The mysteries of Kefalonia (1856)

About the Author: Andreas Laskaratos

He was born: In Corfu, the famous island of western Greece, in 1811.

His fields of work/interests: When he was 21 years old, his uncle gave him a position in the Law School. After that, he worked as a register for a little time. He then resigned and worked as a lawyer for 3 years.

Notable events in his life: He met some of the most significant Greek poets of his time like Andreas Kalvos and Dionysios Solomos. Because of his modern and avant-guard points of view that he included in his essay ‘The Mysteries of Kefalonia” he faced harsh judgement and was forced to move to the island of Zakinthos and then to London.

His most famous books/works: “The Mysteries of Kefalonia”, “Ληξούρι εις τους 1836” «Στιχουργήματα διάφορα», «Ιδού ο άνθρωπος», «Απάντα», «Αυτοβιογραφία».

He died (when and where): In Argostoli which is located in the island of Kefalonia, in 1901.

The impact of his work: His work was ahead of his time. He was open-minded and his ideas did not align with the era that he lived in, so a lot of people did not appreciate him. However, there were some open-minded people who were inspired by his work.

The Mysteries of Kefalonia (1856)

Plot

There is not a specific plot in this book. The text is rather a commentary on women’s role in the 19^th - century Greek society, the restrictions in their lives and the discrimination against them.

The setting and the characters of the story

The text refers to the island of Kefalonia, Greece in 1856. There are no main characters.

Themes

The marriage market, the position of women in society, discrimination against women. The narrator claims that women should be able to choose their own husband. They shouldn’t be chosen as wives for their dowry but on the grounds of their personality and character.

Ideology and the text

The text refers to women in Greece in the 19^th century. They were degraded, men didn’t seem to care about them and used them as an object of exchange for dowry. Furthermore, women had no right to education and they were destined only to do the household chores and take care of their children.

This text is about marriage and more specifically about dowry. Namely, it talks about how parents used to save money for their daughters’ marriage. For this purpose they used to neglect some important needs of their daughters such as clothes or medical help. Women felt pressure because many of their basic needs were not taken care of. They used to be treated as the slaves of the house by doing all the household chores because their parents couldn’t afford paying for a maid to help them. That’s why women couldn’t find freedom anywhere.

The writer believes that parents should treat their daughters with love and respect so that they would stop feeling inferior to other people and so as to be satisfied with their lives and find happiness.

Our Interpretation

Despite the fact that the text was written over a century ago, the beliefs expressed by Laskaratos remain relevant, with the difference that back then they were supported by an extremely small portion of society, while nowadays they are endorsed by the vast majority.

In the past, as accurately described by the writer, it was believed that the sole destination of a woman in life was marriage and child-birth, thus every female was raised being taught how to satisfy and serve her husband.

Furthermore, since women were only meant to be housewives, their families showed no interest in paying attention to their education, which was non-existent. Those tactics had a huge impact on the psychological development of the young girls, since they felt trapped in their own households, unable to make decisions for themselves.

Fortunately, today things have changed completely. Women are a lot more independent and the expectations of the society towards them are far different from what they used to be. Nowadays, there’s equality between men and women because both men and women have the same rights and obligations. Also in that era, women were only allowed to do the household chores but now things have changed.

Women nowadays play an active role in the marketplace and have managed to gain respect as professionals, their opinions are heard and taken into account and, in the western world at least, their rights are almost equal to men’s. Of course, gender discriminations continue to exist, differing in every part of the world, but there has been made a lot of progress that deserves to be acknowledged.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that The Mysteries of Kefalonia is an old book, it is appealing to modern young readers because of the progressive spirit that defines it. Laskaratos managed to offer us precious insight to old, strict gender stereotypes and the restricted life that our great-grandmothers were forced to lead but at the same time he conveys ideas about gender roles, family relationships and women’s worth that sound more fresh and contemporary than ever.

PRESENTATION