Anne Hutchinson A Goodwife Analysis

The colonies had begun being established by men for nearly a century, however, families including women and children settled in the New England colonies as units during the early to mid-1600’s. While colonists left their old land behind, many of the same traditional expectations stayed with them. The most prominent of those notions being how a woman should act, particularly in regards to the public sphere. A goodwife was the title given to married women that had a whole slew of baggage attached to it. A “goody” (a shortened title for goodwife) was expected to be submissive and obedient to her husband and authorities, diligent in her religion and housework, stoic, and a role model of a mother. Unsurprisingly, many women could not and did not want to live up to the title of a goodwife, including Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Given the characteristics of the image of a goodwife, Anne Hutchinson does not remotely resemble that image. …show more content…
The Massachusetts Bay Colony, dubbed a “City upon a hill” by Gov. John Winthrop, was expected to be filled with perfect people abiding by the gender standards set out by society holding onto relentless religious values and an impeccable moral compass. In short, Puritans has a very strict sense of what was and was not proper for a woman to do.
Hutchinson held weekly meetings in her home discussing sermons by Rev. John Cotton and Rev. John Wheelwright, whom she believed were the only two ministers properly preaching the word of God according to the Puritan religion. She claimed God revealed this directly to her. Puritans believed only the devil revealed himself to humans, never