Renaissance Poetry Essay Research Paper Renaissance ideas

Renaissance Poetry Essay, Research Paper

Renaissance ideas of women were strongly shaped by the writers of the time and by the conceptions of femininity that had existed since the Middle Ages. No one more strongly affected the early Renaissance idea of what a woman was than Petrarch, he idealized women and heterosexual love in such a way that its power would resonate into love as we see it now.

Love for Petrarch was something that was ideal and perfect, held firmly above man in the heavens, yet at the same time it meant anguish and the lack of connection with any real human emotion. He portrayed women as ideals, with stars in their eyes and their feet treading on golden ground. His ideal woman was so far removed from a real person that it was no wonder Shakespeare was to mock it in one of his most famous sonnet’s.

However more important criticism of the Petrarchan ideal of femininity came from the women writers of the Renaissance because they fully addressed not only the absurdity of the Petrarchan woman but also the desperation of the true Renaissance woman. Writers like Mary Sidney refuted the ideal of Petrarch and retold it to reflect the true suffering that the real woman of the Renaissance was faced with, a life that was weighted down with the chains of an abusive patriarchal society.

The difficulty that female writers faced cannot be understated. As Wendy Wall states, “When women wrote, privately or publicly, they had to confront forms and figures that alienated them from the position of speaking subject.” This difficulty was perhaps the most profound in terms of their ability to set up a counter idea to the Petrarchan ideal woman. Silencing them ensured that males could define what it meant to be a woman, and Petrarch ensured that there was a dominant tradition to counteract any redefinition on the part of women writers.

Petrarch sets up for the reader the masthead of the patriarchal society, a woman who is the virgin ideal. Pure and perfect enough to inhabit the world of fantasy that made up his ideal of love, she is a goddess on earth. He does so through his use of superfluous language and rich images of decadence, women become pieces of art to be eaten with only the senses.

There is perhaps no better example of this than the sonnet number ninety from the Canzoniere. In this piece we are given the description of Petrarch’s desire that is a perfect rendering of his objectification of women.

She’d let her gold hair flow free in the breeze

that whirled it into thousands of sweet knots,

and lovely light would burn beyond all measure

in those fair eyes whose light is dimmer now.

Her hair and everything about her is rendered in terms that are beyond what any ordinary human could be presumed to possess.

While it can be argued that Petrarch is simply describing blond hair with the word “gold”, one must look at the continued reference to gold or brightness which things such as precious metals and sun contain. Through the use of gold she too becomes precious and commodified. For Petrarch she is a glistening jewel to be cherished.

Nature has played its part in creating her and Petrarch seems to state that nature is behind her continued beauty as well. The wind itself helps to enhance her beauty and her connection to the earth comes through this beauty and not by the same means as it would for a man.

By using the images of the wind tying her hair into “sweet knots” Petrarch is also entering the idea that nature itself supports the placing of women on pedestals. If the wind would take special care to treat her hair differently than others, then there must be something about her that is particularly special or worthy of praise. This is a clever way of sanctifying the idealized woman, because if nature itself reveres women in this way then obviously his use of women as ideal objects is justified. Petrarch understands this and thus the inclusion of nature as a beautifying force is useful in legitimizing the ideal woman.

The effect of Petrarch’s idealization of women is to render them unable to converse with men on an equal level. Equality is something that in theory is held dear to the Renaissance, “Being equals, women can participate with me in the sacred friendship that men of honor have always held dear in the Renaissance pastoral.” The removal of this equality hinders the dialogue and relationship that women can have with men and thus while Petrarch seemingly glorifies women, the effect of his glorification renders them impotent in the real world.

Petrarch further separates himself and his affection by deifying the woman even further at the close of the poem.

The way she walked was not the way of mortals

but of angelic forms, and when she spoke 10

more than an earthy voice it was that sang:

a godly spirit and a living sun

was what I saw, and if she is not now,

my wound still bleeds, although the bow’s unbent.

The diction here repeats the effect of the earlier lines and tells the reader that Petrarch and the woman are further separated. Not only is she separated from him, she is also separated from what is left of her own body because her actions now mirror those of angels.

This separation of the body from the idea of what makes up a woman is important because it

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