Jonathon Swift Misogyny

In a patriarchal society, women are expected to conform to social restrictions by demonstrating reverence and obedience to the males in their lives. Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, explores the effects of patriarchal authority exerted over women and how the patriarchal structure left no escape from it, save death. Through Juliet, Lady Capulet, and the Nurse, Shakespeare establishes a common understanding of this type of society, but illuminates three different reactions to the social oppression by portraying the responses of a passionate lover, an idyllic housewife, and an attendant.

On the second voyage, Swift turns the tables on Gulliver and places him among a race of giant people, the Brobdingnagians, where Gulliver is viewed as the inferior.  Due to his miniature size, Gulliver is able to examine the human body in a much more detailed manner.  Upon witnessing the undressing of the Maids of Honor, Gulliver expresses his aversion to their naked bodies.  They were, "very far from being a tempting sight", and gave him, "any other emotions than those of horror and disgust", because of the acuteness to which he was able to observe their, "course and uneven [skin], so variously colored" (Norton,2104). Gulliver also talks of their moles, "here and there as broad as a trencher, and hairs hanging from (them) thicker than pack-threads" (Norton,2104).  Earlier in the novel, upon witnessing the suckling of a baby, Gulliver tells the reader that upon seeing the woman's breast he, "[reflected] upon the fair skins of [his] English ladies, who appear so beautiful... only because they are of [his] own size" (Norton,2088).  In showing Gulliver's disgust at the sight of such prestigious and beautiful women of Brobdingnag, Swift again comments on English society through a graphic portrayal of the human body.  Swift uses the Maids of Honor as a  metaphor to comment on the women of England, whom, among eighteenth century English society, were believed to be the most beautiful of all the world. Showing that despite

Reading through any one of the hundreds of ‘chapters’ that Fern has written, it’s easy to see that if English was her first language, sarcasm was her second. She wrote bravely and unashamedly, mocking her society’s unjust view on women. In her column, “Children’s Rights,” she boldly proclaims, “Men’s rights! Women’s rights! I

The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,

When we are growing up, we are taught that members of the opposite gender have “cooties” and that we’ll catch those cooties if we get to close to them. Sometimes, as we grow older, those cooties the other gender possesses remain prevalent; they may just take on different forms. In the poems “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden and “Men” by Maya Angelou, the two different speakers could agree that at least some members of the opposite gender are bad people. The speakers use the definite theme of the struggle between genders, strategic literary devices, and deeper meanings to convey their message.

Jonathan Swift’s comic writing becomes a reality for the reason that it is relative to Tadeusz Borowski’s experience of imprisonment under Nazi command. Situated in an incarcerated camp, Borowski expresses the horror and inhumanity that the Germans practice on the Jews. A familiar example used in comparison to Swift’s satire concerns Nazi tyranny, and its demand to limit the population of thousands of Jews by sending them into gas chambers. Another ridicule Swift introduces considers the extreme poverty the Irish people faced, causing them to feel the great responsibility of supporting and feeding their own children. Mockery is illustrated when Swift states that the Irish parenthoods should market their children as food in order to generate money for a better living. Swift’s expression comes into existence as Borowski articulates this central idea in his collection, “Ladies and Gentleman”, by clarifying the mistreatment of individuals when morals and values are given up in order to survive. For instance, Tadeusz provides an example of a Jewish woman who refuses to claim her child, sending him off to the gas chamber in exchange for her

For centuries, society has taught its men and women to behave in a clear way and to expect certain things from each other. Due to this, women have been placed second, below men, the submissive gender. Women have been taught to aspire to marriage, to not be too smart, to live their life according to society who tells them how to please a man. In fact, when women saw this degradation of themselves they decided to create a movement known as feminism, the social, economic and political equality of the sexes. Due to this standard of society passed through generations, an average reader would interpret Joan Murray’s “Play-by-Play” to be a poem about older women lustfully longing after younger men and fulfilling their purpose. However, if one were to delve deeper into Murray’s poem, it could be argued that she is taking a satirical approach to the way men objectify women. Marilyn French once said, “The same men who are blind and deaf to feminism are acutely sensitive to what threatens their dominance and privilege.” In looking at the symbols, diction, and tone in Murray’s poem, one can plainly see her disdain towards the societal standard and objectification of women.

