How does Jonathan Swift represent women in his 'Stella's Birthday' series of poems?

“A Communication which the Author had to London, Before She made Her Will” features Isabella Whitney’s reasons for leaving London (and in doing so vocalizes her frustrations with the city). The poem acts as a preface to Whitney’s “The Manner of Her Will..”, which was written as a satire that involved bequeathing parts of London she does not own to Londoners. It is arguable to say that these works contained a certain degree of autobiographical material because she lived among the common people. Isabella Whitney pioneered her field of women poets. While a lot of her practices (familiar allusions, exaggerations, ballad metre) were common for contemporary male authors of the mid-sixteenth century, as a woman she was setting a new precedent. “A Communication…” is successful for several reasons: it plays on the complaint genre and in doing so personifies London as a poor lover, it skillfully uses language, and it follows with Whitney’s credit motif (autobiographical in nature).

When the notorious topic of women’s role in society comes to mind writers like Kate Chopin and Mary Wilkins Freeman break the norms of how women in America were imagined to be through different cultures and regions. In both Kate Chopin’s and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s time period women are portrayed as an ample servant to their husbands. Together the texts show how the controlled understanding of the nineteenth century society, had on women. At that time of these writers, people were restrictive about the viewpoint of women’s place in society. Women could not really do much without their Husband or another male figure in their life , they really didn’t have a voice of their own. In the stories A New England Nun , Desiree’s Baby, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm, Mary and Kate have represented how this situation of the society affected women and their viewpoints about life and marriage.

Here’s some background information about myself: I am 19 years old, I am a Christian, and this is my Sophomore year of college. In the poem, two older women are talking about their views on life. The significant thing about their conversation is the fact that they both have two different ideas as to what life has left to offer them. They both agree that in the beginning life was sweet. I believe they were referring to how life was when they were younger women. They felt that life was rich and pure during those specific years. The first woman then goes on to say that life eventually grew

Friendship is a blessing, people say, and it is. Men often express their appreciation and respect for male friends through literature. A fellowship, medieval authors call it. A deep and unbreakable connection between males, transcending romantic love. A relationship based on mutual support and admiration, thriving of intellectual stimulation. Nothing is more valuable to a man than a friendship, not even the love of a woman; it is only a man, after all, who can understand another man. To seventeenth century men, friendship (just like everything else) is a male blessing – a patriarchal gift – not for women. Female friendship was “impossible,” for an amicable and supportive relationship between women could never exist. Platonic friendships existed between men, not women. Yet, several female poets challenged this notion, emphasizing importance of female friendships as male authors and poets do. Friendship is defined through a feminist lens in Aemilia Lanyer’s “The Description of Cookham” and Katherine Philips’ poetry in which female characteristics that are often overlooked are deeming meaningful through friendship.

With a syllabus centered around woman poets, students would be exposed to more socioeconomically diverse group of poets. While the ‘major’ poets of the English 125 syllabus were all born into some degree of wealth, the women who acted as supplementary readings for the course were of more varied backgrounds. Isabella Whitney, for example, was born to a lower class English family. Her experiences in life are reflected in her poetry, and starkly contrast the poetry of the ‘major’ men. While the traditional male poets may not have had the same views, they were privy to a lot of similar experiences due to their class standing, and therefore tackled some of the same issues. To have a different viewpoint and style of writing in terms of not only gender, but of class, is crucial in the development of an English major. The current syllabus requires students to be complacent with the multitude under-developed female characters that are created through the eyes of men, and satisfied with the few women who are given deeper personalities, like the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Such confining works lead to conversation that automatically focuses on the negative when it comes to gender—that women are disregarded and often powerless when depicted from the male point of view, unless they are overtly sexualized. From a modern stance, this is seen as a sexist and unfair representation, but based on the current material offered in English 125, it seems as though it is an injustice that must be dealt with to understand the nuances of pivotal English poetry. However, a deeper focus on women poets would eliminate, or at least add dimension to, this type of conversation. There is no reason why students cannot “recognize the powerful interactions of form and content” between Isabella Whitney’s “To her Inconstant Lover” and Shakespeare’s

The pre 20th century poems ‘Cousin Kate’ and ‘A woman to her lover’ written by Christina Rossetti and Christina Walsh, both explore the presentation of women. Similarly, both poems are unique due to it being written in the 1800’s, as women were controlled and dominated by men in that society.

