women in literature article
The changing position of women in literature from the late 9th century M. C. to the
4th hundred years A. D. is obvious in that girls become much more subservient in later
performs. This is pictured in the functions The Odyssey by Homer and Sakuntala by
Kalidasa. Women will be treated more like slaves in Sakuntala, while they are seen
more like means in The Journey. However , in Sakuntala, girls are given more
responsibilities, suggesting that people of times viewed girls capable of
doing more and more and perhaps more intelligent, instead of being known as
ornamental, just as The Journey. The Odyssey was created in a time the moment men played out
the dominant role. In ancient Greece, women occupied a submissive, obedient, compliant, acquiescent, docile position.
Contemporary society was organized and aimed by males, and all of the main
positions in society were hosted by men. Women were valued, nevertheless they participated
in the affairs worldwide only when they had the authorization or wide open approval
of the men who directed their lives. The literature of this time demonstrates
these cultural conventions. No reader of The Odyssey can help having vivid
memories from the poems excellent female personas. There are many females in
The Odyssey and all of them bring about in important ways to the development of
the action. In addition , the poet goodies them significantly and with respect, as if
there were no difference between his frame of mind toward these people and his thoughts
toward the boys. Among the remarkable women in the poem are included: Nausica, the
harmless young woman, Arete, the wise full and mom, Kirke and Kalypso, the
mysterious temptresses, Penelope, the model of loyalty and fidelity, Helen, the
respectable middle-class matron, while others, like Eurykleia and Melantho, who
have got much smaller roles, but evenly well identified personalities. Finally, there
is Athena, the goddess, who also more than some other of these females, is intelligent
sophisticated, and independent, just like the way females has come to observe
women. The influential feminine roles in The Odyssey also have important results
upon the complete poem. It truly is in The Odyssey that this sort of ideas as love, family
loyalty, and devotion, and other such essential ethical perceptions, are
illustrated. It is the existence of these unconscious moral lessons that makes
The Odyssey therefore unique to its genre. In a way, The Odyssey is not just the tale
with the wanderings of Odysseus. The poet has turned it, likewise, into a kind of
catalogue of girls, in which he examines women of all kinds and from
all walks of life. These types of feminine pictures are almost always objective and
reasonable, Homer by no means made judgments, and each of those women has a certain appeal.
It is interesting, however , which the woman who is most worthy of respect and
affection is not a persona. Homer appears to comment that no human being could
develop herself in this way. His popularity of Athena is done even more obvious
by the reality she, rather than Penelope or another woman, is the heroine with the
poem and the sole partner and confidante of Odysseus. It is only in our modern
universe that women have been completely given a chance to fully employ their expertise
and capacity, in order to become the same and contributing members of society, like
Athena appears to be. In Sakuntala women are portrayed to try out more of a
subservient role than they were inside the Odyssey. Although the women inside the
Odyssey happen to be looked upon simply as someone to cook and clean and keep the
children, they enjoy major jobs in the composition. In Sakuntala the women enjoy no
significant roles in the poem, in least nothing like the girls played inside the
Odyssey. Sakuntala herself plays a very criticizing role having to do all
the tasks, the gathering of food, and the manual labour around the house. This
is much distinct from in The Journey where the man was the one who did the majority of
the duties, brought home the meals, and most with the manual labor about the house.
In ancient Greek instances, women been seen in as more delicate and placed radical
pedestals. These people were expected to manage the house, although this only included
making sure everything happened to run smoothly, and delegating tasks and duties.
They were certainly not actually supposed to do the manual labor themselves. A few of the
important females in Sakuntala include: Sakuntala, the fan of characteristics and the
possible heroine in the play, Anasuya and Priyamvada, aides of Sakuntala and
women you help in her chores, and Mother Gautami the first hand maiden of father
Kanva and care-giver of Sakuntala. Even though they can be seen as more subservient
and have to perform a lot of meaningless duties they are still valued and
loved. This is certainly seen throughout the love that Dusyanta seems for Sakuntala and also
inside the despair this individual shows if he realizes this individual has flipped her aside. The changing
role of girls in materials can be seen by reading and comparing Homers The
Odyssey and Kalidasas Sakuntala. The ladies in the two works are quite valued the
men near them although not as much in society. Ladies can actually be observed as
regressing instead of moving on in that they are made to seem more submissive, obedient, compliant, acquiescent, docile
in the later on work.
Bibliography
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. 1961, New york city: Vintage-Random
1990. Kalidasa. Sakuntala. Trans. Barbara Stoler Miller.
