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Literature tends to give meaningful purposes to its characters through the value of important themes, characteristics, and actions. In some cases, a character is defined as strong due to their physical accomplishments and features provided it is relevant throughout the story. As well as that, a character’s strength can be surmised by their morals and beliefs that also correlate with the story, which is important to a character’s traits since it gives them a sense of realistic virtue. Male protagonists, in particular, are often the backbone to works of writing that keep stories going and are portrayed as powerful in demeanor, accomplishments, and stoicism.
Female characters also have distinct features that make them strong in their own rights, as some works of literature go out of their way to provide reasoning through context, experience, and character personality. Although it is mostly assumed that female characters are overall not as powerful as male characters due to the belief of sexism in which one gender proves to have less important values than the other, they can hold their own thanks to said traits as proven in some forms of literature.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
Women have the potential to strengthen their positions in literature due to the seemingly powerful traits they have that can differentiate themselves with male characters.
Geoffrey Chaucer centralizes a strong character in The Canterbury Tales in the form of The Wife of Bath. She begins the prologue to The Wife of Bath by describing her experience with former relationships she has been in, stating that she has been judged due to her multiple different marriages by other people based on the fact has Jesus Christ has attended in just marriage.
She embodies the concept of female empowerment simply based on her already established beliefs. She feels that in a marriage, women should be treated as an equal or as a deliberate stronger individual to their male counterpart and men in general. Because of this, she is the metaphorical symbol of women equality; “Of the tribulation that’s in marriage- about which I’m an expert in my age- that is to say that I have been the whip” (Chaucer 686). In this quote, The Wife of Bath states that she is the dominant figure when it comes to sex, sexual activity, and on the bed with her first three husbands who she claims were serviceable to her through the means of false accusations and refusing sexual pleasure as a means of threatening while her other two were deemed as unpleasant. She is seen as the superior as an overall description of her relationship with them, which goes hand in hand with her stated belief on women equality. Regarded to be overpowering towards her husbands, The Wife of Bath willingly uses herself as a tool for men to humbly oblige her every command. After the prologue, The Wife of Bath begins her tale beginning with a knight who was accused of raping a woman and sentenced to death unless he finds the answer to the question of what a woman really desires. He searches and finds it within an older and rather ugly woman who would give him the answer only if he were to do anything she asks. She claims to want the knight’s hand in marriage after telling him that women want to gain leadership towards their husbands. The knight’s wife is given the choice to become faithful or beautiful but instead becomes both because she was given control over her husband, which is exactly what The Wife of Bath was directly aiming for when she told the story. Her points were established very clearly throughout both the prologue and the tale that the entitlement of more power to women should be a more justified and common trait in relationships.
The afterlife plays a major role in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, a tale in which the main protagonists are mostly seen in. Dante, the character in the story, is mostly perceived as a troubled person who is torn over by the loss of his loved one, Beatrice. He is greeted by Virgil in Canto II, who is sent to be Dante’s guide through the depth of Hell. Although it is abrupt, he explains that he was sent by a woman to help Dante in search for her; “I fear he may gone too far astray, from what report has come to me in Heaven, that I may have started to his aid too late. Now go, and with your elegance of speech, with whatever may be needed for his freedom, give him your help, and thereby bring me solace. I am Beatrice, who urges you to go” (Alighieri 397). Beatrice is the essential representation of reclamation in Inferno, as she is destined to get Dante’s path straight even while she takes no other role in the story. She also serves as Dante’s inspiration to even continue his pursuit of purpose and meaningfulness so much so that he is dedicated to search her down in Hell since his love for her is so strong. Beatrice’s strength lies within her importance to the main protagonist, as she would be without a distinguishable role if it had not been that; Dante’s love for her drives him to press on with Virgil.
Beowulf once again initiates powerful characters in the form of a female, but compared to works like The Wife of Bath and Inferno, it differs in the sense that it is a rather antagonizing feature to include. The main antagonist, Grendel, is seen as towering, violent, and intimidating in Beowulf after numerous murders committed at Heorot. His presence is so much of a threat that a Danish ruler, Hrothgar, appoints Beowulf to alleviate his presence. Once defeated, the Danes then faces the threat of Grendel’s Mother, who is determined to achieve revenge. She is an important character in Beowulf as a secondary antagonist who is perceived as a stronger and far more challenging opponent to the mortals in the story than that of Grendel. Her strength is proven upon encountering Beowulf for the first time whereas he is unable to harm her with the sword given to him by Unferth. Grendel’s Mother also serves as a motherly figure who is far more experienced and equipped to deal with humans than her son. Although she is killed with her own property with that of a magical sword, Grendel’s Mother still proved to be the final boss of Beowulf’s adventure. “..and I beheaded Grendel’s mother in the hall with a mighty sword” (Beowulf 160). If not for the ancient weapon found in her domain, Beowulf would have surely been slain.
The women of these stories are represented far more differently than their Greek female counterparts. Characters like The Wife of Bath, Beatrice, and Grendel’s mom are examples of women empowerment in both the metaphorical and physical sense. The Wife of Bath enforces women equality and involvement in the male affairs. Beatrice is the reason Dante puts himself through Hell to get to her and Grendel’s mother shows to be a more difficult and prominent enemy than Grendel did, being his mother and predecessor. Women are shown to be just as powerful if not more powerful than their male equivalents as shown in the tales mentioned previously.
The Wife Of Bath, Beatrice, And Grendel’s Mother – Examples Of Women Empowerment in Literature. (2024, Feb 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-wife-of-bath-beatrice-and-grendel-s-mother-examples-of-women-empowerment-in-literature-essay
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