Compare and Contrast the Lives and Writing of Anne Bradstreet

Introduction

Despite her feminist views, Bradstreet ratified the strict teachings of religion from the Puritans. Even so, as seen in her poetry, she seemed to love her husband more than God and considered her relationship with her husband to be of greater importance, leading the reader to question not only her feminism but also her religious ethics. The Puritan religion she faithfully followed was very male-dominant. Perhaps this is the reason why Bradstreet never had a strong voice. If she were to have voiced her opinions loudly and strongly, she would have suffered dire consequences, making her god-fearing.

Feminism in a Patriarchal Society

For example, Anne Bradstreet believed that everything that happened in her life was the will of God. Throughout her life, she went through much turmoil, including being ill most of her life and having her house burn down. She wrote the poem, Upon the Burning of Our House, in which she finds comfort in believing that it was God’s will that her house burned down. “And to my God my heart did cry/ To strengthen me in my distress/…Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas just./ It was His own, it was not mine” (269-270). Living in a harsh, Puritan society most likely daunted Bradstreet. Asserting her opinions, thoughts, and beliefs, she would have put her life in jeopardy. Yet by not saying anything, she would force herself to go on living in a patriarchy. So instead, she carefully weaved her early feminist thought into her poems and stories so that they were not too obvious.

Continuing her self-ridicule with an apologetic tone, she talks highly of the 'Great Bartas.' She admired his works and sarcastically admitted she would never be as talented as he is. Bradstreet accepts the fact that her writing is simple in stanza 3, “And this to mend, alas, no art is able, ‘Cause nature made it so irreparable.” (208). It is Because Bradstreet is a woman in a male-dominated society that she feels like she will never amount to anything. No matter how good her writings are, she will be dismissed as a dull woman. In stanza 4, Bradstreet continues to send a discouraging message to the role of women’s role in society. “A weak or wounded brain admits to no cure.” (208). After reading this line of the poem, it was clear that women are viewed as having “wounded” and “weakened” minds that are unable to fit the situation. They are not able to carry out anything else besides their main duties. Women are supposed to keep their place and not step out of their boundaries. They are not able to have a voice and keep their thoughts in their own mind. This tells women that their best work and only work will be in the house.

Religious Beliefs and Expression

As a girl living in highly patriarchal participation, Anne Bradstreet uses the technique of reverse psychology to set up the point of her belief in the oblique and uneven usage of ladies in her community. Women who wrote stepped without their property rank, and those who actively published their work repeatedly faced social censure. Compounding this social pressure, many ladies were drunk, crushing workloads and agony with want of vacant for writing. Some suffered from unequal access to education, while others were dealing with the sensibility of intellectual inferiority offered to them from virtually every definitive judgment, that voice generally being an ox. Bradstreet was leavened in an efficacious patronymic and suffered a wide instruction with accessibility to private tutors and the Earl of Lincoln's large library. She was part of a family who encouraged her writing and circulated it in manuscript with glory. That generous private second did much to ornament the contingency of public disapproval. Bradstreet believed that females in her connection were treated unfairly and that breed should be unimportant.

Not with standing all the pressures and persecution women of this age endured, Bradstreet displays a feminine consciousness in 'The Prologue.' In the fifth and sixth stanzas, Bradstreet writes, “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits,/ A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,/ For such despite they cast of female wits:/ If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,/ They’ll say it’s stolen, or else it was by chance” (239). In this passage, Bradstreet acknowledges that even if her writing skills are extraordinary because she is a woman, no one will accept it or believe it. At this point in time, Bradstreet cried out for recognition; however, it was subtle, “Men have precedency and still excel, / It is but vain unjustly to wage war;/men can do best, and women know it well/ Preeminence in all and each is yours;/ Yet grant some small acknowledgment of ours” (240). Bradstreet records her observance of men in their natural state, portraying them as war hungry, vain, and powerful. By voicing her thoughts, opinions, and beliefs, she would have put herself in danger, yet by not saying anything; she would force herself to continue living in patriarchy, a society of government where men hold power and women are largely excluded from it.

Conclusion

Bradstreet’s preaching on feminism was limited by her Puritan values. Conflict is formed as the cause of her writing between the society of the Puritan patriarchy she lived in and her identity as a female. Feminism is still a prominent topic of discussion since women continue to fight for their right to gender equality. Women had very few rights and were viewed as inferior to men; Anne lived among the Puritans, who governed her standard of living. Although it was against the Puritan code for women to receive an education, Bradstreet was a well-educated writer, which shows in her works. Anne Bradstreet’s literature became well known only because her works were published under a male identity since writing poetry was a serious offense to the Puritans as they considered poetry creative, and the only creation that was to be done was by God.

References

1. "Anne Bradstreet: A Guided Tour of the Life and Thought of a Puritan Poet" 

2. "The Works of Anne Bradstreet" edited by Jeannine Hensley 

3. "Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet" by Charlotte Gordon

4. "The Authorial Elizabeth: Anne Bradstreet, the Psalms, and the Question of 'Literary Authority'" by Carol Ann Johnston

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