'The Maiden's Mistake': Poem Analysis

Ever since marriage was practiced the traits of a good husband or wife have often been disputed with different time periods and cultures having unique views on what good traits are. Julia Howe’ poem “Mind versus Mill-Stream” and Frances Osgood’s poem “The Maiden’s Mistake” each present their view on the positive traits for a nineteenth century husband or wife. “Mind versus Mill-Stream” takes a critical look at the traits of a “good” wife through the narration of a Miller trying to put a mill in a stream. The stream, that is represented by a nymph, breaks the mill and destroys the dam that the Miller builds because it is too wild to be controlled. In “The Maiden’s Mistake” we are put in the perspective of a woman that is lied to by a suitor …show more content…
The first person perspective of the poem allows for the reader to see the thoughts of a women in the nineteenth century. It puts the focus on the thoughts and feelings of the narrator and what she truly holds to be important about her lover. She states early on that her suitor’s “eyebrows were false--that his hair Was assumed, I was fully aware… his moustache of a barber was bought. And that Cartwright provided his teeth” (2980). Here, the maiden admits that her suitor is fake and most of his look was paid for. But still this does not seem to bother the maiden because she makes no statement of mistrust and just admits that she knew. That is poignant with the line “I was fully aware” because it demonstrates that she has known the about the lies for a while. However, the maiden did think that her suitor was a loving man and that is revealed in the line “but I thought that his heart was, at least, true and fair!” (2980). While the maiden knew all of her suitor’s looks were fake she thought he actually was caring and liked her, but she was wrong and actually cares about his heart being a lie. We know that because heart is in italics illustrating that the narrator is emphasizing the importance of having the heart and the exclamation point shows that the narrator is truly surprised and cares that her suitor does not have a caring heart. But this is still not the worst offence to the narrator because what really matters is that her suitor “is not a Count, after all, That’s a not-to-be pardoned offence!” (2981). Here we see the same emphasize on count and another exclamation point and since the narrator is saying it shows that she cares about her suitor’s lie. However, this is the first offence that she cannot forgive. Demonstrating that the only trait she really cares about is status and money because every other lie and flaw she can ignore or