Literature is one of the best ways to understand a culture. Thanks to literature, in fact, it is possible to analyze the customs and traditions of a specific society and understand its way of life. While Homeric poems, for example, offer a description of life in ancient Greece and an account of the social dynamics and religious beliefs of the Greeks, tales of courtly love like Le Morte D'Arthur and "The Tale of Dame Ragnell » presents the values ​​that every medieval knight would embody. However, not only do these texts present the way of life of a society, but they also offer a description of different gender roles and gender dynamics typical of these ages. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The gender roles in the Iliad and the Odyssey, for example, are strict and defined. While men are presented as valiant heroes who increase in value as they age, women are divided into three broad categories: goddesses, wives and daughters, and servants. Goddesses are extremely powerful and even superior to men, who worship them and must obey their orders. Wives and daughters are respected because of the role of their husbands and fathers, but they cannot participate in public life, while servants are seen as mere objects belonging to men. However, the condition of wives and daughters is particularly precarious because, in times of war, they could easily become part of the spoils of war and, therefore, be reduced to the level of servants. A primary example of female figures in Greek literature are Homeric characters. of Athena, Penelope and Briseis. Athena is one of the most powerful goddesses in Greek mythology and the greatest supporter of the Greek army during the war against Troy. She is sent by Hera to speak with Achilles to persuade him to fight the Trojans again. She is so powerful that Achilles responds: "'Goddess, a man must listen to your word, no matter how angry his heart is: it is true.' (Homer, 218-219). Achilles' response provides a clear example of the power the Goddess exercised over men. He is so enchanted by her majesty that he changes his mind just by hearing her words. Athena, however, continued to support the Achaeans even after the war ended. In fact, she is also a main character in the Odyssey: she protects Odysseus on his journey to Ithaca and facilitates his difficult journey. Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, embodies all the typical value of the Greek woman. She is described as a “suspicious and reserved” woman (Homer, 89), who has no freedom of choice and whose only duties are to take care of the house and be a good wife. This description of Penelope reflects the role of women in Greek society: they have no active role and can only stay at home and fulfill their domestic responsibilities. However, in the event of war, women are no longer considered as people but as objects. In ancient Greece, in fact, when an army conquered a city, all the objects in the city, as well as all the women, were part of the spoils of war. As part of the spoils of war, they automatically become servants. Briseis, who is Achilles' “prize of the army” (Homer, 420), is a concrete example of how women's freedom was the property of men. Before being Achilles' servant, she was Apollo's priestess. Because a priestess had direct contact with the gods, the positionBriseis' social status was higher than that of other women. However, even her prestige is diminished by her status as a woman, so that she is degraded to the rank of a servant still under the control of a man's authority. Twenty centuries after the publication of the Homeric poems, in courtly love literature, gender roles are no longer as defined as before. Although men are still portrayed as those with power, the role of women is beginning to evolve. In medieval literature, in fact, it is difficult to divide women into categories because their social roles differ from one woman to another. But there is also a strong connection to the writing traditions of the past in which women were seen only as the property of men. On the one hand, there is the stereotypical idea of ​​women enslaved by men represented by the character of Isolde; on the other hand, there is the innovative depiction of a woman who wants to be independent represented by the character of Dame Ragnell. The character of Iseult, in fact, is a clear example of the lack of decision-making power of women. One of the most striking accounts of his condition is the passage in which Tristan asks King Angoisse for permission to have Isolde marry his uncle, King Mark. King Anguish responds: “as for that […] you will have it with you to do with it as you please; that is to say, if you consider marrying her yourself, it is my greatest pleasure, and if you give her to King Mark, your uncle, it is in your choice” (Malory). In this passage it is evident that Isolde could not live his own life. Her father entrusts all decisions regarding his own future to Tristan, who can freely decide who will marry this woman. When the narrator says, "The Beale Isoud was ready to go with Sir Tristram" (Malory), there is another example of Iseult's passivity. In fact, it is not Iseult who prepares it, but someone else who prepares it. Iseult being the object of the action rather than the subject highlights the submissive role she had in society. Lady Regnall, on the contrary, represents an extremely modern woman. She was the victim of a spell from her evil brother who could not stand her independence. Forced to live in the body of an ugly old woman, Lady Ragnell lives hidden in the woods, far from society. When King Arthur finds her in the forest and asks her to help him defeat his evil brother, she gives him the solution to the riddle. In fact, King Arthur, to defeat the evil sorcerer, must guess what women's greatest desire is. The answer to this conundrum is “Women most desire the right to make their own choices!” » (Lupack). This statement is a revolutionary concept. In middle age, women were not free to make their own choices; they could, however, participate in courtly life. At these events, women were forced to play the role of the perfect lady and they always had to follow etiquette. The fact that women's deepest desire was to have free will underlines the fact that women were not free at all. Additionally, in this tale, Lady Ragnell becomes young and beautiful again when she is free to make her own choices. This transformation experienced by Dame Ragnell symbolizes all the potential of women which is not sufficiently exploited. If women are not free, they cannot express their many abilities. According to scholar E. Jane Burns, in medieval courtly love, female characters are presented with certain qualities stereotypically associated with men. She argues that courtly women "possess a curiously hybrid gender" because they are often presented with feminine physical characteristics, but at the same time fulfill positionsmale (22). Burns also explains that in medieval texts many women do not have a defined romantic relationship with a knight and that the clichéd concept of courtly love is not presented so often in courtly literature (26). However, as Burns points out in his article “Courtly Love: Who Needs It?” beauty and sexuality are two characteristics always associated with women of the medieval court (22). Indeed, Isolde is often described as the beautiful Iseult, while Lady Ragnell becomes a magnificent woman by the end of the poem. Burns also claims that not all tales of courtly love center on men, but that the most famous texts focus on the character of men (30), hence the idea of ​​a medieval man who rules the relationship in the collective imagination. Burns also asserts that: We understand women not as players absent or removed from the courtly world, but as protagonists moving in a sphere of love that they have significantly redesigned and reshaped. These courtly ladies […] offer models of female subjectivity and desire that challenge us to rethink the terms of love and action in the medieval and modern worlds, not only for female protagonists but also for their male counterparts. The medieval heroines considered here suggest a kind of action that is neither conscious, nor controlled, nor fully developed; nor is it the expression of an autonomous and individual will. […] The complex social positioning of these women in love shows that they cannot be understood as dominant, autonomous or active speakers. But neither are they simple submissive, powerless, silent or passive actors (49). Burns explains that medieval women should not be viewed solely in relation to their lack of agency, but that they should be viewed for the new role they play in romance. While the majority of women in these texts wait for the man to complete the commitment process, there are many examples of women actively participating in the process. To better understand how the perception of gender has changed over the years, we must compare the different characters in the stories. If the perception of male characters has not changed, that of female characters has. The male characters of Homeric poems, like the male characters of courtly love literature, are famous and valiant heroic figures. Yet the female characters of Penelope, Briseis, and Iseult lack personality and change depending on how people perceive them, while the character of Lady Ragnell is portrayed as an independent woman with a strong personality. The only character that can be considered an exception is the character of Athena, who is a goddess and cannot be compared to human. It is evident that in the twenty centuries that passed from the publication of the Homeric Poems to the publication of Courtly Love Stories changed in the way women were portrayed in literature. Although in medieval poems there are still many circumstances in which women have no freedom, there are also examples of women beginning to declare their own independence. However, even when women want to be independent, there is often a male character who wants to obstruct their freedom and who turns the protagonists' achievement of independence into a very long process. Women cannot pretend that they are independent and act as if their condition is accepted; they should fight and suffer if they truly want to be free., 2017.