The portrayal of Feminism in 16th Century Literature
The literature of a particular era is influenced by the contemporary social political, social and cultural issues. Sixteen century lifestyle and way of living was completely different from the way we are leading a life in 21st century. The political, social and cultural transitions took place during the era. The repercussions of these states of affairs were felt in literature. One of the social issues in Sixteen century was the traditional role of women. Many contemporary writers portrayed ideal women in their literature. The portrayal was based on the established protocols of the ideal women. The character does not fit in these protocols, was given a dark shade or anti-feminist role. Shakespeare in his tragedies and comedies portrays a common typical character of his ideal heroines. To highlight the feminine idealism, he portrayed some evil characters also.
The status of women in sixteen century was very limited. They had very limited scope in which they lived their life and proved their abilities. They could not cross the social peripheries decided for them. They managed their houses. The major work assigned to them by the society was to be expert in household work, to be a good mother and a respected and obedient wife. The traditional female virtues were associated with innocence, morality and chastity. For the transformation of the society, for changing established rules, some people need to break the existing rules. In the contemporary sixteen century, the woman who tried to break the chain of her social bondage was penalized by exiling from the society. Being a woman, she needed to be loyal faithful and obedient to her father and her husband. They were subservient to men and completely depended upon husband or any male relative. Expressing views, sharing thoughts being vocal were not accepted by the social norms. Especially, when the woman was unmarried she had a high possibility of being targeted. The women had no right to talk against the patriarchal rules. Her rebellious nature, and opinions and outspoken views, and controversial actions (especially those that hurt male ego) were not accepted by the society and she was excommunicated. Anne Askew's story is the fine example of the situation of contemporary outspoken and rebellious women. Being well-educated and outspoken who was imprisoned for her rebellious approach. Apart from having a very inferior status to women, the contradictory part of sixteen century was that Queen Elizabeth 1 was ascended to the throne of England. Unlike the typical ladies of that age, she was well educated, well versed in languages. She was also expert in mathematics, politics and history. But it was not possible with the common woman. Being educated, scholar was supposed to be against her femininity. There is a famous essay of Virgina Woolf, in which she has created an imaginary character called Judith Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s imaginary sister. Woolf is sure that if Shakespeare had had a sister with same talents and intellectual gift of Shakespeare, it would have never come in front of the world. It was just because she would be a woman. Though this is a comic imagination, it is the truth. Being the member of such society, Shakespeare and Spenser use the typical protocols of the contemporary society in their literary work to show her feminism or anti-feminism. These protocols are not applicable in the modern world. Hence we cannot make the hasty conclusion that Shakespeare and Spenser were gender biased in their representation of the female characters. The historical facts also are important while analysing the female characters of either Shakespeare or Spenser.
Spenser's Faerie Queene and Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew for example, portray women characters from male perspectives. The depiction of Duessa in Faerie Queen as well as Katherine in Taming of the Shrew is based on Jungian concepts. Jungian concepts have two types, anima (female) and animus (male). The male psyche, according to Jung, projects two aspects of woman. Either they are beneficent or demonic, priestess or witch. According to the male projection, the women are either linked with forces of darkness or the divine world. The feminist and anti-feminist characters are depicted by Spenser through their names, appearance, and actions. Spenser has portrayed a typical Elizabethan lady, Una. She is shown as pure, modest and chaste. While introducing Una, Spenser uses the following colour imagery.
A Lovely Ladie rode him faire beside,
Upon a lowly Asse more white then snow,
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Under a vele, that whimpled was full low,
And over all a blacke stole she did throw, (Book 1,Canto 1 , lines 28-32)
Virtuous women are respected for their virginity. For being virtuous and ideal, the woman's foremost task was to cherish her virginity. Once she loses it, she is no more a virtuous lady. This was weird that the chastity and purity of mind has no place. The chastity was determined by the certain part of her body. Malecasta and Hellenore initially are shown as normal human beings. At that time their chastity is not clear. In the end, they are portrayed as vicious because of loss of virginity. The woman is respected for her beauty and her powerlessness. Loyalty towards their husbands and lovers would be one more major trait of Elizabethan women. The woman was glorified for these qualities in those days. In Faerie Queen, Duessa deceives both Fradubio and the Redcross Knight. Duessa is shown playing tricks with men. She is seductress. It is the general assumption of the era that if a man plays tricks it is for the good reason, (as played by Petruchio in The Taming of Shrew) whereas if a woman plays trick, it is always taken negatively. She is labelled as a deceitful. Duessa is labelled as a deceitful lady because she is not faithful and loyal to the male figure. Further she was powerful; rather her power was her beauty. In the same way Shakespeare also portrays Katherine’s character. Earlier she is shown as dire lady, because she is trying to raise her voice against the patriarch society.
