Greek Legends in the Renaissance Era: Two views of the Amazon
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The texts in question are comparable in that they are a discussion of perception of women from two different perspectives. Both writers are concerned about what the literature says about the nature of women. They carefully consider achievements or failures of well-known women and pay particular attention to the diction. These writers give the terms used to describe the feminine nature of women much emphasis.
Christine is extremely distressed. She has read so many books that describe the nature of women. The kind of works she has read range from poems, novels, and other literary works. None of these books has kind words for the female gender. The book she reads last is by Matheolus. She believes Matheolus is a good writer, who probably has one or two positive things to say about women. She thinks this copy about women will have the same effect because she has read other books by the same author, and they interested her. She has labeled Matheolus as a writer who is able to pick a positive thing even from the worst of situations. Consequently, as she selects his book from volumes of others in her library, she believes she will get encouraged.
Contrary to what she expects, perusing a few pages of Matheolus book is enough to make her detest not only the writing, but also herself. She wonders why Matheolus, a renowned and respected author, would write such a voluminous book only to discredit women. Corroborating Matheolus information with that she read from other philosophers, she gets convinced that women are worthless creatures (Christine, 1982, p. 3). They cannot do anything useful by themselves. In fact, were it not for men, women would not exist by themselves. They cannot hold positions of power, and those who have tried to claim power do not succeed. Even after the angels appear to try to convince Christine she is such an important person, she remains adamant because she does not believe them.
Boccaccio’s belief on the nature of women sharply contrasts that of Christian. Though she also reads as widely as Christine, she does not believe a woman is inferior to man in any way. Like Christian, she has spent quite a deal of her time reflecting on the place of a woman in society. She does not read books on women selectively; she reads indiscriminately without discriminating any author’s work. This means she has much exposure on works that criticize and use derogatory words against women in addition to those that say a positive thing about women.
Boccaccio has a high opinion of women. She also holds herself in high esteem.
According to her, women can achieve as much as they believe they can. They can hold positions of power, and the kind of leadership skills and competence they exhibit can match or even surpass that of men. Though the books she reads about successful women only accord subtle praise to their characters, she never pays much attention to them. In the many years of her life, she has come across many successful women. She has also read biographies citing achievements made by women during the past centuries. Leonidases, Catos, and Fabricii are examples of women Boccaccio knows about. They have proven beyond explanation what a woman can achieve when in a favorable environment (Boccaccio, 2001, p. 1). In fact, she is only short of writing her own book on the ability of women and the potential they have been sitting on for decades on end.
Boccaccio does not at one time sit to lament that she was born a woman. In fact, from her way of her writing, she even believes the woman is much more able than the man is. She gives several examples of women who went down in books of history after they did some remarkable things for their countries. Marpesia and Lampedo are some of the women Boccaccio cites so that she encourages herself that she is also highly able. She believes she can make as much contribution in society like these ‘role models.
It is evident from the texts that the agendas these two women possess have been influenced significantly by each person’s background and personality. Christine must have come from a society where women are held lowly. Therefore, she is quick to believe any subtle suggestions that women are inferior. She is also a melancholic character and looks at things from the dark side only. This has gone to the extent that she questions why God created the woman inferior. Angels have to be sent to comfort her and change her way of thinking. On the contrary, Boccaccio is an optimistic person. She will always see some light even where darkness reigns. In spite of numerous discouraging remarks from highly learned philosophers, she refuses to believe in them. Nothing can limit her, and she recommends this belief to possess all women.
From the foregoing, Christine and Boccaccio have extremely different views of women. Christine’s perspective inclines on the inferior nature of the woman while Boccaccio’s emphasizes the potential women have.