The Book Of The City Of Ladies Analysis

Although her work was highly praised, some critics felt that Christine argued with the intent to only defend those women who were virtuous and who had prestige in their society or were held to a higher reputation than others. This can be seen as in The Book of the City of Ladies, she uses examples of women who were scholars, saints, and good wives to establish her argument about why women were worthy of the city. She does not speak about women who were involved in activities or who were part of the culture that most people in medieval society looked down upon (e.g. prostitutes). Her choice to only write about these women made her a product of her time, as many medieval women readers and writers had a clear appreciation for those women who were of nobler

Her works provide an incentive for women to take action in starting their own debates or joining a debate that can contribute to the quarrel. She also gave suitable advice to the women of the time about learning to live in that society despite all the misogyny because that’s how God intended it to be. Without Christine’s involvement, it’s very probable that women would have never had a way of joining the quarrel or t least would not have joined until after the Renaissance. The audacity that Christine had in speaking up about the Rose and challenging the work of such a revered piece of fiction, set her apart from any other female writer because she was willing to put her career and reputation on the line for the chance to participate in what would later became an important movement for women of the Middle Ages. Simply, without Christine there would be no querelle des femmes nor would the genre of misogynistic writing exasperate as it did in later