10/19/2017
American literature
How Anne Bradstreet confronts puritan view of gender
Anna Bradstreet grow up in a health family. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley who is the manager of country estate of the puritan Earl of Lincoln. Anna Bradstreet got married at the age of 16 to the young Simon Bradstreet who was working with Anna father. Anna Bradstreet never went to school but her father always taught her and gave her an education. It that time many woman didn’t have an education. Anna consider one of the best and most important American poets. When Bradstreet was a little girl, she write poems to honor and please her father. After she got married, she kept writing and it marriage didn’t stop her. Her brother in law, …show more content…
It describes the unconditional love that Anne had for her husband. The puritans valued marriage and by writing this poem, Bradstreet is seen as having a similar view. She begins by showing the bond that existed between them and describes themselves as one. Bradstreet writes, “If ever two were one, then surely we; / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee” (1-2). This symbolism shows their togetherness because one is used to show when things are added up together. She describes herself as the happiest wife ever in a loving tone and then sarcastically challenges his husband to compare her with any other woman if possible. In the fifth line, Bradstreet writes, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, / or all the riches that the East doth hold” (5-6). She metaphorically compares her love to mines of gold or all the riches that are in the east. She is very affectionate when she says that rivers cannot quench her thirst. As the poem continues, Bradstreet indicates that being righteous in love meant getting rewarded in heaven. Just like the Puritans viewed marriage as Godly, Anne showed that having a good marriage promised salvation. To her, being blessed with love meant personal salvation. In her last line in the poem, she says that the love that exists in their marriage will still continue even after death. She had a guarantee that she and her husband were blessed and …show more content…
The women in puritan society had a number of different roles. But men were only the one could be elected as community leaders and ministers. Women took on roles such as acting, tending to their vegetable gardens. For wives, they were responsible for taking care for their husbands; and for mothers, they were teaching and guiding for producing the next generation of Puritan children. Woman were also not allowed to vote in general court. They were also not allowed to sell or buy land. They couldn’t even sue in a court. Woman couldn’t sue for divorce. The puritans believed that woman are a secondary subject to their husband. Even at Churches, woman could not speak and had to be silent until the service is over. One good thing woman can do at the Church at that time, woman were able to read scripture because puritan believed everyone and anyone should be able to read the Holy book, the Bible. It is clear that woman didn’t have the same rights as