William Shakespeare introduces the reader to a person who is being described as the key of one’s heart, in a criticizing society. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 conveys a need to revolt against society beauty norms in order to free oneself from pressuring traditional views of attractiveness. In the first four lines, Shakespeare conveys a comparison between the beauty norm of the society, and his mistress’ beauty. Shakespeare starts with negative similes, which could connote that he just realises that his mistress might not be a pretty woman. The first sentence starts with “[m]y mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” (1).
The World’s Wife is a collection of poems written by Carol Ann Duffy in 1999. It consists of feminist retelling various stories, fairy tales, and greek mythologies, rewritten with feminist views where the women are the focus of the story. These recreations, all of which are dramatic monologues, are meant to bring forth the importance of the women who, in the original stories, are overshadowed by the men. Queen Herod is derived from the biblical story of King Herod, who ordered a mass killing of all first born boys under the age of two years, in fear that one them was meant to be the saviour of mankind and therefore was going to rob him of his thrown in the future. In Duffy’s version of the story, it was Queen Herod rather than King Herod who ordered the killings.
Mrs. Beast, a poem from the World’s Wife that is a collection of poems written by Carol Ann Duffy that often focuses on the female perspectives by using traditional stories that were focused on male character. Mrs. Beast is one of the last poems of the World 's Wife and it sums up the whole purpose of World 's Wife: to present a voice to women of history and literature and to explore aspects of their lives and personalities. As with all the poems in the World’s Wife, Duffy follows the form of a dramatic monologue and through the first stanza draws attention to the history of male domination and female suppression by listing famously victimized women and revealing in Mrs. Beast’s tone, bitter resentment.
Kailin Schumacher Writing 116 Segment 2 Selfie Analysis In Joan Acocella’s “Selfie” published in the New Yorker on May 12, 2014, Acocella talks about narcissism and just how different it is perceived within different groups. Narcissism is defined as “excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance” according to dictionary.com, but Acocella advises us that as time has gone on the definition became a lot more complicated. She starts off the article by telling the greek tale of Narcissus, who avidly died staring at his own reflection. While Narcissus really expressed “self-love”, Acocella goes on to explain Freud's thoughts on Narcissism. Freud thought that narcissism was mainly seen in women, because they were so obsessed
He explains that the family feud would’ve been able to end if they were married, until Romeo was banished. “Prince: Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague, see, what scourge is laid upon your hate, that Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!” (Shakespeare V. iii. 295-298). After the prince confirms Friar Lawrence’s innocence he confronts Capulet and Montague about how this conflict between them has
Women and Men 's Portrayal in Carol Ann Duffy 's "The world 's wife" The world 's wife is a collection of poetry which is written by Carol Ann Duffy. She wants to show in her poems that men always want to disregard women through history. In her poems, Duffy tries to change women from an object to a subject that has many rights, such as freedom of speech, and not being restricted by men. In World 's wife, she is revising some famous Greek myths, and fairy tales. While she revises these myths, she tries to change the idea of the original story in order to show her points that she is against or with.
Thus, the female characters within the poem represent two distinct roles of women: either as pure and holy beings, or as sinful beings. Dante allows Francesca to commit a sin in real-life; she does not take the responsibility for her desire; and Dante’s attitudes reveal why Francesca is in Hell, while Beatrice is in Paradiso. Francesca di Rimini and Paolo Malatesta are in the second circle of Hell, where the lustful sinners are punished. Francesca had an affair with her husband’s brother; two of them were innocently reading a romantic story – Lancelot, and swept up with romantic passion. Consequently, they are being punished together in Hell.
In the first quatrain, the beautiful image of a woman usually created during a romantic poem (i.e, having red lips, pure skin, silky hair) is parodied as he portrays his mistress as plain and not following normal beauty regulations. An example of this begins in the first line when Shakespeare states that his “mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (1). Contrasting standard romantic poetry, Shakespeare immediately sets the tone to be perceived as negative by insinuating that his mistress’ eyes do not shine. Every line in this quatrain includes a direct comparison like this which begins by describing something beautiful to be compared to, then shifts the tone to express that she is unlike that characteristic. For example, he begins line 2 using the language of “coral” to describe her lips, but the tone is shifted when he says that
Samuel Washburn Prof. Russell EN 231 2 October 2014 The Poetic Argument Between Dr. Johnathan Swift and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Dr. Swift’s, The Lady’s Dressing Room, is an 18th century satirical poem that addresses British social issues via the lens of feminine beauty, and how that beauty is a form of artifice. The poem uses beauty as a sort of philosophical metaphor for the main character, Strephon, to confront the realistic underbelly of feminine beauty/hygiene, which is portrayed as lurid and shocking, for the purpose of personal and social vanity. The poem was labeled misogynistic at the time of its writing, and continues to be viewed as such. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu issued a response to Dr. Swift in a poem called The Reasons that Induced Dr. S to Write a Poem Called The Lady’s Dressing Room.
Militancy’ states that, “she de-romanticizes the world, de-mythifies the religious and the literary traditions by re-appropriating the hegemonic language in a heretical gesture of Promethean love for the dispossessed.” Indeed. Gilbert and Gubar in ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’ point out how ‘to be selfless is not only to be noble, it is to be dead’- and Kandasamy’s poetry, with all its performative traits, is too animated, too lively to be called just alive. The two authors talk about the engagement of women writers ‘in assaulting and revising, destructing and reconstructing the images of women inherited from male literature- especially the paradigmatic polarities of the angel and the monster.’ Kandasamy sees through the binaries and