A Man's Nightmare

Jonathan Swift allows a reader to think critically about particular social problems that are discussed in his satiric work, “The Lady’s Dressing Room”. Strephon discovers his lover, Celia’s dressing room and to his dismay finds out that women are not as cleanly and neat as he had thought. The artificiality of beauty and beauty as a whole are major themes in the work. Just as Swift transforms excreta into a lovely, witty poem, Celia is making beauty out of her body that is viewed as naturally disgusting. Jonathan Swift portrays women as purely artificial because Strephon sees that they hide their disgusting features, such as the fact that they too excrete their bowels, and put on a completely different act for society.

The Baron’s intention was always to be sexually gratified, even in a metaphoric sense. Despite the women’s victory, Belinda’s lock is lost and cannot be restored—like a lost virtue. Men and women struggle to gain power over each other in the 18th century and today. Pope uses a trivial situation to expose the flaws of both sexes in the struggle for power, such as vengeance, hubris, and vanity. Pope does trivialize the matter, but the reader does understand the social implications for Belinda and women in general.

The feuding has turned their minds so much that they would even rape the Montague women. They now do not know what true love is anymore. When in 'love' with Rosaline, Romeo tries to express the fact that love has a fatal power, he talks of two conflicting sides 'is love a tender thing….and it pricks like a thorn'. Benvolio also feels that the cure to solve Romeo's love is to love another: "Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning". Romeo is the stereotypical Courtly lover who pines for the love of a woman who is unobtainable.

In Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, the speaker ponders the beauty, or the lack thereof, of his lover. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker presents his lover as an unattractive mistress with displeasing features, but in fact, the speaker is ridiculing, through the use of vivid imagery, the conventions of love poems and the way woman are portrayed through the use of false comparisons. In the end, the speaker argues that his mistress may not be perfect, but in his eyes, her beauty is equal to any woman who is abundantly admired and put through the untrue comparison. The speaker paints a picture of his lovers’ uninspiring beauty. In the first quatrain by describing his, “mistress’ eyes” (Shakespeare 1) as they, “are nothing like the sun” (Shakespeare

Compare the presentation of the Duke and Porphyria's lover in My Last Duchess and Porphyria's lover Browning has presented The Duke and Porphyria's lover as obsessive and controlling in the two poems. Telling the stories from the characters point of view makes it clear that they both feel threatened by their partners, and wish to regain the lead role they should have as the men in their relationships. Rather than confronting their significant others, they kill them because of their obsessive nature and lack of communication. The Duke on one hand feels that he can only possess the Duchess in a painting because he can control who looks upon her, where as Porphyria's lover wants to capture Porphyria when he finally feels in control. The characters of both the Duke and Porphyria's lover are noticeable through the relationships they have with their partners.

Hester also becomes a cautionary tale for women, the "A" she wears is a visible reminder of what she has done. They are both filled with shame and what nothing more than to be once again accepted within their society, however, they are shunned while, their male counterparts are unscathed. Charlotte Temple's gallant Montraville, comes into the novel and alters Charlotte's world. He first takes the role of philanderer, in which he seduces the young girl, assuring her that he will take care of her and he will never leave her. However, he grows bored with her and after flying her from England to America, he l... ... middle of paper ... ....

Desire shapes characters by blinding them to their real goals and the real truth and replacing them with false approximations of the truth and of their dreams. For Stella and Myrtle, desire blinds them to the violence of Stanley and Tom and replaces the truth with a false one of a perfect relationship. Desire causes Blanche to go insane by forcing her from one hopeless relationship to the next. In Gatsby, desire blinds him to his illegal actions and replaces his goal of a better life with Daisy. The Great Gatsby and “A Streetcar Named Desire” illustrate how desire can be ambiguous; desire can provide a dream that can bring great wealth, or it can blind, replace, and destroy.

Her love was weird but wonderful to the Wretched Wright, "And sure in language true she said, I love thee true." The Belle Dame is conveyed, as a temptress who knowingly destroys men's hearts, even from reading the title the reader knows this. The title is translated to mean 'A Beautiful Lady Without Merci'; this shows us that she is dangerous to men. "I saw pale kings, and princes too", the Belle Dame had intentionally starved more men before the Wretched Wright form love. This contrasts with "The Eve of St. Agnes" where the reader observes another type of temptress, Madeline, in the poem 'Mariana'.

Furthermore, the speaker’s names are concealed, stressing the importance of the women over the speakers. While both poets believe that love creates destructive situations, they differ about most damaging kind of love. Poe believed that an innocent and sexless love hurt the greatest: his speaker went insane from "love that was more than love," while he and his lover were "child[ren]." Poe’s "aesthetic religion" was a "worship of the beautiful…in all noble thoughts, in all ho... ... middle of paper ... ...a Belle Dame sans Merci" through their "fascination with the doomed nature of love" (De Reyes 107). Works Cited Allen, Hervey.

However, it is misleading to suggest that Propertius equates women with pain. More specifically, he seems to equate a woman's unfaithfulness with pain. While he labours on and on about the joys of sexual love with a woman and his prowess at pleasing her, often no more than a line will pa... ... middle of paper ... ...stery, however, at the very least it is evident that their was inner strife among men when weighing the freedom of high-born ladies to engage in sexual romance with them, to their freedom to engage in it with other men. Bibliography: Fantham, Elaine. Women in the Classical World.