Analysis Of To The Ladies

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The Close Reading- To the Ladies by Mary Lady Chudleigh Lady Chudleighs’s “To the Ladies” exhibits a remorseful stance on the concept of joining holy matrimony. Chudleigh’s usage of metaphoric context and condescending tone discloses her negative attitude towards the roles of a wife once she is married. It is evident that Mary Chudleigh represents the speaker of the poem and her writing serves a purpose to warn single women not go get married and a regretful choice to women who are. In “To the Ladies”, Chudleigh uses allegory throughout her poem to make her point that getting married is like a contract of slavery. She opens the poem with what she defines marriage is to her, “Wife and servant are the same,” (1). This line alone is an example …show more content…

She explains that once the vows are exchanged, she must obey her husband from that point forward. Chudleigh emphasizes the word obey by not only using it in line 5, but in line 17 as well, “Him still must serve. Him still obey” (17). In line 5, she capitalizes the word and even italicizes it along with the usage to emphasize her stance. The expression to love, honor and obey is used as a synecdoche during a vow exchange at a marriage ceremony right before the “I do’s”. Conversely, Chudleigh chooses to use obey which is also found in vows as a term to convince the reader her overall disparage of marriage. The phrase obey is synonymously used as a term of submission, subordination, and a required commitment. Chudleigh’s interpretation suggests that if the vows contend to “obey” your husband, yielding a life of servitude, then such a life would hardly differ from the life of a slave. Chudleigh’s patronizing diction and selection of verbiage such as this one addresses her despise of matrimony. Based off the dismal circumstances presented throughout the poem, it is more than safe to say that Mary Lady Chudleigh is opposed to the future endeavors that a marriage encompasses. Her final warning is stated in the last section of her poem, “Who, with the power, has all the wit. Then shun, oh! Shun that wretched state”, (20, 21). She strongly advises the unmarried woman to do anything to avoid (shun) the “wretched” state of marriage. She also repeats the word shun, forcing her deliberation on the reader. Using the term wretched, again portrays her disapproving attitude towards the thought of being

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