Bradstreet’s views toward Male-Dominance
As a female in a highly patriarchal society, Bradstreet expresses her feelings using a clever technique called reverse psychology to prove her point, her disapproval of her community’s belief of unequal treatment and prejudice against women. Bradstreet believes that women are treated unfairly in her society, regarding gender as insignificant. She faces many conflicts and struggles in her “Prologue”, expressing her opinion towards women’s rights, implying that gender is unimportant and male-dominance is wrong.
“The Prologue” has a humble tone and hidden surprises. In addition to reverse psychology, Bradstreet uses apologetic tone, drawing the reader in, forming interest for the reader to read her poems despite the fact that she is a female. In the beginning, she talks about “wars”, “captains”, and “epics”, specifically written by brilliant male writers, worrying that her poems will shame the art of poetry: “My obscure writings shall not so dim their worth”(stanza 1, line 6). Later, in continuation of her self-demotion and apologetic tone, she talks about the Great Writer Bartas, admiring his works, and sarcastically admitting that she will never be as talented as he is: “A Bartas can do what a Bartas will / But simple I according to my skill”(stanza 2, lines 11-12). The sarcasm in these lines cause the typical reader of the poem to reconsider that perhaps women are not as bad as Bradstreet portrays them to be, exactly the thought she ...
illustrates the discrimination against women and the issues that arise from a gender double standard society.
“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge,” verbalizes Andrea Dworkin. Gender-roles have been ingrained in the every-day life of people all around the world since the beginnings of civilization. Both One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Hamlet portray typical female stereotypes in different time periods. Due to the representation of women in literature like Hamlet by William Shakespeare and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessey, and pop-culture, evidence of classic gender-based stereotypes in a consistently patriarchal world are still blatantly obvious in today’s societies.
Misogyny in this text is represented through many factors showing how women can only prove their dominance by removing the men’s sexuality and freedom of independence. It is also represented in the fact that Nurse Ratched is seen as perfect except for her breasts, her outward mark of being a woman. “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (6) The fear of women is usually stemmed from ...
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
Growing up in the early 1600's was a tough time for many people, especially women. Women were very much discriminated against and made to fulfill the duties that were in the household and nothing else beyond that. Anne Bradstreet was a woman that grew up during this time as a Puritan. Puritans believed that humans could only achieve goodness if they worked hard, were self-disciplined, and constantly examining themselves to make sure that they were living their lives for God. Due to this way of looking at life, Anne Bradstreet had little time for writing her poetry. Being a mother of eight children and a devoted wife one would think that Bradstreet wasn't carrying out her duties to her family and God if she was busy writing poetry. Therefore if people knew that she was writing this poetry she would not want them to think less of her so she would write it in a happy and family oriented sense showing how devoted she was to her family through her poetry. That is why Bradstreet writes how she does in the poem To My Dear and Loving Husband. She writes as if to portray that she has a great relationship with her husband and God. Although from her other poem, Prologue, one can see that underneath she truly feels betrayed by the men in her life and by men in general.
Fowler, Marian, E. "The Feminist Bias of Pride and Prejudice." Dalhousie Review 57 (1977): 47-64.
In conclusion, most of the female character are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited. Mary Shelly repeatedly shows women in a victimized position exhibiting to the audience how things should not be. In conclusion, Mary Shelly’s novel is a reflection of how women were treated in the 1800’s.
In Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind” the speaker appears to be woman who is dealing with constant feelings overwhelming her as being an outcast. These feelings the speaker portrays throughout the poem causes the speaker to not to fit into the guidelines society expects and forces the speaker to become a poor misunderstood woman. However, upon further review the reader observes the speaker actually embracing the negative stereotype of liberated and modern women and transforms it into a positive image. All the while two voices throughout the poem, the voice of the speaker and the voice of society, dual about the issue of the stereotype in modern women.
Elizabeth uses the stereotypes of her gender and knowledge of both literature and when to manipulate her gender to explain why she needs
Bradstreet, in the first half of her poem The Prologue, states her inferiority in comparison to poets, historians, and Greeks in stanzas 1 and 3, but a tonal shift in the stanzas 5 and 6 indicates her declarations of humility are said only in spite and sarcasm. By using a strict poetic meter and frequently referencing historical and literary fact, but still calling herself unworthy, she mocks society’s expectations for women to stay humble. She signals to the readers through her inconsistency that her goal is to mock how the world wants her to be versus her actual merit. Bradstreet uses each stanza to her advantage by creating a push and pull effect between her demonstrated wit and knowledge of history and poetry in contrast to her declarations
Anne Bradstreet wrote poetry in a time when only Puritan men were publishing writing, mostly about their faith and religion. Thus, she was the first woman in the colonies to be published and received a lot of criticism for it. At this time, there were roles that women were expected to fill, specifically wife and mother roles, and going against these roles could have grand consequences. While her poems may seem simple and domestic, they contain a more complex meaning when looked at closely. Through many of her poems, Bradstreet expressed her frustration towards her society’s gender norms and went against the Patriarchal ideas of the Puritan society.
The poem starts by speaking of a child. An "ill-formed" (1) child is mentioned. This indicates that her book was not fully developed. It was full of mistakes. It was a child "of my feeble brain," (1) meaning she obviously wrote the book herself and she believes her brain was weak. Next, Bradstreet states, "Who after birth did'st by my side remain," (2) meaning that she kept the book after it was finished. Her word choice here shows that she was not very happy with the way her book turned out. She wanted to keep it from the publishers so she could fix it over time. "Till snatched from thence by friends." (3) This statement shows a bit of anger in the tone. Bradstreet uses the word "snatched" (3) to show her slight anger. She knew that her friends had taken her book, but she knew that it was not a good idea. They wanted to do something nice for her, but she was not ready for this step of the book. She expresses this by saying they were "less wise than true." (3) "Exposed to public view" (4) indicates that they had the book published for her. "Where errors were not lessened, all may judge." ...
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
The passage begins by discussing how Boland may be experiencing some unease that female poets before her time may not have experienced nor have even considered for a fleeting moment. Boland claims that she had stumbled upon a realization, one tha...
”The Prologue,” Bradstreet conveys knowledge of recognizing the kind of patriarchy she lives in, in the fifth and sixth stanza.