Medieval Woman Essays (Examples)

Women: Luther and the Medieval Roman Catholic Church

The medieval view of women and the woman's role was essentially informed by a centuries-long, Christian informed tradition, upheld by patriarchal society. Thus, that there should exist a vast discrepancy between the views of Luther and the views of the medieval Roman Catholic Church regarding women is to perhaps wish too much. Modern feminism may be, to some extent, found in the works of Chaucer, whose Wife of ath represents a departure from "acceptable" womanhood in the medieval world. ut even a century and a half later not much has changed on this front. Luther's animus towards the Catholic Church was mainly doctrine and practice-centered. Luther had a conception of the faith that differed and evolved significantly as the Protestant Reformation got underway. Nonetheless, there can be found teachings by both Luther and the Catholic Church that can be compared for a…

This gave her husband the right to sell any of her property and she was not in a position to object in any way. Religious women with their vows of obedience and poverty really had no reason to get involved in legal matters and were untouched in any way by the legal structure.

idows were the only women who held in legal position in the society. "She (a widow) regained her legal personality, was entitled to a certain share of her husband's holdings and, for the first time in her life, could make independent decisions." Legally, this was the best position for women. It was not without problems especially for wealthy women. These women were frequently intimidated into a second marriage or into relinquishing parts of their holdings. They had no legal recourse against this kind of intimidation in the same way that married women could not object to domestic…

omen

The specific attitude toward women in medieval times was that they were inferior to men. Generally, women were taught that they should be meek and obedient to their fathers and husbands. This view of women was consistent to women of mythology in many ways. Many of the myths and legends created were directed towards women, to teach them lessons in humility and obeisance. They explained the social laws and rules which women had to obey, despite their influence over their husbands.

Medieval women had major responsibilities and were not at all inferior to men in terms of daily effort. Most worked and did not stay at home. Many toiled alongside their families in the fields, and some were employed in workshops or were trades-women. omen sometimes had the responsibility of running large estates, due to the death of a husband. They settled local disputes and arranged estate finances. They…

Northern and Southern California

Gender and the Middle Ages

Legend, Faith, and Historical Reality

'woman,' as was understood by a resident of Europe during the Middle Ages, was either the mother of Jesus or the physical embodiment of Eve's sin. In the rhetorical discourse of courtly love, women functioned either as representations of desire or objects of adoration for men to save. They could inspire heroic deeds in the hearts of knights yet in the Christian discourse of the lives of the saints and miracles, women functioned as representations of what was worldly, fleshy and desirable in a negative fashion. Thus, to eschew the feminine in the religious discourse of the period was evidence of saintliness, as seen through the eyes of saintly hagiographers.

omen thus occupied an ideologically precarious position within the context of Medieval Europe. They were symbolically central. They were not socially marginal as a group, as…

Women in Monasticism

Famous women in monasticism

In monasticism, the participation of women started very early and apart from the hermits who lived in the desert, there were women in ome who were living like in a monastic manner. One of the first such instances was Paula who founded with Jerome a double monastery in Bethlehem, as also Macrina in Cappadocia at nearly the same time. Even in recorded history, there are the records from Palladius from the 5th century saying that in the desert he encountered women in monastic lives. He had met a convent of 400 women led by a remarkable individual, Amma Talis which had been going on for 80 years. His records clearly state the freedom that these women seemed to have as also their generous hospitality. Another famous personality, Pachomius, who has founded the cenobitic monastery, had written down rules in the 3rd century BC,…

This is furthered by the fact that the daughter closest to the infant, who perches on her mother's lap, holds that baby's hand, implying an ascent to motherhood. Behind the family, the picture window showing grand gardens and mansion details implies wealth. Indeed, the smooth texture and use of dark colors further suggests royalty. hile both Drurer's and van Ceulen's portraits use light and dark and positioning as symbols, then, Druer's work is focused on the Bibles -- spirituality -- while van Ceulen's painting is quite clearly focused on the earth -- economics, royalty, inheritance, and family.

The symbolism contained in these paintings is extremely relevant to another symbolic work out of the late Renaissance, Lanyer's "Eve's Apology in Defense of omen." In this work, Lanyer argues that women should not be held wholly responsible for Adam's actions in the Garden of Eden -- where women were rumored to have…

Medieval Cultural Exchange

Contrasting Medieval eligious Expression:

An analysis across Christian and Islamic Civilization

In Chapters 7, 8 and 9 of John McKay's A History of World Societies, the similarities and differences of medieval Christian and Islamic civilization across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are detailed as the rise and fall of political and religious actors are presented. One fascinating subject that stands out from such a tremendous amount of material and which returns the student of history to the human scale is how the two civilizations influenced each other in developing new perspectives on religious expression through art, ranging from architecture to calligraphy to even everyday objects such as religious clothing. An understanding of how these two civilizations influenced one another contributes to a more complete understanding of the broader issues of politics, religion and geopolitical competition that defined this historical epoch.

One of the most prominent areas…

Conservative Jews use a different prayer book and have somewhat shorter services. Some of the prayers are in English, while in the Orthodox synagogue the entire service is in Hebrew.

Reform Jews take a radical approach and declare that revelation is not central to belief and that even the commandments in the Torah can be discarded if they conflict with the demands of modern living. Reformed Jews agree that God may have revealed Himself to Moses, but they deny that God revealed the Torah as an eternal covenant with His people.

