By choosing characters with a similar background, this thesis will focus on the women mentioned above within the framework of medievalism and gender theory to explore how traits and characteristics...Show moreBy choosing characters with a similar background, this thesis will focus on the women mentioned above within the framework of medievalism and gender theory to explore how traits and characteristics rooted in the notion of femininity and masculinity has shifted within literature in the course of time. I ultimately intend to argue that in modern-day fiction, traditional gender roles have blurred, and as a result of that, women have acquired more dynamic roles.Show less
This thesis explores the ways in which gendered language related to love and marriage can illuminate aspects concerning the themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma...Show moreThis thesis explores the ways in which gendered language related to love and marriage can illuminate aspects concerning the themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emma. A literature review has been provided in order to support the investigations conducted in this thesis, and it summarises the areas of gendered language which have been selected for analysis. In the subsequent sections, a study of the data collected with the use of the application WordSmith focuses on the ways in which patterns of gendered language uttered by various characters highlight fundamental features of different ages and classes. Key elements of age and class differences were uncovered, with extremely varying perspectives on love and marriage by the older generations and those of the higher upper classes, as opposed to the younger generations and members of lower positions in society. A reading of the two novels together has allowed for a wide analysis of Austen’s themes across her works, and it has led to the discovery of interesting parallels between Pride and Prejudice and Emma.Show less
This thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife...Show moreThis thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. In both tales, the figure of the loathly lady is an important character who overthrows traditional gender roles and embodies a new kind of ideal woman. She defies the gender binary by not conforming to her expected gender role and by conveying the message that women want sovereignty over their husbands. The ultimate goal, however, is not for a woman to be superior to a man, but for both to live as equals in marriage. In this thesis I will apply medieval gender theories to both The Wedding if Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Wife of Bath’s Tale in order to show the inferior position that women were expected to take, especially in marriage, and how the loathly lady proposes a new ideal of equality by claiming that what women actually want is to have power themselves.Show less
