Convention Vs. Eccentricity

sons are my brethren, and, truly, I hold it a sin to match a kindred"

Ambition is an earnest desire for achievement. Both texts are self reflexive and emphasise Richard’s obsessive ambition, desire and longing for the throne. Each Richard strives towards capturing the throne regardless of consequences and bloodshed. Richard is depicted in both texts as an ambitious character who strives to gain power and independence through deception and self confessed villainy. ‘Since I cannot prove a lover. . . I am determined to prove a villain’ This obsession which drives Richard to commit horrific evils to gain and then protect his claim to the throne. His ambition, power and evil blinds him and inevitably is responsible for his downfall in both of the texts. A connection is formed between Looking for Richard and King Richard III in the final scenes Al Pacino’s interpretation and ‘Hollywood’ background influences an ending which can be interpreted as portraying Richmond as a coward. Elizabethan audiences

During the eighteenth century, marriage was a representation of not only the unity between man and women but it was also a representation of a woman taking a servile, less meaningful role in the household. Once married, women were expected to be completely submissive to their husbands. This was the norm across Europe and even in enlightened society. These relationships were hierarchical. It was not customary for women to attend schools that educated men the math and sciences. Women holding privileged positons in society traditionally allotted to men were seen as the exception. Yet these exceptions did not generally bother society because they did not lead to certain conclusion that women could do anything. In Gotthold Lessing’s novel “Nathan the Wise” and Francoise de Graffigny’s “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, both authors upset traditional expectations about what constitutes a novel’s happy ending by refusing to end either of their novels with weddings. In Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise”, the rejection of marriage plot reflects a larger symbolic representation of religious tolerance. While in Graffigny’s novel “Letters from a Peruvian Woman”, the rejection of marriage plots illustrates a woman whose circumstances would make her the exception. Zilia, Graffigny’s main character, was an enlightened woman who chose sovereignty over servitude. Therefore, I would argue that the intentions behind both Lessing and Graffigny’s rejection of the marriage plot was not to serve the same

“She wishes she had asked him to explain more of what he meant. But she was impatient…to be done with sewing. With doing everything for three children, alone…” (1125, 3), and “Respect, a chance to build. Her children at last from underneath the detrimental wheel. A chance to be on top” (1124, 2) both reveal the motives behind getting married to this man, despite the religious conflict. She is torn between the pros and cons of this new life. It’s although she is trying to convince herself, but the negative thoughts just keep surfacing.

Hamlet’s sanity has made many people question him. “Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his “madness” is perhaps too purposeful and pointed

As such, it is the immature compulsions of his companions and his family that can be to blame for his elaborate and unnecessary state of mind, and thus, the essence of Hamlet’s insanity, lies in his desire to progress beyond his perception of the complacency of human imperfection.

In The Wife’s Lament, the wife is forced to exile. The wife reveals the feelings of suffering, regret, and loneliness. The wife’s misery began when her Lord left her behind. The Wife set out to find him but her Lord’s Kinsmen didn’t want them together anymore, and this is when the forced exile takes actions. “My man’s kinsmen began to plot by darkened thought to divide us two so we most widely in the world’s kingdom lived wretchedly and I suffered longing.” (Lines 11-15). The wife believes she will one day be reunited with her Lord so she moves away to new land. The wife then finds out her Lord wants to commit a crime. “Hiding his mood thinking of murder” (Line 20). This scares the wife and forces her to move into the woods under an Oak Tree. This shows the wife as weak which is not an Anglo-Saxon belief. The wife also believes a man who is weak should never show it, should always pretend to be fine. She believes this because men have the upper hand, they hold more power. A man who shows he’s weak has no belief as Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons think nobody should ever be weak, they should always be brave. It shows how she’s scared of her lord, so scared she runs into the woods and stays under an oak tree. This exile shows women have no power.

Centuries ago in Elizabethan England there were many traditions about marriage and the treatment of women. One strong tradition of these times was the practice of marriage between races. Interracial marriages were considered extremely taboo. (High Beam). In this era marriages were arranged by the parents with strong help from the local church. The individuals had little choice as to who they would marry. (Elizabethan England Life). Yet another example of these traditions was the respectable treatment of women. While the husband was in charge of his wife, as was the father, the husband were expected to treat the women right (Elizbethi). In spurning all of these traditions, Shakespeare demonstrates a view of marriage far different from that

