Anne Bradstreet Essay

Improved Essays
Throughout Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “The Prologue” it is evident in her writing that her words are used to defend herself and her sex against Puritan beliefs. Within the entirety of the poem, Bradstreet uses her poetic devices to fight back against the men. These men showed dishonor toward female writers as a whole. Using her writing techniques, she wanted to portray that she, although a female, possessed similar writing qualities as men, making her worthy of their consideration and self-worth. Although they do not write about similar topics, their writing techniques should still be considered intellectually the same. With such strong devotion in her words, Bradstreet’s poem, “The Prologue” has opened the eyes of its numerous readers. In Bradstreet’s …show more content…
As a feminist Anne’s words have a powerful message and an even deeper meaning. She wants us to understand the effect men’s thoughts of women’s writing is having on the women physically and mentally. Once women have the acknowledgment they deserve, the author wants us to recognize the need for equal recognition between men’s writing and women’s writing. With recognition of the talents and attributes women have, the world will slowly transition into an equal opinion of each sex. By discriminating one sex over the other, talents and accomplishments are over looked and throw under the bed. Without equality, the world would quickly change into an unwelcoming place. Overall, Anne Bradstreet’s message within “The Prologue” is to express the want and need of women for men to treat women’s writing with the respect they deserve. The author wants you to understand what women bring to the table and what they can really amount to. By changing the views of readers through this poem, Anne Bradstreet hopes to catch the eye and understand of men who continuously degrade

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    For the article “Shitty First Drafts” we read this week, it remained me something about writing. This is a essay written by Anne Lamott, who is the author of six novels, the food reviewer for the magazine, a book reviewer for Mademoiselle, and a regular contributor to Salon.’s .“Mothers Who Think..” She’s busy because of several occupation at the same time, but there's still a question that what made her writing attracted? In this essay we read, there may be the answer.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anne Bradstreet has given the reflection of her religious devotion in the form of various Biblical scriptures where she finally was able to found peace in the firm belief. She has also presented the religious theme along with the domestic themes which was also considered by Cotton Mather. She has also written the sequence of various religious poems named “contemplations”. One important thing to be noted is that John Winthrop was the critic of the work by Anne Bradstreet and thus considered her to be in rebelling societal norms of the time. John Winthrop was also considered to be the moral for the force of being in the comparative moderation in the religiously conservative colony.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the other hand, In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Upon the Burning of our House “ , she uses a pathetic tone.…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anne Bradstreet’s poems show the faith she has for God, as she mentions it in various ways in her poems that whatever happens is God’s doing, it will be okay. Anne Bradstreet’s poems show the faith she has for God, as she mentions it in various ways in her poems that whatever happens is God’s doing, it will be okay. She sees the positive side in things, even when they go south. “I blest His name that gave and took” (Bradstreet “Upon the Burning…” 118). Jonathan Edwards, writes his religious poem as a symbol of being a Puritan, just like Bradstreet, both trying to be good Christians.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anne Bradstreet was considered to be one of the most influential and outstanding poets in our country’s history. She inspired large amounts of people during the time that she lived and today. Despite the times of discrimination, Bradstreet did not stop writing about her feelings and life as a Puritan. It was considered unladylike for a woman to write during early years. Her determination resulted in her being recognized as not only the first successful female poet, but also as the country’s first new world poet.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1790’s men were granted participatory citizenship in France, but women on the other hand were not. Women believed they should be regarded equally by themselves and by others. In 1792 in response to the French Revolutionary Assembly’s Declaration of the Rights of Men, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote an essay challenging this fact of nature. Wollstonecraft juxtaposes the goals of both genders, employs a hostile but compassionate tone, and asks rhetorical questions to convey her argument that women should be treated as equals.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Traveling with her wealthy father and husband in 1630, they sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the sole purpose of growing wealthier. As a woman living in colonial times, she felt many hardships. Enduring eight pregnancies and grieving over deaths of fond children, Anne Bradstreet still had time to write poetry. Most of what she wrote was around the life of a woman in the seventeenth century in the Mass Bay colony. Her first collection was entitled “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America”.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Next, in Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Upon the Burning of our House” exemplifies that the future will always be better than the past. She thanks God for saving her family in the fire and was calm and content with what she had while watching her house burn to ashes. Bradstreet is showing the values of the Puritan lifestyle through the way she thanks God for her family as her house is burning; the effect of Puritan writing is important to her view of faith in God. In the era of the African slave trade, Olaudah Equiano’s historical writing, “The Middle Passage” is an important factor for the idea of the American Dream and so are the rest of the slaves that are being sent to work in America. When Equiano first sees the ship that he will later be forced onto, he is speechless and sees hope for the future and his life in the New Land.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For centuries, women have been viewed as unequal to men, resulting in the further demotion of women and forcing them into abiding by stereotypical gender roles. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the Miss Bennets are a variety of girls that portray the tone and theme of the poem, “Women” by May Swenson. In Swenson’s poem, the tone, theme, and literary devices utilized in the work convey the expectation of women in the 1970s in America as well as coincide with role of women in 1800s England. May Swenson was born in the United States in 1913. She was a well known poet who was highly praised by other poets as well (poemhunter.com).…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bradstreet wrote this poem to her husband, expressing her love for him and saying that there is no man in the world whose wife loves him more: If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can” (lines 3 and 4). In line 3 and 4, Bradstreet expresses her arrogant and conceitedness about her relationship, when she asked that if there is a wife who is happier with their husband then her, then those women should try to compare. Bradstreet is calling out the women because it is every woman’s dream of finding a great man that they can love and call their husband. She also said that her love is so tough that even rivers cannot quench her love and no love but this love can ever satisfy her. No matter what, she can never pay him back for his love.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She criticizes her lack of fluent writing. This external view of the poem convey a socially coherent view. She also accentuates the simplicity that is preached in the New World by carrying such patterns in her poems. It can be seen that Bradstreet uses constant meter and rhyming couplets to convey her messages in her works. However, under careful inspection, it can be seen that Bradstreet questions such ideas.…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literary Analysis: A Double Standard The poem “A Double Standard” by Frances E. W. Harper was published in the year 1895 where inequality between men and women was in occurrence. This poem describes the concerns within this dilemma. Harper disagrees with the particular laws that represented normality within the community. She tends to feel that women are blamed for wanting diverse perspectives of living.…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Many people think that males in our society today are brought up to define who they are as a person through the idealized version of heroics, the glory of competition, and, above all else, the idea that only winners are successful. Females, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through assembly, collaboration, unselfishness, home life, and community. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout literature. However, though both men and women have been represented throughout literature there is a clear commentary thread on the roles of women in society.…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is difficult for some people to go against the beliefs of the majority, especially when a topic is considered too controversial to challenge. In Margaret Atwood’s “My Last Duchess”, this happens to be the case for her female protagonist when her class studies a poem by Robert Browning that is also titled “My Last Duchess”, in which a Duke had his Duchess killed for his own selfish reasons. Unexpectedly, the young girl’s interpretation of the Duke is vastly different from the rest of her class, thereby leading her to struggle with having a contentious opinion in addition to dealing with the realities of womanhood and teenage relationships. The purpose of Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”, in Margaret Atwood’s short story of the same…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Predominance and the Patriarchy: Feminist Criticism in Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen’s classic novel, although published in a time period where women were very repressed, contains contemporary feminist ideas. Each of Austen’s characters possess various quirks and flaws that show women are more than their stereotypes. Women can be strong and independent, but also kind and romantic. Jane Austen’s portrayal of women creates a commentary on the stereotypical views of women and the unjust patriarchal society that controls them.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays