Monday, February 16, 2009

Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet’s poems serve as a look into the values of a Puritan woman. She provides us with a commentary on the world she lives in and the things she values – family, writing, and Puritanism. Bradstreet conveys her thoughts in a way that makes her work appealing to her audience. Always pulling from the Puritan principles she is able to shed light into her life, allowing her audience to see things from her perspective. She is aware of her role as a Puritan, but she also contemplates her role as a human.

One of the most admirable things about Bradstreet is her confidence regarding the ability of women. In The Prologue to her book, Bradstreet writes, “Men can do best, and women know it well. Preeminence in all and each is yours; yet grant some small acknowledgment of ours” (lines 40-42). Bradstreet is not trying to reshape the gender roles in her society, but she is asking that women be given more credit. She holds Queen Elizabeth as a model for everything women are capable of. Bradstreet’s poems honoring the Queen are evidence of Bradstreet’s stance. She says, “Now say, have women worth? Or have they none? Or had they some, but with our Queen is’t gone?” (line 95). If they were once deemed as having “worth”, will they still be valued after the Queen has died? Bradstreet’s questioning of the worth of women shows that she is aware about the differences in the roles of society but also lets us see that she feels she (and women in general) has something to be valued; otherwise, why would she vocalize her concern?

1 comment:

  1. I made the same analysis as you when you said that Bradstreet felt women deserved more credit. I even wrote in the margins after her 5th stanza "no credit" ("They'll say it stol'n or else it was by chance" in referring to the writings of a woman).

    I also think it is very significant that, while Bradstreet calls on the "establishment" to recognize the offerings of women writers, she doesn't go out of her way to say "we're better than you are but you won't let us prove it." Just the opposite in fact:
    "Men have precedency and still excel,
    It is but vain unjustly to wage war;
    Men can do best, and women know it well."
    "The Prologue," 7, 38-40
    She is not trying to take anything away from men, nor is she saying that women are ignorant of the literary gifts men have given them. She simply wants, for all women, "some small acknowledgment."(43)

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