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

The speakers in “The Ruined Maid” are two women in the working class. The first is a simple country worker that has run into a lavishly changed version of her former farm working friend. The extravagantly dressed woman, ‘Melia, is quite different than our simple country woman remembers. Throughout the poem the manual laborer repeatedly exclaims at the difference in her appearance, dress, speech and actions. In reply to each of the country woman’s remarks ‘Melia tells her that is the result when one is “ruined” (4).

The treatment of women in today’s culture has a lot of problems. Even though in the last century women have been treated better there are still problems. Women are and have always been sexualized in everything they do. Most of the time women are judged on their appearance alone. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a piece of literature that comes across as misogynistic. There are many times in the book when women are judged primarily on their looks and come across as unable to control themselves. However, Swift is using this kind of writing style to actually convey a point to society. By making these issues larger in the book and by reversing gender roles, it is easier to see all the problems that our society has with the treatment of women. Jonathan Swift is not misogynistic and is trying to prove a point so the treatment of women is improved in our society. The scene of the

     The weakness of women is found in various forms throughout the text. Henry refers to women as “a decorative sex” and that “they never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.” (Wilde 43) Nowhere is this better supported than during Lady Henry’s

Ever the keen social observer, Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) often expressed his reservations about the competences of the female mind through satire or by employing alternate literary voices. However, his ridicule of the female condition does not entail that he was simply a crass misogynist. In reality, the satirist scorned humanity in general: both men and women were unable to escape his seething misanthropy. Swift’s moral satire includes three notorious poems: “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” (1730) “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed,” (1731) and “Strephon and Chloe” (1731). Human beings tend to delude themselves and see order and beauty where none exists, yet in these poems both the male subject and the reader become disillusioned over the discovery of female humanity. Therefore, Swift seems to imply that life based on delusion usually ends in bitter disappointment, and thus attempts to free us from our prejudices and the futile denial of our basic nature. Furthermore, the author finds in Esther Johnson, or “Stella,” the perfect example of the redemption he aims to imbue in the rest of humanity. Thus, through his poems concerning women, especially Stella, Jonathan Swift reinforces his belief that all humans – even women – are capable of bettering themselves.

The play, Vinegar Tom, portrays a feminist shift during the 1600s because of economic, social, and political factors but really boils down to gender and power. As one would expect, most women in the 1690’s did not have many rights and sadly, when women went against what their families or specifically men wanted, forget equality of the sexes, they were actually accused of being insane or in this case, witches. A device Caryl Churchill, the playwright, incorporated into Vinegar Tom was the use of feminist singers from the 1970’s to watch the play on stage which cleverly allows a contemporary response to the subject matter. Churchill did this in order to show the emotional reaction of the second-generation feminist watching the first wave of

Entertainment and education through the oppression of women finds a common place in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. In both stories the audience is introduced to the idea of female independence and strength through a confident and skilled female character who envelops the knowledge required to subvert the standards of patriarchal and misogynistic society. While both women in the The Wife of Bath Prologue and The Duchess of Malfi are varied characters who (think they) exude authority and seem to be able to live outside the limitations of a patriarchal society, at a closer look it is obvious this is not the case. Chaucer and Webster have both developed a story that parallel the stereotypes of the misogynist political and social structure of the time. Furthermore, they have blended comedy and entertainment to create stories that are didactic in nature they reaffirm the stereotype of unruly widows and ultimately show that no good will come to women who attempt to live outside the structural confines of the patriarchal and misogynist structures of society.

In Isabella Whitney’s “I.W. To Her Unconstant Lover,” she adopted a female persona that attempted to rework the notion of constancy, or faithfulness, in failed male-female relationships of the Elizabethan era. Where women are often accused of being unfaithful, the speaker of the epistle “writes” to her unfaithful male lover and holds him accountable for their failed relationship. By analyzing Whitney’s “I.W. To Her Unconstant Lover,” this paper will argue that Whitney’s persona, I.W., challenges the misogynistic conception of female faithfulness because she uses rhetorical devices — like metaphors and allusions — to shift the blame onto dishonest male lovers, whose actions have a negative impact on the constancy of virtuous women. The speaker’s use of metaphors and Greek allusions fundamentally allows her to rework the idea of female inconstancy, which, in turn, absolves her of fault for being abandoned by her ex-lover and presents her as an intelligent and virtuous woman to her English audience.