In America, the different Jewish sects have taken a different approach to maintaining their specific community and have shaped their different synagogues to reflect differences in belief. Reform and Conservative synagogues have no separate section for men and women, who sit together during the services. In Orthodox practice, separation of the sexes is an absolute law. The reason given…

Women in Chaucer and Shakespeare

What is a female reader supposed to get from reading a poem or watching a play written by male authors? If the topic is classical, the chances are that it is intended as a sort of model for conduct, a form of etiquette instruction in the guise of a worthy lesson from the traditional classical education -- and therefore obliged to reflect contemporary moral standards to which women were expected to adhere. I propose to compare the treatment of women in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida -- specifically in Act III Scene 1, the moment when Pandarus finally manages to effect a meeting between the lovers of the title -- with that much earlier in Chaucer's ook of the Duchess, with specific reference lines 1052-1087. I think we can see a shift from the medieval to the modern mindset in such a comparison: specifically to watch…

Cecilia Penifader

Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader

The extent gender and class played in Cecilia's life experiences

Looking at the life of other peasants, Cecilia was from a wealthy family. They had a large house constructed from twigs, moss and mud covering approximately 150 sq. Cecilia came from a one-roomed family house, with a fireplace at the center for cooking and warmth. Cecilia spent much of her life as a child in the garden surrounding their house, where she played and helped with caring for her younger sibling (Agnes), cooking, and gardening. Cecilia's home was surrounded with a diverse and large community. Cecilia came from a village whereby people lived close to one another and sometimes shared a wall. Most trade and businesses took place in the villages while critical economic activities occurred in the countryside. The economy of this village looks upon arable fields and pastures, arable fields comprise of…

Women's choice lead a celebate life, remain a virgin, a rejection societal expectations? A conclusion drawn thesis question. I attaching suggested books citation. Essay 12 pages length counting citations bibliography.

Was a Women's choice to lead a celibate life or remain a virgin a rejection of societal expectations?

The role of women in the society has been widely debated throughout the history of both philosophical thought and social sciences. Women have a particular place in society since ancient times and there are clear indications, in the religious literature, that women have had specific views and opinions regarding their own place in the society. In this context, the current research discusses the choice of women to lead a celibate life or keep herself a virgin and whether this choice was a reaction to societal expectations and social pressures. The perspective of the research analysis is focused on Christian traditions from the…

The second statute which serves to maintain the economic and political domination of women is the rule stating that women may not "dare or presume to take for spinning more than one ball of wool at one time," because this prevents any attempt on the part of female workers to stockpile or otherwise accumulate enough wool to sell or use it outside the established, guild-monitored economy ("Statutes of a wool guild," 1384, 106). Although this statute may have decreased the overall efficiency of the wool-spinning process by requiring women to go get a new ball of wool every time they finish, it also served to protect the guild from rebellion or discontent, because allowing women greater control over the process "might give rise to a strong organization of skilled craftsmen who would be much more difficult to control than" individual women, spinning one ball of wool at a time out…

The gatehouse at Harlech contained spacious chambers or halls, with fireplaces and latrines. There is little doubt that the guardhouse was home to the constable of the castle. Master James of St. George, the Harlech's builder, was himself appointed constable of his creation (Williams 2007, p. 7). The gatehouse was also occupied, in this period, by Sir John de Bonvillars, Deputy Justiciar of North Wales. The larger rooms on each level were fitted with tall windows. The most favored rooms faced the courtyard, the chimneys of their fireplaces making an additional architectural arrangement on the roof of the gatehouse (Williams 2007, p. 21). The view from Harlech is particularly impressive. The sea and the mountains of Snowdonia provide a majestic backdrop to the royal castle. It has even been suggested at oscommon that the castle's original location beside a lake and in the middle of an expansive field may have…

Medieval Philosophy

In the introduction to the Greenwood series the Great Cultural Eras of the Western World, A.D. 500 to 1300, is described as the Middle Ages.

"Borders and peoples were never quiescent during these tumultuous times." Schulman (2002). Germanic tribes had invaded and settled in the former oman Empire, and the synthesis of three cultures -- the classical, Christian, and Germanic -- had begun. In the sixth century, Clovis had completed the Frankish conquest of Gaul; the Vandals controlled North Africa; the Visigoths, forced to retreat from southern Gaul by the Franks, continued to dominate Spain; and the Angles and Saxons had settled in Britain. At the same time, the emperors of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople, thrived. " ... The oman papacy began to play an independent role in European society." Schulman, (2002) says "Pepin needed papal support to become king. Schulman, (2002, p. viii) It is later commented…

A Greek man's male friends served this purpose.

Ancient Rome followed the patterns in male-female roles as set by the Greeks for most of their history. Like the Greeks, love was generally not an element of most male/female relationships and prostitution was a major industry. For the Romans, the natural order of things was that men were better suited to labor outside the home while women were considered better equipped for handling matters within the home. Unlike Greek women, however, who were relegated to operating in the background even with the home, Roman women were afforded a much larger role in the home but were still not allowed to participate in affairs that occurred in public. In both Greek society and Roman society it must be remembered that they were societies in which under-population was a concern and not over-population as it is today. As a result, the primary function…

After the Norman Conquest, however, women did not own any property after marriage, which made it more common for women to be given away to the richest, not the best husbands, as their families would keep their gifts.

