Anne Bradstreet's Ideal Puritan Women

Anne Bradstreet is one of the most controversial poets of her time. Choosing her lover and materialistic items over religion. This is best shown in her works "To my dear loving husband" and "Upon the burning of our house" Which solely focuses on her Ironic lover as well as her home. In these poems she talks about how nothing can replace the happiness she feel with the main topic of each poem. While very similar in black and white. Yet, When you open it up to grey the differences outweigh the similarity 's. Firstly though, lets figure out who Anne really was.

Through the examination of funeral literature Ulrich is able to describe the behavioral characteristics of a virtuous Puritan woman; s.g., a desire to seek god early, to read the bible, to converse through pious discourse, to write, to love to go to church and have the willingness to submit to God’s will. (Ulrich, 22-26) To the author, these traits imply that “while a godly woman was expected to act appropriately in all

In the award winning article, “Passages in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards a Feminist Figure of Humanity?” Cynthia Pon addresses masculinity and feminism in terms of conventions, ideals, and practices (Pon, 33). She focused on whether Mary Shelly's work as a writer opened the way to a feminist figure of humanity like Donna Haraway argued. The article has a pre-notion that the audience has read Frankenstein and Haraway's article. Pon has a slight bias, due to her passion as a feminist writer. It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

For the 19th century America, the two sexes were to be separated into distinct spheres, the man’s public sphere and the woman’s private one. It was most common for the two sexes to spend their time mostly in the company of their own sex, and advices were given to the younger members of the society on the proper way of behaving according to one’s sex. Even though both sexes had to be instructed on how to perform in each other’s company, it was the shaping of a woman that needed to undergo through a series of instructions on the proper way to be a woman. A woman had to follow the rules of the Cult of True Womanhood to be considered proper and wife material. Fanny Fern in her writing appeals on and discusses the attributes of piety, purity, submissiveness,

"Easy A" is a movie that is loosely based on Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter". In this movie, Olive can be compared in a way to Hester Prynne. Although they both have different roles in their society and being in different time periods. They always have one thing in common, the similarity is that they both wear a red "A" on their clothing. In the Scarlet Letter and Easy A, they both have many differences but one constant similarity.

Gender roles are present everywhere and are more and more prevalent the further back you go. They define relationships and heavily influence people's actions. Gender roles can hurt those that are trapped in them because they are not allowed the freedom of living like they want. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, one key relationship in the story is wrecked by gender roles. The Puritan ways of the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, lead to each gender having a very set role in society. Men were to be the strong, detached ones, who did all the hard work. Well the women were subordinate, stay-at-home mothers, and could show no temper. These roles lead to the growth of distrust between a married couple. An analysis of John and Elizabeth’s marriage

In her essay “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”, Barbara Welter discusses the expected roles and characteristics that women were supposed to exhibit in accordance with the extreme patriarchy of the nineteenth-century America. The unnamed narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is seen to conform and ultimately suffer from this patriarchal construct that Welter labels the Cult of True Womanhood. The narrator falls victim to this life of captivity by exhibiting several of the fundamental characteristics that Welter claims define what a woman was told she ought to be. She has been brainwashed by the patriarchal society of her time to worship the man, her husband, and perform her duties and daily rituals as a means to please him. Welter outlines several characteristics that constitute the perfect or true woman; however, the most crucial and detrimental so-called “virtues” exhibited by Gilman`s the narrator are her submissiveness and domesticity. Although the artistic narrator clearly has her own desires to be free and write as she pleases, her desire to satisfy the patriarchal construct of the household by attending

The Puritans’ treatment of women is blatantly evident at the beginning of the book where Hester is awaiting conviction upon the scaffold for her act of adultery. The townspeople present at the trial presented a very negative sentiment towards Hester,

Throughout History, women have long struggled and fought for the same equality, justice, and rights as males in society. Historians have two opposing views of what life was like in Puritan society. One side argues that Puritan society was a golden age for women as they worked alongside their husbands, had an important role in the household. However, opposing historians argue that Puritan women were inferior to men in the society for five main reasons. Women were inferior because they were supposed to be silent company, they only received half the inheritance of their brothers, they were meant to have and take care of the children, they received harsher punishment for their wrongs, and they had to follow strict rules. The most significant way

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester uses her infamy as a way to change the Puritans’ mindset about those who have sinned. Throughout the novel, the Puritans of Boston treat Hester poorly due to the fact that she is a well-known adulteress. Despite her poor treatment, Hester does not allow the Puritans to control her life; in point of fact, she decides to interact with the Puritans through acts of charity so that she can eliminate the stigma associated with the scarlet letter. Originally, Hester never sinned so that she could go against god’s words. She sinned because she felt lonely, and she longed for someone who would love her and take care of her. Due to this, Hester feels as though her punishment isn’t rightful as she never tried to corrupt society or hurt others with her sin. In order to show the Puritans that one should be forgiven for their sins if they were a pious person before committing them, Hester tries her best to show that she is still a good person. Even when the poor citizens of Boston reject her aid, Hester still provides the unfortunate with clothing and food. Even when the people, for whom she sews clothing for, slyly and directly insult her, Hester “... had schooled herself long and well” so that she “never responds to [their] attacks” (Hawthorne, 127). As a result of her persistent efforts and her resolve to help

In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

I did know it! Was not the secret he told me, in the natural recoil of my heart, at the first sight of him.”(175)

female freedom and how the community disdained Eliza, who wants to live her life differently

Anne Bradstreet (1612 – 1672) has been a long-lasting leading figure in the American literature who embodied a myriad of identities; she was a Puritan, poet, feminist, woman, wife, and mother. Bradstreet’s poetry was a presence of an erudite voice that animadverted the patriarchal constraints on women in the seventeenth century. In a society where women were deprived of their voices, Bradstreet tried to search for their identities. When the new settlers came to America, they struggled considerably in defining their identities. However, the women’s struggles were twice than of these new settlers; because they wanted to ascertain their identities in a new environment, and in a masculine society. Thus, Bradstreet employed maneuvering, ironic, and sarcastic verses in her poems to assuage the troubles of women, and to emancipate them. One of these poems is The Prologue. In this poem, Bradstreet manifested her feminist voice and approach in an unprecedented intellectual way.

In a traditional culture at the time, the female image was inferior to men in many different aspects. Women have an inferior intelligence compared to men, inferior role in society, and inferior status. Later on, women were respected more as wives and mothers. Women remained in homes, raising children, and “rescuing men’s souls and leading them to the holy paradise” (). In his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a new female-image, one that focuses on remaining a pure reputation. WHile Hester suffered from ridicule and shame from her neighbors, she presents feminist spirit in her conscious. Hester develops a strong spirit and mind. Wang notes that the feminism is carefully placed throughout the story. He analyzes Hester's refusal and determination when she is asked who the father of her baby is. This showed her individualism and her determination to stand alone without a man by her side. When Hester finally takes off the scarlet letter “A” and her cape in the wilderness, it not only represents the beauty she held despite the emotional punishment she underwent, but it also represents her removing the Puritan and patriarch society holding her back. Hester’s feminist conscious is intricately portrayed throughout the