Gender_Roles

Gender Roles Women’s roles have changed tremendously throughout history and literature. Women have changed from the roles of submissive servants to powerful beings with the ability to show their leadership. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, which took place in Mesopotamia, the women’s role starts at the bottom and they are steadily trying to ‘climb’ to the top. They had to stay at home with their children, caring for them, and were expected to remain loyal to their husbands. They had no power, had no ‘voice’ in the society in which they lived, and were seen as ‘civilizers’ (Berliner). In the epic poem Gilgamesh, the role of the mortal woman was only to benefit and please men. Men had no consideration as to how she felt and gave her little or no recognition. A perfect example of a woman’s value is that the most respectable profession at the time this poem was written, was prostitution. The woman in this poem was portrayed in the form of a harlot. She was seen once and wasn’t even given a name. Because the harlot wasn’t given a name, and had very few speaking lines, I, and I’m certain anybody else that read Gilgamesh was unable to view women, men, enkidu, man, gilgamesh, woman, harlot, changed, women’s, wife, laws, husband, house, time, shall, says, name, male, because, about, society, show, roles, recognition, poem, object, mesopotamia, meaning, love, literature, let, hammurabi, even, writing, wisdom, way