With A Sword In My Hand Analysis

It can be inferred that her own personality, her denied rights of affection from her parents and other people’s perception of her drove Marguerite to undermine social norms for women in the medieval ages. The text With A Sword In My Hand, written by authors Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem and Pat van Beirs, is explored through the perspective of Marguerite, Countess of Flanders. The text suggests that Marguerite’s natural personality of being outspoken, stubborn and strong willed, her desire to be loved by her family and her need to be accepted by society drove the fierce maiden to undermine social norms for women.
The text proposes that Marguerite's general personality could have led her to defy social norms expected of women. Marguerite had been
This foreshadows the reason she felt the need to defy social norms for women; so she could become the child they'd hoped for. It can be surmised that Marguerite craved the affection of her parent’s, which she was deprived of due to her gender; thus foreshadowing another motive for her to contravene social norms for women. "'I'm not a creature … I am your daughter.'" Marguerite had stuttered as according to page 38, the fact that she had needed to clarify this shows as to how flawed her relationship with her father had been, leaving the question; Would Marguerite’s relationship with her father been stronger had she been a boy? Had she been a boy, she would have been a suitable heir for the throne and her boyish ations would have brung pride as opposed to shame; which brings back to the point of why she would have gone against the expectations for women, as she may have come to the conclusion that in order to receive the love of her parents, she would have to fulfil the role of a
“’-you must realize that Edmund isn’t marrying you for your beauty.’” (p. 154) Her own grandmother had snarled, as a girl of such young age, Marguerite was bound to take such carelessly uttered words into account, this was also shown as she herself had said “I’m just a piece of land to you.” (p. 205) to Edmund, theorising that she understood how she had little beauty and talent, that her wealth and power was all she could offer. Insinuating that she struggled to break free of the shackles society had placed on her, creating reason for her to force the inherited laws of the structured society that was the medieval ages to fall away. Supporting the implication that Marguerite fought society’s army of expectations for women so she could make up for her minimal lengths of beauty and talent; to be accepted instead of simply being