Also, in contrast to the Norman ideal that a new bride became part of her husband's household and fell solely under his control, an Anglo-Saxon woman remained under the protection of her kin even after marriage if she was wronged, and women and men could both begin divorce proceedings. During the Norman era, women had no property rights after they were married, and everything they owned passed into their husband's authority, as did any independence they had previously enjoyed as legal persons. This was confirmed in ecclesiastical doctrine as well as the law of the land, giving a moral authority to the subjugation of women. Even the language referring to people changed…

Masturbation in Medieval Times

The history of human masturbation extends back into prehistory. Evidence of this can be seen on Prehistoric petroglyphs and rock paintings in areas throughout the world. "A clay figurine of the 4th millennium efore Current Era [i.e., .C.], from a temple site called Hagar Qim on the island of Malta, depicts a woman masturbating. However, in the ancient world depictions of male masturbation are far more common."(McFarland .) For example, from the inventors of the first written Western language, the Sumerians, we find references " ... To the Mesopotamian god Enki masturbating, his ejaculation filling the Tigris River with flowing water." (McFarland .) Until the middle ages sexual activity was generally seen as natural and a normal part of healthy human development.

The attitudes towards sex and masturbation during medieval times were determined by the Catholic Church, particularly under Pope Gregory IX in the 13th Century.…

Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in the century before Geoffrey Chaucer undertook a similar project in Britain, with both The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales involving a number of stories told by members of the group, with the group in each case gathered with a common purpose, and with the stories connected by links which describe the actions of the company (Root 1). Chaucer also took some of the stories for his travelers from versions told by Boccaccio. The two writers come from similar literary traditions, and they also tended to treat women in much the same way. For Boccaccio, social traditions and his own individual view of social conventions interact to cause him to tell his stories in the manner he chooses.

One of the dominant views of the time was of courtly love. The essence of courtly love is detailed in the twelfth-century work by Andreas Capellanus,…

Grave Goods of the Avars in Medieval Carpathian asin

The objective of this study is to examine the burial styles and grave goods of the Avars. This includes such as buried livestock and artifacts. As well the variability in the relationship between different several sites from this similar time period, and some specific burial sites of interest will be examined as well as the various traditions relating to positioning of bodies and preparation of the dead along with any possible meanings. Examined as well will be construction of the tombs and any other grave goods of interest. From this data this study will attempt to determine the traditions, individual wealth and the position of that culture and to determine what the traditions were of this culture as well as how they developed and changed over time. The difference in tribes or clans and other influences from that time period will…

Jealous Woman in Asian Literature and Theater

Muromachi Noh Theater and Aoi no Ue

Steven T. Brown's Theatricalities of Power: The Cultural Politics of Noh adopts a 'new historicist' approach to the study of Noh Theater. In contrast to the dominant tendencies of western scholars, Brown is not interested in "reducing Noh to its theatrical conventions nor abstracting its style and poetics from its performance materiality" (1). Rather he concentrates on Noh as an example of a "micropolitics of culture" (3), which, according to him, is a type of politics grounded in "power relations and effects associated with figurations of authority, gender, subjectivity, naming and patronage" (3).

Brown's primary intention in the Theatricalities of Power is to trace the historical process whereby Noh became institutionalized as the official art form of Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867). Although Brown narrates the history of this institutionalization by highlighting specific historical events…

Power of the Medieval Church

There is little doubt that the Church was one of the most powerful institutions in Medieval Europe. Many factors contributed to its remarkable success. Among these was the importance of religion in the everyday lives of people of all classes and backgrounds. It is not by accident that the Middle Ages is sometimes known as "The Age of Faith." In a world that had not yet discovered scientific explanations for the travails that beset humankind, religion offered answers and also hope. The monasteries that dotted the map of Europe provided safe havens in the violent storm that was the essence of Medieval life for so many. Within their sheltering walls, there existed a different, more peaceful, more promising modus vivendi. Here, man was free from the constant wars, and the sudden destructions that too often befell the men and women of that period. On another…

"In modern terms, we would argue about whether universals are objectively real or only social constructs."

The idea that experiential faith is more valid than a rational, deductive proof of God's existence has come to more prominence in modern thought, given that science has largely subsumed the disciplines of mathematics and the use of mathematical 'proofs' about the divine favored by theologians in the middle ages like Aquinas. But within the social sciences, the debate about what is objectively knowable rages on. Postmodernists, for examples, suggest that there are no universal categories of knowledge or gender, what constitutes 'great literature' is subjective, and the idea that estern literature has 'classics' is usually defended in a tautological manner: Shakespeare is great, we should read great literature, therefore we should read Shakespeare. Postmodernists also point to the subjective nature of the category of gender in a cross-cultural fashion.

