Sexuality In Medieval Literature

12 Pages 2997 Words

Sexuality in Medieval literature
Rules of medieval society clearly depict that it is a man’s world, but medieval literature seems to reverse this notion. In medieval text, fiction or non-fiction, the reader can expect the foundations of the characteristics of the main character to be the same. You can expect him to be noble along with a few of his own personality traits, but the character of the woman cannot be predicted. Sexuality in medieval literature restricts the male character, but allows the female character the freedom that is not recognized in real medieval society. In other words, people don’t seem to give the female enough credit because it is the different aspects of sexuality of the female that makes the world go around, while men are the silent characters. In medieval society, the man is the dominant figure, but medieval literature portrays women as having different and versatile roles, which allows them to be the center of the conflict or plot, while the men have limited roles set in stone making them merely puppets in a woman’s world.
Sexuality is not only about the sexual nature of both men and women, but it is also about the roles of men and women according to society. A plain and simple way to put men and women in their specific role is to say that a man is masculine and a woman is feminine. They both are supposed to follow their sexuality traits according to those guidelines. The men are very masculine and chivalrous. The man will stay in the boundaries of masculinity because a man will for the fear that he will be viewed by society as weak, but these silly guidelines never control the woman. The woman uses her sexuality for her benefit to get what she wants the way that she wants it. When these men and women deviate from these roles that are considered specifically feminine or masculine, then an interesting and new character is then created.
By reading medieval literature one can conclude that...