The representation of men and women has varied in different stories throughout history. Many describe women as beautiful, deceitful, manipulative, and intelligent, while men are portrayed as strong, masculine, and easy to deceive. In many of the works covered in the course "The Great British Writers to 1800," men are advised to refrain from acting lustfully, as this would harm their overall ability to succeed in whatever the characters are doing. wanted to do. An example of this is seen in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" when Gawain is tricked by Lady Bertilak in an attempt to prove that Sir Gawain is imperfect. The depictions of men and women are very similar in Eliza Haywood's Fantomina, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Phyllis and Aristotle. . Although each of these stories maintains a similar image of men and women, the means by which the deception is very different. However, unlike these three stories, John Milton's Paradise Lost does not portray women as deceptive or manipulative, nor men as easy to deceive or deceive. John Milton's portrayal of men and women is very different from that of Fantomina, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Phyllis and Aristotle. In Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, women are portrayed as deceptive and manipulative through the actions of the main character, known by many names although her true identity is unknown, throughout the story. The main character, often called Fantomina, manipulates Beauplaisir through the use of sex and different costumes. Fantomina uses these disguises to test Beauplaisir's will, even writing letters as two different people to see which woman he would choose. Fantomina is a very different female character as seen in middle of paper......as Milton shows us this is not always the case and men and women can work together in a way that benefits mutually. as well as creating possibilities for a prosperous future for others. Works Cited: Anonymous. Phyllis and Aristotle. Np: np, and LATECH. Louisiana Technological University.Web. May 3, 2014. Haywood, Eliza. Fantomina and other works. Ed. Alexander Pettit, Margaret CaseCroskery and Anna C. Patchias. Ontario, Canada: Broadview, 2004. Print. Broadview Ser. Milton, John and Merritt Y. Hughes. Paradise lost. New York: Odyssey, 1935. Literature.org. December 20, 1996. Web. May 3, 2014.Poet, Pearl. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. LIKE Kline. Np: AS Kline, 2007. PoetryInTranslation. AS Kline, 2007. Web. May 3 2014.