The Role of Women in “The Song of Roland’s” and “The Arabian Nights” Societies

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The presence of patriarchy has always been the defining factor in restricting women’s potential and confining it to a restricted set of roles, particularly, those associated with nurturing and household chores. The specified perceptions were reflected in the literature representing the specified communities and time periods, of which “The song of Roland” and “The Arabian Nights” are an accurate example (“The song of Roland,” n.d.; “The thousand and one nights,” n.d.). Whereas in “The song of Roland,” women are portrayed as the foil for the male characters’ development, “The Arabian Nights” demonstrate women’s resilience and resourcefulness while being held in thrall of patriarchy.

Remarkably, the described situation repeats itself in “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and “Odyssey.” In “Odyssey,” the role of women is restricted either to the ones of docile and faithful wives or villains (Homer, n.d.). Similarly, in “The epic of Gilgamesh” (n.d.), even those female characters raised to the status of goddesses are restricted to nurturing roles, such as Shamhat, who represents a benevolent force fostering personal development in the protagonist. Therefore, even though women are represented as a variety of characters in the specified works, the range of their social roles is quite small. The identified limitations on women’s social opportunities could be seen as the direct effect of Islam and Christianity, which affected the epic narratives in question to a significant extent (). Since the range of women’s agency and social roles is minimized in both religions, both promoting the idea of women as mothers and nurturers, the respective religious principles could be seen as the effects of the restrictions on women’s social roles observed in all of the four narratives.

Unlike “The song of Roland,” where women are portrayed only briefly and mostly as docile housewives, “The Arabian Nights” depict women as smart and resilient, finding their way in a highly patriarchal environment. Therefore, while both narratives portray women in highly patriarchal settings, where their freedoms are severely curtailed, “The Arabian Nights” detail how women manage to survive in the specified context.

References

(n.d.). Learner.org. Web.

(n.d.). C. K. Moncreiff (Trans.). Archive.org. Web.

(n.d.). M. K. Sanders (Trans.). Assyrian International News Agency. Web.

Homer. (n.d.). R. Fitzgerald (Trans.). MBCI. Web.

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