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Analysis Of John Donne 's Poem

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John Donne’s Poem asks numerous questions and can be boiled down to a rather dark and cynical conclusion. This poem interpreted through the eyes of a male writer would see hints of a past filled with betrayal, leading the poet to deem the existence of fair and true women as impossible and fantastical as literally catching a falling star. That even in a ten-thousand-day journey, with age a man would come to his sensing, understanding the fantasy during reality that good women do not exist. This idea is reinforced with imagery of witchcraft, and an allusion to sirens (singing mermaids). Taking into account the perceptions of women described in Donne’s poem, analyzing the respective story’s main female characters—Eve, Jocasta, and Ophelia, of Paradise Lost, Oedipus Rex, and
Hamlet respectively, let’s talk about sex—about the gulf between the feminine and the masculine, and about the ways the sexes work and the ways they help to shape perceptions of their humanity, intent, and value. In this essay I do not seek to examine the biological differences; rather, to briefly examine the socially constructed gender roles and the role they play in the literary interpretations of these respective texts.
Firmly rooted in our Western tradition of literature is the story of Adam and Eve. This tale pinpoints the infamous bite in Eden, taken by that of a female, to be the root of all of our human woe, which has survived and is imbedded our ways of understanding sex and gender roles. In

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