The Repressions Of Women In Le Morte DArthur By Thomas Malory

A close reading of the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight reveals a very antifeminist view. The poem, told in four parts, tells of common medieval folklore. The stories seem to be of different plotlines, but start to intersect in interesting ways – that is, the character of Morgan Le Fay begins to frame the stories together. The half-sister of King Arthur, she holds intense hatred for her half-brother and his court. It is her thirst for the downfall of Camelot that makes this character infamous, and, surprisingly, her success and the strength of her ability that give a bad name to women. Through the examination of Morgan Le Fay’s character, it is clear that a successful woman is always an illusion.

As family life stabilized, marriages became lifelong commitments and patriarchal values increased in importance.Women and children with their lack of rights were dependent on the father and husband, or patriarch, of the family. Therefore, the members of the family did everything

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

“Lanval” by Marie de France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer are both medieval romances that put a knight on trial by a queen’s court for his treatment of a lady. Throughout the course of this paper, readers will get the opportunity to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and that during the twelfth-century women were superior to men, specifically in their relationships and marriages; however, today men dominant individuals, especially in working world.

Women have had many different roles in the history of European literature but have generally been restricted to the roles assigned to them in a largely patriarchal society. As a result of this society, these roles have often been powerless ones. This calls into question the constitution of a powerful woman in literature: in Beowulf, being a powerful woman means becoming the bond between families and alliances; in Lanval, power comes from assertion and control-- a powerful woman is a woman in charge. The primary difference between the representation of women in Beowulf and Lanval is that the latter transcends overarching patriarchal boundaries, and the former does not; the reason for their respective representations lies in the literary time periods in which the stories were written. From this, one can see that the introduction of romance as a central theme gave way to new representations and roles of women in predominantly heteropatriarchal English literature and gives new meaning to the analysis of stories like these.

The medieval church taught that women were inferior to men and that they should be compliant and obedient to their fathers and husbands. Men look down to women as their respect for their ladies are limited as in Canterbury Tales were these women start out as beneath men. These same men who feel the need to arrogate women of their dignity find their fate is later put into the women’s hands. Although a women is taciturn and does not speak out to the men and talk of their animadversion toward the men’s behavior, these same ladies have the power to then decide how these men should serve their punishment for their sacrileges and unruly decisions as in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, were after his life was saved by an old lady, in return this old women requested to him to “take me as your wife” (p.138). A women’s love and passion should be approached with appreciation and admiration otherwise being inconsiderate and impassionate will turn a women against a man.

Morgan le Fay is most powerful female role in this legend. Under the tutelage of Merlin, Morgan becomes a powerful sorceress. The Green Knight turned to Morgan for a proper disguise. She developed this entire scheme to test Gawain. The author praises Morgan, “Yes, ‘Morgan the Goddess’ / I will announce her name. / There is no nobleness / she cannot take and tame.” (ll. 2452-2455). She is powerful, but again like the Lady, she is suspicious and a manipulator. She might be all-powerful, but she is still marginalized in this legend. Morgan like the Lady is scapegoats for the knight's failures. The Medieval era is primarily known for chivalry, knighthood, and masculinity. Women as we see in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are on the periphery, afterthoughts, and scapegoats. Male characters in many Arthurian legends are individuals; medieval authors develop their role, describe their heroic efforts, and illustrate their masculinity. However, women are denied individuality. Guinevere, the Lady, and Morgan leafy portray the misogynist sentiment of the era. People believed that women were bound to unfaithful, loud, liars, slanderers. Such views are reflected in each of the roles these women play. Guinevere is an object of Arthur's wealth and silenced by the author. The Lady is bound to be an adulteress because of her beauty. And Morgan leafy while she might be an all-powerful sorcerer, she is an ultimately a manipulator and

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 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

For centuries, women in England and the Americans were seen as objects. Women were looked at as the weaker sex and as inferior (less than) to men. Men have always been perceived as the stronger sex, having the superiority and power over women. Traditionally, men were the authoritarians and the heads of the household.

Being a young woman of this generation, I have come to realize the validity of a common bumper sticker quote: Well-behaved women seldom make history. Despite the fact that there is no verified initial speaker to this statement, the older I have gotten, the wider my eyes have become and the more of the world around me, I have seen in its full, vivid colors rather than the simple, crisp black-and-white of childhood. In my elementary days, being anything other than well behaved was downright frightening. The ever-bearing fear of disapproval weighed heavy upon my little shoulders, because frankly, speaking against adults was unforgivable and meant no rewards in the form of sweets or shiny foil stickers with terrible plays on words. But, I digress, the trueness of the statement solidified itself the older I got when the reality became clear; women are to be an object, a fixture, a malleable ball of clay left for shaping at the hands of the man she shadows. However true this may be, this paper, my last soapbox to preach observations upon, aims to reference: The Wife’s Lament, Beowulf, Paradise Lost, The Flea, and The Poetess’s Hasty Resolution to reiterate and further emphasize the use of, shift in, and development of gender roles. My primary focus resting upon the roles of women in literature throughout the time-periods discussed within the span of the semester.

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.

In the late fourteenth century women were hardly educated. Their roles as members of the family were to marry and have children. Very few women were able to have jobs other than to care for the household and her children. Some were taught to read and write, but it was a slim amount of women that were guaranteed this opportunity. If woman had a son as their child and the husband died for any reason, then the woman would inherit nothing and the son would get all of the money and belongings of the father.

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.