The book of the cities of ladies

The book of the cities of ladies

Introduction

This book is among one of the most famous works of Christine de Pizan. In this book, Christine has used French but has incorporated some Latin style conversations. This book was a formal response to Roman de la Rose composed by Jean de Meun’s. In this book, Christine tends to create a defense for ladies by giving a wide array of famous women in history. By this, he tends to differ with jean’s idea on women. In this book, he refers ladies to the city of ladies. Each lady described in this book represents a building block for the houses in the city as well as a building block for her main thesis. It is no secret that feminism has been so rampant till today. Although not as high as the olden days, women are still looked down upon; they are still paid fewer wages to the work they do even when men are being paid highly for the same job, women still fear to walk at night, people always turn a blind eye to women’s rights and plights, among many other things that women go through. Christine decided to compose this book after a philosopher said that women are the worst living things that God could have created. This was during the bubonic plague in Europe. In this book, he brings out the value of women in participating in society. She is also an influential activist for education for women.

Since 1405, women’s rights are seen to improve dramatically. During the time when women were depicted to be nothing in this society, Christine gains the chief virtues that help her in fighting off this bad vice. These virtues are the reason, rectitude, and justice, all of this for the sake of women. She claimed to be chosen by God to set the record straight on women. The city that she mentions in her book is metaphorical, in which she includes women with success. She tends to protect women from attacks through its walls and towers she defends. Using her three virtues, she can celebrate the lives of a lot of heroin women who were looked down upon in society.

The main aim of composing this book was to show the world that men and women are equal. She tried to fight that saying by the philosopher that women were terrible. She puts herself as one of the characters in the book. She lays the foundation for the respect of women by bringing out the responsibility given to women and how they have mercilessly fought for their freedom. As she writes this book, at some point, she incorporates the various aspects gotten from Boccaccio’s De mulieribus Claris, on famous Women. This was the first book in the west to talk about the virtues of women. Christine, however, when incorporating these points, she tends to differ abit with Boccaccio and fills in the places where there are gaps in this book. She uses the three virtues to construct and build a city that is noble to women and adheres to women’s rights.

Boccaccio has been seen to influence part 1&2 of Christine’s book.one of the areas that Christine has quoted is when Boccaccio explains that it is wrong for people to take young girls to convents when they are still not aware of what is ahead of them in life. He goes on to state that girls should be allowed to stay at home and get good parenting from their parents. They should be taught proper behavior and honesty so that when they grow up, they can make sound decisions for themselves. They will be able to live a free will live without the control of anybody. Also, Boccaccio was a strong advocate for educating young girls on what to expect in the future. He did not necessarily mean formal education, but a pure knowledge to make them aware was enough. He said that they should be taught about living the secular and religious life. This is where Catherine now finds a stepping stone to advocate the right for women to have formal education. Even though Boccaccio lied more on the traditional ways and values of an obedient and humble woman, this did not stop Christine from going about her works. Boccaccio depicts women should undergo more punishment and suffer for failing to adhere to the rules and regulations set by men. She calls it a place of refuge for women and a place of defense from all the sexist male writers who had no respect for women. By building this symbolic city, she tries to show women that they are safe, and they can acquire their rights if they fight for them. The ladies in this city are strong and united, ready to fight for their reasons. In this city, there are scholars, saints, warriors, wives, and dutiful daughters. She uses history, the bible, myths, and literature to show the real symbol of womanhood.

Later on, she uses science and religion to prove her claims that men and women are equal. She comes up with methods of gathering data, collecting, and observations. By doing this, she can find the truth and prove that women are good and require respect. She comes up with a female stereotype that will try to go against what Christine is advocating for, but then she brings in three more women who will show her that it is not valid. The strength and knowledge that these three women will use to explain and put across their points are what will show Christine and all the readers of her book that women are great and should be respected and heard. By the time you finish reading this book, the pattern for her methodology might be abit too repetitive, but she will have at least passed the point across. She shows the western community on the various importance that will come if they respect and empower their women even though during this time, the west would not even think of letting a woman handle a simple task.

Her work clearly shows the world that women need to be treated in equines and justice. Using her book, the world is able to know how women were treated and perceived in society during that time. It also brings about changes in womanhood that men are often too blind to notice. It has also contributed significantly to the debate that men hold on wanting to keep on maintaining their positions and ranks without the interference of women. Men have always wanted to be rulers and authority in society. Her constant use of virtues and achievements from the past from various women, Christine is able to adopt a three-way focus in the lives of women, that is, the intellectual, the spiritual, and the physical. All of these show that women are equal and more to even the best of renowned men in the world.

Conclusion

As the book comes to an end, Christine has already finished building the city of ladies and in it contains the greatest women in history. She has been able to show her points that it is true that women are just as good as men. When concluding, she asks women to be obedient to their husbands, but do not forget to seek their rights when they feel discriminated against gender. It doesn’t sound like a good ending, mainly because of all through the book; she has tried to fight as much as possible to show men that women can be equal and even more than them. Was she afraid of the trouble she would get into after releasing this book? All in all, she was able to pass her message to men, western society, and the world at large. What she has done is get some knowledge of the women who excelled in history and used them to prove all the philosophers who discriminated against women wrong while the truth they need is all buried in history.

Work cited

De Pizan, Christine. “The Book of the City of Ladies. 1405.” Trans. Rosalind Brown-Grant. London: Penguin (1999).

De Pizan, Christine. The Treasure of the City of Ladies: or the Book of the Three Virtues. Penguin UK, 2003.

Nielsen, E. J. “Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies as reclamatory fan work.” Transformative Works and Cultures 25 (2017).