“Literature allows us to understand better the human condition and transforms each of its readers inwardly”(Todorov, 30) I must confess that this quote call my attention enormously. However, this other call it even more “The study of literature is basically the study of man, his relation to himself and to the world and his relation with others”, quote extracted from a report issued by The Association des Professeurs de Lettres. Reading that quote I got the feeling that women and everything related to the female aspect of life and therefore, literature was left aside; that´s why I am so interested in writing about the women´s role in society, taking into account some of the most famous master pieces of literature.
To begin with my topic, firstly I will contrast the portrayals of Miranda by Shakespeare in The Tempest and of Alison or Alice by Chaucer in The Wife of Bath. This is to say to show how different these two characters came to be. On one hand we have Miranda who is a dutiful daughter . The only case of disobedience we see within the play is when she gives Ferdinand her name after her father explicitly forbid her to speak to him. What I think Shakespeare is suggesting that a woman should have intelligence, charm and modesty, but not too much of anything. They should go from the house of their father to the house of their husband. However, it should also be a husband worthy of the woman. Ferdinand proves to be worthy of her by working to win Miranda´s heart and hers father´s acceptance. The other point I can make about this character is innocence. Shakespeare is maintaining the innocence of his female character along the whole play I think Shakespeare portrays Miranda as pretty much a child. This situation is absolutely convenient to her father, Prospero. Perhaps, Miranda wasn´t a central character but she was important. She was described so in many subtle ways and done so in a way not appealing or corresponding towards the women of today.
On the other hand we have Alison from The Wife of Bath, who has a really distinctive voice and a dominant position. Alison is an example of the control that women should have, according to her ideas. She is a strong-willed woman who tries hard to get what she wants and when she wants it. She should not be controlled or told what to do by others, especially by a man. She had five husbands and she is looking forward to the sixth. I think Chaucer is trying to emphasize women´s freedom and sexual liberation. I still remembere about the question raised in class, what do women want? What a difficult question to answer. Alison definitely wants to break the mole and she does it in lots of ways. The image of women we get from the tale is full of bravery. I think that is what women want at some point; to show how brave we are and to live every second as the last one.
After contrasting these two relevant characters of literature, one from the sixth century and the last one from the fourth century respectively; we are able to realize that women´s image and thus women´s role in society has changed as time goes by. Long time ago, women were devoted to issues related to the house. For example in the medieval ages women were totally dominated by the male members of their family. The women were expected to instantly obey not only their father, but also their brothers and any other male members of the family. Disobedient girls were beaten into submission and breaking the rules was seen as a crime almost against religion. So, being a woman was not easy at all. You needed to stick to what was normal and expected from women. Opposite to that, we find the women’s role in the 21 century; a role that might be kind of shocking for some people. Women are present in everywhere we look at. We are a strong and relevant element of this society. It´s not longer weird seeing women who are more concerned about our happiness rather than about other´s. Women who know perfectly what we want and who are determined willed to fight for it.
Tentatively, when we think about literature, we don´t make the link with classroom teaching; in my case, it´s way easier to relate literature with university contexts, and at the most, with high schools environments. I guess this is because of the bad use of the term literature, I just feel we tend to put it away from us. Thinking how to apply literature into the classroom, especially into English as a Foreign Language classroom, it would be a good idea to bring small pieces of writing to the class. Pieces of writing that have a lot to do with what students are going through in that moment; trying to make the reading a more meaningful activity. I think the key is to connect the story or/and the characters with the life of our students. Then to reflect on the issues that text might bring up, for example the role of women. Doing that we can make student to reflect on what happened and what is happening nowadays. It would be a good exercise for students to listen to other people´s points of view so they can be more tolerant.
To sum up, men and the whole society has had to come to terms with women exercising their recently acquired rights in their jobs, in politics and at home. The respective roles of men and women has changed undeniably transforming that way the nature of family, society, culture and politics ; together with economics. Gender inequality has been always an issue in the middle ages and now. The only difference is that now women have the right to speak about what we like and what we dislike. That´s why Fetherolf states, “There will always be social and institutional constructs around what is male and female, but they not need to be unequal in value”. ( Fetherolf, 5). There we can realize that men and women will always be different, the answer is that whatever we do, no matter by woman or man, should have the same value.
Bibliography.
1.Burke, Mary. Reaching for Justice: The Women´s Movement. Center of Concern, Washington, 1980
2.Fetherrolf, Martha. Women, Gender and Work. International Labour Office-Geneva, London, 2001.
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3.Todorov, Tzvetan.What Is Literature For?. New Literary History - Volume 38, Number 1, Winter 2007, pp. 13-32.
4.http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projf983a/charac.htm