In politics as well,…

He was a second round draft pick, but he just couldn't seem to connect with the Falcons. However, he never gave up on his dream to be a number one quarterback in the league. His fan web site notes, "You know the lyrics to the song 'I get knocked down, but I get up again - you're never gonna keep me down!'? Brett might not either, but he sure lives by those words" (Editors). In 1992, the Green Bay Packers traded a number one draft pick to take Favre, a move that many thought was totally crazy. However, in his first game, he went in for the injured first-string quarterback, and ended up leading the team to a nail-biting victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-23. In that same year, he became the youngest quarterback ever to play in the Pro-Bowl (23). He took over the head quarterback position after the…

By the late thirteenth century he had his own seal. The various officials concerned with the holy infirmary, the infirmary for sick brothers and almsgiving were under his authority. From 1340, the hospitaller was a brother from the tongue of France."(Nicholson, 77) Thus, the knights were mainly warriors who nevertheless had numerous other attributions, such as being actively engaged in charity actions and other social services. Percival's quest for the Holy Grail exemplifies the sublime missions assigned to the most virtuous of knights.

Thus, knighthood can be identified as an important cell in the Middle Ages, with a complex ideology of its own but also with a determinate role in society.

orks Cited

Harper-Bill, Christopher ed. And Ruth Harvey ed. Medieval Knighthood IV: Papers from the Fifth Strawberry Hill Conference 1990. oodbridge: Boydell, 1992

Kaeuper, Richard . Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Nicholson,…

Today my father and I did go to a funeral of an old woman. But it was not a sad day, for she was old and the death was expected. Together we passed over the ford, the in-between place where the dead and living meet, a place that is neither wet nor dry, and we held a flask from the water of a ford in our hands. Oh, although it is only the dead that live in between, I at fifteen, neither girl nor women feel that I stand upon such a ford myself, unsure of where I am about to go, to either heaven or hell -- should I become a nun, a wife, or flee this life entirely and go to live amongst the fairy people. I intend to have fun, regardless, while I still can!

A must confess I cast my dream-fate not to be amongst that…

Mysticism and Spirituality Comparison of Two omen: Catherine of Sienna and Julian of Norwich

Spirituality and Mysticism

The relationship between mysticism and spiritualism is one question that often arises in the modern study on the concept of spirituality. In large terms, most modern estern techniques often treat mysticism and spirituality like synonyms. Spirituality means the exploration of the depth of human existence, the main purpose of life and the search for a more in-depth wisdom. Summarily, it is easier to understand spirituality when it is treated as the larger concept. Mysticism is only an aspect of Christian spirituality- a way of intensifying the spiritual path of Christianity. It is quite necessary to note that the significant role of mysticism and spirituality is quite ambiguous. Most Christian traditions like the estern Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox value most of these aspects greatly (Sheldrake 8-9).

Catherine of Sienna

Devotional Practices

Catherine, who…

The Representation of Muslim Women in Eastern and Western Literature: A Comparison

Representations of women in Middle Eastern literature represent a means by which the appreciation, perspective and overall role of women and how they are viewed by society can be determined. While some argue that literature and actually lived daily life are separate, literature serves as a measuring stick by which one can ascertain a definitive viewpoint on what the experience of being a Muslim woman is, and how such women are viewed. Literature can tell one volumes about how societies work and underscore the role that women play or don’t play and how others see them. While both eastern and western literature is incredibly vast, it is possible to get a definitive sense of how Muslim women are viewed; however, it is possible to get an overall sense of certain trends that arise over and over. This paper…

Religious Criticism and Idealization of Women in Giovanni occaccio's "Decameron"

In the world of medieval literature, Giovanni occaccio is renowned for his timeless contributions in the form of "Decameron," also translated as "Ten Day's Work." This literary piece by occaccio chronicles the short stories and narratives of ten (10) people who sought refuge from the city that is being affected with lack Plague, a disease that left Europe's developing human civilization to ruin and destruction. "Decameron" is created to provide people with a venue for discussion of the social ills that "plague" the 13th and 14th century society of Europe, particularly occaccio's homeland, Italy. These social ills are parallel to the disease that is ravaging Europe's cities during the lack Plague, and occaccio uses this event to discuss and criticize the dysfunctions that he found to exist in his society. Thus, with this in mind, Giovanni occaccio set out to…

Butler, Sara M. (Sara Margaret). "Runaway Wives: Husband Desertion in Medieval England."Journal of Social History 40.2 (2006): 337-59. Print.

During medieval times, women accepted their way of life. The husband in the relationship was the one that provided women with the financial support and the social status backing to succeed in their life. However, this article gives a glimpse into the hopelessness that some women felt in their marriages. Because women who did not follow the biblical definition of a marriage could in no possible way succeed on their own financially, very few women actually left their marriages. Some women did leave however. This paper examined the ways that women left, the repercussions that leaving brought to them, and what the risks involved in leaving in the first place entailed. Women who left their husbands due to a poor relationship were not respected. Because of the gender dynamics that existed,…

St. Christina, "without hesitation" answered she "wanted to return under the conditions which were proposed to me."

St. Christina's physical suffering will cure the spirits of the suffering sinners, and thus her suffering is a gift and a blessing, not something to be rejected in her cultural terms, although in our own conception of mental health, to actively seek out illness and self-harm is pathological. The fact that St. Christina can endure crawling into fiery ovens and remain unharmed is evidence that God is with her, and her physical endurance in the face of cold and other sensations people might call bodily misery is testimony to her lightness of spirit.

The life of St. Catherine of Siena, who practiced physical austerities upon herself, perhaps most explicitly challenges modern conceptions of illness. St. Catherine denied herself sustenance in a way that might be diagnosed as anorexia nervosa, or active self-harm. The…

Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande?

