Storni, Alfonsina. "You Want Me White." The Norton Anthology of World Vol. F. Ed. Sarah Lawall and Mayard Mac. New York: Norton, 2002. 2124-2125

The poem titled "You Want Me White" written by Alfonsina Storni explores the issue of women mistreatment by men. The women complain how men expect them to be virgins when they (men ) are not.

Atwood, Margaret and Martin, Valerie.The Handmaid's Tale . Anchor.1998

In this book the author portrays how women are only valued for their fertility and they are allowed access to education in the patriarch society. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated by being regarded as sex symbols as well as not being allowed access to education.

Staves, Susan. Married Women's Separate Property Rights in England, 1660(1833. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1990.

This work is a recollection of the actual case studies and examples of various property settlements from several literary works. It analyzes the situation of women from the socialist, liberal, neo-Marxist as well as feminist perspectives by portraying that the ideology of the then dominant male supremacy was somehow blatantly preserved even while the legal status of women was changing. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated in regard to property ownership.

Stewart, Maaja A. Domestic Realities and Imperial Fictions: Jane Austen's Novels in Eighteenth-Century Contexts. Athens: U. Of Georgia P, 1993.

In this work, Stewart clearly indicates the connections that exist between imperialism and domestic life. Female domesticity is indicated to serve in counteracting as well as hiding the very aggressive nature of colonialism. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated in regard to being denied equal opportunities as men.

Straub, Kristina Sexual Suspects: Eighteenth-Century Players and Sexual Ideology. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992.

In this book just as Nancy Armstrong's Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel (1987, the author employs Foucault's theories in analysis of the eighteenth century sexual politics. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated in regard to being regarded as sex tools.

Sulloway, Alison G. Jane Austen and the Province of Womanhood. Philadelphia: U. Of Pennsylvania P, 1989.

This work performs an in-depth examination of the Austen's relationship to the then 'women issues'. Austen then employs a satiric perspective of a complete outsider in making a criticism of the existing patriarchal institutions. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated in regard to being treated harshly in the male dominated society.

Winter, Kari J. Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865. Athens: U. Of Georgia P, 1992.

This book analyzes the historical contexts within which slave narratives and female Gothic novels were composed. The writer indicates that both forms of writings were full of sexual politics which formed the very heart of the Women were given same status as slaves.

This work examines the slave narratives and gothic novels that were written by women only and discovers that sexual politics forms the center of the patriarchal culture. This work is important to the research since it shows how women were mistreated in regard to being treated harshly in the male dominated society by being exposed to slave like conditions/

Contents

The treatment of women

The treatment of women in Epic of Gilgamesh

The treatment of women in the Hamlet

The treatment of women in Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself

Treatment of women in Chinua Achebe's things fall a part

Works Cited

Abstract

In this work, explore the "Epic of Gilgamesh, "The Hamlet" by Shakespeare, "Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself," and "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe with a review...

A conclusion is also provided.
The treatment of women

In this section we explore how women were treated in the "Epic of Gilgamesh, "The Hamlet" by Shakespeare, "Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself," and "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe.

The treatment of women in Epic of Gilgamesh

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, women are basically treated as breeding stock for the Greek men. They are also viewed as agents of change as postulated by Winter in her epic work, Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865. The role of women is to ensure that the children get education and to take care of the entire home affairs. Their other role is to safeguard the economic base of the family. These they perform while the men are engaged in activities that are 'manly' like having sex with women and other men. The legal status of women as well as their rights under the Hammurabi law code was very clear-cut. There were however certain elements of the law that were seen to be unjust to the women. For instance, the law against rape. This law categorically stated that under any circumstance of rape, the injured party is always the man/father of the rape victim and not the victim (woman) herself. The legal status of the women was not quite protected (Strave 20)The woman (victim) was obligated to have attempted to resist the rape by shouting; struggling or otherwise she was to be guilty of adultery or fornication. The Hammurabi law punished severely punished cases of incest between a mother and son by death meted to both parties. But when a father committed incest with lets say his daughter, he only got banished. This was unfair and is expressed in Storni (18).

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the women were somehow viewed differently that they are viewed today. The story is therefore one of transformation of the main character via a relationship to the character Enkidu. The way that Gilgamesh is transformed is associated with the way that he treats women as well as how they are viewed. Enkidu gets changed from a wild woodsman to a person who is more civilized and even morally aware just via contact with a transformative woman. Therefore within this tale women are viewed as agents of change. Therefore women are used to symbolize a tool with which men gets linked with the mortal world. Gilgamesh is noted to be initially abusive against women but later on he comes to appreciate them.

Ninsun is portrayed as a wise woman who provides guidance. After going through Mashu, the twin mountains, Gilgamesh makes an encounter with Shiduri who was the tavern keeper. Since he was lost, he was forced to seek advice from her on the best way of reaching Uta-napishti.This just shows how women play an important role in the society by providing guidance and direction.

The treatment of women in the Hamlet

Hamlet is noted as one of the characters in Shakespeare's work who is surrounded with most controversy. He has a strong and yet complicated character. In order to get a picture of who it is, it is important to comprehend his frustrations as well pain that leads him to hate women with a passion. Hamlet views women as a weak lot. He also views them as untrustworthy and frail. The way Hamlet treats Ophelia, his woman lover is both cruel and unfair. We see that Hamlet took away Ophelia's virginity (innocence), then mistreated her before finally abandoning her. Ophelia also was a victim of trap which was set by Polonius her father and the king. This made Hamlet angry when he said to her "...God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another. (lll.l.150) He thinks that Ophelia is in complot with her father that she is pretending to be too ignorant to know what she is doing. ." Hamlet was cruel to womankind (Ophelia ) when he told him that he never loved her and by telling her that she should have gone to a nunnery as opposed to marrying her and polluting their children with her genes who he believed would end up as sinners. Hamlet also mistreats Gertrude. His mother's marriage to Claudius instead of remaining devoted to his father's memory makes him hate his mother as indicated in the phrase ." "O god a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer" (l.ll.150)." He some how believed that women are very weak .Hamlets speech at the nunnery shows his hatred for women He also uses women is his revenge plans. This work portrays women were mistreated in regard to being treated harshly in the male dominated society ()

The treatment of women in Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself

In the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, women are treated harshly and as slaves. In this work it is quite clear that women were treated in the same manner as slaves (Winter 104)

Treatment of women in Chinua Achebe's things fall a part

An initial glance at how women are treated in Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart indicates that the Igbo marriage scene is…