It's important to remember that Christine de Pizan wrote The Book of the City of Ladies around 1405, meaning that she lived in a completely different world than the one we live in today. Bubonic plague, weird hats, and saying "thou" a lot: that's what living in 1405 was like.
In 1405, the best way for de Pizan to support any argument she makes is to claim that God supports her. That's why she makes constant references to God, Jesus, Mary, and the Christian Bible. She believes that her best hope for getting men to respect women is to argue that God loves women just as much as men. So that's the angle she goes with whenever she tries to get men to treat women better.
Questions About Religion
- How does Christine de Pizan read the story of Adam and Eve? How might her reading have been different from those of many men in 1405?
- Why does de Pizan choose the Virgin Mary as the Queen of the City of Ladies? Be as specific as you can and quote from the text whenever possible.
- Why does de Pizan think that God loves women just as much as men? What are some of the specific arguments she gives for this view?
Chew on This
In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan shows us that God gave men and women immortal souls and loves them both equally because souls have no gender.
In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan admits that even though God loves men and women equally, he gave them different jobs to do on Earth.