Natalie Zemon Davis's The Return of Martin Guerre chronicles the strange, true-life story of a medieval woman named Bertrande who was left abandoned by her husband Martin Guerre for many years, only to live with him once again when 'he' returned -- in the form of an imposter. For many years Bertrande lived with the false Martin Guerre, until the actual Guerre returned to reclaim his wife and household. The question has lingered on: how could Bertrande have been so deceived? Davis has a very simple answer: she was not. In proving her thesis, Davis takes the reader on a tour of medieval French peasant life, with a specific focus on the role of women. "The male-dominated society put a premium on 'the woman's ability to get her way with the men and to calculate her advantages'" and Davis, contrary to the conventional reading…

Women identified their hrist Jesus who was food during mass as the redemption of humanity. The women believed reaching spirituality was through food, since naturally they were food from their ability to breastfeed. The Medieval women associated the breast as seen in Holy mother, Mary's own breastfeeding as a Eucharistic feeding of the soul.

The painting also indicates that to the Female saints of the Middle Ages, prayer was an important element in their connection to God. In the "The life and Miracles of Saint Godelieve," Godelieve makes prayer requests and offerings of food to God, that are answered by angels who bring delicacies for the poor.

Annotated Bibliography

Amy Hollywood. "Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (Religion and Postmodernism)," University of hicago Press, (2002).

This article carries out an analysis of anthropological studies of the medieval times, and looks into the connection of the body,…

Treasure of Montsegur

The novel The Treasure of Montsegur by Sophy Burnam (Harper/San Francisco, 2003), set in France in the year 1252, uses as its setting and historical backdrop the atmosphere of southern France during the 13th Roman Catholic Crusade led by Pope Innocent III, against a Christian sect of southern France, the Cathars. A Cathar woman, Jeanne of Beziers, is the main character. Historically speaking, Catharism:

was a religious movement with Gnostic elements that originated around the middle of the 10th century, branded by the contemporary Roman Catholic

Church as heretical. It existed throughout much of estern Europe, but its home was in Languedoc and surrounding areas in southern France.

("Cathar")

According to ikipedia, not much is known about daily lives of the medieval Catharists, or about their specific religious or moral practices. However, "hat is certain is that they formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Catholic…

These 'girls' are openly and immediately obvious as famous successful women from various times of human history and places through the past 1200 years. In their interactions with the characters of the present, women such as Pope Joan and Lady Nijo teach the contemporary family featured in the play about the various implications their lives hold for contemporary women. The education is not covert as in "Arcadia," but overtly didactic and feminist in nature.

Although it moves as two rather than one linear narratives, however, Stoppard's tale of past and present parallels still has a narrative force. One of the most interesting ways in which Stoppard deploys time in his play to move the narrative forward, is when, for example, the academic Bernard advances the theory that Lord Byron was a murderer. The viewer first realizes this is unlikely by observing the past, and later the present day academic Hannah…

Clare of Assisi

Saint Clare of Assisi was not a feminist in the modern sense, but then again no such ideas existed at all in the 13th Century. By all accounts, though, she was a formidable and powerful woman who was the first in history to found a religious order. In the society in which she was born, women were politically, socially and economically powerless, and quite literally the property of their fathers and husbands. This was a feudal, authoritarian and patriarchal society, and even aristocratic women like Clare and her friend St. Agnes of Prague were forced into arranged marriages by their fathers. Indeed, both Clare and Agnes defied their fathers when they insisted on entering religious life as followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and Clare's family disowned her. She was not a political rebel or revolutionary, but she did have a utopian vision of society that was…

Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer

Chaucer appears to create the Wife of Bath shine intentionally from the rest of the characters in the novel; she has been possibly one of his most controversial figures since her contradictions as to what she states and just what she does. The writer's formation of her character offers one significant objective which has been to surprise his readers. Chaucer chooses to consider each and every bad attribute that ladies were thought to have in those times and also the outcome has been Alisoun. This kind of vivacity and boldness had been seldom observed in female fictional figures of that era (Oberembt 287).

The Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales had been written towards the end of the Fourteenth century, however it was left incomplete. It has been setup as numerous stories within one story. The primary frame has been a travelling crowd…

Obstacle omen Face in Pursuit of Equality

hen it comes to overcoming obstacles, two essays, "Ain't I a oman" and "atching Oprah infrey" from Behind the Veil," clearly show that women are encountering hindrances in chase of impartiality all over the world. However, although both essays touch on the same type of injustice which is gender inequality, they each have different themes. For instance, one delves into a country where the sexes are thoroughly kept apart from each other, where topics like sex and race are just about banned for even discussing them openly and where a severe enigma of public morality is imposed by police that are religious. However, the other touches on a period that goes back over a hundred of years where women of color were treated as cattle. Basically bought and sold by a society ran by men. Although these essays are worlds apart, they are…

This seems rather likely as well given that the women in question often stood to inherit or gain from an economic standpoint and therefore became threats to the male-dominated society. If the orderly transfer of property and wealth from father to son was threatened by a female, the men in the society could use witchcraft accusations against the woman who would otherwise threaten the male-dominated chain of inheritance. Many other examples of Puritan customs and mores are cited as well by Karlsen as sources of contention between the sexes as well as the accused and the accusers. It is little wonder why so many women, willing to question the cultural and social structures in a very benign way, were made to feel the wrath of the Puritan male power structure.

From an academic standpoint, Karlsen's work is quite seminal in helping to prove that there is still much room for…

This sudden tragedy occurs, no less, just as Ophelia is to happily crown the hanging boughs of the tree, which symbolically represents the happy instance that must have occurred just prior to the play's opening -- Hamlet's engagement to Ophelia. As on the bank of the brook, so too with Hamlet -- an "envious sliver broke"; the "rash" and "intruding" Polonius interjected himself and denied Ophelia what her nature so plainly made her for: to love. He teaches her, rather, to doubt and to suspect. Ophelia falls victim to the plague of Elsinore, which may be stated as the conflict between truth and falsehood.

The Man's Nature

Hamlet engages in this conflict in an altogether different manner, however. If Ophelia and Gertrude approach it from the direction of love, Hamlet approaches it from the direction of reason. Gertrude and Ophelia intuit; Hamlet rationalizes. Ophelia, for example, appreciates Hamlet's predicament immediately…

Despite is probable Austrian origins in the more modern era, this piece reflects the oman style of capturing figures in statue form. Made from Ivory, it shows St. Sebastian in withering pain after he has been injured. The St. was martyred early on in Christian history, and this scene portrays his last dying breaths, being held up by a companion.

Both works present images of great warriors and figures in heir last few moments of life after being injured. Thus, it captures the true character of the figures in question by portraying them at their moment of ultimate weakness. Each figure is too weak to stand alone, and is being propped up by another object or person, which shows the true extent of their injuries. Additionally, the statues are similar in style, on being from the oman period, and the other being from the Medieval period trying to replicate the…

Neither lust, nor greed, nor vanity, is necessary to account for betrayal: it is the simple and inevitable reflex of the changeability that is the very life of human beings."(Mann, 19)

Thus, the discourse of the ife of Bath should be seen rather in this light, than as an antifeminist one. In fact, her prologue is to be read rather like a purposeful unmasking of the many antifeminist stereotypes circulated in that epoch. As Jill Mann has noted, the fact that the ife of Bath recounts all the things that her husbands have told her, the specific nagging that takes place between men and women:

That is, she [the ife of Bath] does not live in the insulated laboratory world of literature, where she is no more than a literary object, unconscious of the interpretations foisted upon her; she is conceived as a woman who lives in the real world,…

Italy is a cultural hub of gender identity where issues of feminism and masculinism have been deeply entrenched for many years. For centuries Italy has been considered a more masculine country, though the majority of work documented related to masculinism actually is sparse. Issues of feminism and masculinity has surfaced in the workplace, where naturally access to issues such as equal employment and technology have surfaced. Gender inequality issues in Italy have in fact created a basis for the continuance of a feminism-masculinism dichotomy.

Masculinism has been defined as "the property by which humans of the male sex are defined as manly" (Noumenal, 2004). Alternatively, Simone de Beauvoir described femininity as "neither a natural nor an innate entity, but rather a condition brought about by society." This statement is more true than any other, as evidenced by gender inequality differences largely the result of the paternalistic nature of the culture…

Contrary to the common image of the 'damsel in distress' women often play a very active role in medieval literature. In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," the Wife tells the story of a crafty old witch who manages to break a spell that forces the sorceress to appear ugly during the day. The moral of the "Wife of Bath's Tale" is that men should show deference to their wives, and not merely strive to rule the roost alone. Even "The Miller's Tale" shows a woman happily engaging in lustful adultery, and demanding sexual satisfaction in her marriage.

In the Decameron, women are less apt to take central roles in the narratives than in "The Canterbury Tales," although they feature prominently as storytellers. When women do appear in the Decameron, women are either innocents who are seduced, as in the case of story I.4, or they act to curtail male passion…

Rousseau implied that this proved the point that women ought to serve their husbands and children, and that they had no need to be educated as a man. Wollenscraft used the fact that women must bear children as evidence that they must be educated, because as they age they will need consolations of the mind to keep them satisfied as their motherhood and old age draws them away from the sensual pleasures of youth. A good mother and grandmother, she would suggest, will not be a Roussean heroine constantly hoping to passively seduce men and defining her life accordingly.

Unlike Rousseau or those scholars which based their opinion on old bones, the feminist thinkers of the Enlightenment based the core of their arguments regarding women on the same arguments which male philosophers of the era used to support universal (white) male suffrage and democratic proceedings. During this era, philosophers (including…

Feminist Art as Evolution Rather Than as a Movement

Feminist art as a named movement evolved in the context of the late 1960's early 1970's political climate. The movement contextually cannot be separated from larger civil rights movements and specifically those relating to women; like the sexual revolution, the women's liberation movement, and the formation and growth of groups like the National Organization for omen. Strictly speaking there can be no real separation of the feminist art movement from the civil rights movements in its context because so much of art of the era acted as the voice and vision of the messages of the movements as a whole. Though there are of coarse exceptions to this rule art as a whole during this period was a demonstrative agent for social change.

In this analysis of both feminist art and its contextual school of thought, during the civil rights era…

Standardization of "Ban the Burqa"

The wearing of burqas should be prohibited in Australia.

The liberal perspective on burqas is invalid.

The liberal perspective on burqas is that they merely represent a cultural difference or represent a repression of women that Australians should "gently" discourage.

