Marcus Hollingsworth Professor Fannin Great Texts 2301 24 November 2014 Gender Roles and Transformation in Ovid’s Metamorphoses The fundamental quality of Ovid’s Metamorphoses seems to be a variableness of form. Characters are transformed from humans to animals, constellations, and plants, and sometimes back to humans. The author rarely offers much explanation as to the meaning of these seemingly random transfigurations. On another note, it is certainly easily arguable that the most shocking recurrences in the poem are the rapes and objectification of female characters. Portraying a heavily patriarchal society, the author typifies masculinity and femininity by repetitively associating them with stereotypical traits. Dominance, strength, …show more content…
The more dominant character is described with “masculine” qualities, while the subordinate character is described with “feminine” qualities. Characterization of the feminine or subdominant is achieved by describing a particular character in terms of the aesthetics of his or her physique, in keeping with the feminine quality of the appreciation of beauty. Conversely, characterization of the masculine or dominant character is often achieved by exaggerating the grittiness of his or her actions, traits, or circumstances. The classification of each character in a given story is usually either morphed or highlighted by a physical …show more content…
The scene opens with Actaeon, portrayed as a rugged hunter, ordering his hunting partners to cease work for the day after already enjoying much success. He is quite obviously being portrayed in a similar way as Cygnus and Achilles—in a masculine, intimidating way using greatly exaggerated language, especially as Actaeon says, “Our nets are already wet with blood” [3.159]. Simultaneously, Diana, a “high-skirted huntress,” is beginning to take a bath in a secluded pool in the same area Actaeon has been hunting. Diana is described in a fairly delicate, feminine way, despite her manly line of work. The poem describes a grotto with a pool, which she frequented, then reads, “Here the woodland goddess, weary from the hunt, would bathe her virgin limbs” [3.174-175]. After his work, Actaeon wandered through this uncertain territory and found himself overlooking the pool where Diana was nude and bathing. The delicate language describing the “goddess” is instantly abandoned for vengeful words as her anger is kindled against him. All of her weapons were out of reach, but “what she had, the water, she scooped up and flung into that male face, sprinkling his hair with vengeful drops and adding these words that foretold his doom: ‘Now you may tell how you saw me undressed, if you are able to tell!’” The enraged goddess then transforms Actaeon into an ill-fated deer, which subsequently becomes the prey of
Through characterisation, the author is able to express the main idea of disempowerment and also allowing us as readers to feel discontented and upset towards the main character.
Characterization in a narrative is how the author creates and describes a character. The character is introduced and then explained in detail throughout the story. The two ways an author can deliver this information to the audience is through direct and indirect characterization. Direct characterization is when the author is telling the readers information about the character and what he or she is like. Indirect characterization is when the author attempts to show what the character is like and give the reader information through the character’s actions and words. Through both direct and indirect characterization, we are able to understand some of the physical attributes of the character as well as their personality. People want to know why
Characterization is an important component in short story writing. In the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" written by Roald Dahl, we are introduced to Mary Maloney, a pregnant housewife who recently found out that her husband is going to leave her. Mary develops into a very complex character as the events of the short story unfold. Mary is a typical housewife, waiting on her husband hand and foot. She loves him dearly, but as the short story unfolds, we see that he does not share the same feelings. Mary, unable to handle the rejection, lashes out and kills her husband. We then see Mary’s character transform before our eyes and the once loving, dutiful housewife becomes a very devious, manipulative and cold hearted character. She manages
Throughout his journey, Odysseus meets a variety of people, some of them are human while others are simply inhabitants of the land they possess. These people assist in displaying the diversity within this this epic poem because the reader is able to explore how they differ from normal Greek practices. We are able to compare their agricultural labor, diet, and most importantly, how they married. The views on women in Ancient Greek was not a great one and that is something that I will discuss in this essay because Anne Carson believed that back then, women adhered to a stereotype in which they were seen as dirt. However, these stereotypes not only define women but also men and can be used throughout the game of Mythos Unbound.
