Independent Women
When I hear of a woman leaving or disappearing I
automatically think of empowerment and how strong of a person that woman must
be. In the times that these poems were written, it was a male dominated time
when women are just there to serve the men around them. I loved how all the
women we read about were strong and stood up for themselves in their own
respective way.
In reading Lanval, I immediately loved how a woman was in
the controlling role ahead of a man and she called the shots so to speak. I am
always one to be in favor of being treated equally, but it is refreshing to see
a poem of this time give power to a woman instead of the man of the story, I
guess this is a trait that we have the female author to thank for. But anyways,
back to discussing Lanval… Lanval was so enthralled by the woman’s beauty and
the things she could do for him as a knight, he did everything to please her.
Lanval escaped a close call when his sexuality was questioned but in the end,
he is in a win-win situation because he gets the girl and they live happily
ever after (would it even be a fairy tale if they didn’t live “happily ever
after?”
The Wife of Bath Tale was sort of puzzling to me. We are
talking about women being in power but yet the story is about a knight getting
off handsomely for raping a woman instead of being punished. Maybe I shouldn’t
look at it in that way, but I feel that he should have had to marry the old
ugly lady and live with her as his punishment instead of him being pardoned and
she turning into a beautiful young woman for him. I feel the knight didn’t get
punished for the rape of a woman that he was accused of. On another note, I do
like the message of what women want in life in terms of women being independent;
that a woman wants to be sovereignty to her husband. I feel that most women
felt that way, but no one wanted to admit it and by him saying that in front of
the court, he honored women, guess that was his punishment after all.
To keep the independence theme going, Keats tells a story of
a beautiful fairy coming to a knight and he longed for her company only to be
left alone in the end. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Keats shows the power a
woman can have over a man and how easily it can be taken from them. He shows
how men can be wrapped up in the physical attributes of a women and long for
their company and they (the woman) can rip it away from them in an instance. I
feel that the fairy leaving the knight in this poem signifies that a woman can
be independent and does not have to rely on a man in life, but it is nice to be
in the company of a significant other rather than be alone in life.
I loved the group of readings we had for the first week of
class. It set a nice tone and I am very excited to continue on the fairy tale
journey with all of you!
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