The protagonist of The Taming of the Shrew has a gray shade. It is because of her anti-feminist acts. She is shown as shrew, just because she is headstrong. She is not ready to accept male-superiority and so she is not accepted by the society. Katherine is strong and independent and she has guts to subvert patriarchal institution of the contemporary society. But the heroine with such character might not have accepted by the contemporary society, so in the end, she has to be tame. Men are credited for taming the men, and taming means making them obedient and meek ladies from their rebellious approach. Gremio comments that “she is too rough for me.(1.1.55) He further comment his dislikes for her, "though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell" (124-126) Like Gremio, Hortensio also calls Katherine a devil and he further said that she will not get husband if she does not act gently and mildly. Thus Kate was depicted as a bad lady just because she is not capable of winning the minds of the men and attracting them through her soft manners, and feminine behaviour. While discussing the play from feminine perspectives, Dorothea Kehler states,
The explicit and implicit subjects of this play--arranged marriages, the authority of fathers and husbands, the obedience expected from daughters and wives, the economic helplessness of most women--were issues and experiences that touched the lives of everyone in Shakespeare’s audience. (Kehler pp.31-42)
Spenser uses the term 'maiden' to the virtuous characters such as Gloriana, Una, Belphoebe, Britomart and Mercillia. The maiden status is given to all these virtuous characters for their chastity, virginity and morality. In case of Lucifera, the term maiden is used sarcastically. She was a maiden because of her pride. Same case was with other evil female characters such as Duessa, Philotime, Acrasia, and Radigund. As discussed above, no one is interested in marrying Katherine. Lucifera one of the evil female characters in Faerie Queene is not married like Katherine. It is because of her pride that no man is ready to make her his wife.
The historians and feminists have pointed out that the women were suppressed in Elizabethan period. The suppression came from the ego problem and insecurity among the men of that era. As demonstrated by the historians and feminists, ‘the rebellious women were a concern for Englishmen during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.’ (Detmer) The author (Detmer) connects Petruchio’s taming strategy with the violence of authority and supremacy. Kate is like a hostage while Petruchio is like a kidnapper. Petruchio abuses Katherine in a systematic and sophisticated manner. As stated by Detmer, “the abuser and the hostage-taker assert complete control over the victim’s thoughts and actions through fear and intimidation” (Detmer p.284) The end of the story is interpreted by Detmer as Kate’s “proud mind, that is, her will or her sense of self” (Detmer p.281), is squashed, or “killed”, by “kindness” (4.2.179) Even if Shakespeare has depicted the story as a light comedy, there is a violence hidden in the story. Petruchio is very cunning and very well knows how to tame her wife and how to crush her ego without violence. Many critics believe that it was not Katherine but it was Petruchio, who was perverse and villain. The controlling and coercive methods Petruchio uses to tame Kate are similar to the actions found in one particular kind of domestic-violence dynamic, known as the Stockholm syndrome. (Detmer. p.284) Shakespeare's Petruchio is, in terms of Stockholm-syndrome categories, the quintessential abuser (Detmer. p.284) Brown further claims that 'Petruchi is not interested in a wife as human being or a companion; rather he sees the woman as a source of financial security and cares only about himself. (Brown 292) On surface level, certainly it is not violence as no physical beating is involved in his activity. But under the activity of taming Kate, he actually kills her spirit. According to Brown (308) Katherine is an unfortunate fighter, who has lost her war and finally surrenders herself to the male supremacy
I am asham'd that women are so simple
war wheret hey should kneel for peace,
Or seek forrule, supremacy,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.(162-65)
In the end, Shakespeare also welcomes the alteration of Katherine. He forces his audience to convince that Katherine’s previous behaviour was against feminism. Boose in an argument states, ‘And thus, as Kate is being "gentled" and manipulated to enter the feminine enclosure of the sex-and-gender system, the audience is also being strategically manipulated to applaud her for embracing that fate (Boose 194)
The depiction of the evil character Lucifera in Faerie Queene is also allegoric. She is equally wicked like her wicked counterpart Lucifer, who rebelled against God. In short Lucifera's major reason for being evil was her rebel character. Perhaps the women, who go against the established social hierarchical system and the authority of Church, were regarded as evil. It is mentioned by Spenser that Lucifera has taken the authority from her pride and not from her God. So this authority or the pride was false, because it was not approved by God. This can be the allegorical representation of the character of Katherine in Taming of the Shrew. Katherine initially was portrayed as evil, ill-tempered, ill-mannered, and self-conceited. She thinks herself superior to men, not because she deserved, but because of her false pride. She is not obedient and follower of the rules made by the males. She hates men; just as Lucifera hates God, or supreme power. In Elizabethan period, the place of husband or father was like God, a supreme authority of the family. The contemporary society would have never accepted such ladies, who were superior to their male-counterparts. The term 'Taming' is also disturbing and humiliating in the context of feminism. It means that probably Shakespeare is comparing the rebellious woman like the animals from the circus, and the men as their ring masters. The first step of Petruchio is to force Katherine for marriage. 