Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : The Quest
The Call
After reading a book about how horrible women are, Christine de Pizan sinks into despair over the fact that she was born a woman. She figures that there's no way all of the great male philosophers have been wrong in saying that women are weaker and more immoral than men.
But just when all hope seems lost, three magical ladies appear in Christine's bedroom and literally call on her to build a great City of Ladies. They insist that there are tons of great women in history and literature, and they want Christine to build a city where they might all live happily together.
The Journey
It's time to get to work, so Christine goes to a field near her town and starts digging holes for the foundations of the City of Ladies. The book never really mentions how impossible it'd be for a single person to dig enough foundations for an entire city with nothing but a shovel. But oh well, maybe Christine has some sort of magic shovel. In any case, Christine likes to pass the time she spends digging by talking to the three ladies. Their conversation focuses on all the horrible lies men have said about women over the years.
Arrival and Frustration
Once Christine has finished constructing the City of Ladies, she needs to find great women to live in it. At the same time, the stories told to her by the three ladies (especially Lady Justice) take on a really violent tone, with many of them focusing on torture and rape. Righteous indignation flaring, Christine de Pizan starts to think twice about the whole "men are saints and women are sinners" philosophical stance she was so bummed out about at the book's beginning.
The Final Ordeals
With one last big effort, Christine and the three magical ladies sweep through the great stories of history and summon up all of the great heroines who have existed within them. Again: don't question how this happens. It just does.
Christine populates her City of Ladies not only with great women from her own time, but women from history and literature. It's around this point that we realize the true City of Ladies is contained in Christine's book, which is like an encyclopedia of women. Whenever we want to meet great women or read about their adventures, all we need to do is look in Christine's book.
So in a sense, the City of Ladies isn't really a physical place, but somewhere in our minds that we can visit by reading Christine's book. That's pretty freaking meta for 1405.
The Goal
With her project finished, Christine feels confident that whenever someone tries to criticize women in the future, that person will be forced to read Christine's book and to confront all of the examples of great women that it offers.
At the very least, women now have some voice in the debate about whether women are just as good as men. And trust us, this was a completely one-sided conversation before Christine de Pizan wrote The Book of the City of Ladies.