A Comparison of the Kalidasa and Braj Version of Śakuntalā Essay

In the traditional culture, women’s education was limited to learning domestic skills, they used to be in charge of the house, their job was to keep clean the house, take care of the children, prepare the food, and many other things. Also they were subordinate to the authority of their parents first, and their husbands later, so for example women could not go out of the house without their concern. Their difference was huge, as we can see in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” when the knight rapped that woman. In like manner we observe men superiority in Mallam Sile’s story

Women have played important roles throughout history. They have been responsible for the rise and fall of nations, sustaining families, and have been the focal point of worship in ancient religions. Moving forward in history, women's roles have continually changed. Their status as matriarchs changed as the more advanced ancient civilizations rose. The patriarchal societies of ancient Greece and Rome viewed women differently from some societies of past eras. The study of the economic and political status of women, their rights, and their contributions to both these ancient societies reveals how views change throughout history.

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

These tales serve as a parallel system of communication among women. Karnad heard these stories from Professor A.K. Ramanujan and gave them dramatic form. The first relates to a Cobra turning into man at night and visiting a married women after assuming her husband's form. The second is based on the popular belief that a night long vigil in the temple can ward off death. The tales rest on woman's understanding of reality around her. Naga-Mandala is the story of Rani who is married to Appanna who maltreats his wife and satisfies his lust elsewhere with a mistress. Rani is locked up in an attic at night when her husband is visiting his concubine. Kurudavva, a friend of Rani's deceased mother-in-law arranges a forest root believed to be an aphrodisiac but far from arousing love and lust in Appanna, it only makes him crueller instead. A bigger dose was prepared but Rani, out of fear did not serve it to her husband and instead poured it into an ant hill where a Naga tasted it and fell in love with Rani. He visited her every night in the form of Appanna while her husband frolicked with his concubine. After sometime, the Naga's truth is revealed to Rani but by then she was already very thick with him and waited for him anxiously every night and was pinning anguishly in his

The film opened with Mona doing a model shoot. She was listening to her demanding white photographer ordering her to have more provocative looks. This Mona, has conformed into the white supremacy, adapting preconscious beliefs, abstract to black culture, and stubborn towards black ideas. Mona had no connection to her inner being and had little insight on who she really was. While continuing to capture photos, Mona and her photographer decides to capture near the Fortress. She becomes distracted by a drummer who leads her inside of the Fortress. Mona is now suddenly locked in a dark room. When she does find light, she noticed that she is surrounded by other Africans who were bound and shackled

Some aspects of the lifestyle ancient civilizations lived almost seem appalling or intolerable when compared to the very developed and carefully shaped the world inhabited today. One of these characteristics of previous societies that prove to be rather challenging to conceive in current times consists of the lack of rights, privileges, and equity women had. Society maintained this assumption of a man’s superiority up until the women’s rights movement of the early twentieth century; yet with the two sexes essentially equal in America today, imagining a restricted life as a female proves unfathomable. Looking back at the history of human kind, men almost always subdued women and treated them as property. When focusing on the first

As civilizations grew and morphed into the international superpowers of today, they also gave rise to vast seas of inequalities. Inequalities between those of different social rankings, inequalities in the workplace, and, most importantly, inequalities between genders were just a few of the looming stratifications accompanying the rise of society. However, these inequalities were expressed differently by different peoples and societies. Although patriarchies were the social norm of the time, the patriarchies of Han Dynasty China, Tang Dynasty China, and Song Dynasty China each had small nuances that made their patriarchies positively peculiar. These nuances include, but are not limited to the level of social and economic freedom afforded to women, the powers women held, and the level of brutality women experienced.

Women throughout time have experienced position changes more times than can be counted. Not just in modern times, gender roles began in the B.C.E era. In Egypt and India, gender roles were a huge part of society. In both locations, male’s word was law. What they said was the final answer and a woman could not change that. The gender distinctions were similar in ways that women had minimal power in familiar locations, like their homes. They had a small opinion about certain subjects, but they never ventured out of the comfort zone of subjects they were allowed to discuss. Men were treated better than women, yes, but the power women held was used for some of the most important topics.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly

Heroes, kings and presidents, for so long men are the protagonist of the stories. Across the world and through the centuries, women have always been situated below men. Women were considered the weak sex, they are portrayed as delicate, obedient, naive and passionate. “Never trust in women; nor rely upon their vows” (44). As the wives of the kings on The Arabian Nights, whose passion brought them to cheat on both their husbands. They ended up being executed because they threatened the kings’ power. Or bringing danger into the families, as the wives of Kasim and Ali Baba, who wouldn’t think of the consequences of their actions and would act by the pure instinct of greed and naiveness. Yet, seldomly acknowledged, women have had to step up to fix troubled situations, the few stories told of women of scarce resources who have manage to triumph over the standardized society. This not only shows how women take advantage of the resources at their reach but how their

Majority of the ancient societies portrayed similarities in the presentation of women and girls. In other words, women and girls in the traditional communities were given similar roles and were regarded as the inferior members of the society. Men were viewed as members of the superior gender and due to this; they were given the primary responsibilities in the society and were also regarded as the heads of the family and the entire community. In most cases, women took the roles and responsibilities of housewives, caretakers, nurturers, reproducers, and mothers while men were given the responsibility of managing the society. The classification of diverse roles for women and men was destructive on the side of the females as men sought to dominate them, take advantage of them and even oppress them and this resulted in the case of gender imbalance and inequality. It is clear that men were insensitive about this division and hence scholars rose to represent the fate of women through writing. The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen and the Separate Ways by Chiyo portray women as oppressed, voiceless and members of an inferior gender.

of a man. Women were able to hold political positions, possess land, and overall enjoy a

In comparison with men, women didn’t have a lot of rights and freedom. Some argued that men and women were different species and that men were similar to gods and women were similar to animals. Men could vote but women couldn’t,

  Women were once little more than slaves to their male "betters." Some women might have been respected, but their places were limited to roles as wives and mothers. They might rule a home, but were not believed intelligent enough for any other role. This chauvinistic attitude is well reflected in the novels Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, and Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.