Australia is a good country because of its freedom, which should be exercised to terminate the freedom of muslims from wearing burqas.

Burqas are synonymous with criminality.

Burqas conceal identities to allow criminality.

One shop owner was robbed by a burqa-wearing criminal whom it is impossible to catch because of his clothes, so the clothes are insidious.

Burqas represent female oppression.

There is equality for women in Australia, so burqas must be prohibited to maintain that equality.

The argument that wearing burqas is simply an aspect of cultural diversity is wrong.

Australian immigrants should embrace Australia's culture.

Wearing burqas (and engaging in native cultural practices)…

medieval romance has inspired literature for generations. The magic of the Arthurian romance can be traced to Celtic origins, which adds to it appeal when we look at it through the prism of post-medieval literature. The revival of the medieval romance can be viewed as an opposition against modern and intellectual movement that became vogue in modern Europe. These romances often emphasized the human emotions rather than the human intellect and a return to more classical traditions. Poets and writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did not want to feel the oppression from the constraints of their time. Instead, they looked beyond the intellectual to a more mystical and emotional realm. They wanted to achieve another level in their writing -- one that allowed them to stretch their imaginations and their knowledge. The medieval aspects that we find in literature from this era accentuates a different type of thinking…

in "Piaf," Pam Gems provides a view into the life of the great French singer and arguably the greatest singer of her generation -- Edith Piaf. (Fildier and Primack, 1981), the slices that the playwright provides, more than adequately trace her life. Edith was born a waif on the streets of Paris (literally under a lamp-post). Abandoned by her parents -- a drunken street singer for a mother and a circus acrobat father -- Edith learns to fend for herself from the very beginning. As a natural consequence of her surroundings, she makes the acquaintance of several ne'er do wells. She rises above the lifestyles of the girls she grows up with who prostitute themselves for a living in the hope that they will eventually meet a benefactor with whom they can settle. Edith has a talent for singing and she indulges this interest by singing loudly in the streets.…

witchcraft trials of Salem, and those that occurred on the other side of the Atlantic as well, have long been framed and understood as misogyny made visible in law. On that level, Karlen's The Devil in the Shape of a oman adds little to scholarly analysis on the subject. However, Karlen's research presents evidence related to core Puritan beliefs that predicated the witchcraft trials, and discusses some of the economic and demographic contexts within which the trials occurred. The book relies heavily on primary source evidence, but the author's biases and points-of-view are also plainly evident throughout the text. Karlsen does accomplish the primary goal of elucidating the intersections between gender, class, and social power. In so doing, the author substantiates related research on the subject.

Fundamental to an understanding of the witchcraft trials that took place in the 17th century is an understanding of how, why, and when they…

Courtly Love -- the French Ethos Embodied in the Romantic Lancelot, and the English Ethos Embodied in the Dutiful Gawain

In many ways, the courtly love narratives of medieval chivalric romance were equally as formulaic as Hollywood romances today. The typical Hollywood romance is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, while the typical courtly love scenario might be defined along the lines of knight pines for (married) lady, married lady pines for knight, knight does great deeds in the name of the unattainable lady, and both come to tragic ends. The French chivalric romance adopted many of the characters and conventions of the English tales of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, such as the thwarted love for the greatest and most loyal knight Lancelot for Arthur's queen Guinevere. But when the French chivalric genre, as exemplified Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot, "Knight of the Cart"…

Marie De France

Courtly Love, Holy Love: Lovers in a hostile world of oppressive marriages and social conventions use love as escape from oppressive material world and a way of accessing the divine in the secular sphere of feudal obligation and sexuality

According to the essay upon the "Rules of Courtly Love," an introduction to one of the Lais of Marie De France, the concept of courtly love often revolves around the image of an idealized image of a pure, untouchable young woman, usually married out of social obligation to an older lord, whom is idolized from afar by a younger, poorer, or less socially desirable man. The relationship between the married woman and the unmarried man is supposed to parallel the distanced yet intimate sensibility that exists between a human being and the divine, or more specifically within the medieval, Christian concept, between a Christian believer and the Virgin…

olf did not choose this word arbitrarily. She is well aware of it portents and the fact that it is loaded with meaning for women, albeit unconsciously for many. It is guilt she is attempting to highlight for them, and guilt that she attempting to free them from by pointing out that its source is both external and patriarchal. Ironically, she adds yet another layer of guilt whilst doing so - Are you doing enough to be free of the patriarchal clutches? Have you realised that the world is yours for the taking? The sleight-of-hand of her prose is as illuminating as it is frustrating; olf wants women to free themselves from media-inspired guilt by loading themselves down with the guilt of not reacting enough against what she claims are aggressors and inhibitors of strength, peace and health. That she was successful in this endeavour is self-evident; the book's sales…

human nature that people like to categorize and have thinks set clearly to them in 'black and white'. People have always liked to think in terms of dualisms: there is the Cartesian 'body and soul' and 'paradise and hell', and "good and evil' amongst so many other dualisms. Either one category or the other exists. Belonging to that same schematic order of pattern is 'man and woman'. Shades of grey such as sexless individuals perplex and disturb people. They are bound to react with intolerance when faced with these exceptions. Nonetheless, differences of sex are not so clear. This essay is an elaboration on just that, showing that the popular view that there are only two genders in a dichotomous relationship need not necessarily be so. Gender and biological differences of gender are not so clear.

