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Depiction
of Gender in Paradigm of ‘The Book of City of Ladies’
Gender
is defined as the stereotypical norms and roles assigned to being men and
women. These stereotypes have been assigned by the society and the culture and
affect everyone either male or female in their lives. From the birth of a child
to the adulthood where that child takes decisions and chooses what to do, the
child is reinforced by the societal norms. These norms define whether he can be
a leader, a war veteran or a caregiver. Apart from the developmental cultures
and societies, these norms have been in action and assign the women and the men
their roles and responsibilities to the world ("Understanding
Gender", 2019). This essay will depict gender in paradigm of ‘The Book of
City of Ladies’. The author Christine De Pizan wrote the book to portray some
light on the gender roles associated with women and elevate the status of women
by describing that women were able to do exactly the same things as men.
Christine had always been reinforced by the studies of the make authors who
described women as the source of evil and wrong doings and that they were the
bad creatures made by God. Christine, after studying so much literature on the
subject, became the victim to accepting this stereotype. The most commonly
accepted attributes of women were that they were not the right ones for study;
they were not capable of performing any work which would be meaningful and
productive and they were most vulnerable to committing sins. They were also
thought of as fragile, weak, lower physical strength and inferior. Moreover the
women can’t be rulers, they are thought of as sex slaves and they are fearful
creatures who can’t show consistency. The essay will depict these gender roles
of women characterized by the society and how these are not the actual ones in
reference to women (De Pizan, 1405).
The
women are thought of as unfit for studying. This means that women can’t pursue
education and do something productive with their lives. But as Christine asks
the Lady Reason about the women who might have contributed in the field of
knowledge, she gets astonished. There were many women who got education and
became known because of their education. These women included Proba, Sppho,
Manto who was able to predict the future and Queen Circe. These women along
with many others have invented new fields of knowledge, new methods of writing
and demonstrating and formulated the foundations which further laid the
foundations for the modern civilizations. There were other women too who were
indulged in the inventions. For example, Minerva was an ancient queen who
discovered many sciences and inventions. She invented new ways to craft
ammunitions by using steel and iron. She also invented many musical
instruments. Queen Ceres discovered agricultural tools and new methods of
agriculture. All of these women from history depict that women were not unfit
for studying and that the educated women also contributed to the inventions and
discoveries which became the facilities and requirements for the modern day
world. The world would not have survived and it would have to do so much more
struggle in order to survive if these inventions and discoveries had not been
done. This can be said that along with men, women also contributed in the world
formulation and these discoveries were the proof that women were totally for
for education and they can learn quickly because they too have better
intelligence, knowledge quest and have the brain equivalent to men. Similarly,
there are specialized fields where the inventions of women are the prominent
because these fields are related to women. For example, clothing field is
usually attributed to women. Sewing, dying clothes and painting are the example
of such fields. Women are also linked to literature. This discussion shows that
women are fit for studying and can pursue the fields of inventions and
knowledge (De Pizan, 1405).
Similarly,
in paradigm of the stereotypical norms associated with the women, they are
considered as the most likely to sin and they are the box where all of the
world’s sins are packed. This can be depicted by the attributes related to
women generally as sex provokers, sex slaves and addicted to sex. These
attributes are assigned to women by the men or the society and all of the women
are thought to fall in this category. This is not the case because not all
women can be sex addicted sex slaves or sex provokers (Kasl, 1989). There is
another notion that the all of the women are thought of as wanting to get
raped. There might be some women who could fall in this category but there have
also been women who didn’t commit any sin and remained pure for all of their
lives. Virgin Mary is one such example. She was a holy woman who never
committed any crime and she gave birth to a son who changed the fate of the
world. He sacrificed his life in order to save the world. Women are thought of
as wanting to get raped. This is not the case. There are many women who killed
themselves before getting raped and there are many who fought back to the
perpetrator of the rape and saved themselves from getting raped and honored
their dignity. This also excludes women from the fact that women are more
sexual than men and they want sex all the time. Women are more sophisticated,
pure and self-contained than men. This can be depicted by the notion that women
drink less and they also crave less sex feelings (Sharon O'Hara, 2019). The
women are also thought of as limited to certain fields where they can perform.
