The City Of Ladies Analysis

Throughout history men have been leading the battles, conquering worlds, discovering new lands, but behind every good man is a good woman! So, as I read this week, I learned an enormous amount of information about the diversity of the different roles women play according to where they might live or what era they grew up in. I will address the rights that women had, how they are viewed in society, the comparison between these women and the ones from the New Testament, the evidence to support my claim.

Prior to and throughout the late middle ages, women have been portrayed in literature as vile and corrupt. During this time, Christine de Pizan became a well educated woman and counteracted the previous notions of men’s slander against women. With her literary works, Pizan illustrated to her readers and women that though education they can aspire to be something greater than what is written in history. Through the use of real historical examples, Christine de Pizan’s, The Book of the City of Ladies, acts as a defense against the commonly perceived notions of women as immoral.

A woman’s alternative would be becoming a nun, giving up all social freedoms and dedicating your life to serving the poor and God. Women who were subject to this life received a much more thorough education than other women, in order to properly learn religious concepts and theory. Otherwise, a woman’s education was limited to basic reading abilities paired with instruction on how to do homely activities. A woman of this time period had utterly no voice in politics. Law was man’s law. The life of these women were controlled by the men who surround them, their opinions meaning little to nothing. The life of a woman in medieval times was bleak and varied little. Romantic literature was on the rise, full of damsels in distress that only further perpetuated negative stereotypes of women during these times. These romances were full of helpless women in situations only a man could get them out of, or else they would be doomed. Despite this cultural oppression of women in this time period, some strong female characters were erected in medieval romances. A perfect example of an abnormally strong and independent female main character would be Enide from Erec and Enide written by Chrétien de

Ihara Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman written in the 17th century and Mary Woolstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written in the 18th century are powerful literary works that advocated feminism during the time when women were oppressed members of our societies. These two works have a century old age difference and the authors of both works have made a distinctive attempt to shed a light towards the issues that nobody considered significant during that time. Despite these differences between the two texts, they both skillfully manage to present revolutionary ways women can liberate themselves from oppression laden upon them by the society since the beginning of humanity.

There was also a quote that stated, "Philippa had what are known as High Church proclivities, and took the matter seriously." This quote shows that they take church and religion seriously. Throughout the story, religion is talked about showing that the religion theme is extremely important to the narrator. Also in the story, you see that fasting and praying is a major part of their lives. Mr. Yeates also discussed how his wife was highly honored and always brought a gift with her. Lastly, Mrs. Knox praying for her family also shows that religion was important to these people. The next theme that was present is feminism because throughout the book the woman dominated the man, instead, of the man dominating the woman. You can see this in the beginning when the narrator talks about them dating for 5 years and Philippa, finally, giving him an ultimatum. The next example is when Mr. Yates said, "chiefly, I imagine, because I was a worm before her, and thankfully permitted her to do all the talking." Next, you can see this when Mrs. Knox and Mr. Hamilton had sometime gotten into a fight, and she would not go to church with him, but drove five miles away and go to another church, and the church they went to as a family was right in their back door. During this time period it was unthinkable for a woman to stand her ground against a man, and especially her taking the stance to not only go with him to church, but to go to another church on her own. I think it is pretty ironic, and funny that even though Mr. Yeates' wife dominated him, he defended his wife when needed. Love was a major theme because the story began with the narrator talking about getting married. Marriage is a big symbol of love because normally you do not get married if you do not love the other person. I think the theme love is a great theme for this story because they show their love

Part one of the book follows Lady Reason and Christine. Lady Reason helps Christine build the foundations for The City of Ladies, both literally and

Christine de Pizan’s view also aligns with Augustine’s medieval view of leadership. Machiavelli’s view, however, strays the farthest from Plato and Augustine. In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine presents an allegorical city made up of great ladies from history. Allegorical characters Reason, Rectitude, and Justice guide Christine

