As a result to the eighteenth-century cultural view of women, which definitely influenced Johnson’s approach, Rasselas is full of gender inequalities. When Rasselas and Nekayah, for example, decide to separate to observe the Egyptian private life, and when they are back, Nekayah says that she approaches “the shades of humbler life,” while Rasselas is to observe “the splendor of the courts” (110). Besides, women in the novel are always men’s assistants and not their equal, and their greatest achievements are when man accepts their assistance. Nekayah assists Rasselas “to give him some reason why… he might succeed at last” (110), and Pekuah assists the astronomer after she has convinced him that she deserve this honor.
Although Samuel Johnson …show more content…
She presents it as a positive place, and thus, follows Rousseau’s model, a model which urges the Western women to follow. Being the wife of the British ambassador in Turkey, gives her the chance to be directly contacted with the Muslim women. According to her, these Turkish women have more liberty than the Western woman because of the "perpetual masquerade" of their veil, which allows them to walk safely in the streets, and protects them from men's prying (96-97). She sees the veil from the Arab Muslim women’s point of view, and thus, negates its stereotypical image as a metaphor for Muslim women’s oppression. She narrates how the Muslim women in the bathhouse persuade her to undress and bathe, and when they see her corset: "they believed I was so locked up in that machine that it was not in my power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband." It is the Muslim Turkish woman now, who see the Western woman as deprived of her liberty.(mohja)Besides, “those Ladies that are rich having all their money in their own hands, which they take with ’em upon a divorce with an addition which he is oblig’d to give ’em. Upon the Whole, I look upon the Turkish Women as the only free people in the Empire. (CL,
Although Samuel Johnson …show more content…
She presents it as a positive place, and thus, follows Rousseau’s model, a model which urges the Western women to follow. Being the wife of the British ambassador in Turkey, gives her the chance to be directly contacted with the Muslim women. According to her, these Turkish women have more liberty than the Western woman because of the "perpetual masquerade" of their veil, which allows them to walk safely in the streets, and protects them from men's prying (96-97). She sees the veil from the Arab Muslim women’s point of view, and thus, negates its stereotypical image as a metaphor for Muslim women’s oppression. She narrates how the Muslim women in the bathhouse persuade her to undress and bathe, and when they see her corset: "they believed I was so locked up in that machine that it was not in my power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband." It is the Muslim Turkish woman now, who see the Western woman as deprived of her liberty.(mohja)Besides, “those Ladies that are rich having all their money in their own hands, which they take with ’em upon a divorce with an addition which he is oblig’d to give ’em. Upon the Whole, I look upon the Turkish Women as the only free people in the Empire. (CL,