It is a good thing that religious writers, especially Marguerite Porete, did not hear this writing and speak in church. Although all mystic women are quite different from each other, they all share the common idea of ​​the belief that there is a reality, a deep meaning, behind or beyond or within the world of appearances. For mystics, their relationship and intimacy with God is the most important thing in their lives, so much so that they cannot help but make sure their ideas, theology, and experiences are written down for all to read. Especially for women, who had no rights, usually little or no education, and had two simple roles in life: cloistered nun or wife, the women who wrote mystical texts were feminists in all respects, opening the light to all women who had power. believing that I can write something as profound as men. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Marguerite Porete's complex and sometimes daunting Mirror of Simple Souls is a mystical text that far surpasses the philosophical content of its predecessors. Much is unclear about Marguerite's life and text, however it is clear that the Mirror departs strikingly from traditional church doctrine. Churches relied on a hierarchical chain of command and sanctity for their authority. In contrast, Marguerite challenges the traditional Christian conception of "fallen nature" by affirming the nobility and freedom of "simple souls." It teaches that each soul possesses a fundamental identity that determines its place in the spiritual hierarchy and its potential to annihilate individual wills or desires to will the divine will exclusively. She explicitly rejects the tradition of affective spirituality by attacking the very foundations of the Church and instead teaches the soul's need for union with God through annihilation (Robinson xi-xii). The ambiguity of the text begins with the ambivalence in the title, The mirror of simple souls. The "Mirror" can be a smooth surface that reflects images of objects, but it can also suggest self-reflection and self-knowledge. However, mirrors can also be the illusion of reality and represent vanity and self-love, commonly from the myth of Narcissus, who unknowingly fell in love with his own reflection (Hollywood, 87). However, it is probably more likely that Marguerite's use of the word "mirror" is to teach the process by which the soul is clarified (as images in mirrors are), "thereby becoming a spotless mirror or darkness." Max Huot de Longchamp says in an introduction to a French edition of Mirror for Simple Souls, he says: "the mirror returns its own image to those who look at themselves in it. The mirror evokes self-knowledge, with the idea of ​​purification, of an assimilation to a perfect ideal." Rather than illusion and superficiality of the self, Marguerite transforms this term into a symbol of honesty and depth of the true self, during the annihilation to become one with God. Through the freedom of the annihilated and simple soul, it becomes transparent and prevents it even to reflect yourself through the mirror. Marguerite does not write down what she knows through observation (she has clearly never seen this dialogue between these allegorical characters). , or by experience, or even by reason itself, but of what he knows by hope. He seeks to transform the community in which he hopes and the God in whom he hopes. With this hope, Marguerite is able to find the knowledge she is looking for. As the poem saysopening the Mirror, knowledge is based solely on reason, no matter how brilliant, "it cannot apprehend what is true, and certainly not the truth of its book" (Paulsell 71). But when reason is guided by love and faith, and knowledge by hope, then invention can create a new reality. Mirror, readers are able to grasp reflections not only of the inner life of the soul, but, through 'inversion, of the kind of church and society in which "simple souls" can thrive. Margaret's intention is to show, as in a mirror, the spiritual truth she wants to teach, a rational truth, which, if perceived, will, by itself, make the soul “simple” (Brunn 151). Margaret sees her simple souls as having a teaching mission to the Little Church governed by reason rather than love. The Mirror reflects a contemporary ecclesiastical world that was itself an inversion of women's experience and values. In a long dialogue between Love, the Soul, Reason, and a number of other allegorical figures, Marguerite portrays a state of freedom and annihilation to which, she argues, all noble souls should aspire. According to Love, the more the soul recognizes its own nothingness, the more it possesses God. Stripped of all "creativity", including reason, will and desire, the soul becomes nothingness: "And this nothingness we speak of , gives her the All, and no one can possess it otherwise" (81,156). The soul then "lives without why" like God and becomes the place within which God works in the world. The fall into nothingness makes the soul so fully united with God that no distinction can be made between them (Sells 129). It is difficult, at times, to hear Marguerite's voice throughout the text. However, it should be underlined that The Mirror is radically different from other mystical texts because it is not autobiographical. It is a combination of poetry, allegorical drama, and speculative theology and not a tale with a direct experience of God (Hollywood 65) like other mystical texts. Thus, it is difficult to search for Marguerite's purpose and voice within