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Famous Literature Writings Influences on Thought: Gender Roles in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Snow White
The key to making literary writings intriguing is exploring ideas that may sometimes seem controversial. This provides an opportunity for readers to develop personal opinions on matters that could possibly affect their everyday lives. Gender representations and identity has become a major topic that many great literature writings focus on. This allows writers to either reinforce stereotypical gender roles or steer clear from them. Which becomes important to readers because they begin identifying with characters. For centuries society has been defining what it means to be male/female by assigning specific gender roles that have to be carried out in order to keep a moral society. The processes of socialization play a significant part in these gender assignments. The culture where a story is derived from has a major impact on how gender roles might be portrayed but typically they all follow the same list. Often times in literary writings we see women taking on domesticated roles, and men taking more dominating roles. Women would play housewives, mothers, or naive young women. Any form of power that they came in possession of would be because of the man they’re associated with. Men were considered to be inferior to women which gave them more opportunities. Their almighty masculinity gives them complete control over all the affairs we associate with living. I would like to talk about two different literary writings, The Epic of Gilgamesh and Snow White by the Brothers’ Grimm in order to show how each story expresses typical gender roles and confines the sexes to tradition, even though they were composed in different time periods.
Beginning with Gilgamesh we will focus on what roles women play and determine if there is a direct correlation between the two societies. The Epic of Gilgamesh takes place during the ancient Mesopotamian era and it shows obvious signs of gender roles. Men were the dominating factor when it came to The Epic of Gilgamesh but the women of this story were the driving force. Mainly because Gilgamesh would have never been able to embark on his path for immortality if the women presented in this epic were simply taken out. Now the women did take on those stereotypical roles as nurtures, mothers, and sex objects but they brought a sense of wisdom and education that made the story really interesting. The first major female character that The Epic of Gilgamesh introduces is Aruru, the goddess of creation who brings life to Enkidu. This ironically shows the one thing that women were most known for and that is introducing a new life. Secondly was the Shamart who, according to Dr. Carey, was a servant to love and sexual union. Shamart was ordered by Gilgamesh to use her sexuality to tame Enkidu and bring him back to mankind as we can see in the following lines “ Spread out your robe so he can lie upon you, and perform for this primitive the task of womankind.” Once again reinforcing the power that men have over women. This, however, played an important part in the epic because humanizing Enkidu sets way for new discoveries specifically for him and Gilgamesh. The Shamart taught Enkidu how to live as a man by educating him on the wonders of life such as food, wine, clothing, language, etc (Dr. Carey, 2019). Which then allowed Gilgamesh and Enkidu to teach each other what it meant to have friends and loyalty. Gilgamesh’s mother Ninsun was also an important female lead because she provided her son care and guidance when he needed it. Another was Ishtar the goddess of love who somewhat abused her powers in order to get her way. Showing how women are loving and caring but sometimes manipulative allows us to make a general assumption about women as a whole. Which once again enforces the ideal roles of women. The Epic of Gilgamesh was a journey to maturity that only happened because of the women’s involvement.
Though women didn’t have complete power we see how they are important for our male characters. Which similarly emerges in fairytales. Snow White is one of the leading fairytales that many young children have been introduced to, especially young girls. It’s a tale that has been told by many. Each time displaying different interpretations. However, there is always a common element when telling the story of Snow White, and that is the traditional gender role of beauty. In the Brothers’ Grimm version of Snow White, we see how this idea of beauty leads to a downfall of relationships. Specifically in the case of Stepmother and daughter. Looking at social context, women in the early stages of Europe weren’t allowed much. They had typical domesticated roles like cooking, cleaning, and watching after the children. Displaying beauty is one thing that many women had but beauty became such a priority for the Stepmother that it consumed her. Constantly asking her magic mirror ‘Who’s the fairest of them all?”, and its’ response being “You, oh queen, are the fairest of all” shows how she consistently needed the acknowledgment of her beauty. Being beautiful was something expected of women at all times, but if they’re steadily obsessing over it people might consider that to be ugly. In the eyes of the queen that didn’t matter because what made her ugly was not being the fairest of them all. Having her stepdaughter surpass her beauty sent her into a jealous rage. The Stepmother would have never accepted second best especially to her stepdaughter. Like many fairy tales, Snow White is meant to serve the purpose of entertainment but it presents underlying meanings. Considering that “Snow White” was meant as a tale for children we can acknowledge the messages that are being sent out. One is that beauty is a valuable gift that is guaranteed to take a woman very far in her lifetime but she must not take it in vain. These examples “ Snow White was so beautiful that the huntsman took pity on her and said: Just run away you poor child”, “She had put on the red hot iron shoes and dance in them until she dropped to the ground dead” shows what a woman has to expect if she takes the beauty she was given for granted. Secondly, the beauty that these women portray isn’t really meant for them. It was primarily a prize for man. We can acknowledge this in two different parts of Snow White. The first being her introduction to the seven dwarfs. Snow White wandering into the dwarfs home became an advantage for them. Because her homelessness gave the dwarfs the perfect opportunity to capitalize on getting a servant. Secondly, is when the king chooses Snow White to be his queen. When the king witnesses her beauty it allowed him to pick her as a wife making them destined to be together. Now the story does mention Snow White being fond of the king, however, if she wasn’t would she be in any position to turn him down.
