A Certain Lady – Argumentative Essay
When Dorothy Parker paints her lips red (3) during her poem A Certain Lady, she 's doing it because society expects her to - but this essay will argue that she 's also doing so out of paid obligation. At first glance, 'what goes on while (you 're) away / you 'll never know ' seems like unrequited love between friends, specifically the feelings that she has for him, but this is not the case. Certain lines in the poem discuss themes of emotional detachment, obligation and promiscuity – typical of what readers would expect of someone who lives a life of sexual debauchery. Analyzing this poem with these themes in mind, the poems ' main speaker can be easily understood as a woman who sleeps with men for money. Below are some of the lines within Parker 's poem that lead us to this fact, and how they can be read as the practices and feelings of a prostitute, as well as some counter arguments of why this may or may not be the case. Parker begins her poem with this idea of playing a role. She 'tilts her head and smiles ' for him and listens to him with eager lips (1-3). This statement can be read with sarcasm, which would make the speaker seem like she 's unamused …show more content…
This line is the most crucial to the theme of prostitution because of the way she uses 'rapturous ' in the above sentence. Rapturous is defined as “a state or feeling of great happiness, pleasure, or love” (Mirriam-Webster) and because the speaker has already stated that she has 'tutored fingertips ', the assumption is that she 's talking the state of her own arousal, which might also be confirmed when she talks about 'painting (her) lips red ' earlier – this could be an innuendo for her genitalia as well. These two lines make it clear that she wants him to shut up about his problems so she can be sexually intimate with him and move onto her next
When Dorothy Parker paints her lips red (3) during her poem A Certain Lady, she 's doing it because society expects her to - but this essay will argue that she 's also doing so out of paid obligation. At first glance, 'what goes on while (you 're) away / you 'll never know ' seems like unrequited love between friends, specifically the feelings that she has for him, but this is not the case. Certain lines in the poem discuss themes of emotional detachment, obligation and promiscuity – typical of what readers would expect of someone who lives a life of sexual debauchery. Analyzing this poem with these themes in mind, the poems ' main speaker can be easily understood as a woman who sleeps with men for money. Below are some of the lines within Parker 's poem that lead us to this fact, and how they can be read as the practices and feelings of a prostitute, as well as some counter arguments of why this may or may not be the case. Parker begins her poem with this idea of playing a role. She 'tilts her head and smiles ' for him and listens to him with eager lips (1-3). This statement can be read with sarcasm, which would make the speaker seem like she 's unamused …show more content…
This line is the most crucial to the theme of prostitution because of the way she uses 'rapturous ' in the above sentence. Rapturous is defined as “a state or feeling of great happiness, pleasure, or love” (Mirriam-Webster) and because the speaker has already stated that she has 'tutored fingertips ', the assumption is that she 's talking the state of her own arousal, which might also be confirmed when she talks about 'painting (her) lips red ' earlier – this could be an innuendo for her genitalia as well. These two lines make it clear that she wants him to shut up about his problems so she can be sexually intimate with him and move onto her next