Michel de Montaigne begins Essays with an appeal to the reader: “I have had no thought of serving either of you or my own glory… I want to be seen here in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray”. From the first lines, the author appears to be honest and opens about his thoughts, feelings, and habits. Montaigne writes about the importance of self-observance and self-reflection. He is trying to know and understand himself to understand the others, and during this constant journey of self-reflection, the author emphasizes the inconstancy and the imperfection of the humans. However, Montaigne does not blame it on the evil nature or original sin like medieval authors. He encourages the reader to accept themselves the way they are because their imperfections are the true beauty of human essence.
Author: IVAN ZAKHARENKO
Pizan’s response to male authors’ depiction of women
Christine de Pizan’s The City of Ladies starts with the heroine reading a cleric’s Matheolus’ attack on women and falling into despair. She comes to the realization that all men – writers, philosophers, orators, and poets – speak ill of female nature, and being a woman herself she knows that they are wrong and full of lies. Christine reflected on herself as well as other women in her life and concluded that her experience, knowledge, and observations contradict all the misogynistic accusations from male authors. First, says Pizan, just because so many men are spreading lies and misconceptions about women doesn’t mean you have to rely on their opinions. In fact, you should probably do the opposite since the male philosophers are constantly contradicting each other and “correcting each other’s opinions”. For example, Aristotle rejected Plato’s theory of forms, while later Doctors of the Church and St. Augustine criticized Aristotle’s teachings on certain matters. In response to male authors’ depiction of women, Christine de Pizan describes female merits and virtues. She reasonably values the good female nature, and to support her argument she gathers and presents numerous examples of great, brave, noble, and strong women in history.
The reader(s) for whom Augustine is writing
Since the very first words in The Confessions, Augustine addresses God: “Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised…”, and he keeps doing so throughout the end of his work which certainly means that God is his central audience. Then, there’s a reader who might already be Christian, but there’s also a reader who might be not and that’s the audience Augustine seems to be quite interested in. Maybe he just wants to atone for his sins, but it’s more likely that he tries to be relatable when opening up about stealing or having a rather adventurous sexual life in the past. This is Augustine’s way of implying that even if you are a sinner who enjoys the lower pleasures of life like sex or drinking you can still convert and become catholic.