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Female inequality in literature
Female inequality in literature
Introduction to gender inequality in Literature
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Comparison of The Seduction by Eileen McAuley and Cousin Kate by Christina Rossetti I will be analyzing the two poems, "Cousin Kate," by Christina Rossetti, and, "The Seduction," by Eileen McAuley. Both of these poems share the same theme. The two poems are both based on betrayed love but they each deal with a different aspect. "Cousin Kate," is set in the eighteenth century but was written in the nineteenth century. It was set in Victorian eras which in those days' high moral values were a tradition to society. "Cousin Kate" deals with social standings. People are still judged by class now although it was much more important in the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century sex before marriage was greatly looked down upon, it was a sin of the bible. It was always a lot easier for women in those days to get caught with having sex before marriage; this is because they obviously get pregnant. It is the tale of a poor "cottage maiden" who gets found out by a wealthy lord, who has loads of power over people, I feel I know this because towards the end of the poem it says "coronet" which symbolizes power. She then falls in love with him from all the wooing and love he gave then he left, and she has his child, before being dropped the lord moves onto "Cousin Kate." who seems like she is more of upper class than the maid is. The poem is set out as the maiden telling us the story of how she was used and how he exchanged her for another woman. A good line that describes the story this is, "…He wore me like a silken knot, he changed me like a glove." This tells us that he felt he could use her like an item of clothing and discard her ... ... middle of paper ... ... interesting. I prefer phrases such as "his plaything and his love" and "he wore me like a silken knot" to his "eyes as blue as iodine" and "green as a septic wound". On the other hand, I think the symbolism used in 'The Seduction' is very effective, i.e. the confetti and the high white shoes. I feel that the main reason I prefer 'The Seduction' is it's easier to relate to for my age group. It is very hard to imagine what it would be like to be singled out by a great lord and then to be left for her cousin and having the lords baby on the way. I find it much easier to relate to 'The Seduction' as It could be easier to understand how it must feel to have a 'one night stand' and then become pregnant as I myself am a teenage, the other poem is written by a women who left by a lord and to modern day that wouldn't happen.
This line implies that there is only one thing on his mind and that is
wrong in the eyes of God. This was because the bible says that a man
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.
Later in the poem, the same wealthy women from the Ladies’ Betterment Society decide they want to donate some of their immense wealth to charity, specifically to a local poor house. When the women visit the poor house to see where their donated money would go, they are unable to stop comparing the poor house conditions with those of their mansions. The women lament how "Nothing is sturdy, nothing is majestic," (42) in the poor house when compared to their expensive homes. In the eyes of the wealthy women, the poor house is the complete opposite of their expensive homes in every way from the poor house’s lack of cleanliness to its feeble structure. In fact, the use of descriptive adjectives such as “majestic” further emphasizes characteristics the poor house lacks. The image of wealth and power that the use of “majestic” evokes shatters as the negative word, “nothing,” removes any perception of grandness. This contradiction of the image of wealth demonstrates the large differences between the women and the impoverished. The rich women cannot help but be completely overwhelmed by the harsh reality of the daily living conditions of the poor when compared to their relatively
...with a return to that with which he began: “/Peace, and this cot, and thee, heart-honored Maid!/. As asserted by the preceding lines, the so coined ‘holier-than-thou’ God is responsible for all fortunes bestowed upon Coleridge. He has also chosen to reveal to the reader that the entire poem was, in fact, an address to his “heart-honored Maid”. Conceivably, Coleridge has addressed her as such in order to absolve himself of any perceived wrong-doing; specifically in Line 15: /Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover,/. Distinguishing between “maids”, (one being a trollop, the other a lady of virtue) is a final attempt to get himself ‘off the hook’, colloquially speaking.
possession of men and would have to endure childbearing pains. The man’s punishment entailed manual labor for the rest of his life and that he was to be considered impure (Genesis 3).
"A woman like that is not a woman, quite,” admits the speaker in “Her Kind,” a short poem written by Anne Sexton, as the piece twists the mother’s and homemaker’s traditional actions into a midnight fairy tale, as they must become as one worms through the dark woods of a troubled mind. On the surface, the poem follows a self-proclaimed witch, who flies, dwells in the forest, and is even burned at the stake. However, the nature of the imagery used, and the couplet ending each stanza provide the initial hint at the figurative meaning of the piece. That in stanza two the speaker works with, “skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks…” and fixes suppers, rearranging what is out of order, all suggest the work of a housewife. The couplet ending each stanza makes it clear that
The second poem was written by an astonishingly brillant N.Y.U. student hoping to receive an "A" in an introductory literature course taught by a fascinating (and underpaid) professsor.
The second poem is called “To His Love” by Ivor Gurney. This one is about how this guy is remembering all the good times he had with his best friend but he’s dead now. They can’t finish their plans and he
This is the stanza that sums up the whole moral of the poem in simple words.
her because she would only deceive him. Love, for Brett, had become a power she con¬
The metaphor that the narrator refers herself not as a princess, but a maid mild (line 6) brings another element to the poem that Brooks attends for readers to notice. Does the narrator, a white woman, not see herself as equal as her prince (husband), a white man? Seeing that he abuses her (line 104), and her kids, the narrator is clear that she’s not. The metaphor alludes to the fact that women aren’t equal to their male counterparts – the same as blacks aren’t equal to whites- and the maid mild metaphor instead of a princess supports the idea as she’s in the kitchen cooking (referred in the title, and stanza 3), a place often associated to woman versus a man in the time the publication of the poem (1960). The use of the maid mild supports
This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman's physical perfection or her "angelic voice." As those traits are all ones that will fade with time, Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Shakespeare suggests that the eyes of the woman he loves are not twinkling like the sun: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (1). Her hair is compared to a wire: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (3). These negative comparisons may sound almost unloving, however, Shakespeare proves that the mistress outdistances any goddess. This shows that the poet appreciates her human beauties unlike a Petrarchan sonnet that stresses a woman's cheek as red a rose or her face white as snow. Straying away from the dazzling rhetoric, this Shakespearean poem projects a humane and friendly impression and elicits laughter while expressing a truer love. A Petrarchan sonnet states that love must never change; this poem offers a more genuine expression of love by describing a natural woman.
Not much respect was given to women, thus letting them not having respect for their own selves. Although Machan’s poem setting is of a woman in the modern world, her usage of motifs gives off an uncertainty attitude, and a core issue of self-worth that affected woman back then still affecting a woman in the modern world. Machan portrays the character Hazel as a maid who is content with her life. She is visited by a frog that tells her about an opportunity to become a princess, but nevertheless she repeats the words “me a princess” numerous times suggesting a disbelief and lack of self-confidence. She doesn't accept she's worth something better because she's just a maid and just a woman. Hazel can't see herself as a princess, as is mentioned more than once implying that a woman has very low
From a bitter sarcastic tone from the start asking “Why should I blame her that she filled my days with misery.”(line1) before the poem moves back into a more of a remembrance feeling with the narrator speaking in past tense about the woman and what she could have done after, before shifting again into irritation about the woman with her actions toward the narrator with having ignorant men turning to violence as mentioned in line 3 of the poem along with her actions after leaving the