The Contemporary Woman in 1703

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The Contemporary Woman in 1703

In the poem "To the Ladies," Lady Mary Chudleigh demonstrates affinity between wife and servant (1) through the use of a controlling metaphor. She describes a wife’s role by depicting it through ideas that are strongly associated with slavery. Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction, her description of the wife’s submissive actions, and her negative attitude towards the perceived future of a woman who gets married show the similarity among wife and servant (1). Chudleigh presents this poem as a warning to women who are not yet married, and as an offering of regret to those who are.

Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction is key to understanding her view on the matter of marriage. She emphasizes the word "obey" by using it twice in the poem (5, 17). Along with the usage, Chudleigh capitalizes and italicizes "Obey" in line five, "When she the word Obey has said,/ And man by law supreme has made" (5-6). The word "obey" (5) is used as a synecdoche to represent all of the marriage vows, and the infamous "I do" at the end of the marriage ceremony. Chudleigh chooses to use "obey" as a synecdoche of all of the vows because it most fully describes her disdain of marriage. "Obey" conveys submission, servitude and required commitment, the aspects of marriage she scorns. All of the words that describe the tone and emotion of "obey" are incorporated in the action of slavery. Chudleigh uses the word "obey" to stress that when you take your marriage vows, a woman is ultimately agreeing to obey her husband, she is yielding to a life of servitude, hardly differing from slavery.

Chudleigh claims "Him still must serve, him still obey" (17) to re-emphasize the servitude a wife must perform for her husband. Ob...

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...ervant, when she should value herself and be proud and wise.

Even though Chudleigh eloquently forewarns women about the consequences of marriage, she neglects to address the aftereffects of not getting married. Chudleigh discounts how difficult it is to be an unwed woman in 1703. For the amount she detests marriage, it is ironic that she doesn’t offer and help to the brave women who venture into life on their own. There is no alternative posed to women as to how they are going to make money, where they are going to live or any other issue imperative to survival. Not only does Chudleigh elide the issue of basic survival, she also avoids offering a means of "getting out" for the women who are already married. It appears as though Chudleigh is very quick to condemn marriage, but not as eager to assist women whom she believes need a way out of a "fatal" matrimony.

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