Womes´s role in society.

“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

FILM REVIEW.

As we might know William Shakespeare is an icon of the world literature. He is well-known by his poems, sonnets and certainly by his plays. Most of his work has been translated into several languages and his plays performed all over the world. He goes through basically for four periods during his writing’s career. All of them mainly deal with current issues for society or topics related to feminism, sexuality, friendship, loyalty, money and of course love, among others. “The Merchant of Venice” is movie based of the Shakespeare’s play; the story is developed during the XVI century.

Two of the main characters are Antonio and Shylock. Antonio, represented by Jeremy Irons, is a merchant in Venice he has a wealthy life and Shylock, performanced by Al Pacino, is a Jewish moneylender. These two people have some differences. The most predominant one is the religious beliefs, the Italian merchant is catholic and the moneylender is Jewish, this means that they are in a strongly opposition. Antonio insults and looks down Shylock so the relationship among them isn’t good at all. Both of them seek to show which one of them is better than the other. This struggle leads them to be in complicated situations; one of these situations is one time when Antonio spit on Shylock’s face. This is one act that represents an indescribable repulsion towards someone else. Later one Shylock states firmly that he is equal to everyone due to the fact he feels as everybody and a lot of examples that express that Jews and Christians should be seen with same eyes.

One of the main conflicts of the whole movie is a money loan. Antonio has to turn to Shylock in order to get a big amount of money to give it to his friend Bassanio. Shylock accepts under just one incomparable reason. He wants one exact pound of Antonio own flesh. Bassanio tries to convince Antonio to forget about the loan. However he decides to go on and accepts this risky condition. Finished the due time to pay the debt, Shylock is hungry for revenge. He takes Antonio into court, which represents a low state for a business man. Bassanio offers to pay the double amount of money but Shylock keeps on wanting his revenge. What the court asks the most is mercy, however Shylock is too blind to see that the court has more arguments against him. After all he loses everything and he is forced to convert to Christianity.

There is the discussion whether this master piece belongs to the tragedy or to the comedy category. It’s important to have an idea of what comedy and tragedy are. Comedy might be defined as light and humorous drama with a happy ending. While tragedy might be defined as where the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. So, this work has elements of both definitions. There are parts that are really tragic and full of sorrow and reflection. On the other hand there are some funny and relaxed scenes.

Seeing this movie has been a reminder to me. A reminder that helps me to understand how powerful and destructive prejudices can be. We all know how relevant religion is for a whole society, because human beings tend to have the need to believe in something. Even though when that belief, no matter which it is, turns into an excuse to segregate and hurt others then it loses all its valid purpose.

I think the work of Shakespeare has the intention to transmit the way things were and in some sense how things still are. The analysis of some values and the concrete acts is fundamental to understand the movie and the reasons why characters did what they did. Also the approach of some interesting issues as sexuality show that this play and movie’s purpose is to raise awareness among its readers or watchers. The ways Shakespeare and the director manage to expose their point of view are completely legitimate. However, it’s true that sometimes it’s no the same reading a play than watching a movie.

I really liked the movie and the discussion my classmates and I had

I. Introduction.

II. Opposition between Antonio and Shylock.

1. Differences between the two characters.

A. Religious differences.

a. Moments of arguing.

3. Money landing.

A. Reasons of it.

B. Consequences of it.

III Tragedy and comedy.

1. What is tragedy?

2. What is comedy?

3. Some of both.

IV Conclusion

Outline

The Faerie Queene

This allegorical work written by Edmund Spencer has a lot of religious and personal issues all over the letter. Moreover the predominant topic is certainly moral. Moral is definitely represented by virtues; virtues that Spencer manages really well. I think Spencer states his point of view and his moral judgment by making the most of the purpose of an allegory. The author hides his literal meaning by giving a symbolic meaning. There are a lot of words used by Edmund, all of them to express what he thinks is correct. The virtues mentioned in the letter (Holinesse, Temperance and Chastitie) lay between a balance in life. Perhaps his message wasn’t about reaching perfection but to find the right measure in existence. His best example is King Arthur, because he considers the knight brave and perfect in the twelve moral virtues that Aristotle devised.

For me reading this letter was a challenge. At times I thought that I couldn’t understand even a line of it. I am not so sure but I am giving a try; I think Spencer’s intentions are in some way to express his own opinion about the current political issues and to share it with Sir Raleigh. So a letter is the smartest way to pass on his message and to defend himself of misunderstandings.

What do women want?