Lucrezia Marinella's Argument Analysis

Marinella cites Sperone as having claimed that ‘Woman is not woman unless she serves her husband, for it is woman's natural condition to serve’ (p. 136) What does Sperone mean and what reasons does he give for this conclusion? Evaluate Marinella’s response to Sperone’s argument, identifying and explaining both her objection and the counterargument she constructs to this argument, taking into consideration the implications of this argument for the broader aims of the text.

In Lucrezia Marinella’s “The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men”, she establishes her intent in writing the text as demonstrating definitively that “the Idea of women is nobler than that of men” (Marinella, p. 53). Her forceful proclamation …show more content…
She argues that the nature of a husband’s rule over his wife is not that of a master and a slave, but rather a fairer civil dominion over his wife. Again, she cites Aristotle, who has distinguished the dominion of a master over a servant from that of a husband’s dominion over his wife in household management. He posits instead that “man has a civil dominion over women” (Marinella, p. 138). This civil dominion is not congruent with Sperone’s definition because it is a form of dominion “in which a person at times commands and at other times is commanded” (Ibid.). In the context of a household headed by the husband, a woman is above the slave in the household’s hierarchy, and would thus have a semblance of democratic autonomy in the way that she is being ruled, such as having some input in household matters. Hence, Marinella counters Sperone’s argument by showing that the nature of a man’s dominion over a woman is more equal than the unnegotiable oppression of a slave that he argues for. A woman’s natural function is not just to serve man because she does possess some independence in the manner in which she serves