The period of 500 AD to 1500 AD, known to us as the medieval period, saw the blossoming of a rather new art in the form of written and spoken epics. From long winded tales of heroic warriors to shorter romances and comedies, these stories are a fantastic tool in recreating medieval society and structure, as well as determining religious, political and personal ideas. Such things as women’s roles and importance seem rather like a modern movement, but in reality were very much active during these days, as seen in Beowulf and Marie de France’s Lanval. Although written almost two hundred years apart (with some major societal changes at that), both Beowulf and Lanval give the modern reader a great inside view of the roles, lifestyle, and importance…
In this essay I will discuss the ways in which the story of King Horn and the stories of the saint’s lives from the Katherine Group can be read as representations of the way women were treated and gender roles were viewed in the medieval period. I will do this by analysing the stories and language used within the text, how women are written about and portrayed, and how, in King Horn, the gender roles expected are reversed between the female and male character, and what that could mean.…
The Night Circus displays textual features that reinforce realities socially constructed hierarchy in regards to the masculine and feminine. The male/female binaries and societal denotations for the terms ‘male,’ ‘female’ and terms particular to the magical world such as ‘magician,’ strengthen the authoritative and dominant position of men. Within the first pages of the novel the reader is immediately made aware of the severe power imbalance between the male and female gender, evident through the first meeting between Celia and her father Hector.…
and identifies how gender roles or stereotypes are represented or challenged in a text. It is interested in how gender empowers or constrains characters in a text. HOW ARE MEN AND WOMEN OFTEN PORTRAYED DIFFERENTLY IN LITERATURE?…
Media plays an important role in the depiction and construction of gender. Several studies exist which have focused on gender role portrayals and gender stereotyping appearing in the media. Considering this phenomenon, gender stereotyping is not only displayed in commercials or other television programs, but these can also be found in media products directed towards children. One of the issues , which is of great interest to many researchers is that even fairy tales, like cartoons and animation films, present male and female characters portrayed stereotypically (Robinson et al. 2006:203). Fairy tales have been the first kind of literature with which children…
writers from Aeschylus to present day ones have discussed these issues in detail in their…
Woman are represented poorly in The Odyssey and there are many instances where they are treated as prizes, tricksters, and plot devices. The Odyssey is often referred to as the journey of men but it disregards the fact that women play a role as well as men.…
In The Odyssey by Homer, three very different women are in love with Odysseus. Circe, Kalypso, and Penelope all love Odysseus in a unique way and show it differently. Circe’s love for Odysseus is based on physical attraction, Odysseus’ accompaniment and body is the premise for Kalypso’s love, while Penelope’s love is the deepest for Odysseus.…
In William Shakespeare's tragedy “Macbeth“, Shakespeare explores and challenges the ideas of traditional gender roles, regarding leadership, power and masculinity. These different gender roles are used to shape characters and create fear in the readers He leaves the question of what masculinity truly is open for the audience to decide. In the following essay, I will show some examples where Shakespeare made his own gender roles.…
It is inevitable that society has made a stereotype for the definition on what it means to be a man or a woman, it was stated and believed a long time ago and has just moved through life, generation after generation. Society believes that men are the workers and providers and essentially the strength of the family, and women take more of a nurturing and caring role. From this, a man’s physical strength is portrayed as being strong and brave at superior and horrific times, yet through literature like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it shows that they can end up weak. There are many times in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, where the acts of “reverse-gender roles” are being detected in terms of what the stereotype states, between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This tragic play is a perfect example that in life it does not matter of what gender a person is, but what matters the most is what steps a person takes to prove his or herself in this world.…
Throughout the history of mankind, people have found some issue to divide upon and this leads to separate factions developing throughout the world. Eventually, these factions create false stereotypes for one another and this can lead to the development certain expectations between certain races. The Fellowship of the Ring, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, displays this characteristic in society and a comparison of this text to both the time period it was written and…
To this day, William Shakespeare preserves the reputation of a poetic genius. His work leaves room for everlasting imagination and interpretation, making him widely recognized as the greatest English writer. Shakespeare’s novel, “Macbeth,” incorporates many themes that not only help us explore past customs, but allows readers to relate to our present modern thinking, and its evolution over time. A theme I found to be intriguing is the importance of masculinity and how it correlates directly with power and cruelty. Throughout the novel, the characters make numerous references to masculinity, emphasizing its value and standards during these times. Shakespeare’s references educate readers about the mentality of people during the 1600’s and the traits in which defined a man. The role of a man included: dominance, ambition, and the ability to bare brutality with ease.…
J.R.R. Tolkien’s works have been analysed for decades and have often been criticised for the lack of female characters. Arguably his most cherished publications, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in particular has been condemned for the passivity of his relatively few female characters. Having said that however, throughout the three books, there are a number of female characters who combat the stereotypical role of women and subvert the norm of submission to a patriarchal authority. Arwen, Éowyn and Galadriel in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King do not conform to the submissive role that was expected from women during Tolkien’s time, as contrasted with characters such as Goldberry, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and Farmer Maggot’s daughters. This differentiation was further strengthened by Peter Jackson’s subsequent films, in which Arwen and Éowyn in particular are given larger roles than Tolkien had originally scribed.…
This is the only word that can describe my emotion after watching the film, “The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring”. It is the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and is based on JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novel series. It is currently ranked 13th on the IMDB, top 250 films of all time, which is amazing considering it was only released in 2002. This superb film follows the story of the unlikely hero’s that include, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee and, Aragon as they venture into their quest to destroy that one ring. It was the characters that suited their roles perfectly, and the themes demonstrated all through the movie that helped make this one of the most enjoyable films to ever watch.…
The Elizabethan perception of women being inferior and being the possession of men is shown through Othello’s dominance. Similarly, Odin’s dominance is used to show the underlying inequality between men and women in our society.…