In medieval literature, the role of women often represents many familiar traits and characteristics which present societies still preserve. Beauty, attractiveness, and grace almost completely exemplify the attributes of powerful women in both present and past narratives. European medieval prose often separates the characteristics of women into two distinct roles in society. Women can be portrayed as the greatest gift to mankind, revealing everything that is good, pure, and beautiful in a woman's life. On the other side of the coin, many women are compared to everything that is evil and harmful, creating a witch-like or temptress quality for the character. These two aspects of European culture and literature show that the power of

In the fifteenth century, Christine de Pisan dreamt of building an ideal city for eminent and virtuous women, and with the help of her three "muses," the sisters Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, she reflected on the many women in history and mythology who might live together in this Cité des Dames. Almost exactly four centuries later, the American sculptor and feminist Harriet Hosmer envisioned a beautiful temple dedicated to the achievements of women. Now such a grand idea has been realized.

An unlikely candidate to dispute the unfair, misogynistic treatment of women by men and society, Christine de Pizan successfully challenged the accepted negative views that were being expressed about women by the all-male literary world of her era. Part of Christine’s uniqueness stems from the time in which she lived, the middle to late 1300’s. The lack of a positive female role model to pattern herself after made Christine a true visionary in the fight for the equal rights of women. Her original ideas and insight provided a new and more intelligent way to view females. Pizan’s work, The Book of the City of Ladies, provided women much needed guidance in how to survive without the support of a man.

Women withstood a multitude of limitations in the medieval era. Due to the political, social, and religious restrictions women encountered, historians neglected to realize that they demonstrated agency. The female experience is something that has been overlooked until recently. Unfortunately, without the knowledge of how women found ways to exert their power, we are experiencing a deficit of knowledge in this period. Through the close examination of the primary sources: The Gospel of Mary, Dhouda’s Liber Manualis, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the creative means of female force are displayed.

Fortunately, in the 14th century, it is said that the literature of Christine de Pizan, who declared that God created men and women to be equals was the first of many to contribute to feminist criticism. As centuries past, both male and female voices who fought for women to be heard and accepted as scholars, artists and writers were accepted. The development of the feminist criticism slowly developed through the centuries but major progress occurred during 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. No Longer at Ease being published right before the progress started is based on a male perspective and male superiority can be seen throughout. However, in chapter twelve, Obi tries to ignore the fact that he received an urgent letter from home but focusing on any and everything else. But the underlining focus in this chapter are women as an important subject matter. The use of language, the point of view and the dialogue in the chapter will have one who is a common reader see that the subject as being when Obi received the letter from home, Mr. Green actions of an old colonial lord and Obi and Christopher visit to Nora and Pat at the

The women play a big role in the story The Book of the City of ladies and the movie The Lion in Winter. In the story The Book of the City of Ladies women are the main character. The role of the women in this story was to present an accurate portrait of the true and essential nature of women and show that the world that men and women are as good as one another. Feminism in 1405 was terrible and even now in 2017 still has a long way to go. The Book of the city of Ladies is not just a story but it’s kind of an anthology of women from ancient history doing crazy, amazing, and often gory things. This story revels the truth about women and how powerful we really are and how when we really put or minds to something we can achieve it. Christine de Pizan built a whole city from the ground up, if that alone doesn’t show you how powerful women are, that nothing will.

Feminist theory analyzes the gender inequality that women have faced throughout the years due to a patriarchal society. Women were expected to fit the traditional female and conform to the gender norms that society has constructed. According to A Brief Introduction to Critical Theory, “Feminism embodies a way of reading that investigates the text’s investment in or reaction to the patriarchal power structures that have dominated Western culture” (227). Patriarchal power has oppressed women economically, socially, and politically. Women were associated more with domesticity than with politics and financial situations. They were not provided the same educational opportunities as men. These issues have been addressed by people, such as Mary

The technique in this chapter is hallucination, which is very fitting. On page 473(580:2-3), the mother rises from the floor covered with crud, and recites in Latin a prayer for the dying, as if she is patronizing him.  His failure to pray for her and endure his religion caused a major rift on his conscience. Condemnation consumes him which makes one wonder why he ever did gave up his Catholic practices.