The question:

Discuss the term “evil” and how it is applied to women in at least three of the works we read for this semester. What is the role of the “evil woman” in these works?

Ms. Lloyd’s answer:

The word “evil” is often used in epic poetry. Mostly, the word connotes a lack of thought and decision. If something, such as a woman, is evil, then the culture does not have to think about the implications of actions taken towards the person or thing. “Evil” then becomes a term to excuse actions taken against people or things that went against the beliefs of the culture. The Greeks at the time of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Euripides’ Medea were in a patriarchal society. The women who did not succumb to the patriarchal society and live in dominion of a man were therefore, termed “evil” and in order to excuse actions taken against the woman and prevent the other women from doing the same things.

In the Iliad, Helen is the archetypical “evil” woman by the standards of her time. Helen leaves her husband to live with Paris from the Trojans, which starts the Trojan War. She is the excuse needed for the Achaeans to wage a war against Troy. She is described as evil by many of the characters in the play because Helen committed infidelity with Paris. She steps out of her role as a mother, wife and Queen in the patriarchal society to further her own whims and seek love. This act is unacceptable by the culture, because men are the highest authority of the home. When Helen chooses to leave and commit infidelity, she is directly opposing the male authority in the patriarchal society. Since the men of the time can not have women doing as Helen did, they say Paris “swept Helen off, her famous Father’s child” instead of saying that Helen left of her own accord (6. 212). The men also describe her as “evil” in order to ward off this act of self-fulfillment of the women, by Helen’s example. Hector’s wife, Andromache, is given a higher position in the next passage when she is described as “his loyal wife” which serves to further the patriarchal value by juxtaposing Andromache and Helen.

Another woman, Circe from the Odyssey, serves to further this idea of the patriarchy. Circe is described as “evil” or as a witch, simply because she chooses to live alone in “an open glade” in a “wild wood” instead of in civilization under a man’s dominion (10. 224-5). When Odysseus’s men enter the “hall of Circe” they are amazed by the tame “wolves and mountain lions” lying in Circe’s hall (10. 223-4). The wolves and lions serve to further this idea of Circe being “evil” because she has castrated them to make them tame. This act is unheard of by the patriarchal society and is a blatant disrespect by Circe toward man’s dominion. This symbol of the male figure, castrated, serves to further the idea that Circe is a single woman living outside the male dominion, and therefore, the men term her “evil” and fear her. The men are scared of the lions and wolves not because the creatures are a threat but because the creatures are a symbolic representation of themselves, out of their typical role and under a female dominion. Circe serves in the story to show xenia, or hospitality, and to foil Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. When Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs because they act like pigs at her table, the act is not seen as Odysseus’ men violating xenia, but as Circe being “evil.” The term “evil” then is proven to connotate a lack of responsibility, or as an excuse, because Odysseus’ men refuse to take fault for being rude guests because Circe does not fit under the male, or their, dominion. Therefore by terming Circe “evil” the men have an excuse for their actions. Further along, the comparison of Circe and Penelope shows how different Penelope is from Circe in the male perspective. Penelope is a “good wife” because she fits under the patriarchal society and knows her place. Circe is not a good woman, but “evil” only because she desires to think and act for herself out from under the patriarchal society.

In Euripides’ Medea, Medea is the “evil” woman because she kills her children, kills Jason’s new wife, and runs off to live with another man. The idea of “motherhood” in a patriarchal society is why Medea is termed “evil.” The symbolic role of a mother is to care for her young in the patriarchal society, which Medea is a foil for when she kills her children. Jason describes Medea as “a monster not a woman, having a nature/ Wilder than that of Scylla, in the Tuscan sea” (lns. 1317-8). When Jason describes Medea as wild and full of rage, he is negatively viewing her as a male in the patriarchal society. Medea’s wild nature is not a fit attribute for a wife and mother under male dominion, and Jason further exemplifies this fact when he wishes he had married a less “destructive match” (ln. 1316). In Medea’s famous speech, she expresses the place of the woman in a patriarchal society and clearly says “women are the most unfortunate creatures” for “it is required for us to buy a husband and take for our bodies/ a master; for not to take one is even worse” (lns. 229-32). These lines are significant, for it shows the male view of women. Women have to take a “master” like a slave, for not to “take one is even worse.” Medea, Circe, and Helen are all trapped in this slavery, forced to take a husband, and not allowed to further their own whims. The irony is that Medea’s story would not be “evil” if she had been a man. Many male characters in the epic poems kill their children, such as Agamemnon when he kills his daughter as a sacrifice. In Medea’s case, the only difference is that she is a female in a patriarchal society.

