Page 19 - HEF Pen & Ink 2023

A New Woman
By Caitlyn King
Women these days, imagine them back then, like way, way back then.
I’m powerful, poised, patient, perfect, philanthropic, and picturesque.
Just don’t imagine me in a flowing set of robes in deep colors with a gold crown on top. I’m just not that full of myself to look like your average imagined Greek goddess type women. I may end up telling you who I am, suffice
it to say I am a powerful daughter yet another powerful man. Although I sound incredibly fun to talk about you weren’t here to learn about me, you’re here to learn about a woman forced to be thrust into greatness. It all started in a parasite, infecting rats, and then a man widowing a woman.
Etienne du Castel was a kind nobleman and a kind hus- band to Christine de Pizan. The plague doesn’t care about kindness, money, and anything this man could offer it just takes what it wants.
She explored the astrology tower, searching for her fathers daily wisdom in lessons. She snuck around the corner her parents were arguing.
“Christine shan’t learn the ways of men. She must learn to be a good little Christine lady.” That was the tone of her mothers shrew voice.
Before she came rushing through her father spoke, “She should learn of the world.”
“She needs to make good meals and keep her future hus- band content; he will provide her a living.”
Her father was but a whisper. Christine de Pizan felt a bag was pulled over her head suffocating her thoughts. ****HERE IS A SMALL FACT****
Not a whole lot of father’s care about their daughter’s education
Only a few rich and powerful men were able to support their daughters
Those women were the few who grew up with the luxury of knowledge
Christine de Pizan would have been one of those girls, but her mother decided she didn’t need knowledge to be a well-mannered housewife. So, as she conformed to soci- ety, she was forced to pick up small tidbits of knowledge from her father as he worked. Then the sky rained death, that day was eerie and black, and death walked the French streets. He’s a pretty calm man, just lonely. Never did he
notice me. I was a common whisper in history. I helped make sure a few survived their so-called end of world. The black death was mighty tis a shame that everyone thought it was poor death’s fault, he was just mopping up the human mess.
Christine de Pizan’s story simply was someone who influ- enced monarchs that women’s struggles should be heard and felt. She expressed how she felt fate had gifted her, “Alone am I, to feed myself with weeping
Alone am I, suffering or at rest
Alone am I, and this pleases me the best” (Willard, 54). She took all she was given as a gift and not as punish- ment from God that she had lost her husband and father those who truly influenced her. If only more women of the renaissance were given the gift of these words. Christine de Pizan is a woman who started as curious and ended spreading that curiosity and inspiring others to be the same.
Art By Kylee Hamper
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