Analysis Of This Woman By Joy Davidman

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Recommended: Essays on women during the roaring twenties

Although the suffrage movement in 1920 gave women more legal power poet Joy Davidman’s poem, This Woman, highlights the idea that women were still held to certain constraints that she hoped more women would reject in efforts to attain an equal standing within society. With the date of the poem marked as 1938 many facts about an average woman’s life and role in society can be suggested. The country had recently come out of the Great Depression when this poem was written. During this time women proved that they were just as resilient, if not more, than their male counterparts. Yet, women had a clear defined role, given by society, on how they should be even through a depression. So, despite the country having experienced the roaring 20’s which was a time of luxury, easy living, and women having autonomy over their sexuality there were still many restrictive beliefs of how women should look and conduct themselves. Davidman expresses her full awareness of …show more content…

Even though the speaker is less than thrilled about the “filigree” of hair ribbons she still makes the choice to refer to women as flowers (Line 4). Speaking of women as flowers immediately evokes thoughts within readers of delicateness which appears contrary to what the speaker was saying a few lines prior. However, looking deeper into the lines that read, “…nor twine/ A flower with your strength” readers see that speaker uses contrast to depict the uniqueness of womanhood (Lines 3-4). Here the speaker suggests that yes, woman are gentle, but woman are also very capable and durable much like flowers that withstand rain and wind. Just like men, women can endure and handle situations. So, women’s “flowery” quality is merely an extra advantage that men of those times should not have exuded at all according to

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