Essay on Abelard and Heloise

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

Unlike Abelard, Heloise never wrote a unified and comprehensive piece of work. Instead we have to gather her philosophy from her few letters’ and our understanding of her from Abelard’s responses. From her writing Heloise seems conflicted in both major relationships of her life, both Abelard and with God. With Abelard she is upset that after everything she did for him, he does nothing for her “Tell me one thing, if you can. Why, after our entry into religion, which was your decision alone, have I been so neglected and forgotten by you that you neither speak to me when you are here nor write to me when you are absent?”(1) This portrays an interesting image of Heloise living a life pursuing God in the nunnery but not for Him, and not for herself but for Abelard, because he wanted her to. In doing this she puts Abelard’s interests before not only her own, but even God’s “I can expect no reward for this from God, for it is certain that I have done nothing as yet for love of him”(2). It is in this way that we can learn Heloise’s philosophy, of furthering the interests of others rather than your own. It is this motive that Heloise finds to be good, action performed for the best

Throughout history women were always seen as inferior to men as they were thought to be more fragile, less educated, and only useful for childbearing and household care. Even women of a elite status were seen as less than males as Jeanne d’Albret ( mother of future king Henry IV) proved this when she said in a letter to the Pope that should she be found wrong that she should be excused simply because she is a woman (Doc 4). Jeanne d’Albret being the mother of a future king and wife of a current king means that she was of a higher status than any other woman in France yet she still felt the need to excuse herself for being a woman on behalf of her ignorance. Others argued that God commands that women be subordinate to men in every way as they were weak and men were Godly (Doc 3). Women were allowed to be apart of religious ceremonies and partake in the possession of God but were not allowed the same status or privileges of man (doc 5). The idea that women were secondary to men continues throughout the Reformation in Europe as they were still seen as weak and

Heloise was a noble girl under the care of her uncle, when Abelard heard of her. He decided he wanted to be her teacher and her lover, because she was the "best one to bring to my [his] bed." He believed that the" philosophical discussion" that the two could engage in would "provide added intimacy," rather than just finding someone to have a sexual relationship with. Abelard and Heloise became lovers, Heloise became pregnant with Abelard's child, the two married, and then, on Abelard's command, separated to live out monastic lives. The letters written by Heloise are extremely important to the history of the Middle Ages because, according to historian, Barbara Tuchman, women of the Middle Ages are known "through the pens

In the book The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Abelard and Heloise’s relationship changes dramatically as seen in their love letters. At first, their relationship was very sexual based while they were together. I feel that the shift in their relationship happened when they became physically separated. As soon as the separation occurred, their relationship became a primarily chaste relationship. My goal in this paper is to demonstrate why I feel that Abelard and Heloise’s relationship changed from a sexual based relationship to a chaste based relationship because of the material realities and the change in the understanding of their relationship. To do this, I will first analyze the change in material realities and how that effected the relationship. Next, I will talk about what I think the initial understanding of the relationship is for both Abelard and Heloise. Then, I will tell how Abelard changed Heloise’s understanding of the relationship. Then, I will explain their Heloise’s new understanding of the relationship. Finally I will conclude by summarizing the how the relationship changed and why the change happened.

In the Middle Ages from 476 CE- 14th century almost all of the power of women was determined by biblical references. The average woman in a rural area had the duty of making clothes from wool, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. The women in town often were tasked in purchasing and trading goods and the normal housekeeping. In extreme cases women were known as witches. Other women became nuns and got involved in spiritual matters. In the year 1000 traditional marriage that involved getting married for financial reasons became less common. Although the parents still assisted in choosing the spouse it was becoming freer to choose who to marry. The woman was essentially owned by a male guardian almost like a child. However, if a rich widowed woman decided she did not want or have another guardian available, she was able to have her own name. During the Middle Ages many rich women were able to participate in things such as art, music or writing. It was rare for a woman not that well off to be able to purchase the tools or have the education to do art, music, or writing. All the rules developed depended on how

Because of this, scholars are bombarded with the male view of the female existence. This can lead to warped ideas of how women thought and behaved during the Middle Ages. With Heloise's letters, people can get a true sense of how a woman thought, felt, and behaved during this era. Some would argue that because Heloise was a noblewoman that she could not represent most women. While this may be true, what she can do, is represent the ideals and expectations that were expected of all women, regardless of social stature. According to historian, Katherine Clark, women were valued as "virgins, holy widows, and faithful wives." Although she could not be valued as a virgin, Heloise fell somewhere in between a holy widow and a faithful wife. Abelard

