her. In the poems “Medusa” and “Les Grands Seigneurs” both of the poems explore gender conflict through love/relationships and they are both written from a woman’s perspective. In “Les Grands Seigneurs” the character was single and she was able to manipulate men and was “their queen”. We can interpret that she controlled the men through lust. In the poem “Medusa” gender conflict through control is also illustrated when she says: “a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy”.
As an example two influential short stories will be discussed in depth in order to shed light into the lives of the two authors and their stories. The short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) and Angela Carter (1940–1992) both sideway the same idea; the confinement of women in particular roles and positions in both personal and professional lives, posed on them by patriarchal figures. Toril Moi quotes in her examination of feministic criticism, Sexual/Textual Politics (2002), Elaine Showalter’s idea that “women writers should not be studied as a distinct group on the assumption that they write alike, or even display stylistic resemblances distinctively feminine” (Moi, 2002: 49), which comes across when reading the two stories which are stylistically already very different. It might be so that a feminist reader of both times (there’s some 80 years difference between the two stories) did not only want to see her own experiences mirrored in fiction, but strived to identify with strong, impressive female characters (Moi, 2002: 46), and looked for role-models that would instil positive sense of feminine identity by portraying women as self-actualising strong identities who were not dependent on men (Moi, 2002, 46). The two stories bring out two female characters, very different by position and character; the other a new mother, scared and confused of her own role, and the other a young newly-wed girl, still a child, being fouled by a much older man, mainly as a mark of his authority over women in general.
She is only addressed as “Curley’s Wife” – her real name is never said. This has strong suggestions that women at this time were men’s possessions, as if they were used merely as objects, part of their property and didn’t have the same rights as they did – women are inferior. The phrase “I don’t know why I can’t talk to you. I ain’t doin’ no harm to you” could me shadowing how women are simply seen as either virgins or whores. Curley’s wife is portrayed as being a whore – but this is only due to the way she dresses, her provocative ways and the way she acts around men, as if she is aware of her femininity.
Throughout The Odyssey, written by Homer, the treatment of women plays a key role in the overall outcome of the story and is a central issue presented in this poem. In many scenarios it is evident that men are treated with superiority to women. During the era that this story was written, men played the dominant role. Society was organized, directed, and controlled by men, and it was accepted that women occupied a subservient and inferior position. Questia states, “Despite their vital role in Ancient Greek and Roman society, women were not considered full citizens and in most instances required a guardian – their fathers, and later husbands – to represent them” (“Women in Ancient Greece and Rome”).
However, not everyone agrees with the heavy stereotypes laid down by the social order such as male dominance and proper courting. Marie de France is one of these people. She depicts her views of gender expectations through literature. Within the poem Guigemar, Guigemar and his lady fulfill and contradict what would be considered as gender norms within society: female inferiority, traditional courtship, and male dominance. Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England.
ENGL 1101 1 June 2012 Discussion of “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” by Deborah Tannen In my opinion, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” author Deborah Tannen is trying to convey that men and women have different communication styles. She states “Most wives want their husbands to be, first and foremost, conversational partners, but few husbands share this expectation of their wives.” I agree with Tannen on this because I have often found myself saying those exact words “Why aren’t you listening to me?” to my fiancé. This is even a repeated discussion amongst my girlfriends who also seem to feel the same way in their relationships. In my relationship, whenever my fiancé and I are having a conversation I give him my undivided attention when he’s talking; however, when I’m talking it seems as if he’s has A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder).
There is a struggle for equality especially in the Islamic countries where women have no right to be equal citizens to men, where women still live under the direct control of their husband, their father, or their brother, where the Koran is often used by men in power to justify their treatment of women: “Tell the believing woman to lower her gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent and to draw their veils over their bosoms”. Marianne Lyles studied the issue of the woman in the Islamic world which she presented in her article entitled The Struggle for Equality: Islam and Its Effects on Women. She claimed: “In Islamic countries today, women are forced to wear clothes that cover their entire body, including their face. It is hypocritical the way women are treated in the Muslim world because Muhammad supported certain rights for women. He also put an end to female infanticide and slavery.
"Odour of Chrysanthemums" by D. H. Lawrence and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner are two stories that both depict struggling women in very male dominated worlds, yet these authors narrative approach differ. While in the story “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator depicts women very opposite from the way the narrator in “Odour of Chrysanthemums” illustrates the women in the story. Women are often marginalized and readers are poured with biased statements the narrator makes in “A Rose for Emily”, whereas in “Odour of Chrysanthemums” the women are given dialog and are seen as important. One constant that remains, is the differing feministic approach each narrator takes. In “A Rose for Emily” the narrator has an obvious bias against women.
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.