Therefore, mostly women are not allowed to become judges or lawyers. This is
because women are created equal by God but there are certain differences in the
structure, working styles, problem handling and dealing styles. These
attributes usually limit the women from becoming judges and lawyers. But this
limitation doesn’t entail superiority to men. As explained by De Pizan, an
ancient poet Ovid hated women so much that he mentioned and depicted this
hatred in most of his poems. He was notorious for sleeping with so many women
that he lost the respect for women and women could not have a say in his poems.
This depicts that most of the sexual attributes given to women are from society
and men and the women are not like as mentioned by men or society.
Women
don’t have the sense to speak and therefore they don’t have freedom of speech.
This is another gender based stereotype assigned to women. The women are not
allowed to explain themselves and everything one hears about a woman is from
the mouth of a man. This has deprived women of their right of freedom of
speech. This has also created hatred between men and women. Men assume things
of the women and then they specify these assumptions to women. As women can’t
say anything regarding this, these assumptions become facts and women are
lowered in status and this causes difference in societies (Brieger, Francoeur,
Welzel & Ben-Amar, 2019).
The
women are also considered fearful, non-courageous and inconsistent in the
society. Therefore, they can’t perform productive or meaningful work. This is
another gender stereotype associated to women by the men. This deprives the
women of becoming rulers or leaders. This is because they are thought of as
fearful and they won’t be able to handle the pressures of being leaders or the
rulers and they won’t be able to manage the people because they simply can’t.
This was proved wrong many times in the history. For example, Empress Nicaula
and Queen Fredegund of France are such women who became the rulers and the
successful ones and the history is the evidence for their success. The ability
of women to rule and lead is also depicted form the fact that the women run the
households efficiently and if men start doing this, they would fail. In the
discussion of courage, women are also courageous and brave. For example, Amazon
Queens and Semiramis are such women who fall in the category of brave and
courageous. Queen Artemisia took over the country after the death of her
husband and she saved the country from the foreign attackers. She was the one
who supported and prepared the Spartans to fight the Persian Army and stayed
with them for other fights too. This shows that women are courageous and
opposite to the notion that they are fearful. Similarly, in terms of
consistency, women have a gender stereotype of being inconsistent. This is also
not true. For example, Camilla, an ancient woman was a hunter and she decided
to remain virgin for all of her life and she stuck to her commitment. She never
lost her virginity and she was all about hunting and was a perfectionist in the
field although this field was generally attributed to men at that time. All of
these examples show that women are courageous, consistent and brave and can be
leaders, rulers and pursue any field of work. This also shows that women can do
productive and meaningful work as opposed to the notion that they are unable to
perform such work (De Pizan, 1405).
The
world has seen many shifts in paradigm of patriarchy. The women have always be
degraded and assigned negative gender roles with more burdens on their heads.
They have always been hindered from the productive activities and they have
been thought of as the lower creatures as compare to men. The essay considered
depictions of gender in paradigm of ‘The Book of City of Ladies’. The women
were considered as unfit for studying, unable to perform any meaningful and
productive work and most keen towards committing sins. The essay considered
many examples to show that these stereotypes assigned to women are not true.
Many women throughout history have been famous because of their knowledge and
intelligence. Women have been famous for inventions and discoveries too. Women
also drink less and are less inclined towards sex. They are dignified and
always try to protect their dignity. The women are also courageous and brave.
This can be seen by consideration of women throughout history who were
successful leaders and they bravely fought the wars and protected their realms.
They were also consistent. The above discussion shows that women are equal to
men and they can also do everything what men can do and the gendered roles
assigned to them are not reliable.
Works
Cited
Understanding Gender.
(2019). Retrieved from
https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/
De Pizan, C.
(1405). The book of the city of Ladies (pp. 1995-2022).
Kasl, C. D.
(1989). Women, sex, and addiction: A search for love and power. New
York: Ticknor & Fields.
Sharon O'Hara, M.
(2019). How are Female Sex Addicts Different from Males?. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-are-female-sex-addicts-different-from-males/
Brieger, S. A.,
Francoeur, C., Welzel, C., & Ben-Amar, W. (2019). Empowering women: The
role of emancipative forces in board gender diversity. Journal of
Business Ethics, 155(2), 495-511.
2
The Thousand and One Nights
The thousand and one
nights have remained the best piece of reading for certain years. It
is known as one of the best collection in which different stories have been
written, and are orally transmitted over several
centuries (Puchner, Akbari, Denecke, &
Fuchs, 2014) .
