Power In Hrotswitha

Women in Ancient Greece were shown to be treated unfairly and less superior to men in homes, as wives, and in society as shown in Sophocles's play Antigone. They were looked down upon and thought of as less intelligent, as if they weren't really needed except for reproducing, doing housework, and taking care of children. Also, women were considered dangerous due to their emotions as they could hurt themselves or someone else. Antigone presents a variety of these ideas of how Women's roles played out in Ancient Greece.

Typically in Athenian society, women took care of the things in the household while men, although still retaining the final say over matters of the household, focused most of their attention on the world outside the home. In the plays Assemblywomen and Lysistrata, Aristophanes explores roles of men and women in society, specifically what would happen if women were to take on the roles of men. Looking at these two plays about Athenian society as metaphors for marital life, it shows that men and women were incapable of having balanced power in their relationships. In both of these plays, the men were unable to keep their own sense of power when the women took over politics, and

Women have been belittled by men since the beginning of time. This is demonstrated in the novels Oresteia by Aeschylus and Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. Men have always held the upper hand in society, politics, and technological advancements. Women have been purely sentimental sexual objects. Freud is keen to state that a man’s wish to fulfill his sexual desires is crucial. Women are cast as purely sexual objects, and, furthermore, as entirely unreasonable and illogical. In the novel Oresteia, we learn how women are sensitive, emotional, and exceptionally incoherent to men in the play. However, throughout the play the women, such as Clytemnestra, the king’s wife, prove that women are not pieces of meat. She is a great leader who is a remarkably strong mentally, and who can easily outsmart a man. However, women like Clytemnestra are a minority in these works of literature. Most women are perceived in literature as domesticated creatures who are irrational and emotional. Freud maintains a condescending attitude toward women, seeing them as mere objects, while Aeschylus helps reinforce Freud’s attitudes. By enforcing the gender roles in Greek society it is easy to reflect powerful female character who carry the mentality of a man, portrayals of "wrong womanhood" and solely displaying women’s sexual and family interests.

Throughout this time, they were meant to be loyal to their husbands, and could not speak up and defend themselves. This expectations are illustrated at many points in the story. For instance, when there were suitors waiting at Odysseus’ palace to marry Penelope, she waited for Telemachus to make them leave. She went downstairs to tell the bard to sing a different song, and Telemachus said “Mother, why begrudge our singer/…?/ .../ You should go back upstairs and take care of your work,/ Spinning and weaving.../ Speaking is for men,” (1.366-378). These words show many stereotypes women were tied to, such as not being able to fight for themselves, and not being able to do whatever the. Another representation of the lack of power of the females was exposed in the underworld. While odysseus was talking with the spirits, he had the opportunity to talk with Agamemnon, who has had been assassinated by his wife. Agamemnon explains “As I lay dying with a sword on my chest,/...my wife, turned her back on me,/...Nothing/ Is more grim or more shameless than a woman/ Who sets her mind on such an speakable act/ As killing her own husband” (11.341-346). She was insulted because she did not want to have any type of relationship with her husband, and this shows how tied they were to the idea of loyalty. She was not being shamed because she killed a person, since many men in the story killed sons and daughters and fathers

In the book, women are seen to be submissive and males to be in control. This is evident in Telemachos response after Penelope’s “begrudging” of the famous singer, Phemios within her own palace “Go therefore back into the house, and take up your own work, the loom and the distaff, and see to it that your handmaidens ply their work also; but the men must see to discussion, all men but I most of all. For mine is the power on this household.” (36) Telemachos is Penelope’s own son in which he talks down to go do household work, with the claims of himself being the one in power of where they reside. Through this quote, the female gender

According to CollegeTimes, four in ten businesses worldwide have no women in senior management. This stems from many countries not being comfortable with women in the position of power. The leadership in Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea is the exact same way. Comparatively, not one woman in these books has a leadership role. Creon, a character in Medea, even says he would never let a women rule above him.

Women in the sixteenth century were commonly dominated by a patriarchal society. Meaning their loyalty and respect lay amongst the men in their lives with little choice for opposition. In Othello by William Shakespeare, he portrays the role of women in a way typical to their representation in Elizabethan and Venetian society. While the women may be presented as mentally stronger than their male counterparts, the language given to these female characters suggest that they have internalized society 's expectation of them. Apart from moments of private conversation and Emilia 's reaction to Desdemona 's death, the women behave in a submission that is expected of them, believing it to be the natural way, as the men continue to downgrade and treat them as secondary citizens. Shakespeare represents this status of women through the traditional views of the male characters, moments of submission from the females, and how the women internalize this society.

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

Women are seen as fickle, emotional creatures that spend most of their time on nonsense. Women are also known for their ability to hold a grudge, remember every wrongdoing ever done to them, and for their aptitude for revenge. Most women today would disagree with this stereotype, and women have made great strides, but women’s roles in society have not come as far as we may think. The roles of women in Shakespeare’s Hamlet demonstrate that women are fickle, obedient, and passive, but in Euripides’ Medea women are exhibited as aggressive, prideful, and subject to extreme emotion.

During the time in which the play took place society frowned upon women asserting themselves.  Women were supposed to play a role in which they supported their husbands, took care of their children,

All things considered, women are very underestimated when being compared to men. All women in this play were without power, a stay at home wife, without a clue and without the ability to stand on their own two feet. Whereas every male character in the play held all the power, were the bread winners, were rational and more than capable to think and be on their own. What this

When observing gender in our society, women and men are stereotyped with specific roles. Men have always been seen as the family’s main source of income whereas the women take care of their home and children. However, Shakespeare challenges these gender roles in his play with the three female characters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. While all three are independent, powerful women and even lead their armies into battle, the men seem to be foolish and weak such as King Lear and Albany. Furthermore, Mira cel Batran makes a point in her essay, “Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s King Lear”, that although women are regarded as dependent on men, Shakespeare explains that it can be the exact opposite. The men seem to depend on the women such as King Lear depending on Cordelia and Albany depending on Goneril. Shakespeare, in his play, King Lear, portrays women who are strong and intelligent and men who are weak or overpowered by female characters, challenging the societal belief that women are inherently less than or dependent on men.

In the Middle Age literature, women are often presented or meant to come off as an unimportant character; which can also reflect on how the author wants the women character represent. Women are usually shunned, have no say or control in what they do; due to what men desire; like Ophelia and Gertrude did in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But these female characters that I will discuss are women with power, control, and a voice. Majority of the female character’s appearances are made to represent wickedness, evil, or a seducer who challenges a man belief; and does not symbolize perfect women.

The characters Hermia,Helena and Titania were effected most by the superiority role of the men in the play. This is because the men in the play, reach high circumstances to get what they what and to tell the woman what to do. Therefore, women's’ inferiority in the play makes it impossible for them to achieve true happiness attributable to the superiority the men in the play believe they

Shakespeare and the members of the Elizabethan era would be appalled at the freedoms women experience today.  The docility of Elizabethan women is almost a forgotten way of life. What we see throughout Shakespeare’s plays is an insight into the female character as perceived by Elizabethan culture.  Shakespeare’s female characters reflect the Elizabethan era’s image of women; they were to be virtuous and obedient and those that were not were portrayed as undesirable and even evil.