A Serious Proposal to the Ladies: Mary Astell
- Talks about marriage and education
- Mistakes of society lie in lack of education for women
- Ignorance is the cause of sin
- A liberal education is a way to secure a virtuous future
- If you are the mother of sons, it is better to be educated for the benefit of the children's future
- Astell's audience is both men and women
Song: Lady Mary Chudleigh
- You should focus on virtue, not beauty
The Wish: Lady Mary Chudleigh
- Chudleigh describes the good characteristics of a desirable man/lover
- Discusses arranged marriages
- Companionate marriage: based on feelings and compatibility
To the Ladies: Lady Mary Chudleigh
- Compares role of a wife to the role of a servant
- A wife must fear her husband as a god
- Once you enter the marriage, the man changes and becomes more commanding
- Once a woman marries, her husband takes all her property
- This may not be a situation that Chudleigh experienced, but heard of and felt compelled to write about
The Tree: Anne Finch
- Anne Finch was interested in nature
- Nature is often feminized
- The tree protects people
- The tree is cut down for firewood
- The tree provides so much, but no one gives back to the tree
- Nature is a metaphor for talking about life
- Nature focuses your attention on sound, not sight, at night
The Answer: Anne Finch
- This is a response to Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" (very erotic)
- Finch is describing what Pope wrote
- Finch critiques society's views of women and expectations and limitations of women
No comments:
Post a Comment