Women In The Thresher's Labour

In examining both Mary Collier’s The Woman’s Labour and Stephen Duck’s The Thresher’s Labour, it is important to consider their relationship to one another in order to thoroughly understand the issues raised in both works. Although the two works can be treated individually, Collier’s response to Duck enables us to examine the underlying message that motivates her to write a response poem that displays her rage. The issue of the competing representation of rural labor is sparked by Duck’s sexist tones towards the labor of women and how their work was inferior to a man’s. In response, Collier promotes the world of the working-class female in the eighteenth century and argues that the value of their work is equal to that of the labor represented in Duck’s piece. Both Duck and Collier represent a different individual experience in order to speak to an audience …show more content…
Duck’s The Thresher’s Labour tweaks and modifies the georgic tradition in order to illustrate an image of labor that challenges pastoral conventions. By doing so, Duck portrays the reality of a labourer in relationship to his socioeconomic ranking in society while capturing the the routine and tremendous workload that is endured. In order to make the reader understand the typical pastoral conventions, Duck constantly refers to nature and how it has a direct relationship to the workflow. As the work day begins, “The Birds salute us as Work we go” (Duck, 106) but the labor is interrupted by “[the] descent of impetuous Rain” (Duck, 189). The nature theme throughout the poem represents the labourers’ repetitive daily routines as Duck’s speaker turns to “view the Sun” (Duck, 146) as the labourers’ resume their work once the “Sun has drank the Dew” (Duck, 160). The conventional routine and fatigue of