These stories mainly depend upon Arabic and Asian origin and have become part of western culture and heritage. It has
been considered as the most popular work of the literature that has drawn a lot of adaptations and imitations
from famous writers such as William
Wordsworth, Rainer Maria Rilke and Johann Wolfang.
It mainly focuses on the different stories written by the authors mainly
originating from the Middle East.
Although, it was a wise idea to combine
all these stories into one single book. In this way, readers can
easily read all stories of the Middle East
in a single paper.
This wise decision also
led readers to read different stories
from different authors and different countries. It can be said that the thousand and one night is a complete
package of must be read and must be known stores. It is a heart touching book,
that force everyone not to read only a single story but the entire book. The
interest is developed more and more once we start reading it. These stories
were basically derived from the south and west Asia, where a large number of
scholars and translators worked over many centuries to compose these tales. It
has also affected the cultures of ancient Arabia, India and Persia.
The book starts with the tale of Shahrazad and the
Persian king Shahrayar which have enchanted the readers for many years. The
story is about two brothers and an unfaithful wife in which King Shahrayar
order to execute her wife and marry a new one every night. One day he meets Scheherazade who begins to tell a tale on
her wedding night to the king. Every night she starts
a new tale but finishes it without giving it a proper end, in this way her execution got postponed until one day when
the king finally fell in love with her
and made her his queen. In the book, all the work done by the authors is really
fascinating. They have devoted a large number of
time to complete this gorgeous collection of stories that is also called
“Arabian Nights”.
Many of the scholars
and anthropologists have added a variety
of themes, genres, styles and narratives in the tales that everyone get inspired
by the work of popular culture. In the following story, Shahrazad was an
effective storyteller, which serves as the introduction of the circumstances
the storytelling began.
All the tales in the
reading are linked with the plot of first tale. In the following tale, Shahrazad telling the story to the king is the outer framework whereas the stories that
are told by her is the inner framework of the book. The tale of the thousand
and one nights has a unique structure and contain a different kind of motifs. One of the most famous motifs can be a magical object because most of the stories are based on magical powers and object. For example, a telescope that can show
his owner anything, a flying carpet, a healing apple, a magical ring, a magical
lamp and other magical things. All the stories in the book and told by Shahrazad are connected to these magical
objects and helped one of the characters
in each story.
Another structure or
context that cannot be avoided in these tales is the “love conquers all”, as every
main character in every story, do something for his or her love. They conclude
these acts to protect their love or to meet them. The stories told by Shahrazad almost contain all type of genres,
such as action, comedy, tragedy, love story, erotica,
poems and burlesques. Even the main frame of the story has described a beautiful concept that is admired by almost
every reader. The stories of the thousand and one night are not just
enchanting, but they also serve a great
moral at the end of the story. For example,
a vast number of lessons, hints and morals can be learnt from “the story of the
merchant and the demon” and “the story of the porter and the three ladies”.
Basically, Shahrazad gave a lesson to the
king through these stories on how the women should be treated and how should
they be treated in society.
There were also some
other stories that gave a beautiful lesson without hurting any feelings. The
tale of the ox and donkey and the tale of the merchant and his wife led to the situation in which the king finds
himself. In the story, Shahrazad beautifully makes
the king realize that her father was an
empty threat that her father will do exactly;
the merchant did to his wife. It can be seen that all the stories and
tales in the one thousand and one night has appealed
to modern readers, both old and young. The basic reason behind this attraction
is the air of adventure that surrounds
them in which youngsters feel the excitement as they go much deeper in the
stories. This adventure encourages the
readers, no matter what culture do they belong to.
In another story, where
the woman of the hands was cut off, has
been seen as an interesting point in the case of gender. In this story, it has
been clearly discussed how women can hold on their power other than things like
desire, beauty and sex instead of her generosity. The concept of this story was
to reflect the act of generosity that sometimes saves a human being.
Moreover, all of these
stories existed for a long time even before the collection in the oral
tradition. The most important significance of the thousand and one night can be
illustrated by two things, one is the collection of all stories in one place,
and the other one is its framework to imply a coherent whole. The stories and
tales in the book are not only different from one another but also have different versions of the same stories. The
following framework of the story not only links it with other stories but also
implies the level of stakes. The scholars have introduced a unique idea through
women telling a story, who need to tell an engaging story because of her life at
stake. This makes the inherent and importance fallibility of storytelling. The
stories have not just reflected the
culture of the Middle East but also gave
a pure collection of entertainment. The
main purpose of the stories is to focus
on the entertainment value of the story
which has been beautifully taken care of.
