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Christine de Pizan lived in historical social and cultural times. Her life took place at the French Court between 1363 throughout 1431. Her new life as a child began in the French court of Charles V when her parents moved from Venice to France. Her father, Tommaso de Pizano, was a Doctor of Medicine who, at that time, served in the royal court of Charles V. Christine at the age of 25, married, and lived a good life until her husband died. After his death, she did not have anyone to support her and lived in poverty. Soon she realized that to help her family, she must do something, and that’s when she started writing catching the attention of wealthy people. Among her books, she wrote “The City of Ladies” about women’s heroism. Christine became very successful in being the first female to defend women’s rights. In her book, she had the courage to break with the gender stereotypes prevalent at that time. Her ideas were compelling and are considered to be the first feminist in the Western world.

My first impression of Louise Labe’s poetry was that it was purely aesthetic: that is, she writes about longing and unrequited love in a very particular style as a way to play with words and display her cleverness. The singularity and repetitiveness of the theme suggests someone who is in love with the idea of love rather than looking for an actual relationship: clearly in line with the style of romantic poetry of Labe’s time, but not particularly deep. As I went through the sonnets, however, I found some that were quite erotic and passionate, which suggested that her experience and interest in romance was perhaps more genuine that it appears at the first glance.

My favorite was  of all #21 because it shows real insight into love and passion. While most romantic poetry of that era (written by men) extols physical beauty and its power on the beholder, Labe has a very different idea. She points out that love is irrational and unpredictable: you love someone simply because, and it’s not the person’s looks, personality, popularity, talents, or any other trait that makes you lose your mind, but simply being that particular person has that effect on you. Nowadays, we call it “chemistry”, “connection”, “soul-linking”, etc, and Labe has no definition for this phenomenon, but she explains it beautifully.

Christine de Pizan wrote the City of Ladies to try to change the perception of women during the Middle Ages. During those times man and women both had a very demeaning view about the role of women in society. Her argument was that because of the way the current world functions, men have more opportunities to learn so they have a bigger array of skills and experiences. She wrote the book to argue her points that women can think for themselves and could be equal to men given the opportunity.

 

Throughout the story, Pizan tries to argue each point the male authors made.  Those male authors said females aren’t faithful and are mean by nature. Pizan uses Lady Rectitude, who find females who are faithful and love their husbands. This in Pizan’s eyes wouldn’t make sense since female who loves their husbands wouldn’t ever hurt their husbands. Pizan literally built a place ruled by females proving what those male authors said was wrong.

Reason establishes several important patterns. She uses Christine’s questions as prompts to help her develop thematic elements that are also qualities shared by all virtuous and notable women. Reason and the two other Virtues subsequently provide a series of narrations as a growing body of evidence supporting the defense of women. Reason also cites examples from a variety of sources. She tells of women from the past as well as the present. By doing so, she draws parallels between past and present, suggesting a continuous and ongoing history of virtue on the part of women.

Montaigne has a good attitude toward life and death.  I like the approach that think of each day as the last day given to us. If we know how to live our lives and make our lives happy, we would know we would look like the moment we die. So we should able to make our own joy.  If we can make our own joy, we can pass through in any circumstance. It’s my philosophy toward my life.

The Book of the City of Ladies  by Christine de Pizan was written in medieval Europe, where the trend toward disrespect for women prevailed. The author of this work, Christine De Pijang, is the first female full-time writer to defend women’s authority and to try to escape men’s prejudices. When she was in the works, it was a difficult time for women not only for writing, but also for living by herself. Nevertheless, she continued to work with her beliefs.  She wanted to restore women’s self-esteem from the men’s criticism, and hope that women would fulfill their roles and responsibilities as members of society.

What I am confused by this book is the examples. Although it was aimed at the prejudice of men against women that prevailed at the time. But it seems that the examples have not been able to justify all women. Also, this book is mostly based on religious mythology, so its persuasion is weak. This is probably limited by the author’s educational background. This book is still limited by the trend of the times. In the end, it is still preaching to women, hoping that they will devote / tolerate.

Louise Labe’s Sonnets depicts her pleasure and pain from love.  The theme of the Sonnets is dark and depressed. Throughout the Sonnets, Labe expresses her passion and longing for love. “Of you I complain, of all these tongues of fire, that touch my heart so often, with desire, without one single spark scorching you” (Sonnet 2). Labe is putting herself through so much pain for love, while her loved one doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all, which makes her hurt even more.

Epics contain elements of war, love, death, the gods and heroism. In the epics of The Odyssey and the Aeneid, there is a central protagonist who is on a journey from Troy, and along the way experiences delays and tragedies. Odysseus in The Odyssey and Aeneas in the Aeneid, both experience life and death and they each prevail, through their heroic deeds. They are amazingly talented and heroic warriors and always defeat their foes in war, despite their human weaknesses. In each scene, there is a constant depiction and influence of the gods and the immortals on many of their actions. Lastly, they are both the objects of unrequited love, Odysseus loved by Calypso and Aeneas loved by Dido.

But they differ in the portrayal of their protagonists. Odysseus is a virtuous Greek determined to return home to his family after fighting a long and bloody war against the Trojans. Aeneas is a refugee of Troy fleeing the destruction caused by the Greeks and journeys to establish a new homeland because of a prophecy. Odysseus is portrayed like a demigod with very little relatability to mortals. Aeneas is more relatable to his readers because of his human fears, being unsure of his actions and isn’t seen as an invincible hero.  Both epics differ due to the fact that they were written in different eras during the reign of different empires. Virgil is writing over seven hundred years after the Odyssey was written. They also differ, because  Virgil wrote as a proud Roman who glorified Rome, while Homer wrote from the perspective of an ancient Greek who glorified war and the gods.