She is seen as a weak and fickle woman. When her ship wrecks, “she felt the need of advice'; (49). Alatiel doesn’t know how to do things on her own. She has always had servants to help her. After Alatiel realizes all that happened to the ship and everyone on it she “weeps bitterly'; (49). At this point Alatiel’s unbelievable adventures begin. She is taken to Pericone’s house. Pericone falls in love with her and wants to sleep with her. Alatiel tells her servants that “she herself had decided never to let anyone but her husband enjoy her'; (50). Pericone gets Alatiel drunk and into bed with him. Alatiel’s values aren’t so strong because Pericone gets her to sleep with him. After she loses her virginity “she often invited herself not with words…but with actions'; to Pericone (51). When Alatiel is taken from Pericone by Marato, she weeps but is soon comforted “with the assistance of the holy Stiff-in-hand God gave to man';(52). It doesn’t take much to comfort Alatiel. In the beginning of the story she doesn’t want to sleep with a man that is not her husband. By the first man Alatiel encounters her views on sex have changed. Alatiel’s adventures do not stop after two men. When Marato loses Alatiel the prince of Morea gets her. It doesn’t take Alatiel long to get over Marato.

Throughout the letters, Abelard and Heloise’s perspectives on gender roles were strictly based upon the traditional views on sexuality. For instance, in the egotistical mind of Abelard, women in the medieval society were viewed as a weaker sex who need help of the a stronger male since there were certainly things that “cannot be carried out by women”5. Moreover, Heloise, despite her being a woman, did not seem to be shocked at the idea that men are superior to women. Instead, she instinctively acknowledged the weaker nature of women indicated by her discussion of her abbey which she called “feminine”; she also described it as weak, frail, and needing a more careful attention6. Throughout the first four letters from Abelard and Heloise, they both held congruent views regarding masculinity and femininity, and this dichotomous way of looking at gender indeed did not deviate much from the conventional thinking of the medieval society.

And yet this was the only marriage that she took not for wealth but for love, and admits to loving him the most, even though he was the worst of her husbands. He would beat her and then win her back around by love-making. As tortuous as this sounds, Parker illustrates that this is in the Wife’s opinion the happiest point in her marriage; the pursuit of mastery was better than the attainment thereof. However, after Alisoun’s attainment of sovereignty, the “Wife seems to be trying to get the best of both worlds, in this passage, suggesting that she was both in command and obedient..., disturbs our belief in its veracity” (Parker 96). According to Parker, this inconsistency is due to either a case that Alisoun either was unable to attain mastery, or found her achievement less satisfying.

“Whereas the senecan tyrant rages against virtue in the name of ambition, or lust, R.B.Pierce argues that Richard, ‘like the formal vice, Iniquity’ (III.i.82), thrives by an ironic detachment from all the standards of traditional morality including the claims of the family” (Robert.B.Pierce, 1971:90-91) Shakespeare in his play, Richard III, added a physical deformity to incite people to see his plays. A both deformed and mobile character was found to be a scary monster.

The medieval church taught that women were inferior to men and that they should be compliant and obedient to their fathers and husbands. Men look down to women as their respect for their ladies are limited as in Canterbury Tales were these women start out as beneath men. These same men who feel the need to arrogate women of their dignity find their fate is later put into the women’s hands. Although a women is taciturn and does not speak out to the men and talk of their animadversion toward the men’s behavior, these same ladies have the power to then decide how these men should serve their punishment for their sacrileges and unruly decisions as in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, were after his life was saved by an old lady, in return this old women requested to him to “take me as your wife” (p.138). A women’s love and passion should be approached with appreciation and admiration otherwise being inconsiderate and impassionate will turn a women against a man.

In his play, The School for Wives, Moliere portrays the concept of male domination through the relationships between the characters. Moliere depicts this male dominance and the oppression of women in French Renaissance society using the characters of Arnolphe and Agnes, and through their use of speech, actions, and social beliefs. Moliere depicts complete male dominance within the French Renaissance society, as well as the theme of oppression of women through his main character, Arnolphe. Arnolphe’s dialogue and soliloquys depict this oppression and dominance. Despite being a wealthy property owner, Arnolphe’s greatest desire is for marriage.

To make a good match, Elizabethan women were expected to hold values such as “...patience, chastity, reticence, humbleness, modesty, faithfulness, self-control, goodness, sympathy, and compassion.” (Ahsan 12); Men, however, could themselves be “...drunkards, womanizers, gamblers…” (Ahsan 12) and still be able to find dutiful wives. Another subject in which men and women of this era had different experiences with is premarital sex. There would be no consequences for a man if he chose to have sex before marriage because it was seen as “...a mild offense and pardonable for men.” (Smith 99). And yet, if a woman chose to have premarital sex, her life would practically be ruined because “...their value as commodities decreases enormously if they are thought to be unchaste…” (Smith 100). This double standard between the genders in the Elizabethan era shows that women led a much more confined life than men.