Gwen Harwood’s poem The Lion’s Bride, written 1981 revolves around the time period when women were objectified as housewives whose only job was to breed and nurture children, as well as care for their husbands. This poem creates a vivid image about a lion who falls in love with the zookeepers daughter but fails to recognize her when she greets him on her wedding day, wearing her dress, and mistakes her for a ghost. In response to this misinterpretation, the lion proceeds to maul the woman and lies in wait for the zookeeper’s daughter to arrive and feed him. The underlining message behind this poem revolves around a man who believes he is caged by his lover’s father in response to the feelings the father doesn’t agree with, and on her wedding day, the lover feels as though he is destroying the woman because she is marrying someone else.
To ease into her poem, Harwood creates a vivid image for the reader about a zookeeper’s daughter coming daily with their “special bowl.” This refers to how the lion has the notion that the woman is forming a relationship with him through their mealtime together. In reference to this, the lion, which is the man, believes he is caged due to his belief that the zookeeper refuses to accept his feelings towards his daughter. Contextually, during Harwood’s time, women were expected marry men who were of their social class and who were believed could take care of them. Assuming the man’s persona is drudging and he is seen as filth in relation to depicting him like a lion, the daughter cannot marry or be seen with him because it may affect or shun her reputation. The poet chooses to include the connotation of a “special bowl” instead of explicitly stating how they share a meal together to signify how the man and woman are forced to hide their feelings until they are alone together at mealtimes. She leaves no doubt in the reader that the man is feeling this way because she refers to their meal as their “love feast,” highlighting how interconnected these two people are with one another. Furthermore, the man’s predicament refers back to Harwood’s time in that women were expected to act in a certain prim manner, and to be a lover to a man in a status below her would taint her reputation
In the early days, the role of woman has been confined by a man because their jobs are to get marry, have children, and most depend on their husbands. The men in the early society had bigger roles than women. Therefore, women has to base themselves on and listen to their men. However, in the story “Once Aboard The Lugger,” author Thomeas Qiller- couch presents an intense image of a woman who makes change in woman’s role in the early society. Nance Trewartha, a daughter of a fisherman in Ruan, wants to marry a minister Samuel from Troy. She has fond on him and starts to wonder how would be like if Samuel is her husband. With her lovingness and braveness, she kidnaps Samuel and start to reverse a women role in the courtship. Surprisingly, Nance pursues Samuel by isolating him, and she changes the patterns of courtship, culture, and class.
The major theme of this story is to some people, animals are more important than any human. The author and his sister love Henry, the parrot, like one of their family member. Sedaris makes his audiences confused. At first, he makes everyone think that Henry is a human being as he says: “My sister’s home didn’t really lend itself to snooping, so I spent my hour in the kitchen, making small talk with Henry”(445).
In the writing of, America’s Top Parent, Elizabeth Kolbert outlines the parenting strategies of different mothers. Most notably, she talks about the “Chinese Mother,” which does not technically mean this individual must be of Chinese descent. Throughout the essay, Kolbert talks about another essay, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The author of that essay, Amy Chua, believes in a binary world. Meaning that there are two kinds of mothers, “Chinese Mothers”, and “Western” mothers. Chinese mothers believe in extreme parenting, whereas Western mothers “think they are being strict when they insist that their children practice their instruments for half an hour a day” (Kolbert). On the other hand, Chinese mothers have much more specific rules
Furthermore, the woman was never recognised as an equal in the world; with a “mane” for hair she is immediately relatable to an animal. When this connection is made, the woman is perceived as some strange creature; a mere mimicry of a real human. Harwood’s description of is a taste of how society views women; not quiet human. Now equipped with darker views of the flower filled day; the contemporary day reader is pondering to whether or not this vile practice is still belittling women of today.
Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.
