The Exploration of Upper Class Women in Literature Term Paper

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Upper-class women are thought of as living a grand life free of great responsibilities. While this may be the case at times getting to travel and wearing the latest fashions, sometimes they are more like birds in gilded cages, made to look pretty and forced to sing a tune not of their own making. In The Knight's Tale, Othello, and Le Morte d'Arthur, the authors write about upper-class women either in the sense of being worshipped and obsessed over or as something to be conquered and taken, or both. They use female characters not as characters in of themselves, but rather as plot devices to move the story further, becoming motivations for the much more complex male characters to literally fight over.

While the focus of the literary work Le Morte d'Arthur is for the most part exclusively on the male characters of the story, the female characters have an important part in the plot, albeit frequently in the subservient role. Serving as the motivation for the male characters to behave bravely, like battles, war, and jousting, they lack any true character development or identity. Most of the women for example, are not even given names. Yet, minor male characters are given a name as well as a lineage.

Another thing worth nothing is that the only power the women are shown to have in the story is their sexual power. They are a threat to the men by being seducers, temptresses, or sorceresses. With the most powerful female character being Guenever, the wife of King Arthur who brought the ruin of the fellowship of the Round Table by having an affair with Sir Launcelot, it is no wonder the depiction of women and specifically upper-class women can be seen as less than positive. Lacking power, respect, identity, and apparently self-control, these women are shown in a negative light by Sir Thomas Malory at the same time as being things that are desired and fawned over. They are beautiful, they exist as motivations for men, yet they have no identity other than as a sexual temptation and desire or things related to it.

For example, in Book 19, chapters 1-13, the role of Guenever and Launcelot's affair takes center stage and provides the catalyst for a lot of the events that exist in Book 19, like the kidnapping of Queen Guenever by Sir Meliagrance and his subsequent death at the hands of Launcelot after his imprisonment. The affair and Launcelot's love for his queen provides not only a device to move along the plot, but also continues to creates moments of drama as Sir Agravaine also desires to expose the affair. Not only that, but it also removes Launcelot from his quest for spiritual greatness by continually focusing on the Earthly reward of loving Queen Guenever. She has no control in how she feels and serves only to be the character flaw of Launcelot.

Othello is another story that depicts women in a similar light in terms of lack of identity, lack of autonomy, and lack of control. Desdemona, the newly wedded wife to Othello is being obsessed over by Iago who is jealous of the marriage. Eventually her father hears of the marriage and Othello is made to explain how he managed to woo her into marriage. Desdemona comes and gives her own testimony of how they managed to fall for each other and is allowed to be with him as he travels to Cyprus. While this scene is not necessarily depicting a woman in a negative light, it is again Desdemona's existence that motivates much of the story's plot. She is the one that motivates Iago to set off these series of events because he wants to marry her and cannot stand that she married Othello instead.

While this is quite common in many of the stories of the time, even stories in modern times, it reinforces the idea that women are merely instruments of seduction rather than people, beings in their own right. When Iago spoke to Roderigo of Desdemona, he stated "blood is made dull with the act of sport," she will lose interest in Othello and seek sexual satisfaction elsewhere (II.i.222).," this solidifies that women cannot control themselves and are temptresses and sexual and thus will move on to another man when they are "bored" of one. Not only was this line insulting to women, but it removed any level of choice and power Desdemona has as a person. This removal of choice and control further moves women into the concept of things to be taken versus people who one should respect and understand.

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Iago uses this belief that women cannot control themselves to suggest to Othello that his former lieutenant Cassio, is having an affair with Desdemona. Without even attempting to gain the truth from Desdemona, Othello spirals into a jealous rage because someone else is attempting to conquer the "land of Desdemona." What is interesting to note is the role other women play in the story like the servant Emilia who steals Desdemona's handkerchief for Iago to plant in Cassio's room and Bianca, the prostitute whom Cassio meets. These women are just there to follow requests by men and are made to also advance the plot without adding anything to it.

Any time the women attempt to speak out, like Emilia when Desdemona is smothered by Othello, and she confesses what Iago told her to do, she is killed. Desdemona's plea for Cassio cemented Othello's suspicions of her and is also killed for her supposed infidelity. When the truth is revealed and Othello realizes his mistake, he eventually kills himself as the story ends. Women are seen as such pure and delicate objects when a man is interested in them and loves them, yet they can easily be seen as whores and killed because the man feels another may have conquered her.

These two stories have in common the idea that women and their seductive ways can lead to absolute ruin in the form of an affair. In Othello this ruin is seen through the death of several people including Othello himself and Desdemona because of Iago's need to be with her and Desdemona's unproven love affair. It is seen in Le Morte d'Arthur as Queen Guenever's affair with Sir Launcelot sparks a series of events that also lead to death and destruction. It is because these upper-class women are so beautiful and desirable, that they bring the demise of whomever they interact within in these stories and provides and adds to the belief that women are the heart as well as the destruction of a man without adding any other state of identity for such women.

In Chaucer's The Knight's Tale Theseus acts as the main protagonist and his sister in law, Emelye, who is pure and fair-haired, acts not surprisingly as the catalyst for the plot of the story. She causes two prisoners, Arcite and Palamon to fall madly in love with her. While Arcite manages to gain freedom from the prison and Palamon stays, the question of who is worse off is asked with both demonstrating suffering over their "lost love." Eventually both are free and both are given the challenge to win Emelye during a battle and the victor gets to "take the spoils." "

Arcite although proclaimed winner, dies at the request of Venus and eventually through years of mourning, both Emelye and Palamon marry. First of all, Emelye has no will of her own. Theseus chooses how she is to marry, even after Arcite dies by insisting she marry Palamon. She is also seen as a conquest and while she has some feelings and words like her expression of grief for Arcite, she just goes along with whatever the men tell her to do, further reinforcing the lack of control and women are possessions concept.

All three stories highlight the purity and beauty of upper-class women as seen through Emelye, Desdemona, and Queen Guenever, yet all three stories also show these women lack control, are at the mercy of the men around them, and also are things to be conquered and used. This was common during the time that such stories were written as women hardly had any rights and were literally at the mercy of their husbands. So it would make it sense it would be reflected in way or another in such stories. The things that were different in each story as explained through the analysis of each is that Queen Guenever for example, chose to cheat on her husband whereas Desdemona was simply accused, but never did anything. Emelye simply was someone to be fought over and then conquered through marriage whereas Desdemona for example, could choose and speak for herself on why she married someone like Othello. So there are differences in the way the women behave and what is thought of, of these women. Emelye for example, was never seen as an impure woman, the other two were.

In conclusion, upper-class women,….....

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