Question

Select the sections in this excerpt from the Roman de Silence which support Nurture’s arguments during her debate with Nature that the abilities and interests associated with masculinity are learned, rather than innate.

[The seneschal, to make him fit And to improve his horsemanship Through woods and streams took him to ride, And all throughout that countryside: In frost and heat, bright day and dim, In quest to make a man of him.] [To such men’s ways he was so used, and those of women so refused, that he lacked nothing of a male: no one could see he wasn’t male.] [Yet all’s not what it seems to be: beneath the clothes, he is a she. . . .] [And by the time of his twelfth year there was no one he could not beat when challenged to a wrestling meet, in jousting, or in skirmishing. Alone he kept his peers trembling.] [Silence was disturbed by this, for in their heart they knew that it had happened through deceitful means] And just when they had reached their teens, Nature came and, grumbling, said, [“Look, this is the strangest thing, that you behave now like a male, going about in wind and hail, when with my very special brand I formed you with my own two hands, and all the pretty tricks I knew I laid on thick when I made you! A thousand people now curse me for wasting on you such beauty because away from them I took such loveliness to make your looks.”]

Answer 1

Selected passages that support Nurture’s argument (with a brief note on how each shows masculinity as learned):

- “[The seneschal, to make him fit / And to improve his horsemanship … In quest to make a man of him.]”
- Shows deliberate training and socialization aimed at producing masculine skills and behavior.

- “[To such men’s ways he was so used, and those of women so refused, that he lacked nothing of a male: no one could see he wasn’t male.]”
- Indicates repetition and habituation to “men’s ways” produced an outward male persona indistinguishable from a born male.

- “[Yet all’s not what it seems to be: beneath the clothes, he is a she. . . .]”
- Contrasts appearance/behavior with biological sex, implying the masculine traits are performative, not innate.

- “[And by the time of his twelfth year there was no one he could not beat when challenged to a wrestling meet, in jousting, or in skirmishing. Alone he kept his peers trembling.]”
- Attributes physical prowess and interest in male-coded activities to acquired skill and practice at a young age.

- “[Silence was disturbed by this, for in their heart they knew that it had happened through deceitful means]”
- Acknowledges that others perceive Silence’s masculinity as the result of external intervention/training rather than nature.

(Exclude Nature’s line about forming Silence “with my very special brand,” which supports the opposing, innate argument.)