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Would a character in this time and place really do that? Reader feedback helps novelists make draft characters more credible, but unfounded expectations complicate matters. Recently I’ve had a protagonist challenged for failure to act like a typical medieval woman: meek, docile, obedient, and subservient. Where did that come from?
Though men held most of the formal power and property, medieval literature and history abound in assertive, influential women. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath (Canterbury Tales) and the women in Boccaccio’s Decameron were feisty, if fictitious. Blood feuds in Icelandic sagas depended on women goading reluctant men to fulfill their vengeful duty. Abbesses ruled monasteries that included men as well as women. Women of rank plotted with sons and lovers to control the English crown. Some queens governed as regents for minor sons or demented husbands. When feudal knights rode off to war, the complex management of their manors fell to their wives or widows. Widows who inherited property enjoyed considerable independence. There are lots of good reasons to question a character’s behavior, but the presumed docility of medieval women isn’t one of them.
4 Comments
Lisa Imhoff
1/9/2019 08:33:14 am
Did "meek, docile, obedient, and subservient" develop in Victorian times? Before that, women had to carry their own weight. They were survivors in their own right. Lisa, you've nailed it. Not that the Victorian era lacked strong women either, but the ideal (off farms and prairies) was meek. I suspect some readers incorrectly assume, if women were expected to be weak and pious then, how much more so a few centuries earlier. Change doesn't always progress in one direction. As another example, four-letter words for bodily functions became taboo in the Victorian era but were common and accepted earlier. Rebecca, yes, people must be diverse within any time and place. I suspect each personality is a blend of individual and culture. A macho culture will have more (but not all) macho men, a culture that values the arts will have more (but not all) artistic sorts, and so on. On a train from Vienna to Rome long ago, I was struck that the volume of conversations around me went up as we crossed the border - not that all Italians were more vocal and expressive than all Austrians, but the overall balance shifted. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin.
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