Although Margaret More Roper received recognition as a learned woman in her own time, she is most often viewed through the lens of her relationship with her father, Thomas More, as his well-read and dutiful daughter. Inextricably tied to the life of her father, Roper’s story and her accomplishments rely on the association of her father and his colleagues. Historians gleaned evidence of her character and intelligence through letters from her father, commentary from his humanist contemporaries, and her depiction in the biographies of her father, including one written by her husband, William Roper. Roper herself contributed very little direct information about her life. Although credited as a talented poet and writer, she left behind only a few letters and a translation piece.
Very little academic analysis is dedicated to the life of Roper. Existing works, such as Margaret Roper: Eldest Daughter of St. Thomas More by E.E. Reynolds and A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg by John A. Guy, consider Roper in tandem with her father. Indeed, both Reynolds and Guy wrote about More prior to publishing books on Roper. Reynolds attributed the lack of historic interest in Roper’s life to the combination of the long shadow cast by Roper’s father and a paucity of records that make a chronological history nearly impossible. Roper’s apparent deference to her father coupled with a dearth of original writing did little to excite interest in feminist historians despite her unique status as the first non-royal woman to publish a translation in English during her lifetime. It has been argued that recent treatments of Roper seek to either create an anachronistic independence from her father or to subsume her individuality by l...
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... Month with the Mores: The Meeting of Juan Luis Vives and Margaret More Roper.” English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature 88, no. 4 (August 2007): 388-400.
Plowden, Alison. Tudor Women: Queens & Commoners. Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub., 1998.
Reynolds, E. E. Margaret Roper: Eldest Daughter of St. Thomas More. London: Burns & Oates, 1960.
Roper, William. The Lyfe of Sir Thomas Moore, Knighte. Edited by James Mason Cline. New York: The Swallow Press and William Morrow & Company, 1950.
Stewart, Agnes M. The Life and Letters of Sir Thomas More:. London: Burns & Oates, 1876.
Vives, Juan Luis. The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Edited and translated by Charles Fantazzi. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights.
Cather, Willa. A Lost Lady. Ed. Susan J. Rosowski with Kari Ronning, Charles W. Mignon and Frederick M. Link. The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1997.
Margaretta Large Fitler came from one of the richest families in the nation, attaining their eight million inheritance from rope-making. It was a “blue-nosed society that advised a girl to get her name in the papers only four times: when you are born, when you make your debut, when you are married, and when you die” (N. pag.). Even when Happy was taken in as blissful and was never seen without a smile on her face there always seemed to be an unspoken sadness that weighted her quiet disposition heavily. Perhaps this came from her mother and father separating when she was only ten, or it could be because her mother being the extremely self-centered woman that she ha...
Longford, The Earl of and Thomas P. O'Neill. Eamon De Valera. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971.
Sir Thomas More, “The History of King Richard III” in Richard III A Source Book, Keith
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
The author, Elizabeth Brown Pryor, wrote her biography of Clara Barton with the intent to not only tell her life, but to use personal items (diary and letters) of Clara’s found to help fill information of how Clara felt herself about incidents in her life. Her writing style is one that is easy to understand and also one that enables you to actually get pulled into the story of the person. While other biographical books are simply dry facts, this book, with the help of new found documents, allows Pryor to give a modern look on Barton’s life. This book gave a lot of information about Ms. Barton while also opening up new doors to the real Clara Barton that was not always the angel we hear about. Pryor’s admiration for Ms. Barton is clear in her writing, but she doesn’t see her faults as being a bad thing, but rather as a person who used all available means to help her fellow soldiers and friends along in life.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Soon after the Bishop of Pubela reads one of her letters, he publishes it (without her knowing), and she responds with a respectful yet sarcastic letter (Lawall and Chinua 155-156). Cruz’s “Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz” was written during the period of Enlightenment of Europe (1660- 1770). This era in Europe cast an opaque shadow over women’s rights to educate themselves and self-expression. Sor Juana’s piece however is both inspirational and empowering for every woman.... ...
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. “Thomas Morton, Historian”. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No.4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 660-664. The New England Quarterly, Inc. .
Lipking, Lawrence I, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Anne Gray Harvey Sexton was a famous poet and playwright of her time. She was born in Newton, Massachusetts. Her father was Ralph Harvey who was a successful woolen manufacturer. Her mother was Mary Gray Staples. She was an unwanted third daughter in the family. She was raised in a middle-class environment. Her life remained uneasy due to the fact that her father was alcoholic and her mother has been frustrated by family life. Fighting with her tough family environment, Anne found peace in tying a close relationship with her maiden great-aunt, Anna Dingley, whom she used to call ‘Nana’. Whatever Anne could not share with her parents, she used to discuss with Nana. Anne went through difficult situations because of her parents. She faced a hostile behavior from them and feared that they might abandon her. Later, Nana’s death also gave Anne a big trauma (Sexton 3).
Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: American Literature Notes. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2014. Lecture Notes.
Feminism today remains prominent because even while women’s rights are very strong, women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few rights and they were seen as inferior to men. Anne lived among the puritans whom ruled her everyday life. Although it was against the puritan code for women to receive an education, Bradstreet’s father, Thomas Dudley, loved his daughter dearly and made sure that she was well educated which shows in her works. Anne Bradstreet’s literature became well known only because her family published her works under a male name. This was done because writing poetry was a serious offense to the puritans since poetry was considered creative and the only creating that was done was by God. In the works of Anne Bradstreet, she conveys a feminist attitude, and could very well be one of the first American Feminists.
Mary Wollstonecraft effected the lives of many women. One significant woman that Mary Wollstonecraft had an effect on was Margaret Fuller. Margaret’s father, Timothy Fuller, had a need for an intellectual companion. Because he did not have a son as his first born, he gave Margaret an education intended only for males of the time. He was also an advocate for women’s rights, playing a major role in the development of Margaret’s feminist views she possessed later on in life.2 He used Wollstonecraft’s novel as a guide for Margaret’s education and instilled in Margaret that there are no limits to the female mind. Mr. Fuller pushed Margaret’s education to the limits, teaching her subjects intended for both women and men alike. He educated her about history and literature, topics thought good for a woman and useful when becoming a wife as well as teaching her top...