Hswifery Essay

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Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery”, Anne Bradstreet’s “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment,” and “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old” all demonstrated strong feeling toward either domestic life or Puritan spiritual beliefs. These three poems dealt with one or more of these topics: death, marriage, spousal duties, and the God’s role in the Puritan life. Taylor and Bradstreet both approach the belief God has His elects and those chosen will precede to heaven but their viewpoints on domestic roles are slightly different; where Taylor is glorifying the work of a housewife, Bradstreet is displaying the dependence and submissiveness that Puritan women have to their husband.
The tones and attitudes displayed in Taylor’s “Huswifery” and Bradstreet’s “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet” was different toward God. In “Huswifery,” Taylor came before God humbly almost praying to be used to make a “holy” robe. The poem depicted the different stages of making a “holy”. Before Taylor could begin this robe making process, he must come to God asking humbly, “Make me, O Lord, Thy Spinning Wheel complete.” (I.1). in the beginning, Taylor is explaining how to make the thread by using his soul, affection, conversations, and God’s word. Taylor continues this process by taking the thread, the Holy Spirit, and God’s ordinances to make the fabric. After the fabric is made, it is dyed in the “heavenly color”. The final stanza the robe is ready for Taylor to wear it. Taylor’s tone of humility towards God contrasts to Bradstreet’s tone in “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet”, where she was questioning God for the death of her granddaughte...

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...their marriage as two has become one when she states, “Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone, /…both but one.” (25-26). The poem gives Bradstreet the role of housewife and while Bradstreet’s husband is away, she is basically taking care of the household and the children. While Bradstreet’s overall theme of this poem was about the domestic roles of a wife, Taylor’s “Huswifery” is glorifying the work of the housewife by using it as the main metaphor. The title, “Huswifery,” is defined as the business of a housewife or female homemaking. Taylor uses the metaphor of God’s grace for the elect to a woman’s chore of making clothing from raw wool. By using this metaphor, Taylor gave a side of what the Puritan women went through to make clothing. Overall, Taylor express that God’s grace will transform one from evil to an elect, just as wool transforms into beautiful clothing.

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