Generally, feminism is described as the range of ideologies, social movements and political groups that work under the same goal (Jayawardena, 2016). Most of these groups seek to ensure there is both equal education and professional opportunities for both women and men in the society. The aspect of feminism tends to fight for rights of women such as the right to vote, the right to access equal opportunities and other social related services.
In this discussion have used the poem of Christopher Marlow to illustrate the issue of feminism. The conclusion determines whether I agree or disagree with the aspect of feminism by Christopher Marlowe. The author uses the two characters that is Hero and Leander to describe the whole poem .Clement (2018) describes that the whole article received immense attention from different audiences. He further shows that Christopher Marlowe uses the homoerotic language when describing the bodily form of the Leander. Despite using the appropriate concept of poem presentation such as the mythical illusions, the evocative descriptions, and the ironic wit, Christopher Marlowe’s work has received a lot of critics which indicates the aspect of homosexuality. Different authors have argued differently on the poem of the Christopher Marlowe. For instance, in the Queer theorist, the author utilizes the word homosexuality to when describing the relationships of males. Christopher Marlowe used the Love triangle in the entire context to describe what was happening. The encounter of the Neptune by the Leander basically does involve a homosexuality scenario (Hirsch & Keller, 2015). The perspectives captured on the Leander’s encounter with the Neptune boosted the confidence for Leander in asking for sexual relations with the Hero in the story. Here the aspect of Neptune serves as the key entry for sexual arousal since Leander was experiencing unsuccessful relationships with the Hero. When Leander was inspired with the fulfilment of sexual relationship with the Hero then we see Lender seducing Hero for the sexual mannerism and finally Hero surrenders to the Leander’s unrelenting aspects of sexual wishes.
There is a considerable discussion which has been revealed through the manners of the two characters in the context. On viewing at a certain perspective relating to the centre of verse in this work, then one realizes that there is an apparent focus on the bodily form of the male gender which is illustrated by the Leander (Vogel, 2018).The introduction of Hero to Leander is accelerated by the beauty and her immaculate attire as well as the affiliation of nature. ‘Her kirtle was blues…her veil was flowers and leaves……on the neck, there were hanging chains of pebble-stones.’ The overall juxtaposition of the Hero in relevant to nature is clearly mentioned here. This means that the idea of Hero being dominant in the world of men has keenly alluded. This overall appearance revealed by the Hero formed the principal goal of seduction by the Leander. In addition, the image of Leander is primarily a form of evoking the tone androgyny which is evident in different parts of the poem. Therefore, in the book of William Walsh’s he once mentioned the aspect of sexual renaissance which is bestowed by the Leander .Walsh’s shows that the Leander’s affection is relevant to one of his writing ‘’moved to the world of men.’’ This suggests that Leander is amongst the men who react negatively on female gender in the society (Feder, Rawlinson, Zakin, 2015). Due to this behaviour, Leander is revealed as the figure which has forced Christopher Marlowe to use the homoerotic tone in the entire context. The description of the Leander in this form is a departure from various literary works. Feder et al (2015) distinguishes the fact that the poem should be perceived as homosexual lens of entire idea of introspection, but he reiterates the problem of Christopher Marlowe private life when disrupting the objective reading of the whole epyllion. Much of Literature work tend to concentrate more on the women but unfortunately, Christopher Marlowe reacts differently by not following this pattern. There is the use of hyperbolic language when relating to the Hero. This is evident in the ironic association with issues of Venus nun in the poem yet the speaker is more enamoured with the physical appearance of Leander.
Christopher Marlowe in the content utilizes the satirical language and issue of the comic in expressing the Leander’s unwilling pursuit to Hero. For example, Leander’s endeavour to convince Hero is ironically described through the concept of Venus nun in the poem. This is ironical humour which is relevant to lack of feminism. This indicates a sense that a woman is like an instrument in the sense that she should be handled and possessed in an apt manner (Clark, Garner, Higonnet, Katrak, 2014).By building upon this strategy of sexual delight in favour of maintaining pureness, then Leander tries to construct a case which shows that Hero’s action was not entirely frivolous but also depraved.
