Women 's Literature : Oppression And The Role Of A Woman

Sita is a hidden hero because she shows respect, pure, sincere, and loyalty to her beloved husband even when she was tortured. Sita, Rama's wife, is the rebirth of the goddess Lakshmi. She’s a young beautiful woman, who is in love with Rama. Sita accompanies Rama into the forest on his "quest" and was nabbed by Ravana. When Ravana abducted her, he imposed her to marry him. She was very loyal to her husband and refused Ravana. In the novel Ramayana, it states that Sita accepts the torture of Ravana and Demon Rakshasa, but still doesn’t accept Ravana as her husband. Sita dismisses Ravana’s advances, guard. Even when Rama started losing faith in

From a plethora of many authors and compilations over many centuries comes the fourteenth century The Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern frame story during which there are as many as four implanted stories. In the outermost frame of this tale, a king who is betray by his wife vows to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning in order to prevent further unfaithfulness. The main inner frame are stories from one of his wives which she continues each night to keep the king interested and thus postpone her death. Through these stories, the reader can examine the role of men and women in this time, specifically how women function in conjunction to men in the text. The reader may assume the men are superior while the woman are inferior, but through close reading of the text, the reader will discover that women in the text are only treated subordinately by men in the story but are revealed to the reader as the more powerful of the sexes. Authors reveal the power of women by their prowess at trickery or “women’s cunning” (The Thousand 1181), and their ability to force the actions of male counterparts. The reader can examine men’s attempt to stifle this power, which further acknowledges the women’s merit, through the excessively frequent occurring instances of men treating the women as insignificant, as well as instances when women are turned to ungulate animals, such

Ramayana, translated by William Buck, is an ancient Indian epic telling the story of a prince named Rama who fights against his adversary, Ravana. Although there are many important female characters throughout the book, they are often seen as subordinate to their male counterparts where intelligence and strength are concerned. One character who proves this stereotype wrong is Sita, Rama’s wife, who often shows that she has the capacity of being just as powerful as the men of the story. By being more mindful than most people around her, Sita defies the expectations that many characters have placed on her. Sita lets the reader see another side of women’s power and shows us the strength that women could have. The reason that Sita proves to be powerful is that she seems to have an understanding of the deeper meaning of her life; precisely the quality that men don’t expect her to have.

In essence, society’s notion of female inferiority is reflected through the misogynistic views and actions towards women, as shown in the Greek society The Odyssey. These views, such as expectations of chastity towards women, continue on today. By recognizing sexist actions in literature, similar current actions can be acknowledged and

Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; yet they use different tools to define the roles of men and women within a good community. Or, in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women, by suggesting that one gender had more power over the other. However, these two narratives vary in their expression of such views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when relaying the experience of a woman that is highly different from that of other women of her time. Furthermore, another difference that is apparent to the reader is that men become the heroes in Beowulf, while “the wife” becomes

The topic I will be discussing in this essay is the varies roles of women in societies from the text we read this semester of different works from multiple cultures. Women have always substantially held traditional roles as well as often seen of different powers in aiding in benefit of the hero or aiding in his or her defeat. I chose to look at works from two genres we covered. I will be discussing women in the text of hero and that of a tragic hero. My goal is to compare and contrast women in both stories of heroes and those of tragic heroes.

As Rama obeys his father, Sita, Rama’s wife, convinces Rama that she shall go with him, thus fulfilling her dharma s being a

In the story Ramayana of Valmiki is a story that has often been passed down from generations from the original version of the story. In the story the Ramayana majority of the Ramayana’s view Sita as the wife who follows her husband when he is exiled for fourteen years who upholds her chastity when she is abducted by the Rakshasa king Ravana who goes through the ring of fire to prove her chastity (Anand). During the tenure of the abduction even after passing all these tests quietly, leaves her husband Rama who is the ideal man. When an ordinary washer man from his kingdom tells Rama about Sita of the doubts of her character forcing him to leave her. Despite the culture that these people live in an Indian society Valmiki’s Ramayana is one of those stories that compares women as creatures rather than humans as men use to treat woman as property. In the Ramayana culture they expect the wife the woman to be a virtue a figure assigning no reciprocal duties to the husband. In the sense the wife is nothing more than just a piece of property to her husband.

