The Role of Women in History

The role of women throughout history has seen little variety. Whether their livelihood came from being a wife or mother, seamstress or prostitute, women rarely strayed from these ‘professions’. Women have traditionally been judged primarily for their beauty, which was considered to be their most important quality. However, a woman was valued for her submissiveness, as men believed they lacked the intellectual capacity to think for themselves or the moral fibre to consistently know right from wrong. It was believed that deep down all women were inherently evil, as it was Eve who led Adam into temptation which resulted in them being cast out from the Garden of Eden. So, in literature, the female gender role is usually represented as a passive object of beauty to be adored, or competed for by men. They were quiet, docile creatures who keep their opinions to themselves and were not proactive in anyway. Women who deviated from these roles were considered evil or magical. Over time, certain events throughout the course of history have brought with them, many changes to the social values, attitudes and beliefs surrounding women. This can be seen operating in and underpinning the text “The Girl’s Lamentation” by William Allingham and "Playgroup” by Doris Brett.

“The Girls Lamentation” by William Allingham is generally about a young lady who is depressed and scared as she has become pregnant outside of matrimony. In stanzas 1 and 2 the reader is introduced to a woman who feels miserable. “With grief and mourning I sit and spin" (Line1) The imagery created in this line reveal that she is a peasant girl as she is working thread on a spinning wheel. She reveals that her Love does not call on her, but rather visits taverns and “spends a crown" (Line 6) on women to ‘entertain' him. The word Love has been awarded a capital letter, indicating the depth of her feelings for m and the fact that he has so much money to spend on a regular basis, on such trivial pursuits indicates he...