Stephen
Crutchfield
Beard,
Laura J. “Poema de Mio Cid.”
Explicator 52.1 (1993): 4-6
This small article is a gender criticism of the Poem of
the Cid. The author of this
article argues that the Cid was not the perfect loving father and husband as
many other critics of this poem contend. It
suggests, instead, that there are several events in the poem that indicate that
the Cid’s relations with his family are not as good as they appear.
These events include “that the daughters of the Cid have no individual
identity in their society until they are to marry, that the mother is not
allowed any role in deciding her daughters’ marriage, and that the epic hero
rides out to meet the men but not the women” (5).
The article also states that the women in the work display
“submissiveness” (5) throughout the poem.
This is primarily shown when the Cid’s wife, Jimena, does not object to
the fact that she had no say in whom her daughters were to marry.
I feel that although this article makes a point, it does very little to defend it. The author leads the reader to believe that she does not even support her own view. She states only two instances from the poem as evidence for her thesis. These are that the Cid’s wife had no say in whom her daughters marry and that the Cid did not greet his family at the gate but met his men. She later dismisses the latter of these two. This leaves only one piece of evidence for her theory. Thus I view this study as having a weak argument and feel it is not very useful. I also disagree with her stand on this topic. She states that in the poem the Cid treats the women with disrespect to some degree. I feel that the opposite is true; the poem makes its hero look like one. There are other ways to view the topic of women in this poem. One is too look at how the women influence the portrayal of the Cid. Perhaps with more evidence to support its arguments this article would enrich the Poem of the Cid, however, without this evidence it is not very useful.
Beidler, Peter G. “The
Plague and Chaucer’s Pardoner.” The Chaucer Review 16.3
(1982): 257-269
In this study, the author uses a historical approach to
argue that we cannot understand
Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale
“if we overlook either the plague backdrop which Chaucer provided for the
story or the evidence concerning medieval attitudes toward the plague” (265).
He shows that we could find answers to “some otherwise puzzling
questions” (257) about the work if we look closer at medieval attitudes
towards the plague. These puzzling
questions include (among others): why are the rioters partying if there is a
plague? (257-58), and why was the treasure left near the tree and not taken?
(259). The
author answers these questions by providing historical accounts of people’s
actions during the plague. For
example, he states that no one picked up the treasure because they figured it
was from an infected person, and they believed they could catch the plague by
touching items touched by an infected person.
He provides historical accounts supporting
this opinion.
This work is a
useful tool to link a historical event we have studied, the plague, with a
literary work we have read, the
Pardoner’s Tale.
It is written clearly and the author’s thesis is well defended.
Beidler provides insight into what life was like during the plague as
well as why events in the Pardoner’s
Tale took place. The author also
gives suggestions on why Chaucer may have written this episode.
As a whole, I feel this article is helpful in understanding the plague as
well as Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale.
Bluestine,
Carolyne. “The Role of Women in
the Poema de Mio Cid.” Romance
Notes 18 (1978): 404-09.
The purpose of
this article is to analyze the role of women in the epic poem, Poema
De Mio Cid (Poem of the Cid).
The author states that the women in the poem serve four purposes.
The first is to allow the tensions between the Cid and his daughter’s
husbands. These tensions lead to
several episodes that would otherwise not be present that lead to the glory of
the Cid. Next, they “serve to add
dimension to the Cid as a flesh and blood hero” (407) by showing him as a
loving husband and father. A third
purpose is to show the artistic skill of the author.
The women in the poem allow “exquisitely moving moments” (407) that
portray the Cid in a better light. The
final purpose of the poem is to “give the poem more realism” (408).
These four purposes of the women all fall under one main purpose: to make
the masculine figure, the Cid, more desirable and heroic.
She also states that the poem had information that was inaccurate
historically. Some of the truth
about the women in the poem was left out because without it “the valor and
virility” (405) of the Cid was more clearly accented.
The article was written using a gender approach. It examines the differences between the genders in the Poem of the Cid and clearly shows that the women were submissive to the men. I agree with the author’s main focus, the women in the poem were present to make the Cid look better. I feel she defends her position well by using examples in the text as well as pointing out the historical inconsistencies of the poem. She backs the examples with her own commentary that further proves her theis. Overall, this study is very helpful in understanding the role of women in the Poem of the Cid. It provides the reader with a new viewpoint in which to look at the poem, one that I feel helps enrich the poem.
Cormier, Raymond,
and
The thesis of this
article is that the Cid in the Poem
of the Cid goes through “double
dishonor and double vindication” (48). The
dishonor of which the author speaks occurs at the beginning of the poem when the
Cid is exiled and later in the poem when the husbands he chose abuse his
daughters. His restoration occurs
when he wins lands from the Moors and when he wins the “final cosmic battle”
(48). The author argues that the Cid
is an Epic hero as opposed to a Romance hero because he experiences a “slow
but progressive return to royal favor” (47) whereas Romance heroes “undergo
a more dynamic or dramatic awakening” (46).
This article uses
a specialized language that requires the audience to look closely as they read.
Sometimes it jumps from one topic to the next, making it hard to follow.
However, if one looks closely at the article, it can enrich the text by
giving the reader insight into the structure of the poem.
By viewing the poem as having double dishonor and double restoration, the
poem can be more enjoyable than that of a “linear narrative” (48).
Despite this, I feel this article is not very useful because it tends to
be too complicated to follow. The
article’s jargon and tendency to jump off topic can easily confuse the reader.
Sponsler, Lucy A. “Women
in
The purpose of this article is to compare how women in
Medieval Spain were portrayed in Epic literature with how women were viewed in
medieval laws and codes. The article
reviews women in five different Epic poems and several Spanish law books from
the medieval time period. It argues
that medieval laws portrayed women as submissive to men, whereas only one of the
five epic poems portray women this way. The
famous Poem of the Cid is the one exception.
The article states, “The medieval laws and customs which reveal
woman’s place in society, her rights within marriage and the attitudes of men
towards her corroborate the role Jimena (the Cid’s wife) plays as dutiful but
passive observer” (428). However,
the other poems show females as less submissive, but still not completely free
willed. The author writes, “it is
clear that while none (of the other female characters) fits the image of a woman
as defined by Medieval codes and as deduced from the portrayal of Jimena and her
daughters, neither do these four fall into a new stereotype opposite to Jimena”
(446).
I feel this article is often unclear because it tries to put five different Epic pieces under one umbrella, when in reality they all treated women a little differently. This makes it hard to define the central topic of the article as a whole, thus making it hard for the author to argue her thesis well. However, it does provide some insight on how women were treated in each individual Epic poem. I feel the part of the article that was most useful for our class is the interpretation of the role of women in the Poem of the Cid. The article goes into detail in describing that the women in the poem were submissive to men. I agree with the author on this point and feel that examining the role of women in the poem is an interesting way to view it. Although the author does a poor job tying all the Epic works together, she is effective in describing the role of women in each one individually. Therefore, I believe this article is a useful study for analyzing the role of women in Epic poetry.