     This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods.  Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.

In a research done by Mcclantoc (2016), it can be deduced that the main ingredient of a good dystopian literature are the main protagonists who induce some kind of social change in their society or world. This applies regardless of the two types of dystopia; one that is apparent or in the guise of a utopia. In dystopian literature, the main characters are the average person. They are usually male characters. At the beginning of the story, they noticed the flaws in their society and question or disagree with it. The characters are devised and carefully laid out that they eventually show initiative to induce change in their society or world. Yet, the main female character who is included in the story alongside the main character serves as a trigger or guide to initiate the main character to make a change for their dystopic society or world. Despite how hard the female character provides aid to the main male character, she does not rise to be in the spotlight in the story. The theory by Gottelieb (2001) observed the criterion of how the female protagonist is viewed and portrayed in dystopian literature. The theory mocked the existence of the female characters in the story. It seems that these female characters only have two tasks in their story. They serve as the trigger to directly or indirectly start the main character’s initiative; to only step aside later and let the male hero take over and bring victory.

Throughout literature, the exploration of identity has been utilized to define the personal and behavioral characteristics that an individual contains as a member in a certain group. The subject: identity, can be found in modern works of literature such as The Hunger Games, Twilight, The Awakening, and Wuthering Heights. For example, in The Awakening, Edna’s husband looks at her as a possession but she fights against it and tries to find herself. She sees herself as a bird locked in a cage, and later talking about becoming free and breaking from the cage that holds her in.The book greatly shows the idea of feminism and the idea of breaking free from society. In the Victorian

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic, it’s Hindu scriptures and classical Indian epic poems that are usually written in the early Indic language of India, that follows Prince Rama’s journey through many obstacles. These barriers that he undertook through that expedition includes Rama going into the village to kill Titans with his mentor Sage Vasishtha, stringing the bow of Shiva, no man is able to complete this task, and being ostracized for 14 years and live in the forest with Sita and his brother Lakshmana, and the most stupendous quest that he accomplished was the one that he saved Sita. While living in the forest, the beautiful Sita captured the eye of a Demon ruler Ravana. Ravana abducted Sita and Rama rescued her with the help from the monkey king Sugriva. Because she was captured for one year and sleeping in another man’s house, Rama questions Sita’s purity and faith. To prove her chastity, Sita throws herself on a pyre in sorrow and she is spared by the god of fire. This proves Sita’s purity and after that Rama welcome Sita back on his side.

In the story Ramayana from Valmiki is a story that has often been pass down from generations from the original version of the story. In the story the Ramayana majority of the Ramayana’s view Sita as the wife who follows her husband when he is exiled for fourteen years who upholds her chastity when she is abducted by the Rakshasa king Ravana who goes through the ring of fire to prove her chastity (Anand). During the tenure of the abduction even after passing all these tests quietly, leaves her husband Rama who is the ideal man. When an ordinary washer man from his kingdom tells Rama about Sita of the doubts of her character forcing him to leave her. Despite the culture that these people live in an Indian society Valmiki’s Ramayana is one of those stories that compares women as creatures rather than humans as men use to treat woman as property. In the Ramayana culture they expect the wife the woman to be a virtue a figure assigning no reciprocal duties to the husband. In the sense the wife is nothing more than just a piece of property to her husband.

In the epic, “Ramayana,” by the Rishi (sage) Valmiki, Sita is the epitome of what an ideal woman should be, as she is the ideal wife for Rama, the hero. Sita takes care of her husband and listens to his words, despite situations that would cause others to speak out. As the ideal wife, Sita does not complain to her husband when he does not trust her, and she sacrifices herself to prove to him the truth. Sita says “‘My trials are not ended yet… I thought with your victory all our troubles were at an end! . . . O Agni, great god of fire, be my witness.’ She jumped into the fire” (Narayan). As the ideal wife for the hero, Rama, Sita displays as a docile individual who lacks a say in her relationship with her husband. She possesses the characteristics of a feminine individual, which according to Merriam-Webster dictionary is the “qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, especially delicacy and prettiness” (Merriam-Webster.com). Sita is a necessary character in the epic needed to display these feminine characteristics and traits. However, if comparing how important Sita is in the epic, she is secondary to Rama, showing a stark difference where they stand.