As part of our evolutionary background, people tend to categorize and think in terms…

Grant Proposal for Women's Wellness Center

This proposal is for a grant of $125,000 for the operation of an inner-city Women's Center. These funds will be used for staffing and operating the center and for supplying guidance, informative literature, and assistance to women seeking an alternative to abortion.

Women's Wellness Center and History

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data regarding the number of abortions performed three years prior in 2008. Considering that an epidemic is defined as a "widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time," or in meningococcal terms, a rate of attack that is more than 15 cases for every 100,000 people (Green, Swartz, Mayshar, Lev, Levanthal, Slater, Shemer, 2002), it may be appropriate to state that abortion in America has reached beyond epidemic proportions. In 2008 alone, CDC reports that 825,564 abortions were performed, at a…

DEFENDING a OMEN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE ABORTION

Abortion, or the elective termination of pregnancy likely predates recorded human history, being practiced within virtually every society throughout the world.(6)

In 1973, the United States Supreme Court very specifically decided that the United

States Constitution affords a fundamental right to individual privacy that absolutely prohibits governmental interference with a women's autonomous right to seek medical termination of unwanted pregnancy, except where deemed necessary to safeguard the woman's health paternalistically.(4) Ever since the legal issue was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973, a so-called pro-life lobby, spearheaded by religious opposition to any type of abortion has campaigned for and funded the proposition of legislation and policies designed to undermine the rights recognized and established under constitutional law in the United States.

Ultimately, the United States Constitution requires that the appropriate guidelines for defining legally permissible abortion rights and relative concern for the…

Courtly love is usually defined solely in terms of the image of a noble knight pining for a woman he cannot have, because she is married or betrothed to another. Later writers such as Dante, Cervantes, and Milton often viewed this construct of courtly love as absurd or funny. Dante in particular saw courtly love as an inferior reflection of the love a man was supposed to feel for God. In the Italian poet's own affection for Beatrice, a woman he fell in love from afar, he felt that his love for this woman acts was a kind of conduit to higher spiritual truth and feelings for the divine. Likewise, courtly love's use of an earthly woman was the parallel for an mediating holy figure such as Mary who acted as an intermediary between God and humanity -- for Cervantes, it did not matter what the woman was 'really' like…

Golden Era of Islam/Medieval Islam -- the headscarf and other forms of hijab reflect the local cultures and ethnicities and their indigenous traditions vis-a-vis a head covering. As a result, there are many different manifestations of the headscarf throughout the Muslim world, which expanded greatly during this time.

1990s -- following a victory by the secular government, the headscarf is banned from college campuses, revealing a significant rift in Turkish society that reflected socio-economic class as well as religiosity (Tavernise, 2008)

2000s -- Turkish Prime Minister ecep Tayyip Erdogan attempts to reintroduce the headscarf, by "ruling a legal change allowing women attending universities to wear headscarves." Erdogan represents a cultural shift in Turkish politics, as the Prime Minister has an "Islamist past" and is an "observant Muslim (Tavernise, 2008).

2004 -- France bans the headscarf in public schools

2008 -- the Supreme Court of Turkey overturned Erdogan's law, again instating…

Environmental Interventions for Patients With Dementia

Dementia is a neurocognitive disorder that has been treated in various ways throughout all history. The modern era has proposed pharmacological interventions in the past but these have proved dangerous and degrading to the quality of life that dementia patients and their loved ones prefer. For this reason, environmental interventions have emerged as an alternative method for treating elderly dementia patients. This intervention method consists of altering the environment in which the patient lives by accommodating for the needs of the patient with clearly identifiable pathways, open spaces for communication, naturalistic settings, adequate stimuli and private rooms for quiet. This paper discusses the fundamental principles of environmental interventions for patients with dementia and includes a justification for this approach as a suitable alternative to prevailing psychoactive drug interventions. It also includes a discussion of the historical context of the disorder, its current description according…

The French tradition of the Arthurian legends, however, are far less overtly political in their approach to the tales and to Guinevere in particular, and though politics and loyalties are still important elements of these stories the aspects of romance, love, and sexuality are far more prominent. Beginning with the poet Chretien de Troyes, Guinevere began to take on a more active role that at once justifies the feminine and begins to suggest the degradation and un-holiness of the female body and intent. Though Man might still be the more active and potent partner, Woman can corrupt and influence Man, these tales suggest, and the character of Guinevere seems a brand new creation given her immensely increased prominence when compared to all known earlier forms of the legends (Fulton, 3).

Erec and Enide is the tale of one of Arthur's knights and the peasant maid he loves and marries, but…

Likewise, although the veneration of rulers might seem elaborate and even servile, this was in keeping with the Roman tradition.

Byzantium collapsed with the invasion of the Turkish forces in 1453. But the fascination with this period in Herrin lives on -- at the beginning of her book she says she wrote her work to explain to 'common people' what she does for a living, and also why Byzantium still affects their lives today. At times, her work reads more like an apology, with the historian as an advocate for the civilization's greatness. However, the readability of the work makes up for Herrin at times sounding intensely partisan, writing in defense of what has shaped her entire scholarly life.

At times, Herrin's familiarity makes her assume too much on the part of the reader -- perhaps someone better-versed with modern orthodox theology would be able to appreciate some of the…