Therefore, one can assume that “evil” in the epic poetry dictated a lack of thought and responsibility towards actions taken against the women who were deemed “evil.” All three women were only trying to make something of themselves and follow their own vices. The only reason they were termed “evil” is because the male attitude towards women in a patriarchal society demanded subjection by women. If women did not take male dominion, but instead lived under their own whims and vices, then when men acted out against them, the term “evil” served as an excuse for the men to do whatever they wanted without thinking. It also served as a cover-up so that other women would not want the freedom that Helen, Circe, and Medea had, and possibly do the same things.

Many thanks to Erika Lloyd for allowing me to reprint her essay.

Be sure you are posting at least twice in each forum. Remember, each forum is worth 10 points, but each post within the forum is only worth a maximum of 5 points. I explained all of this during orientation.

One more thing: be sure you know when the due date and time is: 12pm each Thursday. Several posts have been made late. Remember, anything posted after the due date will not count.

I strongly suggest you review “Forum: Some Considerations” and “Forum Top Five.”

In the following forum, consider one of the following for your initial thread posting.

• Identify and discuss a major or minor theme. What is a primary concern of the literary text? How is it identified within the text? What does the text say about this theme?
• Analyze a major or minor character. What is the character like? Why is the character present; i.e., what role does he or she play in the action? How does the character change, or does she? What relationship does the character have with the protagonist?
• Read a passage closely. What are the rhetorical elements of the passage; i.e., how does the author’s choice of words and grammar affect an interpretation? Why is the passage important to the overall work? What ideas are developed in the passage? What particular plot point is developed or made clearer?
• Examine a metaphor, symbol, simile, or motif. Are there any dominant comparisons made in the text? How are they operating? What do these analogies imply? What is being compared?
• Analyze a scene. What scene is crucial to the development of the text? What are the primary components? Who is involved? How do things change for the course of the text after the scene?
• Compare or contrast two elements or texts. Are there opposing or supporting themes within or between texts? Are there metaphors that work together or against each other? What conflicting or supporting roles do two characters play? Does this text remind you of another we’ve read in the class?
• Answer a question. Find questions online about the text you’re reading and answer one. Answer one of your own questions about the text.
• Respond to a critic. Read a critical article about the text (hint: there are many on HumX) and respond to the points the critic makes. Reading criticism is always a good way to begin to understand and then write about a literary text.
• Write a combination of the above. (But be careful not to try to do too much.)

After posting an initial thread, be sure to comment on at least one other thread. Remember: each forum is worth a maximum of 10 points, but each post within a forum (called a “thread”) is worth a maximum of 5 points. To receive full credit for a forum, you must post a minimum of twice.

Before posting, be sure you read around in the forum a bit to be sure you’re not repeating something that’s already been posted. Also, be sure you give your thread a clear and precise title. You might also consult the following before posting, or to remind you the goals of the forum assignments.

• Blogging and Forum: Some Considerations
• Forum Top 5
• Strong Forum Post Example
• Second Forum Example
• Third Forum Example
• Commenting Online

Greetings, and welcome to the summer semester. You are receiving this email because you are registered for my online World Literature 2 course. This is a friendly reminder that the class begins this Thursday at 7:30 am (!) in Jones 212. Please read Online Considerations before attending.