'Your father hath consented/ that you shall be my wife; your dowry' greed on;/And will you, nill you, I will marry you.” (II.i. 262-64) further he ordered her “Never make denial; / I must and will have Katherine to my wife” (II.i.272-73) T. N. Brushfield may have recorded the social process by which the women of one as rowdy, brawling, voluble, and outspoken as men generation-perhaps have always been authorized to be-were shamed, tamed, and reconstituted by instruments like cucking stools and scolds' bridles, into the meek and amiable, soft-spoken ladies he so admires in his own time. (Boose 213) While describing the female submissiveness and male dominance, Shakespeare uses some significant actions such as throwing off the hat etc. Beck in her article “Shakespeare's The Taming of The Shrew” he referred the historian Stephen Greenblatt conclusion on Shakespeare's use of “Fetichism of Costume” that Kate's discarding her cap “demonstrates [Petruchio's] authority over his “tamed wife.” (Beck 5)
On the background of this stereotype feminism, we come across a different character of Britomart in Faerie Queene. Unlike typical Elizabethan housewives, Britomart’s character is portrayed as a brave lady with a fighting spirit. Britomart is a brave knight and an epitome of chastity. She is called as virgin knight. She is young, beautiful and brave also. But more than her bravery, she is appreciated for her chastity and her ultimate aim is to win her Artegal's mind. Had this aim not been there in her life, she would not have been portrayed as a chaste and virtuous character. Her character best exemplifies Spenser's ambivalent depiction of woman's authority.
In Shakespeare's representation of virtuous and vicious ladies, this comparison is made between Katherine and her sister Bianca. Katherine is as self-conceited, arrogant, ill-tempered and ill mannered unlike Bianca. She is portrayed as a vicious lady like Lucifera, just because she is rebel. If studied Katherine's character from psychoanalytical point of view, we can know various causes behind her nature. She is not fake, rather genuine and persistent to show her as she is. She does not like to hide her character and the weaknesses of the character. She is persistent that the society should accept her as she is and it should not impose its rule on her. Whatever good and bad qualities are there in her personality, she discloses it openly, may be it her pride or her selfishness or her jealously for her younger sister or anything. On the other hand, Bianca is superfluous. She hides her real personality. She tries to be a good and ideal woman. She tries to be loyal, obedient and thus tries to win the heart of her father and the male suitors, who pursue her. She tries to create her image as an ideal lady in the minds of the people. Selfishness is the vice that is associated with the evil ladies. How can one claim that Bianca is completely innocent and selfless? She has a strong desire to win the mind of a handsome man with good fortune. She knows very well how to win the heart of the men. In sixteen century England the virtuous ladies had ultimate chances of winning the heart of the young men. Bianca has become successful in establishing her image as a good, loyal, obedient, chaste and kind lady, who is an epitome of ideal feminism. If we discuss it from psychoanalytical point of view, the first thing which should keep in mind that everyone has a certain reason behind certain behaviour. No one from the world is perfect as portrayed in fairy tales. No one is completely bad. The past experiences, approaches, temperaments, circumstances around and the background are some of the factors which influence the behaviour of the person. The behaviour is determined by the person’s reaction to the events and incidents ensuing in his/her life. Even if there is a witch portrayed as a villain, it is necessary to understand the reasons behind her villainous act. Human mind is very complex and the person cannot have mere characteristics, either good or bad. In that case, both Shakespeare and Spenser have not succeeded in giving full justice even to bad female characters.
One of the major issues in the above discussion is that Elizabethan Age was a contradictory age. The absolute monarchy of the era was a woman, Queen Elizabeth I. She ruled England for 45 years. It was a considerably long time span. She gained lot of respect and honour by men and by the English society, regardless of her gender. It is because she was the Queen. But the common women had to deprive of the same honour due to their gender. The people, who respected Elizabeth publicly, had imposed excessive constraints on the women from their families. They were kept away from social, political, economic, legal and cultural rights. Elizabeth hardly took strong initiatives to elevate the condition of women of her era. She could have definitely done it because there was an absolute power in her hand. But instead, the era witnessed the subjugation of women under the patriarchal system and powerful religious authority. They were imposed certain protocols of feminism and those protocols determined their behaviour and overall way of living. The contemporary literature also was inflicting a certain values on them since their childhood. Their thoughts were blocked under male chauvinism. If they try to raise their voice, it was crushed by making them aware about the limitations of their femininity. This is the tragedy of feminism in sixteen century.
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