Christine Castel Biography

Lady Reason provided Christine with many reasons as to why men would slander women so consistently throughout history. Some men attack women through their own vices; out of jealousy, pure pleasure from

There are many female writers, some known better than other. Female writes most of the time focused their stories in experiences or personal point of view on what is going on around them. Other women write fiction of unusual worlds and character that people can relate to with the struggle or experiences. Margaret Atwood the “Canadian nationalist poetess is a prominebt figure concerned with the need for a new language to explore relations between subjects and society“ (Omid, Pyeaam 1). Atwood wrote her first novel called, “The Edible Woman”; this first novel categorized her as feminist, based on the main character of a strong woman. In an interview with Emma Brockes, Atwood affirms, "First of all, what is feminism? Second, which branch of

A woman’s alternative would be becoming a nun, giving up all social freedoms and dedicating your life to serving the poor and God. Women who were subject to this life received a much more thorough education than other women, in order to properly learn religious concepts and theory. Otherwise, a woman’s education was limited to basic reading abilities paired with instruction on how to do homely activities. A woman of this time period had utterly no voice in politics. Law was man’s law. The life of these women were controlled by the men who surround them, their opinions meaning little to nothing. The life of a woman in medieval times was bleak and varied little. Romantic literature was on the rise, full of damsels in distress that only further perpetuated negative stereotypes of women during these times. These romances were full of helpless women in situations only a man could get them out of, or else they would be doomed. Despite this cultural oppression of women in this time period, some strong female characters were erected in medieval romances. A perfect example of an abnormally strong and independent female main character would be Enide from Erec and Enide written by Chrétien de

Her writings caused her to be met with great criticism. Her brother in-law told people that she wrote her poems when she would have been sleeping. He told people this because it was greatly frowned upon to do things for yourself when you should be taking care of your family. When looking at her works through a gender criticism lenz, her works have many feminine elements. Anne is a mother and writes of her love for her children. She never says anything hateful and just comes across as sweet and genuine. Gender criticism gives her work that much more meaning knowing what she had to defy to do it.

Little is known in regards to the beginning half of Angélique’s life. Marie, known only as Marie Joseph during this time, was born in Madeira, Portugal in or around 1705. What is know, however, is that in 1725, when Angélique was no more than 20 years old, she was purchased by a man named François Poulin de Francheville. While under his ownership, Angélique moved with him to Montréal and remained there until he passed away in 1733; about 8 years after he had first purchased her. Angélique’s ownership was then passed onto Francheville’s widow, whom decided to name her Angélique after their daughter who had passed away. After being taken in by her, Angélique asked in December of 1733 if she could be freed, to which her mistress declined and refused. Reportedly, Angélique was enraged by this decision and began unleashing her anger on his mistress’s household and others inside. She would argue with not only other workers or servants in the home, but also with Madame de Francheville herself.

In the documents Lessons for Women, Psalms of the Sisters and History of Rome all explain the different gender systems and their roles. Lessons for women, was a about a lady named Ban Zhao who was a Chinese women that wrote lessons for women. In the document Psalms of the Sisters was written by women about religious experience of women. The document 5.3 History of Rome, states Roman women demanded repeal of a tax on luxury items for women long after the Punic Wars were over. In each document they tell a different role for women because women rights were not taken seriously in some civilizations.

The City of Ladies has been regarded as the first book to speak out for women. Around the time of the book being written women were being portrayed as objects that are not equal to men. Christine picked up a book by Matheolus, a 13th-century writer. In the book, Matheolus was writing about marriage. He said that women make men's lives miserable. Christine felt distraught at being a woman. After thinking that, three women appeared next to Christine. Each woman represents a virtue. The three virtues tell Christine that she must build a city for the best women. The book continues teaching Christine about feminism and why men slander women. The City of Ladies can compare very well to A Thousand and One Nights. In A Thousand and One Nights, Sultan Shahrayar finds out that his wife is unfaithful, he kills her he also swears that he will marry a different woman every night. When the sun rises he will kill her. One of his wives, Scheherazade, told him half a story each night so that he lets her live to the next night, so she can complete the story. A lot of these stories had feminist and feminism theme in them, similar to The City of Ladies. By the end of the one thousand and one nights, Sultan Shahrayar’s idea about women changed. He respected women and thought they were equal to men.

