__ July 2013
Since time immemorial, the issue of gender has been subject to much debate. Literature captures gender perceptions of people in the past and the widespread sentiments of gender roles and equality back then. More often than not, women and men were boxed into the same set of roles in many classical literary pieces. Women were always portrayed as frail, gentle, submissive and passive. They obeyed their husbands and fathers without question. Men in classic literature always took on roles that characterized them as brave, strong, aggressive and initiator. Decision-making was their turf and they occupied positions of power beyond the reach of women.
There were authors, however, who were quite ahead of their time. Their views on women were more expansive and open. Literature became an outlet through which they voiced out their objections to gender double standards prevalent in yesterday’s society. Like many of today’s feminists and supporters of gender equality, some authors considered or treated gender as a social construct and a mere product of human thinking and society’s need for order and balance.
A great chunk of the literary works covered this term spoke greatly of the traditional woman. Works like Beowulf, Yonec, Deux Amanz, Layla and Majnun, Ibn Battuta, an English translation of the Muslims’ holy Quran, The Oxford Scholar’s Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Song of Roland adopted more or less the same attitude towards gender. Proprietary views on women were abundant in these works, portraying them as distressed damsels who were naïve, waiting in silence and grieving over the loss of their lovers if they were not being subservient to the men in their lives.
In Beowulf, depictions of women varied and often contradicted with the qualities they possessed. Hrothgar’s Queen Wealhtheow and Hygd, wife of King Hagelac, were both women of quality. They were called cup-bearers and poured wine for their husbands and their guests. The men esteemed them for their wisdom and knowledge. However, though Wealhtheow may be “mindful of customs,” the act of pouring wine into men’s cups relegated these women to the position of common serving maids (Beowulf 40). In the story, Wealhtheow’s power, which included speaking before an audience, was merely an extension of her husband’s power. Mindful of customs also means that she continued to carry out traditional female duties. The only strong woman in the story was Grendel’s mother. The implication behind this binary opposition between Grendel and women characters like Wealhtheow is rather negative. While Wealhtheow’s adherence to the roles traditionally assigned to her was highly regarded, Grendel on one hand was from a “monster race” that killed many people (Beowulf 33).
Centered on the titular character’s mother, who was locked up by her possessive and beauty-obsessed husband, Yonec was the story of a typical damsel in distress. The “noble maid” rallied against her fate within the confines of her tower room. Instead of plotting her escape through her own initiative, she prayed for some “handsome, courtly, brave, and valiant” knight to rescue her (Marie de France 139). The author, though a woman, was of the impression that such a mindset was characteristic of women in those days. The girl could not defy her husband outright. To add insult to injury, the husband’s widowed sister, who was tasked to watch over the girl, was just as unsympathetic, voicing no objection to the terrible task assigned to her. Though herself a woman, she allowed the girl to suffer seven years of imprisonment and did nothing to ease her suffering. When the girl lost her knight lover, she merely wept and went back to her husband. She endured her marriage against her will and waited for the day when her son Yonec, the lovechild she bore with the knight, would avenge her.
Likewise, in Deus Amanz also written by Marie de France, the girl suffered the same predicament as the mother of Yonec. In the context of gender, the story’s plot has a string of controversial implications. First, the girl died after “sorrow for [her lover] struck deep in her heart,” an implication of an inability to stand on her own (Marie de France 132). Secondly, the father’s power was beyond question. Third, the knight ignoring the girl’s idea of taking the potion may connote a streak of pride that gave no consideration to her sensibilities.
Similar to the Lais of Marie de France, The Story of Layla and Majnun told another tale of tragic love. Like the girl in Deus Amanz, Layla was “kept” by her parents (Nizami 23). She fell in love with the sorrowful Majnun until the stars twisted their fate. The lovers both died in the end much in the same manner as the lovers in Deus Amanz. Layla died of a broken heart. She was the typical waiting woman in literature, who suffered in silence and dependent on her lover.
Ibn Battuta’s commentaries, though far from tragic, were couched along the same lines. His memoir was an accurate account of patriarchal Muslim culture, which many regard as not fair to their women. According to Battuta, a man could take four wives but a wife could only have one husband. An ideal woman for Muslim men was someone with “beauty, pious and chaste” (Battuta 216). Women hardly left their homes, he said. The men on one hand could eat and be merry anywhere else. They also entered into temporary marriages (an act a woman could not initiate or end by herself).
