The Stratification of Chastity in the Ideology of Classical Literature

Abstract

This article conducts a conceptual study of chastity, using classical literature data as the scope of the study. This study seeks to know whether there are changes in the definition of chastity over time and whether the stratification of such changes has been reflected in the understandings of life. This review establishes proposed anti-feminist frameworks that link different assumptions about chastity to gender differences. Social contradictions have been created by aligning chastity with economic perspective and patriarchal thinking. Also, because there are a lot of chastity-related discourses that target only the female gender, the situation where the female gender has to accept its objectification occurs in classical literature. Constructing the state of infinite love as illicit and the state of finite love as chastity, the boundaries of illicit love and the boundaries of chastity are positioned as polar opposites. In particular, there has been an attempt to move the illicit love life towards the point of morality. But since morality has different definitions, it would be antithetical to measure another ideal by the same different yardstick. There have also been obscurantist discussions about the blackout discussions that have also occurred in the classical literature that warn men who drift from morality and punish women who do the same. This study advances the exploration of the cultural components that constitute chastity and uncovers its different hierarchies, thereby calling for some changes in the definitions of chastity.