In Reply to: The power of myth posted by CB on December 11, 2005 at 20:37:37:
For me, discovering Joseph Campbell's work, among other things, was crucial to my re-education process. His explanations of myths, especially creation myths, gave me a perspective I never had before.
As I've mentioned before, I was raised a Catholic, which meant that even though I attended catechism classes as a kid and was an altar boy for awhile, I knew very little about religion or the Bible. It was all a mystery to me, and I don't remember much of anything I was taught. I made my own decision to stop going to church when I was around 13 or so, because it was utterly unsatisfying just going through what were to me empty rituals with no real meaning. For the following three years until I met the COG, I was in a sort of spiritual limbo, intrigued by such things as George Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass, and the Jesus Christ Superstar play. I was ripe for the picking when TF came along.
I was pretty much a blank slate when it came to religion and spirituality, and had never even seen a Bible, let alone read one. So with that uninformed background and my subsequent indoctrination into TF's worldview, I spent the next 20 years with very narrow-minded, rigid beliefs.
One of the first things I did after leaving in '91 was to spend hours everyday in the library opening my mind to all kinds of new ideas. Then, a year later, I started a double major program at university, which exposed me to a wide-range of reading materials and perspectives. It is quite interesting to take a look at some of the essays I produced during those undergrad years. They reveal the thought processes I was undertaking in order to shake off the shackles of religious dogma in favour of critical thinking.
In some of those essays, I explored the issue of how women have been portrayed in literature. One paper, “Calypso Speaks: The misrepresentation of women in literature, begins with an examination of early Greek writings by Plato, Homer, Aristophanes, etc. It then looks at the two biblical creation myths and continues on to some works from the middle ages such as a mystery play called “Noah’s Flood” and “The Canterbury Tales”. Following is an excerpt from that paper:
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Another place that this perception of women as property appears is in the mystery play Noah's Flood, written sometime in the fifteenth Century. All the male characters have names but the females are either somebody's wife or known collectively as "gossips." Generally, throughout the Bible women are considered second-class citizens, although there are a few outstanding female characters. And so it is with this play. The unnamed women have minor roles but Noah's wife, much to her credit, does manage to rock the boat, as it were. She refuses to obey her husband by getting in the boat, and an exasperated Noah says:
Lord, that women been crabbed ay,
And none are meek, I dare well say.
That is well seen by me today
In witness of you each one.
Good wife, let be all this bear
That thou makest in this place here,
For all they ween that thou art master
And so thou art, by Saint John.
The script alludes to the audience’s awareness that many women are not the compliant, obedient wives the Bible admonishes them to be. Though Noah acknowledges that his wife is the real master he doesn't risk getting into trouble by listening to her, as Adam did, but but instead forces her to obey by having her dragged on board. Once again we see the recurring theme that women are the source of all troubles and that men should rule over, rather than be ruled by, them.
"The Wife of Bath's Prologue," contained in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, elaborates on the common perception, hinted at in Noah's Flood discussed above, that women have deviated from the role God intended for them. The difference in “The Wife of Bath Prologue is that the generally accepted negative stereotypes of women are questioned, rather than condoned, by the text. Told from a female perspective, the tale is a satire on gender relations and examines the prevalent negative attitudes and opinions held towards women.
Right from the start we find the wife of Bath defending herself for having had five husbands. The implication is that she is lascivious, which is wholly improper for women yet permissible for men. She points to the patriarchs in Genesis, most of whom had more than one wife, and to King Solomon with his 700 wives and 300 concubines (I Kings 11:3). In effect, she turns the old proverb on its head, "What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose," and makes no apology for her actions but rather rejoices in them. "Blessed be God that I have wedded five\Of whiche I have piked out the beste\Both of hir nether purs and of hir cheste" (Norton 118). She boasts that she got the best of their sex and their money out of them, and it is this attitude, particularly towards sex, that really sheds light on the male-female relationship.