Most of the stories and
tales are really compelling even if they
straightforward type (in the sense of king), for example in the story of the
merchant and the demon, she embrace the king with a supernatural demon, which is an engaging effect. Moreover, the
stories are made more engaging because of its mechanism. The theme and
mechanism of the story allow it to be appreciated. It is the story plots,
characters and protagonists that have made the story more revealing and
compelling.
However, the thousand
and the one night had remained one of the classic work of Middle Eastern
authors, but it has not always been enjoyed as the status of high art. Many
modern scholars have critiqued on the stories by saying that it had focused
more on the manuscript of history, narrative
technique, structure and European traditions.
In the further editions, the authors can improve it a little bit, by improving
its narrative structure, and giving it more compelling narration. Other than
the cultural aspect, it has been one of
the best and recognizable pieces in all
of the literature. Moreover, it has become a unique piece, and people take it as an important basis while
learning the literature of the Middle
East.
Another important
factor of the thousand and one night is that it has been published in many
different languages so that every type of
reader can easily enjoy it. Antoine Galland
was the one famous author who translated these tales into the English language. There are several different
versions of the book that contained the same ending of Shahrazad being forgiven by her husband, but all the versions
have different reasons on how she was actually forgiven.
In the end, it can be
concluded that the thousand and one night actually displays the value and power
of women, regardless of the fact that all the stories were totally prejudiced
by the women. So, it can be said that the book was a symbol of feminist
literature. The writer of the one thousand and one night did not use much effort to create this book, as the
original story was already created. The only work of the writer was to combine
all these stories from different authors of the Middle
East. Due to this compilation, it has now become an important part of Arabian
literature.
References
Puchner, F. M., Akbari, S. C., Denecke, W., &
Fuchs, B. (2014). The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. New
York: WW Norton.
3
Essay Writing
Essay Writing
The Thousand and One Night
The thousand and one
night is a series of an epic collection of stories between the twelfth and
fourteenth centuries. The following famous book is also known as “The Arabian Nights”, and
in the Arabic language, it is called “Alf Laylah
wa Laylah.
It contains almost all types of western tales and Indian stories of the uncertain
date such as Sindbad the Sailor, Aladdin
and Ali Baba. It also represents the
golden age of eastern and southern
Islamic age. The main theme of the tales, circles around the two people in a
story named Shahrazad and Sharayar. It is not just the story that has made it an attractive piece of the Middle East, but
there are full of hidden symbols in the story with the western culture and
other religions.
The main objective of
this unique collection is not only amusement, but it also teaches the simple morals through its different stories
within the main story. The narration of
the stories is smoothly designed that make it more attractive and engaging. It
has only grabbed the attention of common people but also has attracted a number
of known scholars. The main reason behind this attraction can be its
storytelling techniques, such as structure, temporal dimension, structure,
narrative forms or the variety and ingenuity.
The narrative study of any context has remained one of the main concerns of narratologist, and they have done a lot of work
to make this piece a special one.
It is known as one of
the best collection of the history which was transmitted orally and has been
composed over the course of several centuries, mainly from the Arabic and Asian origin. Basically, it also contains a
little part of western cultural heritage as well. The original copy of the thousand and one nights only contain the genre
of fairytales, legends, anecdotes, stems of folk traditions and
romances from the historical periods. But when the time moved forward, it also
mixed an element of western culture in it. It has been one of the best work
done in the world of literature, and the
tribute of this goes to the best authors who made serious efforts to gain the
attention of readers.
The famous book of
tales starts with a particular situation,
in which when a person is trapped from an individual with greater authority,
then he or she does everything and can manipulate anyone in order to get freedom. The
story in the thousand and one night have
also done a very good job by giving a complete description of a person who is
in help indeed. The authors have done a
really good job to capture the attention of the reader. Hence there are many
little stories in the book, but the main context of the book goes with the story of the king named Shahrayar and his wife, Shahrazad.