Gender is made explicit as a theme throughout the Oresteia through a series of male-female conflicts and incorrectly gendered characters dominated by the figure of Clytemnestra, a woman out of place. This opposition of gender then engenders all the other oppositions of the trilogy; conflicts of oikos and polis, chthonic and Olympian, old and young can be assigned to female and male spheres respectively. In this essay I will look at how the polis examines itself in terms of gender by focusing on the Eumenides' exploration of the myth of matriarchy, issues of the conflict between oikos and polis and the use of speech within the polis. I will then look at how these themes are
Characterization refers to the techniques a writer uses to develop characters in the story. In the story ‘A Rose for Emily’, William Faulkner uses characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily Grierson, the main role. Faulkner’s use of language foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. He expresses the content of her character through physical descriptions, through her act, words, and feeling, through the narrator’s direct comments about the character’s nature, and through the actions, words and feelings of the other characters. Faulkner also uses the characterization to examine the theme of the story. His
Characterization is how the characters in the text are viewed and developed as the text expands. For this, I will consider the character, Nyla (purple). Nyla is an innocent girl with dull eyes and voice. Her innocence is revealed as tells of her first time sex encounter and also in her lack of understanding of her mum and sister’s relationship. Her confession of sex to an older man is like that of a young misled child. She is ignorant of the world and its dangers. She just completed high school and is very excited, happy to lose her virginity to childhood sweetheart. Reality drowns on her when she finds out she is pregnant and needed to abort. Her innocence gives her away when she tries to
Characterization is a literary element used by the author to present qualities of characters in a literary piece, the purpose of characterization is to make characters credible and make them suitable for the role they play in the work. Authors present various characters possessing dissimilar qualities, to emphasize different aspects of the work. In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, the author Nathaneil Hawthorn’s depiction of the two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, emphasizes the moral problems of the seventeenth century puritan society. Hence, their different characters contribute vitally to the plot of the novel.
Ovid's Metamorphoses is a collection 15 books of mythological and legendary stories, many taken from Greek sources, in which transformation (metamorphosis) plays a role, however minor. The stories are told in chronological order from the creation of the world (the first metamorphosis, of chaos into order) to the death and deification of Julius Caesar (the culminating metamorphosis). Passion is the essential theme of the poems. The work is noted for its wit, stylistic brilliance, and narrative and descriptive qualities (Britannica).
tries to argue that Ovid uses women to show the transformation of beauty and explain what it does to the creator, but in doing so she makes women objects. She makes the female characters the holders of beauty rather than human beings. Burney thinks that a female “can be a woman and a beast, but one can also be a human and a work of art, or an artist and an object” (85). She tries to have women become dual beings by saying they can still be a woman and an object at the same time. However, this is not what Ovid was trying to express when he wrote the Metamorphoses. Ovid’s purpose was to exaggerate how women are treated as object by men by literally transforming them into objects that still can not escape the men who pursue them. Women are
In one word, the author Ovid describes the overall content and theme of his poem with the word “Metamorphoses” in the title. Some relative synonyms of this word among others are; altar, change, mutate, develop, and reshape (metamorphose). But Ovid goes further to describe the theme within the first two lines of the poem.
Ovid's "Metamorphoses" is sometimes argued as a non-epic as well as a true epic. It is mainly viewed as a non-epic because Ovid's subject matter is far from the heroic themes of the "Illiad", "Odyssey", and the "Aeneid" (Keith 237). Ovid was different and was motivated to push the epic beyond its previous boundaries (Ovid). Perhaps in hopes to confirm the structure of his work, Ovid declares that he will undertake "one continuous song in many thousands of verses" (Keith 238-239). Ovid's wording here is a self-conscious declaration that he is going to write in the epic mode.
The literary technique of characterization is often used to create and delineate a human character in a work of literature. When forming a character, writers can use many different methods of characterization. However, there is one method of characterization that speaks volumes about the character and requires no more than a single word - the character's personal name. In many cases, a personal name describes the character by associating him with a certain type of people or with a well known historical figure. Therefore, since the reader learns the character's name first, a personal name is a primary method of characterization; it
The story’s two major characters are both considered as a stereotype character. Their roles were easily known as the author clearly discussed their parts and physiognomies in the story.
Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to