“I felt just resigned to give what I could to protect against the way I was being treated”. This quotation said by Rosa Parks when she testified for not giving up her seat when a white man told her to get up. She was brave and scared at the same time. She made every African American feel better because someone had finally stood up and said something. Portia from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was also a brave woman. She killed herself because her husband, Brutus, was going into war, and she knew that everything was going to go wrong. These ladies were brave and powerful women, who had the right to do whatever they did. They had similarities and they had some differences.
Portia was a character in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. She was a strong women and a tragedy in this book. She was one of the characters that cared for who she was and what she did. There was going be a battle between two groups, and she did not want to live to see it. She put hot coal in her mouth and died. Brutus, her husband, was one of the main reasons why she did this. She did not believe that this should happen. In the end, Brutus also killed himself. He ran up to the knife that his best friend was holding. Portia was a strong lady, courageous and mentally influential. Brutus had any secrets and Portia wanted to know what was going on. “I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, is it accepted. I should know no secrets that appertain to you? Am I yourself but, as it were, in sort or limitation to keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, and talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife” (Portia 659). She told him how she feels and what she wanted. She did not receive that. Portia made a difference in Rome to all women.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man forty years ago on December 1, 1955, she was tired and weary from a long day of work (Albin 1). Well at least that is how it was told. Everyone across the country was talking about her, and she even became the subjects of books, newspapers, and there was even a bibliography about her. On the buses there were seats for black people and there were seats for white people. When all the white seats were filled Rosa was the person that the white man came up to. He told her to get up she refused, at this time the white bus driver threatened to call the police unless Parks gave her seat up. But she told her to “Go ahead and call them” The police asked the bus driver what he wanted them to do, arrest her or under warning. She said she wanted her arrested. She went to the police station, fingerprinted and jailed. She was allowed to make a phone call, and she called an NAACP lawyer, who arranged her to be released on bail. Rosa Parks has been hailed as “the mother of the civil rights movement” (Parks 1). This lady made a change in all African Americans in the nation. She was an inspiration to all women who had no rights to do anything they wanted.
Portia made a distinction to the ladies in Rome. She knew what she was doing and did not think more of it. She killed herself because she wanted to die and did not want to live to see anymore disaster. She detested how everything was going and not accepted the
battle. She knew what she was doing and that was her choice to kill herself. Brutus also killed himself in the end. He did it because he killed his best friend and he felt guilty. The battle was outrageous and did not go right. Rosa and Park Portia had some similarities and some differences. Portia was doing what she did because she was sick of everything that was going on in her life. Rosa did not know that she was going to make a difference to African Americans. She did not know that she was going to be in history books. “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it” (Page 1). She said that quote when she wrote her recent book, Quiet Strength. In August 1994, Parks was attacked in her home by a young man who wanted money from her. After this happened she wrote “I pray for this young man and the conditions in our country that have made him this way. Despite the violence and crime in our society, we should not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong” (Parks 2). As you can see, she was a strong woman who never gave up on what she did. This is a difference from Portia; Portia gave up and did not want to know what was going to happen next. These ladies were strong and powerful but they had there own way with dealing with their problems.
Portia and Rosa are strong and influential, even though they had differences. Portia killed to send a point to the women. Their husbands do not listen to them. She tired to tell them that they are who they are. They will not change. They have a mind and they could think for themselves. She killed herself for their freedom and rights. Rosa did not know what she was doing when the man told her to get up. She did not know she was going to make a difference in the society. She became popular till this day, people read about her all the time. She made books and became famous. I think that a lot of women
are strong and they should look up to what they believe in. all women can become someone that they will be remembered as. Portia and Parks are examples of strong woman.