The wife of Bath has a very realistic attitude towards sex, realizing that beyond the dual function of genitals to excrete and procreate there is God ordained pleasure in the sex act. "I saye this, that they been maad for bothe\That is to sayn for office and Myn housbonde shal it han both eve and morwe, Whan that him list come forth and paye his dette. An housbonde wol I have, I wol nat lette, Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral, And have his tribulacion withal Upon his flessh whil that I am his wif. I have the power during al my lif Upon his propre body, and nat he:for ese\Of engendrure, ther we nat God displese". She also realizes the power of sex as an instrument of domination and suggests that, in this regard, women hold the upper hand:
In wifhood wol I use myn instrument
As freely as my Makere hath it sent.
If I be dangerous, God yive me sorwe:
Myn housbonde shal it han both eve and morwe,
Whan that him list come forth and paye his dette.
An housbonde wol I have, I wol nat lette,
Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral,
And have his tribulacion withal
Upon his flessh whil that I am his wif.
I have the power during al my lif
Upon his propre body, and nat he:
She'll give him all the sex he wants but in so doing he really becomes indebted to her, her slave, and it is she that has the power over his body. Partly, this power comes from her ability to withhold sex from him to get what she wants. "I wolde no lenger in the bed abide\If that I felte his arm over my side\Til he hadde maad his raunson unto me\Thanne wolde I suffre him do his nicetee" She goes on to say that for profit she will endure the lust of an old man, pretending, but not really taking pleasure in his old meat: "For winning wolde I al his lust endure\And make me a feined appetit\And yit in bacon hadde I nevere delit" .
In addition to sex, deceiving, lying, crying and complaining are other weapons the wife of Bath uses against her husbands: "For al swich wit is yiven us in oure birthe\Deceite, weeping, spinning God hath yive\to wommen kindely whil they may live\...As by continuel murmur or grucching" . In the above passages we see the negative stereotyping of women as lustful connivers without scruples, willing to go to any lengths to get the advantage over men. Added to this is the notion that that which is most forbidden is most desired by women: "Waite what thing we may nat lightly have\Therafter wol we crye al day and crave\Forbede us thing, and that desiren we" (Norton 128). Of course this alludes to the forbidden fruit tasted by Eve and ascribes to women the trait of uncontrollable desire. Though the wife of Bath seems to accept all these stereotypes as actual, God-given traits of women, it may be that she has no other alternative. It is not entirely clear, however, whether she sees them as negative traits or not, since she sees these attributes as the only source of power for women in a male-dominated world. What is clear is that she appropriates these negative qualities to her own positive advantage, just as the women of “Lysistrata” do.
"The Wife of Bath Prologue" also acknowledges the role that literature plays in a male-dominated society that attributes certain negative characteristics to women. The wife of Bath marries the clerk Janekin who has a book that catalogues the evils of womanhood, which he reads nightly. Starting with Eve, "...for [whose] wikkednesse\Was al mankinde brought to wrecchednesse," the book is a virtual who's who of wicked women The wife protests, and rightly so, that the stories are all written from a male perspective and that there are many more examples of male wickedness that women could write about: “By God, if wommen hadden writen stories\…They wolde han writen of men more wikkednesse”. She also criticizes the men who write such stories as nothing more than old men who write misogynist tales because they can no longer perform sexually. "The clerk, whan he is old and may nought do\Of Venus werkes worth his olde sho\Thanne sit he down and writ in his dotage\That wommen can nat keepe hir marriage" (Norton 132). Though she may be right in her criticism, as far as it goes, she still is not denying what men have written about women. She is simply claiming that men are more wicked than women and deserve to be ruled over by them. After coming to blows with her husband over the book the wife actually wins in the end. He yields to her dominance in their relationship and she makes him burn the book. At the very end of her tale she even prays to Jesus to send women "Housbondes meeke, yonge, and fresshe abedde," and to shorten the lives of those "That nought wol be governed by hir wives" .
"The Wife of Bath Prologue" satirically reverses the Genesis formula of man ruling over woman in its examination of the prevailing notions of female inferiority. It could be argued, however, that far from helping to change attitudes and emancipate women, "The Wife of Bath Prologue" merely fortified men in their resolve to maintain their dominance. Male dominance, after all, was considered santioned by God whereas female dominance, as seen through this story, was considered unnatural, and obtainable, ironically, only through their natural inclination to deception and lasciviousness.
