Feminism In 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

Men believed women were evil beings. In a lost play, one of the characters says, “O Zeus, why need one say evil of women in detail? It would be enough if you say merely women.” (Cite this) Men called women evil, but women mostly focused on raising children and taking care of the home. They were generally peaceful. In fact, an unknown Greek poet once said, “silence is a woman’s glory,” (Lefkowitz and Fant 65).

This can be seen in the contrast between Io, the water nymph who is taken and raped by Jove against her will, and Juno the vengeful goddess who takes her revenge on Io. Metamorphoses portrays women as very sexual creatures and are blamed because their beauty attracts the Gods ‘attention. In this epic, women have more of a stronger portrayal an independent presence. This epic doesn’t portray very many obedient female characters, rather it displays defiant ones. When compared to the female presence in the Quran, Metamorphoses had drastically different views on

Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a

Helen is lured by a goddess, a temptation that was impossible to resist. Bella who craves love after being dumped, finds comfort in Jacob. However, she runs to Edward once she knows where she can find him. The “tall goddess among women” (XV. 137) commits adultery and starts the Trojan war.

She falls in love and is infatuated with a man she has not once met. She betrays her own and stabs her father into the back in order to help King Minos. She acts very hastily and without consideration of how King Minos will take her love for him. Her actions makes she seem very foolish and almost brainless, but Minos would have not defeated her father without her help. She tries to be helpful and accommodating, but her plans fail her.

Ancient Greeks had a deep suspicion of foreigners, thinking of them all as "barbarians." With Medea, Euripides seems to confront this prejudice by choosing to honor a foreigner with the role of tragic heroine and by making her the most intelligent character in the play. However, the playwright also confirms many Greek stereotypes of foreigners by making Medea wild, overly passionate, and vengeful. When Medea was explaining her intention of killing the royals to the Chorus she said, "I have no city, and I'm being abused by my own husband. I was carried off, a trophy from a barbarian country.

For example having sexual intercourse before being married versus being “a good soldier.” Also Beatrice is a unique woman because she seek to revolutionize the way that she is treated in the play. At the pinnacle of the story Claudio is striking (public shaming) Hero about various lies about her such as infidelity, violating chastity, and public shame. It is worthy to note that this is important in womanhood due to Hero's depressed behavior in the play. Losing these

Penelope on the other hand, is a silent or hidden hero. Since she does not fit to par of a “hero” in Greek society since she is a woman, her cunning acts are subtler since she is expected to be helpless. She first displays her use of metis through trickery with the loom for Laertes. “She set up a great loom in the main hall and started weaving a sizeable fabric with a very fine thread, and she said to us: "Young men-my suitors, since Odysseus is dead-eager as you are to marry me, you must wait until I finish this robe-it would be a shame to waste my spinning-a shroud for the hero Laertes, when death's doom lays him low." (Book 2, 102- 109).

The attraction this female character portrays for Walter Neff is phenomenal, she has captured his attention by the way he glazes at her. As they are talking Walter introduces himself and soon after Phyllis asks how she could take out an accidental insurance policy on her husband’s life without his consent. By asking this of Walter we know that she is up to no good especially because she doesn’t want her husband to know. Neff infers that she is anticipating a murder and leaves because he does not want to be a part of it. Her sexuality has influenced Walter to the point he can’t get her out of his head and soon after she shows up to his apartment and that is when we see that he is no longer able to resist her.

Women have been denied their ability to work honestly and have been forced into many stereotypes, where the only power they have is the power of seduction. Which In Homer’s description of the Sirens’ song, Odysseus reacts with an arrogance, boasting the fact he can withstand the siren’s seduction while his crew follows his lead. His voice is what one would believe to be heroic as he gloats about how he survived his brush of death but this self-congratulating manner irritates Margaret Atwood to write the “Siren’s Song.” Through allusion to classical beliefs, she illuminates her own frustration at being confined to a stereotype of a seductress as portrayed in Homer’s poem, and through repetition, she plays upon the unfounded pride of men like Odysseus. In a passage from the Odyssey, Odysseus is faced with the task of navigating past the Sirens, whom supposedly no man can resist. But Odysseus can, he is able to triumph over the Sirens through his physical strength and superior intellect.

This has been a conflict that has affected many generations, it even goes all the way back to the Stone Age. Men and Women have constantly faced discrimination across the United States and Worldwide for decades. Reading the book "Women 's Rights: Documents Decoded" one learns to find that the workforce was mostly dominated by men up until the 1900s. Not only that, but

Unfortunately, due to these infinite affairs, his wife, Hera (also the goddess of childbirth and marriage) grew in envy, and sought to relieve her rage upon all of his paramours. Likewise, Leto also received the goddess’ wrath for being with Zeus and getting impregnated. Hera cursed her, decreeing that she was not to give birth anywhere under the sun, thus intending for Leto to forever bear her children within her. Many of the gods pitied her, but few could help her. Finally, Poseidon, the god of the sea, revealed to Leto of an unknown land, fitting of Hera’s descriptions.