The Ever Unchanging Woman

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 Ð'- 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 nothing about his daughter's happiness only that he already gave Demetrius permission to marry Hermia so she must not disobey him. He even calls to the King requesting that he tell his daughter she must obey him. Theseus replies to Hermia "To you your father should be a god" (Shakespeare 136), once again showing what great importance men held in the time, and what little importance women held.

Similarly, Titania does not want to give up her servant's child to her husband Oberon. Because she refuses to give him up, Oberon has a spell put on Titania (Shakespeare 164). To show just how inferior Shakespeare thought of women