Christine’s virtue comes from God and manifests itself through morally virtuous characteristics. This can be seen in the example of Valentina Visconti, the duchess of Orleans, who Christine describes as, “A lady who is strong and constant in heart, filled with devotion to her lord and good teaching for her children, well-informed in government, just toward all, sensible in her conduct, and virtuous in all things” (213). Christine places the highest value on leaders who lead by example. Christine devotes a large section of the City of Ladies to martyrs, saying of them “women who are crowned in glory and whose fair lives serve as excellent examples for every woman above all other wisdom. For this reason these women are the most outstanding of our City” (219).

Her comments not only let the reader know that she is displeased with this piece of literature, but that she feels that reading it is neither elevating nor useful. Thus, she insinuates the futility of the work itself. Christine cleverly goes on to comment on the subject of the character of women by flattering her male contemporaries. She writes, "…it would be impossible that so many famous men--such solemn scholars, possessed of such deep and great understanding, so clear-sighted in all things, as it seemed--could have spoken falsely on so many occasions…" (4). Christine intelligently uses this "sugar coated" method to emphasize the point –- the point that these men were wrong. Although Christine was obviously outspoken, she knew her limitations. Her work would not be recognized, or even read, if she had openly attacked the male writers. Therefore, she instead chose to build them up the "solemn scholars" before opposing their positions. Christine’s ironic humility does not stop with the prominent male writers of her time. She addresses God with the same rhetorical question as she asks, "Oh, God, how can this be? For unless I stray from my faith, I must never doubt that Your infinite wisdom and most perfect goodness ever created anything which was not good" (Pizan 5). Again, Christine carefully opposed the male point of view this time using Biblical references.

Women in the medieval times were cast into very distinct roles. There was a strict code of conduct that was followed. They were to be submissive to their husbands and follow their lead. A woman's place was also in the home and the responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc. fell into their domain. Women who deviated from these cultural-set norms made for interesting characters. Chaucer's use of women and their overstepping their boundaries and typical roles in society make them most memorable.

Fortunately, in the 14th century, it is said that the literature of Christine de Pizan, who declared that God created men and women to be equals was the first of many to contribute to feminist criticism. As centuries past, both male and female voices who fought for women to be heard and accepted as scholars, artists and writers were accepted. The development of the feminist criticism slowly developed through the centuries but major progress occurred during 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. No Longer at Ease being published right before the progress started is based on a male perspective and male superiority can be seen throughout. However, in chapter twelve, Obi tries to ignore the fact that he received an urgent letter from home but focusing on any and everything else. But the underlining focus in this chapter are women as an important subject matter. The use of language, the point of view and the dialogue in the chapter will have one who is a common reader see that the subject as being when Obi received the letter from home, Mr. Green actions of an old colonial lord and Obi and Christopher visit to Nora and Pat at the

One of the greatest concerns in the theory about feminism is the role that women play in relationships and also the identity that is placed upon them as a lover and as an artist. Many females during the time that Elizabeth Browning wrote "Aurora Leigh" felt discomfort by becoming an artist or anything besides a housewife. As mentioned before this was a stepping-stone for women in this time period. Society put women into separate social classes. And on top of the classes they were categorized in they had the class of being a woman also. With this passage from "Aurora Leigh" Browning describes and criticizes the works of the woman during this time period. The works

Women from the medieval times had clear roles. The women had strict rules to follow by. When it came to marriage, the wives had to submit to their husbands and follow their lead. Women were supposed to be cleaning, stay at home with the kids, cook, make clothes, etc. The women who steered away from these “typical” roles, made very interesting characters. The majority of gender expectations came from the church and biblical history. Since Eve was the cause for the fall of man, there were a lot of anti-feminist feelings. Women were held accountable for the majority of man’s suffering, and were consequently inferior and to be dominated by men. Purity, holiness, and chastity, were all presumptions of women from outstanding role models like the Virgin Mary.

The women play a big role in the story The Book of the City of ladies and the movie The Lion in Winter. In the story The Book of the City of Ladies women are the main character. The role of the women in this story was to present an accurate portrait of the true and essential nature of women and show that the world that men and women are as good as one another. Feminism in 1405 was terrible and even now in 2017 still has a long way to go. The Book of the city of Ladies is not just a story but it’s kind of an anthology of women from ancient history doing crazy, amazing, and often gory things. This story revels the truth about women and how powerful we really are and how when we really put or minds to something we can achieve it. Christine de Pizan built a whole city from the ground up, if that alone doesn’t show you how powerful women are, that nothing will.

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