Whereas "The Wife of Bath Prologue" reverses the Genesis formula, Milton's Paradise Lost not only imitates the sexism of Genesis, but expands it to suggest that woman was a willing participant in her own subjugation. First, in Book Four of the epic, Milton reaffirms that woman was made for the man, that man has absolute rule and it is the woman's role to submit:
Whence true authority in men; though both
Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;
For contemplation he and valor formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule....
....which implied
Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best received,
Yielded with coy submission... (Book 4. 295-310)
Note the emphasis on yielding and submitting. Milton then has Eve acknowledge that she was indeed created for the man and without him she is nothing. "To whom thus Eve replied: 0 thou for whom\And from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh\And without whom am to no end..." (440-442). This acknowledgement is not evident in the Genesis account but it has the effect here of emphasizing the submissive role women should take.
Further emphasis is seen when Eve describes the day she first woke up. She falls in love with her own image in the water, and even when she first sees Adam she still considers the watery image to be the fairer one. However, Adam pursues her until finally she yields to his superiority. There follows an account of the first ever sex scene; again, a picture of total submission and surrender:
...With that, thy gentle hand
Seized mine, I yielded, and from that time see
How beauty is excelled by manly grace
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.
So spake our general mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreproved
And meek surrender, half embracing leaned
On our first father; half her swelling breast
Naked met his under the flowing gold
Of her loose tresses hid. He in delight
Both of her beauty and submissive charms
Smiled with superior love... (488-499)
And if we still don't get the point that women are to be completely servile Eve goes on to declare that such servility is woman's happiest state. "My author and disposer, what thou bidd'st\Unargued I obey; so God ordains.\God is thy law, thou mine; to know no more\Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise" (635-638). Certainly most women, and some men, must be glad we didn't remain in the garden.
Turning to Book Nine we come across some rather unflattering character traits ascribed to Eve and thus to women in general. As with the Wife of Bath we are told that that which is forbidden has an irresistible appeal to women, thus confirming the weakness of their sex. As Eve debates within herself whether or not to eat the forbidden fruit she says that God "forbids us then to taste; but his forbidding\Commends thee more…” (Book 9: 753,754). Likewise the lecherous, insatiable woman we saw in Chaucer’s tale is hinted at here when Eve begins to eat the forbidden fruit: "Greedily she engorged without restraint" (791). The deceitfulness of women also becomes manifest as Eve debates whether or not to tell Adam what she has done. With her eyes now open she recognizes the inequity of their relationship and considers the possibility of wielding power over him. She decides to tell him, perhaps out of fear, but also for the selfish reason of not wanting to lose him to another woman:
...Shall I make to him known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me, or rather not,
But keep the odds of knowledge in my power
Without copartner? so to add what wants
In female sex, the more to draw his love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
A thing not undesirable, sometime
Superior: for inferior who is free?
This may be well: but what if God have seen
And death ensue? Then I shall be no more,
And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
....Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe (817-831)
Later, when Milton says that Adam was not deceived he means he was not deceived by Satan, but certainly he was deceived by Eve's female charm. "She gave him of that fair enticing fruit\With liberal hand; he scrupled not to eat\Against his better knowledge, not deceived\But fondly overcome with female charm" (996-999).
It was the woman's fault. "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," Adam explains to God (Genesis 3:12). Milton uses the example of Samson and Delilah to further absolve Adam and lay all the blame on Eve. Samson being unaware of Delilah's treachery and betrayal (Book 9.1059-1061). "Thus it shall befall\Him who, to worth in women overtrusting\Lets her will rule..." (1181-1183). There is no questioning the message intended here. The same fate awaits all men who allow women to rule over them. Book Nine ends with the age-old battle of the sexes just getting started. "Thus they in mutual accusation spent\The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning\And of their vain contest appeared no end" (1187-1189).