This course does not use Vista, WebCT, Blackboard, or whatever they’re calling it these days. It uses Humanities Online. We will be setting up your accounts on there during our session on Thursday morning.

You may review the course syllabus, if you’d like, before Thursday, though we will be going over it then as well.

Bring your questions. I look forward to meeting you.

Poster 1

The young woman in Kundera’s “The Hitchhiking Game” finds herself stuck between two binary opposites, with neither position representative of the position she really wants. Kundera adeptly illustrates the dichotomy of how women are viewed and judged on the basis of their sexual activity.

She is fearful that she is too boring and plain for her older more experienced before which fuels her engagement with her role as the hitchhiker. The freedom of anonymity grants her the ability to be more sexually demanding than she would otherwise be permitted, but this very license seems to cheapen her in her boyfriend’s eyes. To fully become that character that she thinks he desires, she has to abandon the concepts of purity or chastity that caused him to value her in the initial portion of the story.

It is daring of Kundera to question the fluidity of identity and this serves as empowering women with the choice to control their role. Unfortunately, the choices seem to be limited between two extremes, where a woman is either a prude or a slut based solely on her number of sexual partners.

How does this depiction of sexual ethics differ or resemble our contemporary views? What effects do social views have on the expression of a healthy sexuality and are women still subjected to this double standard of expectations with regard to sexual experience? Do you think that Kundera views these expects as beliefs that are changeable?

My own observations would say that while attitudes amongst individuals are far more relaxed and respectful of an individuals choices, there is still a very strong cultural pull to label a woman who has had multiple partners a “slut” or “whore” whereas it is regarded as de rigueur for a male were to have been with multiple women. Kundera’s exploration of this topic gave me the impression that this issue constitutes one of the fundamental struggles in a relationship because each party is left with conflicting expectations for how to act and how to expect a partner to act.

Poster 2

I like the way [Poster 1] defines identity and sexuality, in regard to the story. It fits together very well. I think that the story’s depiction of this subject is similar to modern views. Contemporary ideas surrounding sexual experience seem to be more relaxed but not to the extent that a double standard does not exist. Like you said, our culture has yet to release of us these labels and rules.

Poster 3

Personally speaking, yes, I have encountered a cultural double standard in which women are expected to be both virgin and whore, and I’m surprised and uncomfortable every time. Then again, I make little attempt to hide upon which side of that line I fall. I’m a woman who not only has had multiple previous partners, but who also often maintains multiple romantic and sexual connections simultaneously — clearly, this is not a tightrope I care to walk, nor is it one that the people to whom I am closest (friends or otherwise) expect me to walk. That said, generally speaking, while I am honest about my lifestyle, I do tend to be a bit more coy in polite conversation, but that is the extent to which I play into the game. While one could argue that this dichotomy is simply about an assertion of male power, I think that there is clear power in this fantasy for both parties, male and female — the moment in which the girl realizes that in being the hitchhiker, “…she alone had the ability to be all women and in this way (she alone) could completely captivate her lover and hold his interest” (613), rings of the same logic that has moved many a copy of Cosmo off the racks of checkout line magazine stands into the hands of women hoping to have this same power over their men. Clearly this logic has its flaws, but power and sex have as steamy a relationship as any two lovers, and the aroma is somewhat intoxicating.

While it calls to mind that cultural dichotomy, I don’t think that with “The Hitchhiking Game,” Kundera is addressing human culture as a whole and holding it accountable for its origins. Rather, I find that a central theme to the story could be summed up as: when people give themselves over to what they are not, they cause harm to their selves and to others. As soon as the girl stops seeing the young man as her young man and rather some rough and indifferent stranger she is free from her jealousy and can give herself over to her role, “…a role out of trashy literature. The hitchhiker stopped the car not to get a ride, but to seduce the man who was driving the car. She was an artful seductress, cleverly knowing how to use her charms. The girl slipped into this silly, romantic part with an ease that astonished her and left her spellbound” (611). The girl never assumes, or actively takes on her role, she slips into it and lets it captivate her as much as she seeks to captivate her lover. She ultimately, in giving her power over to the game, finds herself in great distress when the young man refuses to end it. He has played his role, and, instead of becoming captive to it, he gives himself over to his own jealousy and insecurity.

