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Women characters in hamlet
Women characters in hamlet
Women in shakespearean tragedy macbeth
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Anne Bradstreet’s creative ability was hindered due to her gender’s value in society. Molly Farrell investigates the political obstacles that Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley had to overcome in order to become successful writers. “Bradstreet here becomes a cunning navigator of intense external pressures as well as a disarming poetic performer who creates room for future women writer to navigate publication” [395]. She struggled to have her writing properly published and respected so she would attempt to make it politically accepted my men. Fortunately, according to Jane Donahue, others “finding sources of strength in their femaleness and inspired by achievements of other women, have asserted themselves confidently” [300]. Anne Bradstreet …show more content…
was able to persevere past the difficulties surrounding female due to being seen as of less value and less importance as men. “Bradstreet’s sister had been excommunicated from the community when the first edition of the Tenth Muse appeared in 1650, and Bradstreet’s own father supported the action against Sarah” [394]. A woman’s lesser value and worth is also echoed in “My Last Duchess” with a dominating theme of male superiority. The narrator of the story objectified his first duchess and even objectified her as a painting after her death. The man dominated over the woman so thoroughly that the duke was able to command the death of his duchess, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands / As if alive.” [45-47]. The man was so far above the woman that the duke did not even have to kill her himself, but was able to command another to kill her. “My Last Duchess” and “His Coy Mistress” are similar due to the male narrators’ view on women being simple objects.
Although it is not directly stated in either poem, this view lies subtlety beneath the surface. In “To His Coy Mistress” the narrator argues to “Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball, / And tear our pleasures with rough strife” [41-43] and “Now let us sport us while we may,” [37] so that “That long preserved virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust” [28-30]. The Narrator’s main concern was to “sport” each other before her youthfulness was eaten up and her beauty dimmed. In “My Last Duchess” the poem starts itself saying “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive” [1-2]. The Duke, at this point is already showing that he believed that his duchess should stand looking pretty rather than act in ways that he did not approve of. “Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all the smiles stopped together. There she stands / As if alive.” [44-47] The Duke did not appreciate how she would treat others “as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift.” [32-34] He viewed himself and his name as a “gift” he gave to her, but he did not approve of the way she treated his name. Joseph Dupras wrote, “his living/ dead subject now ‘stands’ on his terms, not hers” [page 8] in the …show more content…
sense that her beauty and likeness still exists, but her free will does not. These two poems share the masculine desire to control the actions of their females. The Duke wants his duchess to act superior to others and respect his name and the other wants to persuade his mistress to give him her virginity. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is different from “My Last Duchess” because gives accreditation to the wife’s and husband’s love for each other.
This poem is written with individual equality of each partner. “If ever two were one, then surely we” [1]. The beginning of this poem refers to the Christian theme of marriage. “Two shall become one” is a Biblical reference regarding marriage. This phrase does not suggest a superior partner, it implies oneness and equality. This poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” first addresses the love of the woman, “If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; / If ever wife was happy in a man, / Compare with me, ye women, if you can” [2-4]. The wife begins by explaining that she was in love with her husband and her love could not be counted as equal or less than any other woman’s. The wife says, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench” [7]. She is stating that her love is stronger than raging rivers and cannot be stopped by these weak forces. The poem then addresses the husband’s love for the wife, “Thy love is such I can no way repay” [10]. This line implies that his love for her is stronger than her love for him. His love is exceedingly more than any others’, more unquenchable than many rivers, and he too, is in love with his partner. This love for one’s wife is not seen in “My Last Duchess.” In “My Last Duchess,” instead of valuing the individual value of his partner the duke objectified his duchess. His Duchess was “too soon made glad, /
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er” [23-24]. According to Joseph Dupras, “The mark against her – as well as on her - is a ‘spot of joy’” [9], he could not stand her cheerfulness or the equality she held for other men. “She thanked men - good! – but thanked / Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift” [31-34] “The duchess’s inattention to her proud spouse contests his self-image as a paragon” [6] and this is the sin the duke could not tolerate or forgive. The duke grew to despise her, “Thus, given how much Alfonso disliked his mate, we might further conjecture- in order to pass meaning(fully) between life and mimesis- that his vengeance includes hiring a nobody to paint ‘such an one’” [9]. He forever made her an object on his wall, one that would be completely still and stay in his ideal manner that his duchess should be in. He took away her individuality, her joy, and her life. These poems written by Anne Bradstreet, Andrew Marvell, and Robert Browning are three examples of three different types of relationships between a man and woman. Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” follows the narrative of a loving wife declaring the love she has for her husband and the love he has for her while “To His Coy Mistress” is persuasive poem in which the narrator tries to convince his mistress not to wait for sex. These two seem like polar opposites until “To His Coy Mistress” is taken from an ironical view to support the Christian view that stand against fornication and for equality in marriage. “My Last Duchess” reveals the objectification and inequality with which men have treated women, including Anne Bradstreet who has faced multiple obstacles to publish her written works and become a successful writer. In both “My Last Duchess” and “To His Coy Mistress” a central theme of inequality and objectification is seen. The narrator in “My Last Duchess” does not even value the life of the woman he was married to and “To His Coy Mistress” does not respect the mistress’s body and values as the narrator tries to convince the mistress to have sex with him. These three writers wrote poems that revealed a the dangers of an objectifying, controlling, prideful man, and the joys of a happy, equal, loving relationship between a man and his wife.
