Lady Mary Wroth as Proto-Feminist
Lady Mary Wroth is one of very few canonized woman poets in the 17th century canon (Strickland lect. Oct 11 94.). This fact alone lends a type of importance to Wroth that sets her off from her male contemporaries. Wroth wrote poems at about the same time that Robert Herrick, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, and Sir Philip Sidney (to name a few) wrote their courtly lyrics. Wroth wasn't the only woman writer from the time, instead, she was simply one of very few that were saved from historical anonymity.
Lady Mary Wroth writes using a fairly conventional form of sonnet making, the "Carpe Diem" style. In using this style, she achieves an interesting internal critique of itself as poetic form. Wroth shows how the form is exclusive and at times self-defeating. Wroth exposes these faults by elaborating on images of masochistic love and how this type of love is furthered by the use of military metaphor. Lastly, I will discuss how Wroth's use of double narration and monologue format also serve to problematize the "Carpe Diem" style.
"Carpe Diem" means "seize the day", and this particular translation of the phrase is of particular importance for establishing the validity of Wroth's critique. (Strickland lect. Oct 11 94). These "Carpe Diem" love sonnets usually focused around the narrator trying to seduce a woman into bed or into some type of love relationship. The need to "seize the day was worked in by the narrator in hopes of spurring the woman into action. One good example of this is in Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress". In this poem, Marvell writes: "And the last age should show your heart:/ ... But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged chariot hurrying near" (Marvell n.p.). Marvell...
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... too well placed to be considered accidental. Although I cannot claim to be completely knowledgeable in Feminist writing I can only suppose that I have found what I think is there.
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Marvell, Andrew. Andrew Marvell: The Complete Poems. Elizabeth Story Donno ed. New York: Penguin, 1972.
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Strickland, Ronald. 17th Century English 215 (Course Packet). Normal: Pip Printing, 1994.
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Wroth, Lady Mary. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Baton Rogue: Louisiana St. UP, 1983.
Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking 8.1 (1982): 68-90. JSTOR. Web. 14 May 2014. .
Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 work, A Vindication for the Rights of Women, is a declaration for the rights of women in both the political and social sphere. Living in a male dominated society, Wollstonecraft explores and makes strong arguments for women's education, a new definition of virtue, women's rights and the role of political/domestic life. A year later William Blake published the poem Visions of the Daughter’s of Albion, a commentary on the “tyranny of rape and sexual possession”, but also mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. (Damrosch 163) Both of these writers were members of circles of intellectuals influenced by enlightened ideals, revolutions in France and America, and new ideas on human rights including slavery. Although Wollstonecraft and Blake both write in favor of rights for women, they each take a vastly different approach.
Narratives such as Rowlandson’s gave a voice to women in the realm of written words, but at the cost of the Native voice. According to the website www.maryrowlandson.com,
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
Powell wrote, “…the feudal age is most important for the development of Western Europe: this importance lies chiefly in the process of state-building which had its origins here” (Powell 1). The monarch of this feudal society was responsible for state-building, centralization, and maintaining unity. Therefore, the throne was heredity, so that a single family maintained political power throughou...
Abrams M. H, et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. Norton & Company, 2000.
An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex, In Which are Inserted the Characters of a Pendant, a
After Charlemagne's death, the Carolingian Empire was divided in three parts by the Treaty of Verdun in 834. This division weakened the Empire, many battles took place and it allowed the Viking's invasions from the north. It was around that time that the hereditary character of feudalism and the power of the fiefs, in...
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
Making business decisions involves choosing between alternative courses of action. Many factors affect business decisions, yet analysis typically focuses on finding the alternative that offers the highest return on investment or the greatest reduction in costs. Some decisions are based on little more than an intuitive understanding of the situation because available information is too limited to allow a more systematic analysis. In other cases, intangible factors such as convenience, prestige, and environmental considerations are more important than strictly quantitative factors. In all situations, managers can reach a sounder decision if they identify the consequences of alternative choices in financial terms. This unit
Managers should be ready to teach the importance of decision-making skills and reinforcing organizational policy. Avoiding hasty, careless decisions, which can have devastating results on the manager's unit or the entire organization. Decisions made with forethought, using the many managerial tools available will lead to better and more profitable operatio...
Following the Enlightenment, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the feminist novel The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this novel she applied rights to females that had formerly been reserved to males, such as unalienable rights. Her novel impacted different areas of society. Wollstonecraft called for the advancement of women’s rights in areas such as education, work, and politics. She also proposes that women are just as capable as men and have a far greater purpose than simply to be pleasing to men. Her novel became a bestseller in the summer of 1792.1 After reading her novel, many women applied her views to their lives to the greatest extent possible in the time period in which they lived. Mary Wollstonecraft’s novel was the first major stand for women’s rights creating the feminist movement in Great Britain and consequently the Americas.
Feudalism was a set of political and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries (“Feudalism”). “The feudal system was not planned but, rather grew and developed in response to the social chaos that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It provided order where there no longer was any, and it created new chains of command to replace those that were gone” ( James 58). Feudalism was introduced by King William I to England; this system organized power, land, and divided people into classes. The king, who owned all the land, gave some land to the church and to the barons in return for large blocks of land, the barons promised to fight for the king. Lent land to the knights and also common people (Susie 5). Feudalism test was also to defend against invaders (John 32). In the absence of centralized government authority, people look to personal relationships to bind society together. An individual with military power to offer gave his services to a feudal lord (Hay 170). Feudalism was created to put society, land, and power into order. In the economic system, landlords would force laborers to work on the lord’s manor to the lord’s profit (Medieval 65).
...d are seldom subject to critical review. As a result, managers frequently have a difficult time improving their decision-making capacity.
Management will continue to encounter new challenges that require problem solving and decision-making strategies. Some problems may be easily resolved while others could take much longer depending on the complexity of the problem. In order for management to make effective decisions and achieve success for their businesses, the decision makers need to have adequate knowledge of the situation, critical thinking and excellent communication skills, and a sophisticated approach for tackling problems. Every business should have a systematic approach for solving problems and making decisions. Without one, decision making would be insufficient and businesses would be unproductive.