In medieval literature, the role of women often represents many familiar traits and characteristics which present societies still preserve. Beauty, attractiveness, and grace almost completely exemplify the attributes of powerful women in both present and past narratives. European medieval prose often separates the characteristics of women into two distinct roles in society. Women can be portrayed as the greatest gift to mankind, revealing everything that is good, pure, and beautiful in a woman's life. On the other side of the coin, many women are compared to everything that is evil and harmful, creating a witch-like or temptress quality for the character. These two aspects of European culture and literature show that the power of

Woman's naturally imperfect state needed perfection through union with a male. Unless controlled by a male, she could be dangerous, incapable as she was of controlling her desires. " Women were considered inferior to their male counterparts. This statement, however, gained precedence in the Middle Ages, because it was largely a male-dominated society. Priests, especially, viewed women in negative terms.

In the letter, he goes into great detail about the affair, but before going into the details of the affair and burning of his book Abelard says; “The true story of both of these episodes I now want you to know from the facts, in their proper order, instead of from hearsay” (65-66). Abelard’s intention in writing about the affair in the letter was to give the correct interpretation of the event to the friend in which he was writing to in order to more fully persuade this person of the adversity he suffered as result of the affair with Heloise. The affair was one of the most impactful events in the letter that Abelard wrote because this one event completely changed the trajectory of his entire life. Many people read this letter thinking that this is part of the love letters, but we should pay attention to the text in the context in which Abelard wrote it, as an autobiographical letter to a

Their is a distinctive role in the medieval view of women in “The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pisan” and “The Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard” that are different and similar. “The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pisan” was a book that was written by Christine Pisan and what inspired her to write this story was all of the slander woman were getting as far as being blamed for every negative thing in the world. “The Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard” was written by Heloise and Abelard and they are different types of letters. The two couples were inspired when they were facing adversity with the relationship they had together at a time when people looked at the two of them differently, due to their

To begin, the “Letters of Abelard and Heloise” were originally formulated by the mind of Abelard, sometime around the year 1128 in Latin (not to published until around 1616 in Paris then re-appearing in England in 1728. From there, being multiply translated and reformatted until it was officially published in 1722.) It is a re-telling of the story of his love affair at 37 as a highly-educated and revered Professor at “Logic and Canon-Notre Dame;” having lived an intellectual and passion derived life before and with the young mistress Heloise who was quite possibly the last student of his to be “educated” to a higher level he discovers a side he has never known to himself, only felt.

In the late Middle Ages, women were forced under many disabilities. Society viewed women as “physically, intellectually, and morally inferior to men” (Bornstein 1). In the 1300’s when Dante wrote the Divine Comedy women did not play a key role in society outside the home. This was not solely excluding a certain sex because of who they were, but because of how society in history has viewed women. Many believed that women could not do a man’s job or fit to be in charge of a certain group. In the 1300’s, women were to be in charge of the household, take care of the children, make the food for the day, and be a loyal wife to their husbands. Through the 1300’s women had a desire to voice what they could achieve, so they started to speak out their

The story of Heloise and Abelard is not unlike that of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the sense that there was drama, family trials, and immeasurable passion. Known for her intelligence and sexual relationship with Abelard, Heloise was not the typical medieval woman. The life of Heloise was not conventional in the sense that she gave birth to a child out of wedlock and was reluctant to marry Abelard even though her reputation as a woman was tarnished due to their relationship. The sources presented in this paper are mainly written by Abelard himself telling his and Heloise’s tale from his point of view and some letters between the two which show that most of the story is relatively accurate. The life of Heloise was different from other medieval women in the due to her focus on education and her public affair with Abelard. In the end Heloise’s life was full of life, romance, and scholarly achievement which gave her a place in history.

The writer of the letter to Abelard was Heloise, the nun, who happened to be his wife after their involvement in one of the best known love tragedies in Paris during the twelfth century where there were strict attitudes of theological, logical, and sexual control. She was a young intellectual lady and in her quest for knowledge, legitimacy, and the response to the issue of human subsistence, fatefully met Abelard. He was the famous philosopher, and theologian of the era. The teacher and the student soon found themselves so entangled that they could not oppose the divine and physical needs of their bodies, despite both knowing that the edicts of the time forbidden such a relationship (Cefalo, p 8).