Davidson, Cathy N. and Linda Wagner-Martin. The Oxford Companion to Womenâs Writing In The United States. New York: Oxford United Press, 1995.
It is hard to sympathize with someone when you have no idea where they are coming from or what they are going through. It is similar experiences that allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situations and trials of life. Anne Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book” expresses the emotions that Bradstreet felt when her most intimate thoughts were published to the world without her consent. The average person would not see the cause for distress that Bradstreet feels in this situation. She had written a collection of near perfect poetry, which expressed her feelings in a way that the majority of women during that time did not have the talent or training to do. Many would wonder why she would be disturbed about these works being printed when they had brought many people pleasurable reading and had brought Bradstreet herself much personal fame. Therefore, Bradstreet can not just write a straightforward poem to tell how she feels about her stolen thoughts. Unless her reader happens to be a writer, he or she would not be able to sympathize with Bradstreet in this matter. Instead, she had to use a situation in which her readers could comprehend the many emotions she experienced. No doubt, many women read her poetry, and the majority of women during that time were, or would one day be mothers. This similarity opened a door for understanding. By comparing her writing to a child, Bradstreet is able to win the compassion of her readers and help them understand the feelings that she experiences.
Showalter, Elaine. Sister's Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women's Writing. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1991.
Anne Bradstreet is considered by many experts to be the first English-speaking/writing American poet. Although arguments can be made that Phyllis Wheatley is indebted that title, the complexity, breadth, depth and ingenuity found in Bradstreet’s poetry is of such magnitude that she ranks among the top five poets, male or female, in American history. However, as with most issues, there is contention on both sides. “The question of Anne Bradstreet’s value as a poet has often receded behind the more certain fact of her value as a pioneer. This means that, while generations of students have read Anne Bradstreet’s work on the basis that she was the first American poet, and a woman at that, many have emerged from the experience unconvinced of her poetry’s intrinsic worth” (Hall 1).
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf
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 Rowlandson and Anne Bradstreet were both revolutionary female British writers whose work is widely credited with having great impact on literature. Mary Rowlandson was born about 1636 in England. Mary was the fifth child of a family of devout Puritans. Whereas, Anne Bradstreet was born in Northampton, England in about 1612 to Dorothy Yorke and Thomas Dudley. In this day and age, readers are starting to question the tone Anne Bradstreet's work. Associating it with less credibility then the work of Mary Rowlandson. Anne Bradstreet's poetry is viewed as a coded message whereas Mary Rowlandson's work is considered mostly as historical fact because of the distinctive tones used by both authors.
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar pursue a definition for what it means to be an authoress in a male dominated culture of writers. The central question for Feminists, according to Gilbert and Gubar, is: “Does the Queen try to sound like the King, imitating his tone, is inflections, his phrasing, his point of view? Or does she ‘talk back’ to him in her own vocabulary, her own timbre, insisting on her own viewpoint?” However, I cannot overlook the prospect of a man feeling just as mad and cooped up writing a text that others would view as out of his league. Chinua Achebe is the epitome of this Madman in the Attic. Born and raised in London, and brought up Christian he was as far away from being Okonkwo as I am as a white middle class American female. If Gilbert and Gubar are accusing women of feeling out of place writing in what then was a man’s field of expertise then Achebe masterfully channels the feminine madness into Things Fall Apart by writing a culture of strong independent women masked by silent passive girls.
The Duke of Ferrara was made jealous by everything the duchess did, no matter how unimportant it was. He was especially jealous of Fra Pandolf, the man who painted the duchess in the poem. A woman should be pleased only by her husband, as was not the case with the duchess and Fra Pandolf. She was “too easily impressed'; by the painter (line 23). Fra Pandolf was not the only man that made the duke jealous. Everyone who passed the duchess received “much the same smile'; as the duke (line 44). The duke expected to be the only man to receive a smile from his wife.
Anne Bradstreet’s poem titled “The Author to Her Book” tells a story of a woman who thought of an idea and decided to
Anne Bradstreet was America's first published poet, who lived in the 1600’s. She was a well-educated poet of her age and time, a loving wife, and caring mother. She used her poetry to show recognition of women's rights, the puritan lifestyle and beliefs, also to show her husband and eight children how much she loved them. Most of Anne Bradstreet’s poetry was based off true experiences in her life and what she believed in spiritually. In that day and time, she was heavily criticized for being a woman and writing. Bradstreet wrote a lot on puritanism, being a mother and wife, as well as the ways of life. Anne Bradstreet was and still is one of the most important American poets of all time. (poetryfoundation) f
Upon reading the poems by Anne Bradstreet, one is less likely to deny that Anne was an exemplary Puritan woman. Raising eight children, taking proper care of her family, and being able to write such a wonderful poems at that time is something, I think, we all can appreciate. It is almost unimaginable for a woman of our time to accomplish what Anne did. However, the fact that Woodbridge, Bradstreet’s brother in law, had to write a preface to assure people about the book’s authenticity and also to assure that those poems were not written in neglect of family duties, made me think how indifferently patriarchal Puritan society, then, treated women (Cowell 419). While reading Anne’s brief biography, one thing I really liked was Woodbridge’s eloquence
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Anne Bradstreet was educated in England before coming to the United States. In a time when women were not usually encouraged to openly express their intelligence, Anne was encouraged by her family to express hers through her writing. She was not only the first woman but the first person have a book of poems published in North America. The poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “To Her Father with Some Verses” express Bradstreet’s love for two very important men in her life – her husband and her father.