Shahrayar is a famous and ruthless king, who is famous for
his cruelty and goes insane after catching his wife having sexual relations
with a slave. After seeing this, he realizes there is no trustworthy person in the
world, and he can never trust any woman
again. Due to these specific views about women, he decides to marry a new woman
every night and the next morning kill them without any reason. This act shows
his cruelty and brings death to almost
every woman of the village. But his act finally stops, when an intelligent
woman named Shahrazad came up with a fantastic idea that can save the life of other women including herself. After
marrying to that king, she started to tell him different kind of stories every
night, without giving it a proper end, which leaves him curious. This strategy
kept her alive for several days because
the king wanted to finish the story until the day came when he fell in love
with her and made her truly wife.
The most important
thing in this story is that Shahrazad was
so intelligent and cunning and kept herself spared from the king, and the king was unable to understand her strategy. She
was kept alive because of her vast knowledge of the king that helped her in
planning an escape. In this case, Shahrazad is captioned with a scholar, said
by the narrative, who has read every kind of literature, medicine and
philosophy books. She knew a lot of poems that caught the attention of the king and helped her.
The thousand and one
night can also be illustrated with another aspect such as feminism, which can
be reflected through her wisdom and her way of telling the story, which she
uses to change Shahryar and overpower herself. It simply shows the idea and
role of women in society and how their capabilities
are just equal to men. It also shows
another aspect of gender and power dynamic with an interesting correlation between them.
Furthermore, Shahrazad
told Shahrayar several stories that were mostly related to the downfall of
women caused by men. For example, in the story of “The merchant and his wife”,
it has been clearly showed that men should beat the women, in order to get
power, which has confused and mostly surprised its readers. It is a little bit confusing though, why Shahrazad told
this story to him if she wants to save women, but then it was clear that
the main reason behind telling this story was to show him a reflection of his
own. It means the actual message behind
this story was to show that it is cruel to beat women
and won’t force obedience. Surprisingly, this story actually worked for her,
and she didn’t get killed after that day.
Similarly, she told him
another story of an old merchant and a demon, in which an old merchant stops to
take a rest and a demon appears to him because he tosses date pits on the
ground. The demon gets angrier and threatens him with his life. The story
remains unfinished as the parallel between this story and the fate of the
Shahrazad are at stake of an innocent crime. Then in another short story of Fisherman and the jinni, the fisherman is
near the shore and trying to catch the
fish to feed his family. The story mainly concerns
the idea of the power dynamic. Suddenly,
in the story, a jinni came out of the
golden jar captured by the fisherman and tried
to kill him but failed to do so, because the fisherman
with his cunning nature, put him back into the jar. This story reveals the
concept of how the fisherman tries to make a fool of jinni, as a fisherman is the person
of lower status and was able to outsmart such a strong creature. In this way,
Shahrazad teaches the king that status is just a social construct and if we
keep our belief in good things and only
good things will happen to us.
The story of Ala-adin and his wonderful lamp is a very famous
story that has been illustrated in the
thousand and one nights. According to the story, the main character is filled
with greed, and when he meets with a genie and turns his low-life into a respected one, he became a new man. But his desires were
unstable and now wanted to get sultan’s
daughter for this time and get successful by his smartness. This showed that
there is no much importance of the status and it is an imaginary thing. The story showed that Ala al-din is powerful in actual and don’t need any type of labelling
to prove himself.
The major themes of the
thousand and one nights are related to human
experience and life. Basically, it is concerned with the fate, immortality,
death, love and happiness in the manner of discussing cultural boundaries. It
also reveals the spiritual context by
raising questions like how to live in a world
that is both evil and good. To cover these
following texts, all the tales have represented various characters such
as witches, magicians, good and bad demons and kind rulers. All of these
stories are created to give an important message and to address the human to
solve several matters such as the relationship
between sexes, the quest for spiritual
perfection and inevitability of human desire. All these tales mainly describe the
important themes of forgiveness, power, justice and gender, that
have also been created in subsequent tales.
It is a famous and
popular book whose first edition was made by Antoine Galland whose main contest
was based on the four Syrian manuscripts.
Later on, when it was revised to greater context, many stories from the oral
and other sources were added into the book. The book is also translated into
Arabic, English and many other languages and also printed for several times.
These tales have kept the readers engaged and developed a powerful interest, so
it can never get old or forbidden. All of these stories are not only
interesting for aged people but also
attracts young people towards itself.
References
Puchner, F. M., Akbari, S. C., Denecke, W., &
Fuchs, B. (2014). The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. New
York: WW Norton.
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