Did Ladies Have A Renaissance Like The Men?

When Eve took that bite of the Forbidden Fruit, she had no idea what she had gotten women-kind into. Whether or not you believe in the story of creation, the perception of women as corrupting and sinful had shaped women's social roles in Western Society for thousands of years. Augustine was one of the first to write about the wickedness of women, and the acceptance of this doctrine is evident in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise through their disdain toward marriage. Along with mass death of the Black Plague, came an opportunity for women to change the ways in which society viewed them. The great number of deaths in Europe often resulted in the situation where no male heirs remained which led to the legal ability of women to inherit

How is one defined as a women in the renaissance? A renaissance women is one who is sophisticated and educated, and most likely vigorous in several fields (Victoria). Although many women in the renaissance were often restricted by their gender roles, a woman named Angela Merici broke the renaissance conventions, because she stood out spiritually and believed she could make a greater impact on the world, than what she was expected to do.

The role of women has been portrayed through art since prehistoric times. Women have been a sign of hope, downfall, and power. This image of women was most powerful during the Renaissance. A cultural revival or "rebirth" occurred during the 15th and 16th century in Europe. The economic growth of the 14th century created a prosperous middle class. This allowed more of the mass to invest their income. Patronage of the arts soon became very fashionable as did religious faith1. As a result, women were portrayed as the Madonna, Eve or a saint. This was much more than an the art genre but an actual notion of women's role in society. This inaccurate portrayal of women created a variety of

One last point that needs to be made about women in the Renaissance comes from the MacNeil article, page

Renaissance is period of rebirth, awakening, but for whom? It is understood that this is a power of reincarnation of the whole human race, the birth of new ideas of putting a man at the center of events, and according to the facts stated in the essay, it follows that at the time it was considered that a woman is not a human, a transgender person? Was the masculine gender really so complicated and scared of competing a gentler pole, that it stifled freedom and self-fulfillment of its complement? Thus, in the Renaissance, women were implanted into 3 modules (Mary, Eve, and Amazon) who carried their dualism - mother, daughter or widow, virgin or prostitute, and a lady or a witch. So is this again an extension of the dark age

The Renaissance postulate on the representation of the body as a mirror that could be looking into to gain an understanding of the sitter's inner character leads to certain physical traits being associated with intellectual and spiritual qualities. Strong emphasis was placed on women's beauty, as it was believed that a beautiful body was the reflection of a good spirit. For women, having a good spirit meant being virtuous. Virtue was considered to be the prime quality a woman could possess and a chaste woman was a beautiful woman. The idea of women as virtuous being is intrinsically misogynystic as the worth of women was reduced to their physical purity or physical worth. Women were not allowed the same intellectual depth and individuality as men, and most portrait busts appear as idealisation of women and of

The Renaissance was a period of times during the 1300’s to the 1700’s. During this time thoughts and ideas flourished across Europe. At that time most of the countries in Europe were governed by monarchs. Although a large number of those rulers were male, there were a few powerful female leaders. Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots are prime examples.

Now, the Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement starting around the 14th century, and peaking during the 15th and 16th centuries, although it continued into the 17th. It’s most recognizable characteristic was the obsession with classical educations and culture. Humanism and an interest in reason brought about doubt in the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually led to the protestant reformation. The Renaissance can be considered a “golden age” because of its revival of classical ideas, diminished power of the church in favor of individualism, and the rise of power in the merchant

Given that women were stereotypically associated with the body and men with the spirit, Caroline Bynum has argued that medieval religious women strategically appropriated this discourse about female carnality to their advantage, and claimed to identify with the humanity of Christ. They adopted fierce bodily asceticism as a privileged access to the Incarnated. More specifically, women could more easily identify with the nurturing, reproductive, life-giving, or “feminine” body of Christ. She has brilliantly examined some of the curious medieval images of Christ’ side wound bursting out life-saving blood just like a female breast bursting out milk or even depicted in the shape of the female genitalia. A male brother like Arnulf, on the other hand,

While men of the Renaissance could break free from the restrain that the church held on their ideologies, women were not so fortunate. The classical and medieval ecclesiastical opinion of women was that women were “a temple built over a sewer” as well as “the gateway to the devil” (Marquis 1257). In her essay, “Renaissance,” Marquis argues: “Women were characterized and largely controlled not in relation to their natural capacities (although medical tradition conceived of women as imperfect men, by nature incapable of higher-level thought and rationality), but according to a set of views that denied they were capable of entering fully into human culture, other than the culture of the household or family” (1257). Because of the power of the

Eve´s Apology in Defense of Women, Lanier’s contentious literary work from the seventeenth century, seeks to justify Eve´s actions in the Garden of Eden. As it was written in the 17th century in British society, where many women suffered inequality among social classes, this poem is reformist. The Bible narrates the story of how Adam and Eve succumbed to sin in the third chapter of Genesis, “The Fall”. The poet presents her argument by employing irony, sarcasm, oxymoron and superlatives regarding the well-known biblical story of how sin came into our world. She finds a way to gather this context to prove defend women.

Social boundaries and moral restrictions on women take over Victorian England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. However, deviant women appear to be beyond such confines. As mentioned before, women were placed in the house and labeled as “the angel in the house.” Conversely, such criterion has been undermined with the emergence of the “femme fatale” as Victorian England becomes vulnerable to internal and external threats represented by such type of evil women. As Auerbach observes, “in Victorian England, an age possessed by faith but deprived of dogma, any incursion of the supernatural into the natural became ambiguously awful because unclassifiable” (75). More distinctively, such images of women were in line with the Victorian

Femininity is a topic that has seen controversial debate over the course of the last few centuries. John Milton is not exempt from this, as he is a self-proclaimed polemicist. Utilizing his texts as tools, Milton relays important social, political, and economic messages of concern to the public. His political nature has led to his imprisonment and threats to his life (Campbell 2009). Amidst his unpopularity during the time, Milton persisted with his publication endeavours of controversial texts. Throughout his life, Milton had three marriages, the first of which was very brief, and prompted his support towards legalizing divorce (Campbell 2009). Two of these three marriages led to divorce which implies that Milton’s views are translated into his pivotal piece, Paradise Lost. As one of his most important texts, seen as a brilliant piece of English literature, Paradise Lost certainly incorporates grave social problems when it comes to the exploration of femininity. As embedding social concerns in a text is normally seen in literature as a form of communicating these problems, it is no surprise that the issue of femininity would turn up in Paradise Lost. Eve is portrayed differently in the text both before the fall and after the fall. Milton’s text is wholly religious in its content and meaning, however Milton twists The Bible’s interpretation to his own liking and portrays Eve differently than The Bible does. In this essay, I will explore the gender imbalance presented in the text between Adam and Eve and how it relates to disobedience and obedience of God’s word. I will be analyzing Milton’s description of Eve before and after the fall compared to The Bible. In Paradise Lost by John Milton, the portrayal of Eve’s femininity is subject to critique, both before and after the fall of man, as Milton places false claims on her actions and strays from the original view of Eve from The Bible.

Milton’s proto-feminist portrayal of Eve emerges early through the creation of Eve to correspond to Adam’s requests. When

Women are a seemingly recurring discussion due to their roles within society, the family, and the Church throughout the years. Sociologists believe in the principle that women “are human beings equal to men” but we see women struggle with inequality due to gender even to this day. The women presented in the Bible such as Mary and Eve are the first instances women have had any form of significance within text. This may be one of the reasons the role of the women has been established and the reason for society’s stereotype towards women. Being the first few women, they have influenced and shaped the role of women till modern day.