The only misstep in Barbauld’s 1791 poem, “A Summer Evening’s Meditation,” is the use of “Meditation” in the title. It suggests only contemplation, which is quite misleading. Remarkably, the speaker lectures about the unfairness of a patriarchal society that is differently gendered and the fairness of God’s world.
On earth, males see conclusions framed with nature and heredity, while females hear reality as messy and constantly changing. As the speaker bears witness to the male and female worlds, four inspirational lessons emerge on the: literal, allegory, moral and anagogical meanings of the text, an approach echoing the Four-Fold Exegesis of Jewish Philosophy.
Literal-first the speaker presents males verses females in patriarchal life. Showing annoyance, the speaker is over self-serving males who continue a cycle of ignoring females:
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Often, the speaker labels the male quest for power as wrong: “Support thy throne? O look with pity down / On erring, guilty man!” (105-106). Opposing, the speaker praises female empathy as right: “Turns inward, and beholds a stranger there” (54). Boldly tagging the males as wrong and females as right, the speaker comfortably points out everyone’s moral behavior, except her own.
Analogical-fourth the speaker is ready for life after death. Delivering extraordinary rejuvenation to the text, the speaker’s talk of the afterlife is uplifting: “But now my soul, unused to stretch her powers / In flight so daring, drops her weary wing,” (113-114). Conjuring beautiful image of freedom, the speaker longs to meet “God” and live in his “mansion fair” that accepts others unconditionally. The spiritual section of the text stands alone as outstanding in its ability to deliver a sense of serenity after death.
In the end, the speaker of “A Summer Evening’s Meditation” schools us from four different positions that seem to successfully utilize the Four-Fold Exegesis of Jewish
Both texts demonstrate the consequences associated with patriarchy, and extend to show that equality, and proper treatment of women can only be achieved in a non-patriarchal society.
In "Washing Day" Anna Letitia Barbauld has done what Romantic poets can do best. She writes of an event that occurs periodically in every-day life, but she elevates the washing day chore to a challenge of epic proportions. Barbauld views the experience of wash day from the perspective of the woman she is and the child she was. At all times she is the poet who relates the Muses' song as a medieval minstrel might. Her skillful use of irony and hyperbole allows this poem to convey to contemporary readers the same humor and insight that an eighteenth-century audience would have appreciated.
The child-voice of the poem can represent,on a deeper level, that innocence young girls lose as they become women and find themselves being "chuffed off like a Jew," often reluctantly or unknowingly, into the expected roles for women in marriage and childbearing---when fairy tale expectations of love crash into the reality of the Sisyphian tasks of dishes, cooking,cleaning,laundry, child care, when so many women have their dreams and identities erased under the daily grind of domesticity---a different sort of confinement, slavery, suppression, another and altogether different kind of death and destruction of the spirit.
In the both “The Diary of Adam” and “The Diary of Eve,” Mark Twain continuously portrays the message that each of the genders require one another in order to maintain a successful, happy existence and that both male and female have to get over each other’s differences. This message is illustrated by three different techniques: using humor, imagery, and stereotypes. Each of these techniques does a fantastic job in enhancing the message portrayed by Mark Twain.
In our present era, there is no doubt that the evolution of women's rights has come a long way. It is in the Western Culture that these values for which women have fought for generations, are in conflict with Genesis 1-3. The events that occur in this "creation story" are crucial in that it begins when God creates man in his own likeness and man is given domination over all living things. The significance is the prominence given to men; God is male and his most important creation is male. The biblical account underlines the supremacy of man while making it clear that women play an inferior role. Furthermore, the biblical account also describes how woman are disobedient and yield to temptation, the result of which is the expulsion of both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In the poem "How Cruel is the Story of Eve", Stevie Smith's castigation towards the biblical story of Eve demonstrates how women have been victims of despair and suffering since the beginning of time. She holds it responsible for cruelty towards women in history, she implies that the values derived from the story of Eve were forced upon women without choice, and finally, she challenges the authenticity of the religious tale on a whole. Without a doubt, women have fallen victim to an untrue, religious tale from the beginning of time, and the poem is an outcry representing the suffering of women throughout history.
While the abstracts lead the "papery godfolk" to the "crib of some lamp-headed Plato," Plath leads her readers to the crib of a baby girl (16). While the abstracts are "pure as boiled water" the infant is also pure: "the heavy notion of Evil attending her cot is less than a belly ache" (7,13). However, although the theory-filled abstracts are "loveless as the multiplication table," the child is nourished by "Love the mother of milk, no theory" (8,14). The abstracts' truth is founded in theory; the baby's truth is founded in love. Plath is content that the "papery godfolk" do not seek the crib of her baby girl. "What girl ever flourished in such company?" (18). This question attacks the male-dominated hierarchy in which no women of her time prospered. The main message of Plath's poem is that we learn truth in the school of life, but why did she use a baby girl instead of a boy?
