Summary Of Hair In Paradise Lost And The Rape Of Lock

In the opening, she shares her childhood encounters with women in prose with the children’s rhyme “a little girl who had a curl”. This personal anecdote introduces the topic of the portrayal of women in literature, as well as establishes a connection with her audience.

In the text Mythology by Edith Hamilton, women are portrayed as being property and objects. During this time women were seen to be not as "good" as men. They saw perfection in relationships between men and young male adults as the best relationships to have. However, homosexuality was frowned upon. Men were considered knowledgeable and educated, but women were seen as a burden placed on man by the Gods. When it came to women nothing was valuable about them but their beauty. When a woman was beautiful she was wanted by many men: a man would do almost anything to have the possession of a beautiful woman and have her as his property. It was as if a woman’s role was to only be a man’s beautiful possession and to procreate the lineage of a

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

For thousands of years there has been a strong distinction between the roles of men and women. Often times in stories there will be women that are only mentioned for their beauty and charisma. Hardly ever will you see pages upon pages being spent talking about the true character and accomplishments of women characters. Even though stories like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis were written thousands of year ago, (when stories were told mostly told from a males perspective) the light shined on women in the texts show them as wise, strong, and greatly influential beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of  Genesis, the writer shows the women as bringers of knowledge,  guidance, and care to the men in the texts that are lacking thereof.

The stories told about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Although the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates love and devotion women had for Him. The stories of the bible describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.

Furthermore, the woman was never recognised as an equal in the world; with a “mane” for hair she is immediately relatable to an animal. When this connection is made, the woman is perceived as some strange creature; a mere mimicry of a real human. Harwood’s description of is a taste of how society views women; not quiet human. Now equipped with darker views of the flower filled day; the contemporary day reader is pondering to whether or not this vile practice is still belittling women of today.

In the Hebrew Bible, a significant section where this idea can be seen is in the beginning with the story of Adam and Eve, specifically in Genesis 4. When Eve is manipulated to eat the forbidden fruit, it poses the idea that the suffering of humankind was caused by a woman, showing the idea that woman react without consideration or senselessly, when really Eve was only acting on a very human trait, curiosity. When Eve convinces Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, one of gods punishment to Eve is “Your man shall be your longing, and rule over you” (p.97). Or when God describes Eve as “his woman”, God is essentially saying she is not her own independent person and is meant to be owned by men. This passage alone shows that women are viewed as people that were meant to be controlled; that men were always meant to be above them.

Eve provided Adam with companionship, gave Adam confidence, and also helped convince him to eat the apple. Even knew that she was subservient to Adam, however Eve liked being subservient (IV 480-485). Eve thought Adam was a great companion, and compared him to her other half (IV 489). She loved sharing the garden of Eden with him. Eve also liked having someone to talk to, share experiences with, and enjoyed someone being more responsible than her. She liked the fact that Adam was in charge and she went along with everything he decided.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” proves the ways in which hair was prized as an embodiment of a woman’s sexuality. In Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” hair is used as a form of currency and a vehicle for giving into temptation, eliciting notions of Eve’s original sin. Furthermore, the poem bears resemblance to Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. An important similarity between these two is how each story is presented: through third person omniscient. This perspective evades bias and favors morality. However, in Pope’s

“This was her latest masterpiece of guile: she set up a great loom in the royal halls and she began to weave, and the weaving fine-spun, the yarns endless, and she would lead us on: ‘Young men, my suitors, now that

Obviously primary to the narrative of, Paradise Lost, as may be said, borrowing again from Shannon Miller, the Genesis accounts of Adam and Eve’s creation establishes that clear gender roles were a result of the Fall: husbands shall rule over their wives while men

After the creation of man, life went on, but all was not well. Both Hesiod and Genesis reveal that an evil was introduced into the world. This evil was woman. Hesiod saw women as the root of evil. This is clearly seen in his Theogony when he reveals “He had fashioned the beautiful evil in recompense for the blessing of fire . . . For from her came the race of the female sex, the ruinous tribe of women”(Hesiod Theogony 585-595). This excerpt shows that even before woman was created; they were intended to

Man above woman, or woman above man? For the entirety of human civilization, this question of gender hierarchy has been divisive issue. Regardless, Milton does not hesitate to join the heat of the battle, and project his thoughts to the world. Since the publication of Paradise Lost, many of Milton’s readers have detected in his illustration of the prelapsarian couple, particularly of Adam, a powerful patriarchal sentiment: “he for God only, and she for God in him” (Milton, IV.299). In essence, this idea declares that Adam and Eve possess unequal roles – Adam is better than Eve, as men are better than women, in accordance to the deeply conventional reading of the relations between the sexes. Eve’s purpose for Adam makes her less

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.