the text when it seems she may not be found anywhere. By abandoning the belief that medieval women's religious writing is always autobiographical, Marguerite is able to embrace the freedom offered by a distant God and the dilemma of trying to express the inexpressible. Believing that writing about God "is more like lying than telling the truth," he writes to become the God and community he hopes for. Managing to change the community of "simple souls", he knows that not everyone should read his book, since as he states in the prologue, his book "can only be appreciated by those few who have gone beyond the first stages of the path to perfection". However, Amy Hollywood believes that we should not necessarily try to find a voice within the text of Marguerite, stating: "any identification of the Soul with the author must be made carefully and weighed against the ever-changing narrative landscape of the text " . That in true allegory no human being should be present and that the person of the author often in practice becomes a character within the allegory itself. Because the final outcome of the debate between Love and Reason will influence the Soul, which is not only a passive observer of their interaction but also the initiator of the discussion and the final judge of its outcome. The Soul will ultimately be changed and transformed by the debate. Hollywood argues that "other characters, because of the rigidity of their definitions or personifications, must win or be defeated by the debate". Marguerite gives voice in the text to many human faculties and attributes - Reason, Intellect, the Understanding of Faith and that of Reason, even Love is sometimes understood as human - only when she allows the will tohave your own voice. The will must be "subordinate to the Soul, since its self-sacrifice and self-destruction implement the central mystical movement of the dialogue." Reason is a vital interlocutor of the Soul and Love, asking for those explanations and clarifications that human souls need that have not "advanced beyond the first stages of the path to perfection" (Porete, 20). The dialogue cannot continue with the input of Love. She is forced to take over the voice of Reason after his death, and eventually Reason simply reappears. The death of the will, however, occurs towards the end of the text, for without it further changes and developments are impossible (Hollywood 95-96). The places in the Mirror where the Soul seems most closely identified with the author of the text are those sections where the Soul talks about the making of the book. But the book itself is primarily about the annihilated Soul that begins its journey to annihilation in God by keeping the commandments, attaining biblical perfection, and doing good works. This Soul then “passes through the transitory stages of contemplation and abandonment of good works to subdue the will” (Paulsell 67). Finally, the Soul moves to the higher stages where the will is dissolved, the soul is at rest and "God wants in the soul where the soul itself wanted." The Annihilated Soul "no longer knows how to speak about God, because it is annihilated by all its external desires and internal feelings, by every affection of spirit". The annihilated Soul "no longer seeks God through penance, nor through any sacrament of the Holy Church; neither by thoughts, nor by words, nor by works." The Annihilated Soul can be identified more closely with the author because she recognizes that, in writing the text, she "remained, as you know, a beggar and burdened with herself." As an author, Marguerite can see the impossibility of a soul completely free from will, desire, words and work in this life, however, by giving her voice through the character of the Soul, she is able to free herself and annihilate herself . .Suzanne Aleta Kocher argues that "gender is a classification worth studying [in Mirror of Simple Souls], despite its arbitrariness, because from the Middle Ages to the present day, male and female genders are two of the central categories that govern l 'social organization and thought'. Porete's book contains conscious references to gender and demonstrates an interest in actively shaping the gender constructions it uses. Kocher also argues that there are two different types of allegory within Mirror, "the allegory of personification, in which human attributes and faculties are represented as characters speaking to each other. These would include Truth, Temptation, Difference, Fear, and more. The most central personified characters are Love, Reason, and Soul. There is little action beyond their dialogue, except for the death of Reason. Secondly, in addition to the allegory of personification, the Mirror uses "other allegorical techniques that fall within the continuum between allegory and metaphor". Porete develops and extends metaphors (nobility, courtly love) to such an extent that they function as allegories within the allegory of personification. By gendering her characters, Marguerite places her characters in positions of authority, or rather, creates authority for them within the world of the text. The women are presented as courtly ladies, "passively accepting the ardent advances of their aristocratic suitor." As Soul's character undergoes significant changes over the course of the book, she herself becomes like a courtly lover, taking center stage in the drama of her journey to her beloved, God. Although she is the focus of the trial, much of it of the text is more similar, 1994.