Poetic techniques displayed through the ideas, poetic features and style of the poet, reveal concepts which transcend time and place. In Gwen Harwood’s poem “the violets” her ability to interweave past and present emphasises the importance of memory in preserving ones journey though the universal experiences of growth, maturity and mortality. Similarly the poem “Mother who gave me life” demonstrates the memory of motherhood as a timeless quintessential part of the human condition. And lastly In Harwood’s “father and Child”, the connection between the father and son/daughter highlights that transformation throughout childhood is inevitable. Through the content and the language, the ways in which human experiences reveal concepts which
In this story, Mr. and Mrs. Fox are married but not necessarily in love. This is how many marriages end up like in the real world today. The wife always keeps herself detached. “She makes no romantic claims, does not require reassurance, and he adores her because of the lack” (page 49) She does not give her husband much of anything other than sex. Because of her animal instincts, Mrs. Fox does not know how to be attached. No body ever sees animals in a relationship; they just have sex and then go their separate ways. It shows that Mr. Fox loves his wife more that she loves him. Time and time again he will ask her is she needs anything when she seems to be getting sick and she does not take him up on any offers. “He makes toast for her but she takes only a bite or two. He notices that the last chewed mouthful has been put back on her plate, a damp little brown pile”. (Page 52) This has a deeper meaning, which is that animals do not eat like humans. They can spit out their food because its animal nature. This shows that Mr. Fox is trying to care for her but in more ways than one, he does not understand her or understand her needs. In the story it states, “the one who loves less is always loved more”(page 49) this shows how her husband loves her in every way he knows how but she does not love him the way he does her; she will not let her husband get close enough to see the real problems in
The poem “To my Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, is not just an exceedingly felt expression of a wife’s marital love and commitment to her husband, as it is about a puritan women who is supposed to be reserved but she makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. A thorough analysis of the poem’s paradox, hyperbole, imagery and repetition reveals how she conveys her message.
Gwen Harwood poems such as The Glass Jar and Prize-Giving illuminate concerns fundamental to human experience including life, death, spirituality and human fall from innocence explored abstractly through the prism of childhood experience. The use of binary opposites, metaphors, similes, musical motifs and biblical allusions allow for a multiplicity of responses and readings highlighting mythological, psychological, Freudian and feminist interpretation.
Mrs Beast is the penultimate poem of the collection. It helps to sum up Duffy’s aim of The World’s Wife: to highlight the female voice by looking at human history. The entire poem is a retelling of the fable of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ by Jean-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Beauty sees past the Beast's outward appearance, bringing the feminist rejection of objectification to the fore. However, Beaumont's portrayal of Beauty as a submissive, obedient daughter to her father and servant to the Beast is anything but feminist. Duffy re-works the tale to explore her thoughts about feminism and feminist
a story that reflects the subordination of woman in marriage. By the time of the early
In Carol Ann Duffy’s “Little Red Cap,” taken from her collection The Worlds Wife, Duffy incorporates her feminist views on life to help develop Red-Cap’s character into an independent woman. In her work, Duffy intends to illuminate for the audience that woman are more powerful than they are perceived by society. In the poem, she writes about a young girl at the peak of her childhood, who is about to enter into the next phase of her life. The young, inexperienced girl describes the beginning of her transformation into adulthood after losing her innocence to “The Wolf.” The loss of her innocence contributes to the realization that she no longer needs an old, no good wolf. She gains the courage and reflects on how her life changes dramatically after her departure from the wolf. The poem “Little Red-Cap," written in The World’s Wife, closely relates to certain aspects of the original fairy tales written by The Grimm Brother and Charles Perrault. Duffy’s version of “Little Red Cap” is a rewrite of the original fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” Duffy incorporates her strong feminist views by allowing Red-Cap to initiate her encounter with the wolf and to use him for gaining knowledge for her career and sexual desires. These aspects contribute to the development of Red-Cap’s character into a more independent woman to contradict the oppression of women in the past and present generations, and allowing her to offer suggestions for women in the future.
Thesis: Throughout the text of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen challenges gender and social norms in the Georgian Era through the development of Elizabeth Bennet as she interacts with characters in the novel.
The poem “The Mother” written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1945, is a poem that focuses on the immeasurable losses a woman experiences after having an abortion. The poems free verse style has a mournful tone that captures the vast emotions a mother goes through trying to cope with the choices she has made. The author writes each stanza of the poem using a different style, and point of view, with subtle metaphors to express the speaker’s deep struggle as she copes with her abortions. The poem begins with, “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 1), the first line of the poem uses personification to capture your attention. The title of the poem has the reader’s mindset centered around motherhood, but the author’s expertise with the opening line, immediately shifts your view to the actual theme of the poem. In this first line the speaker is telling you directly, you will never forget having an abortion. Brooks utilizes the speaker of the poem, to convey that this mother is pleading for forgiveness from the children she chose not to have.
The Story of an Hour is short, yet, contains important examples of gender roles in marriage. They are important because they represent how women felt married in the 19th century due to male dominance that manifested throughout marriages all over the world. In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard is a wife that is, at first, seen as distraught, because of her husband’s death. She starts to cry and run to her room, to soon be lifted with the joy that she is now free. It is clear that she felt trapped in the marriage and is now happy that there is no one controlling her any longer. Mrs. Mallard is a prime example of women in marriages in the 19th century, and even some today. Unfortunately, they have to experience sexism from their husbands. Women are dominated by men in marriage and are expected to acquire the stereotypical gender roles.