In addition, the issue of man companionship flows when Leander become assertive. In this perspective, Leader tries to equate women as a dependant to men in society. This dominance indicates a sense of lack of feminism. There is juxtaposition when Leander compares the virginity of Hero as water and when he compares marriage to wine. The Leander’s appeals for Hero virginity was unsuccessful until when he approached the Neptune (Khoja-Moolji, 2015). Christopher Marlowe conveys the feelings of distress especially when Leander experienced with the affection of hero and thus unable to reciprocate from this affection. From both descriptions of Leander and Hero, there is the aspect of homoerotic. It shows a realm of the heterosexual love poem. Jonathan Cullers Literary Theory involves an excerpt from the Judith Butler which describes language of poem as manner ‘for thinking about crucial social processes ’.This proves how literature is interpreted by readers in accordance with the social values of zeitgeist. The manner in which Christopher Marlowe explained Hero sets a perception of homoerotic. This violation of humans rights in relation to sexual preferences. This is clear that whoever is influenced by the appearance of Hero is a member of the opposite sex. This is contrary to the affection bestowed on the appearance of Leander in the poem. It’s feminism to follow this form of sex in society (Benjamin, 2013).Christopher Marlowe tries to illustrate the illustration which indicates the deprivation of rights for both men and women. The character portrayed by the Leander is the description of increased gender rights violence. Christopher Marlowe’s description on Leander intentionally blurs the overall gender of Leander thus leaving a lot of questions to the audience. The fact is pegged on male bonding which illustrates an acceptable activity thus showing the acknowledged continuum that entirely exists to surround violation of gender rights.
Marlow could not be a full feminist .When Leander at the beginning comes into contact with Neptune, the first feelings indicated by Neptune consist of sexual desire because of mistaking Leander who was initially her lover (McNay, 2013).
The insistence of Leander’s feminine beauty in various perspectives is deemed to be unnecessary by several critics. It is deemed as historical based evidence indicating Marlowe’s homosexuality beliefs. It is evident that Marlowe cannot fully advocate for feminism approaches and movements. This is because according to the poem, there exists a convention of the visibility and transparent allure that young male individuals have for other men. The classical world is highly accustomed to homosexuality deeds than the current world of Marlowe. He, however, delights greatly in it, lingering love inscriptions towards Leander. The description revolves much more around her dress and dress codes than her personality as a woman and her beauty or attractiveness .The concept of beauty is relevant to what McNay (2013) argued in chapter X of the Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our ideas and the Beautiful. The attraction towards Leander by Neptune is physical and aesthetic. This shows that Marlowe does not appreciate the feminist perspective. It shows that Marlowe might have insisted on his own personal feelings in this particular poem than showing feminism support.
On the negative impact, the existing love relationship between both Leander and Neptune is highly explicit and greatly disturbing (Pratt & Rosner, 2012). This is evident since Leander does not need high feminism attention and is ignorant or unaware of all the current happenings. Leander typically indicates his sexual ignorance by emphasizing strongly that he is not a woman. This show feminism and sexual innocence as clearly understanding other works.
According to other works and theoretical research, Marlowe feminism could become impossible because he was highly considered to be a government spy (Dill & Zinn, 2016). This shows that Marlowe’s feminism movements could be highly restricted. Even if he joined hands with other scholars to have campaigns and feminism awareness programs, their work could bore no fruit as a result of his bad reputation. The people could not fully support his work since they did not fully support his work. Him being deemed as a government spy indicates that he could leak some of the important plans and decisions regarding fighting feminism struggles like creating unions and group movements. Some of these efforts are highly criticized by the job. This how’s that Marlowe was quite literally unfit for the feminism awareness job.
Another constraint that hindered Marlowe as a feminist is his bad reputation since people believed that he was an active atheist (Modleski, 2014).This indicates that he held a position of dangerous effects or implications to be an enemy of God either by contribution or by active association with the heinous practice. Modleski (2014) states that with the increasing diverse constant and worries regarding the rise of the school of Atheism, there existed prior claims on the disloyalty levels of the protestant Monarchy. Some of the current historians usually focus on Marlowe Professed atheism as a mode to elaborate further on his continued preteens as a government spy. Contemporary evidence shows that he had the ability to instigate or counterfeit evidence. Therefore people could not trust him with feminist campaigns. Most women in love believe in religion thus they could not follow his disloyalty to feminism movements.