Great writers convey their message without bluntly stating it to their audience. Hardy’s insightful poetry conjures the minds of his audience and encourages them to reflect on how inhumane the social classes were and how poorly women were treated without every saying it. Because of its’ simplicity and relatability Hardy’s clever use of an everyday conversation between two women is more powerful than any lengthy lecture or straightforward statement he could have given.

As far as one looks back, women have always been oppressed and unfairly treated by society; The Norton Anthology English Literature, by the respected editor Greenblatt, illustrates some descriptive incidences through these selected poems. Throughout this essay I elaborate on Mary Robinson and Anna Letitia Barbauld, as well as analyzing the introduction of the book. These ladies have illustrated the arduous times women have endured, and I believe they deserve the respect and admiration as any other male author. Thus, women were oppressed and were forced into stereotypes which over the course of the decades grew out of thanks to our feminist leaders.

Images of the female embodiment are rich in both The Mountain Lion and June Recital, although they are manifested in different ways. Each story focuses on different aspects of womanhood. The Mountain Lion, with more potent imagery, addresses Molly’s (a young pre-pubescent girl) inevitable but dreaded transition into adolescence. June Recital focuses on Miss Eckhart, as she ages and struggles with unrequited maternal affection. While the stories address issues opposite each other in the stages of a female life, there is a thread that ties the two works together. Childhood, and elderliness are the points in a female’s life when she is not seen as an object of sexual desire. More accurately, they are the periods in a woman’s life, especially during the time when these works were written, that it is culturally acceptable for a female to be free to be herself, and not expected to conform her behavior and appearance to what is culturally considered sexually appealing. This paper will focus predominantly on female embodiment in The Mountain Lion, but will use various depictions of embodiment in June Recital to tie these images into the larger theme of womanhood.

Throughout history, female artists have not been strangers to harsh criticism regarding their artistic works. Some female artists are fortunate to even receive such criticism; many have not achieved success in sharing their works with the world. In Virgina Woolf’s third chapter of her essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf addresses the plight of the woman writer, specifically during the Elizabethan time period of England. Woolf helps the reader appreciate her view on how stifling and difficult this time period was for women and how what little creativity emerged would have been distorted in some way. Through a number of claims, examples and other literary techniques, Woolf is able to

There are many different themes that can be used to make a poem both successful and memorable. Such is that of the universal theme of love. This theme can be developed throughout a poem through an authors use of form and content. “She Walks in Beauty,” by George Gordon, Lord Byron, is a poem that contains an intriguing form with captivating content. Lord Byron, a nineteenth-century poet, writes this poem through the use of similes and metaphors to describe a beautiful woman. His patterns and rhyme scheme enthrall the reader into the poem. Another poem with the theme of love is John Keats' “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” meaning “the beautiful lady without mercy.” Keats, another nineteenth-century writer, uses progression and compelling

Swift’s main goal in this book is to reverse the gender roles and get people to see society from another point of view. Society does not seems to have a problem with sexualizing women but see the situation different when the men are the victims. Swift is showing how it looks from a different point of view and wants society to change their ways towards the treatment of women. The idea that men are smarter than women is also a point that Swift is trying to change. Many times in the book women are looked upon as not as smart as the men. However in all the situations the women come out as the only ones with common sense. Swift is showing that women are just as smart as men and that they can have just as much power. The way Swift writes can come across as misogynistic but when you actually dig deep into his message it is not. Gulliver’s Travels is a work of literature that is trying to stand up for women and change the way society

     The weakness of women is found in various forms throughout the text. Henry refers to women as “a decorative sex” and that “they never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.” (Wilde 43) Nowhere is this better supported than during Lady Henry’s

Even though many of Swift’s readers see a harsh attack on women as one of his major poetic themes, both his poetry and prose strongly satirize the ill nature

In this essay we will look into her life through three of her poems in