The Reasons Of Jonathan Swift And Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Writing on women has been an ancient tradition but the early eighteenth century provided an outlet that furthered the writing to an extreme. Jonathan Swift and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu create the perfect argument for this situation. In this multiple analytical essay, I will analyze and discuss the early eighteenth century satire on women in Debating Women: Arguments in Verse and the arguments from two different perspectives—specifically the work of Jonathan Swift in The Lady’s Dressing Room and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s response in The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room—and how this lead to Lady Montagu’s need to publicize her opinion to Swift. Debating Women: Arguments in Verse, simply stated the fact that men will continue to write about things that are unknown to them. The eighteenth century was the age of satirists, an outlet for men to use their writing in order to critique women of matters that they were not able to change. Two of the biggest writers of the time to satirize women were Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Swift, a clergyman, contradicted his lifestyle and his misogynistic view became a part of his literature. He believed that women associated with a romanticized …show more content…
In Montagu’s poem, although the Reverend is at fault with matters of his body he continuosly blames Betty, the prostitute, of the problem. With her occupation, she does not care about the sexual performances of her character, rather she is angry that she was cheated of her four pounds (line 82). This explicit poem makes the point of Swift’s poem seem so minuscule. The closing of Montagu’s poem creates the point that either her feces is better than his writing or that she will use his writing to wipe her butt. In simpler terms, his writing is