As emphasized in this particular case, Neptune desire still remains strong even after acknowledging and getting to know about Leander’s full identity because of unending attraction to Leander’s undeniable aesthetic appeal .It is clear that the strong attraction to Leander however by Neptune revolves around only in physical dimensions and results from aesthetic appeal. He experiences various sentiments of pure tenderness and affection in the sexual suggesting way only comprised of the common laws of nature and rather not in accordance with the strict morals of the existing society. It is evident that, with regard to societal norms and standards, a male individual is not supposed to desire another fellow male person. This disagrees with the norms or fighting feminism and high profile campaigns on the same. According to Sedgwick, homosexuality identity and activities should not be considered as results of male bonding (Fraser, 2012).Marlow’s works are in contrary with the exciting gender theorists according to the distinguishing science from historical context. The way in which modern era society extensively differentiates between the relationships and such actions according to the upcoming ideologies contributes to the emergence of limitations on the interpretations of the feminist activity. Marlowe could not be an advocate of feminism movements since most of his work as seen in the poem puts the high emphasis on the physicality of the males. The relationship between Neptune and Leander is part of homosocial bonding (Rowbotham & Wainwright, 2013).There also exist many bonds of rivalry and love that are very powerful. According to the poem the feminism aspects is controlled by wrath as a result of rejection. Marlow shows that in the male is a specific negative intention whole seducing women, He also indicates that women can any be supported or assisted in any situation that requires immediate help because of the beautiful bodily form. In this case, Hero loves Leander but spends most of the time rejecting the consistent sexual advances. It is evident that female encounter all kinds of negative mannerism and incapacitating situations. It also shows that love for women is only about the possession of the body thus indicating that female is deemed to be sexual objects and does not deserve to be loved (Rowbotham & Wainwright,2013).
Cristopher Marlowe sexualized language has attracted high interest in the available poem. However, in as much as readers view the poem to be of high homoerotic manner, the freedom of female sexuality should be much appreciated (Ramazanoglu, 2012). According to Harvey, these aspects should be highly embraced even in a world that is filled with various social conventions. Marlowe is a poet whose adverse sexual exploits are analysed and evaluated in this particular literacy masterpiece. This is based mainly on his personal sexual preferences. He mostly centres his detailed description and appreciation of feminine only on the body and sexual prowess. This emphasizes Eve Sedgwick’s theory relating to homosocial bonding and existing homosocial relations. In the end, even Neptune is much disappointed and have a lot of rivalry feelings towards Leander’s desired female (Squire, 2016). However, the strong love for Leander strengthens his companionship ability and thus making the lovers to be together and united. Therefore Christopher Marlowe feminism perspectives are impossible in this case due to the constraints highlighted above.
Reference
Benjamin, J. (2013). The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, & the problem of domination. Pantheon.
Clark, V., Garner, S. N., Higonnet, M., & Katrak, K. (2014). Anti-feminism in the Academy. Routledge.
Clement, G. (2018). Care, autonomy, and justice: Feminism and the ethic of care. Routledge.
Dill, B. T., & Zinn, M. B. (2016). Theorizing difference from multiracial feminism. In Race, Gender and Class (pp. 76-82). Routledge.
Feder, E., Rawlinson, M. C., & Zakin, E. (2015). Derrida and feminism: Recasting the question of woman. Routledge.
Fraser, N. (2012). Feminism, capitalism, and the cunning of history.
Hirsch, M., & Keller, E. F. (2015). Conflicts in feminism. Routledge.
Jayawardena, K. (2016). Feminism and nationalism in the Third World. Verso Books.
Khoja-Moolji, S. (2015). Becoming an “intimate publics”: Exploring the affective intensities of hashtag feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 347-350.
McNay, L. (2013). Foucault and feminism: Power, gender and the self. John Wiley & Sons.
Modleski, T. (2014). Feminism without women: Culture and criticism in a” postfeminist” age. Routledge.
Pratt, G., & Rosner, V. (Eds.). (2012). The global and the intimate: feminism in our time. Columbia University Press.
Ramazanoglu, C. (2012). Feminism and the Contradictions of Oppression. Routledge.
Rowbotham, S., Segal, L., & Wainwright, H. (2013). Beyond the fragments: feminism and the making of socialism. Merlin Press.
Squire, C. (2016). Significant differences: Feminism in psychology. Routledge.
Vogel, L. (2018). Fine arts and feminism: The awakening consciousness. In Feminist art criticism (pp. 31-68). Routledge.
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