Also, though we may look at the virgin/whore dichotomy as a struggle between masculine and feminine power, Kundera examines the power that the entire game has over us, stating that:

Even in a game there lurks a lack of freedom; even a game is a trap for the players. If this had not been a game and they had really been two strangers, the hitchhiker could long ago have taken offense and left. But there’s no escape from a game. A team cannot flee from the playing field before the end of a match, chess pieces cannot desert the chess board: the boundaries of the playing field are fixed (616).

Both the girl and the young man are under the power of the game and cannot escape from it. She loses herself to the game when she loses sight of her lover; he loses himself in the very fact that he cannot do the same until he finds that his two images of her have blurred together so thoroughly he can’t tell them apart when she is naked in the very moment that she needs him to see only her. In this moment, they both realize that they can not flee the parameters of the hitchhiker-and-roving-young-rogue game; they are faced with no choice but to play it out to its end: sex in which she is humiliated and objectified, but in which she, achieving climax despite her utter emotional detachment from him and from herself, has “…crossed the forbidden boundary, but she proceeded across it without objections and as a full participant — only somewhere, far off in a corner of her consciousness, did she feel horror at the thought that she had never known such pleasure, never so much pleasure as at this moment — beyond that boundary” (619). In which direction has the girl crossed the boundary between the game and her life, and for that matter, which one is truly the game?

Poster 4

I had to comment on this because I think there is a very blurry line here that I feel strongly about. Women are expected to have many different sides to them, and we do, no doubt and they don’t contradict each other. While some women allow social roles to define them, we all still have needs. I, personally, am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend- A WOMAN. I love all aspects of that and I don’t get lost in a particular role. At the same time, women want to feel loved, respected, protected and sexy! While having all of these sides to us, sometimes we only want to show certain sides to certain people. The girl in this story had something she needed to let out and to someone she trusted. Unfortunately, he wasn’t “man” enough to handle it. She was ready to show herself to someone, let go of that social constraint and allow a confident and willing side take over but he used it against her. We all have that side. One where we just want to let go of all insecurities and be reveled in. She may never be the same after that experience. She may never trust anyone again completely. It’s unfortunate she chose the wrong “young man” to bare her soul to.

Poster 1

I think this is a very accurate reading, [Poster 4]. At the end, any troubles come from the young man’s jealous nature and inability to understand faceted levels of motivation behind the young woman’s actions during the game. If blame is to be assigned for dysfunction in the relationship, it would certainly be assigned to him. He is unable to play their game in a way that can lead to a healthy relationship. To answer [Poster 3]‘s question, the girl seems to grow as a result of her engagement in the game, gaining confidence and becoming comfortable with expressing her desires. The young man is the one who fails to understand his role in the game, and the separation between fantasy and reality, causing an alienated response that could, as you suggest, cause the young woman to never trust anyone completely again.

Poster 5

Trust is a hard thing to establish between a women and a man if there are factors that cause a one not to believe in that person. I agree with you whole heartily that all a women want is to be love unconditionally. I think as females we tend to love hard and this put us in a compromising situation. This can lead some people to play on that sincere love. But that in no way justify one to judge a female for her sincere feelings. We are all different and at the end of the day we all do have needs and your point of view is a valuable one.

You must write in the forums and supply direct evidence from the texts to support your suppositions. Yes, it’s a conversation, but it has to be a little more formal than “Yes, I believe that Faust . . .”

I recommend that you check your grades. I think that many of you are just doing what you consider the minimum amount of work to pass, but you will be surprised when you see your actual grades. You  must keep on top of this class. I have posted several items on here to help you. I suggest you have a look at them.

As always, contact me if you have any questions or concerns.