The battle between what is right and wrong is a classic struggle that has existed from the beginning of time. The most honorable people face the crossroad of choosing either the angel’s path or the devil’s; one path leads to an honest yet difficult life while the other is an easy and selfish one. Throughout history, women have been portrayed as the reason of Man’s downfall. The male dominated world has created stereotypes to blame females for their defeats due to ignorance. Leo Tolstoy’s “The Devil” explores the dichotomy of the objectification of women as the angel and the devil.
Traditionally, women have been subservient to men; they are still often subjugated, treated as objects, and are valued for their ability to reproduce. Since the beginning of society dating back to the Paleolithic age, in the hunter-gatherer societal system, men generally hunted and provided for the family, while the women gathered fruit and raised children at home. This brand of society has in a way persisted even until today; often women will stay at home and raise children while the man would be the one to “hunt,” or in today’s context, work and provide for the family. This puts the woman in a subordinate position as they are dependent on the man, often leading to women being treated as objects. These stereotypes contribute to the development of Lispector’s works.
When we think of a modern feminist society we often don’t think of a time when women used men to get what we wanted. Men have always used women to satisfy their desires and needs. However, since Wife of Bath story from the Canterbury Tales, we see that women have used men in the same way since. In this essay I will argue that when a woman uses a man, it is the same as when he uses her. Sometimes what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander, or is it?
At times, women can take action to either preserve the reputation or emphasize the importance of some well-regarded man. In other situations, it is the actions of a man towards a woman that helps preserve or increase the influence that he has. Even symbolically, women have importance in defining the standing of man, as they highlight what made a man of value to the community. Neither the Greek nor Anglo-Saxon depictions of women are too positive; nevertheless, they are accurate depictions of the times these societies lived in and of a time when women were considered to be inferior to
Ancient literature often is used as a lesson for future behaviors as it is filled with moral lessons. The Bible has been a source for definitions of gender and morality for centuries. In the Holy Bible: New International Version, the book of Genesis does a good job of showing how history told by men writing history ca...
The author’s mastery of the metaphysical conceit is evident in each work as he leads the re...
Introducing the feminine voice means to draw attention to women’s special strengths, and to correct the systematic devaluation by our male-dominated society. In the book of In a Different Voice, with the intention to help women, identify more positively with their own distinctive style of reasoning about ethics, instead of feeling that there is something wrong with them because they do not think like men (unlike Kohlberg’s and Freud’s theories). One group of feminists (Noddings, Baier) tried to articulate further the feminine voice in moral reasoning. Others (McMillan, Rich, Ruddick, Harstock) agree that women have distinct virtues, and argue that these need not be self-victimizing.
Barbauld’s intended audience is primarily women, but this poem is also directed to remove a metaphorical blindfold men had when they looked at women. The poem starts off by declaring, “Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, oppressed;” (line 1 and 2). This is a powerful way to start a poem. The first line does not only declare women to take on initiative, but it specifically mentions “injured” women. Injured is a word that can describe a woman that had been oppressed, looked down upon, underestimated, etc. The word injured in this case, does not necessarily refer to a physical injury, but instead a psychological or emotional injury. In the second line, Barbauld is motivating women to realize their true worth and to not allow themselves to be belittled and underestimated. Barbauld maintains a tone of enough-is-enough, but her diction in no way ever conveys that men are worthless or meaningless. By doing this, she emphasizes the need for women to take on a stand as individuals, but never shuts down men to not have an interest in reading her works. She not only motivates women to realize their true worth, but also inspires men to take on a second look at everything that their “trophy wives” are truly capable of accomplishing. Barbauld felt no need to talk harshly about men, because she was surrounded by her father and brothers, before marrying Rochemont Barbauld. Her father and brothers were the ones that allowed her to receive an education. Fiona Stafford, who published a journal for Oxford University Press, states “Her career as a poet, too, was bound up with the literary enterprises of her brother, John Aikin, who appears to have cajoled her into publishing her first poems and continued to provide encouragement and outlets for her work even in the 1790s when she had become a well-established writer.” Because
The short stanzas containing powerful imagery overwhelm the readers forcing them to imagine the oppression that the speaker went through in her short life. The tone of this poem is that of an adult engulfed in outrage and who oftentimes slips into a childlike dialect; this is evident when the speaker continually uses the word "Daddy" and also repeats herself quite often. The last two stanzas of the poem, especially, portray a dismal picture of life for women who find themselves under a dominating male figure. The passage seems to show that the speaker has reached a resolution after being kept under a man?s thumb all her life.