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The ever unchanging Woman. Carole Adair Western Literary Traditions April
26, 2005 The Ever Unchanging Woman Throughout all the texts ...
... The man?s thought of the beautiful woman remains merely ... How ever it may have seemed
in Books I and ... only those things that are eternal, unchanging truths, it ...
... She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in ... It also expresses God's will, which
is unchanging because God is good and nobody can ever predict what he ...
... what is considered to be real must be eternal and unchanging. ... The man always initiates
sex, and the woman always accommodates without ... How can we ever be sure? ...
... present, and raising questions about her unchanging identity, when ... to the state of
the woman in the ... of ?womanhood?.Dushyanta refusing to have ever seen her ...
Submitted by cadair16 on October 20, 2005
Category: English
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Carole Adair
Western Literary Traditions
April 26, 2005
The Ever Unchanging Woman
Throughout all the texts that can be associated with western literature, there is one common view of women that repeatedly comes into light – they are inferior to men. While the roles of women have changed among the different texts, women are always portrayed as secondary to any and all males. I will argue that, despite the change in times, the views of women have not changed at all, but rather have always stayed in this view of inferiority and weakness especially seen in Penelope in The Odyssey, Hermia and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the view the three male main characters have of women in Herland.
Homer portrays all the women in The Odyssey as being inferior to men, however, it is with Penelope whom he especially portrays as inferior. Penelope is portrayed throughout the epic as a picturesque model wife, however, the model wife of those times took orders from any and all males despite how they felt about the orders. Penelope raised Telemachus, but as soon as he was old enough to understand the role of women in Greek society, he began to order Penelope around, reversing the reins of power (Homer 89). The suitors also controlled what Penelope did. She never wanted them in her house but she had no power to make them leave. Even when she tried to trick them, her tricks were discovered and they forced her to finish her tapestry (Homer 96). Homer did portray Penelope as the perfect wife in The Odyssey; it is just that the perfect wife in those Greek times did as she was told by male authority figures.
When we jump to a different time period and place, Renaissance England, the view of women still has not changed. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare portrays all the female characters as being weak. Hermia desperately wants to marry Lysander, but her father Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius (Shakespeare 135). Egeus cares...
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