Much of Battuta’s commentaries, including the commentary on having four wives, were derived from the Quran, the Muslims’ controversial holy book whose provisions placed men on a much higher pedestal than women. Oftentimes, the Quran advised the man to take care of “your women,” representing a proprietary and less esteemed view of the latter (The Quran 145).
Chaucer’s The Oxford Scholar’s Tale depicted a woman who was just as subservient and hopelessly romantic as the other women portrayed in the aforementioned literary works. It was also a testament to the great power men had over women in those bygone days. The marquis was so powerful that even as he asked for her hand in marriage, he could “think best [whether to] bring happiness or hurt” to Griselda and even asked her to “submit to [his] will” and “not murmur, night or day” (Chaucer 288). The meek and always loyal Griselda could only reply “I'll never wilfully disobey you in thought or deed” (Chaucer 288).
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolved around the essence of chivalry and Gawain’s struggle to uphold it. A new mercantile class had emerged, threatening to weaken old Christian virtues from which chivalry sprung. With the intrusion of this new system, women like Lady Bertilak and Lady Morgan started deviating from their traditional roles (233-88). To remedy this, the author, through Gawain’s character, insisted a return to Christian doctrines.
The Song of Roland offered a refreshing paradigm to male and female representations, providing more insight to the role of Wealhtheow as a strong figure behind her husband. Like Wealhtheow, Bramimonda was Charlemayn’s queen and she gave him all her support. As mentioned, her position was an extension of her husband’s evident through this line in the poem: “Protect the King, and to the Queen be gracious!" (2705-32). This leads to the realization that though women were the force behind many a great men, they were hardly the force themselves.
Unlike the other works previously discussed, Paradiso, Ordo Virtutum and Prose Edda both offered more flexible and empowering perceptions of women. Through the character of Beatrice Portinari, Dante gave us a kind and smart character who knew much about the universe and guided him all the way to paradise. He esteemed the woman in a much better way than how other previously discussed male characters treated their women. He said Beatrice’s beauty transcended “all measure of mortal minds” and that only God can justify this “great treasure” (Alighieri 323). Giving Beatrice all credit she deserved as a woman, Dante conceded defeat. This acknowledgement of defeat made for a strong social implication.
Ordo Virtutum was Hildegard’s way of subtly defending the rights of medieval women by enumerating her virtues. In her morality poem, she represented women as the “Virtues” and the chorus of embodied “Souls,” an implication of women’s social suffering. Men, on one hand, took the roles of the “Prophets and Patriarchs” and the “Devil,” which may symbolize their powerful positions and their capacity to bring harm or evil in society (160-81).
What makes Prose Edda different from all the other works of literature, much like Greek literature, is its acceptance of the existence of strong and powerful women alongside the same sort of men. In the poem, women had the roles of goddesses, giantesses, völva and mortal women and none were condemned for the man-like qualities they possessed. In fact, the poem seemed to encourage women to nurture these qualities instead. Weak, frail and waiting women could not survive in harsh environments and circumstances most of the Edda characters were subjected to (Sturluson 2-9).
The roles of women and men have changed over the centuries and literature has become a living testimony to this evolution. Culture and religion have greatly influenced the way people think and act and how they view gender altogether. New systems gradually blur the old, thereby blurring past perceptions on and behaviour towards gender roles. What the past viewed as masculine and feminine roles were, at the end of the day, just interchangeable representations.
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy, Vol. I: Inferno. Trans. Mark Musa. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Print.
Battuta, Ibn. Travels in Asia and Africa (1325-54). Trans. Ibn Juzayy. UK: Taylor&Francis, 2011. Print.
Beowulf. Trans. Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. England, UK: Cotton Vitellius A.xv, 1571-1631. Print.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Canterbury Tales.” The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton & Company, 1993. Print.
Hildegarde. “Ordo Virtutum.” The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton & Company, 1993. Print.
Marie de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2003. Print.
Nizami. The Story of Layla and Majnun. Trans. Paul Smith. USA: Create Space, 2012. Print.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 162-213. Print.
Song of Roland. Trans. Leonard Bacon. New Haven: Yale UP, 1914. Print.
Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Trans. Lee Hollander. New York: Austin University Press, 1962. Print.
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics). Trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. USA: Oxford University Press, 2008.
