Posted on June 5th, 2007 at 12:20 am by emmaro and
When we started to talk about race, gender, class and what that had to do with The Tempest, I got quite interested. Then when I got more alert and we got into different lenses and what influenced these variations a lot seemed to knot together, though the reason why men think differently then woman still was a mystery. Also while reading The Tempest I noticed that Prospero basically controlled Miranda’s life. That made me want to answer the question “What is the role of woman in The Tempest, how did it change over the years and what influenced that?”
I believe that the role of woman dramatically changed around the world since the Renaissance. Shakespeare seems to express his opinion of the role of woman in The Tempest; to me he is saying that woman back then did not have much to say. For example in Act 3, Scene 1, line 64 where Miranda says to Ferdinand “I am skilless of, but by my modesty”, on the whole, William Shakespeare is saying that woman were not rated by there personality but if they are a virgin or not. Another opinion is articulated in Act 4, Scene 1, line 1 to 35. Prospero, Ferdinand and Miranda are on stage and Prospero is having a conversation with Ferdinand and says that he is allowed to marry Miranda; this whole scene Miranda doesn’t say anything as if she were a price. Lastly in Act 3, Scene 1, line 27 to 33 Miranda is watching Ferdinand carry logs and says that she wants to help, but Ferdinand says that she should not. Subtext of this passage could be that women were not supposed to work but just look pretty and reproduce.
These days woman are equal to men almost everywhere around the world, though the contribution in society is still a bit different. Lets look at Africa first, by what I know and heard it seems like woman are the once that work, I may not have my own lives experience to support this but I do have Mr. R’s who lived in Africa, he once told us in class “In Africa the woman basically do all the work and the men sit around all day smoking cigarettes even though they are really poor.” This clearly shows that the role of woman there is a lot different. While that is true, it is not true that the men force the woman to work, the men are just lazy and don’t get anything done, though the woman want to feed them selves and their children to stay alive. In Asia the role of woman is also different, men and woman both work, though it is more agricultural work that they do because Asia is not that modernized yet. Nevertheless the men and woman still have some separated jobs. I can prove this with my own life experience, I have been to a wide variety of countries and everywhere I see woman and men working in the rice fields. In Europe and North America most of the work is urban where both woman and men get jobs in factories or other businesses. To support this I have my own life experience because I lived in Europe and I have a quote form Azita Amini who comes from the USA, she said “In North America woman started to contribute to the society because the country could not function without them.” Lastly, in South America the role of woman is a lot different than North America, the countries in South America are not fully modernized yet. I got my opinion and support from Ali Pinedo who lived in Brazil all her life until she came to Malaysia, she told me “In South America it depends on the environment in which the woman lives. For example, in the city woman have the same role as in North America, but in agricultural or the outskirts of the cities men and woman still both work but the jobs are a bit separated just like in Asia.” In short the role of woman has changed a lot through the years.
As we talked about different lenses in class we also talked about what influenced these things. In this case, where we are talking about the role of woman through time there are a lot of thing that determined how life is like for woman in the present. For instance, religion and law have had a position. Sometimes a religion says that women are not allowed to work and because in some cases the religion shapes the law, woman cannot get away from that. An other explanation that might have bent the role of woman is the environment. If you live off of agriculture and trade, you need to grow as much crops as possible to make a living. This may lead to the whole family working. Last of all, one of the major things that contributed in this process is culture and what people are used to. For example, the men in Africa may not be used to working and the women are. This will also not motivate the men to start doing any work.
In conclusion, this year I learned how to look for subtext and how to look through different lenses. I think it is amazing what you can sometimes find when you just look close enough! It seems like there is a whole new world is out there! Also I learned how to support my opinion and prove that I have a point.