Summary Of To My Dear And Loving Husband By Anne Bradstreet

Puritans and reformers of seventeenth century England have been given a bad name for their part in history. This is primarily because they were working against the grain and trying to create change in world that saw change as a threat. The time period was turbulent and there was bound to be resistance in a world that was dominated by Catholics and those that had reformed to abide by their King’s law. The puritans of the time were considered extreme and rubbed people the wrong way because they wanted a world that abided by their morals and ethical codes. For this, they took the blame for the misery that many suffered during this age, but as we see in Fire from Heaven, this is not a fair assessment. The Puritans of this time wanted to improve the lives of the people and society as a whole through morality and purity.

Anne Bradstreet was a woman in conflict. She was a Puritan wife and a poet. There is a conflict between Puritan theology and her own personal feelings on life. Many of her poems reveal her eternal conflict regarding her emotions and the beliefs of her religion. The two often stood in direct opposition to each other. Her Puritan faith demanded that she seek salvation and the promises of Heaven. However, Bradstreet felt more strongly about her life on Earth. She was very. She was very attached to her family and community. Bradstreet loved her life and the Earth.

Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.

I'm really surprised to learn that this was not common back for puritan women back then.

In the Puritan society, there was no set way to view marriage. In the book The Puritans: a View of Marriage and Divorce in Seventeenth-Century England, it stated that:

The Puritans were a religious group who left the Church of England because they wanted to have more freedom with their religion. They thought the Church of England was “too Catholic”. They believed the Bible and its rules were the number one thing to go by and that all humans were evil and had to overcome their sin. Women had to cover their whole bodies in clothing. They couldn’t show their ankles or wrists. They also had to wear their hair up and out of their face at all times, except if they were in a room alone with only their husband. They always were on one side of the church away from the men or in the back on the church. These women in the society that will be talked about have broken laws and have been misjudged.

The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.

I defend the statement “Puritanism is a repressive and intolerant moral and religious code,” because the entirety of Puritan belief was based on the devolution of women and women’s rights, being more biased towards male power. Puritans believe in a dominant sex, and majorly favor male supremacy over women, and focus their entire economy on religion. This quote by Milton shows how intolerant and repressive they were to females back in the 1800’s… “God's universal law gave to man despotic power, Over his female in due awe (Milton).” They repressed women and their individualness so much that women had come to believe that this role was meant for them, to be born into a life much like slavery and forced to follow the rules made by the ignorant

Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.

poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.

not. Female authors at the time were looked down on, so in theory she had to pretend ignorance

However, this does not mean that married couples were not supposed to care for each other. Their love, unlike most modern relationships, usually developed because of the marriage instead of the love causing the marriage (54). While affection before a couple’s union could be beneficial, it was not considered necessary as the couple would learn to love each other as time went on. The amount of affection given to a spouse had to be kept in check as it was considered wrong to show both too much and too little. When someone appeared to care too much for their partner, Puritans assumed that they had placed that person above God (48).

In their society the Puritans based their lives, beliefs, and communities on what they deemed as God's law and true word, the bible (Barger). Reading the bible was expected for the members of society, this included women and children, which was often unheard of (Foner 66) at that time. With their lives being restricted to the word of the bible this left very little leeway for anything other than what was deemed acceptable, and this rigid way of life was another straw that led to the eventual troubles and fervor that took over.

This is the standard level of devotion expected in Puritan couples and if it is not met, surrounding people figure that something must not be right, and they investigate, often uncovering sin. Although adultery is preached against in the Ten Commandments, Puritans are still often discovered committing this sin.

The Puritan ideology was very important facet of 17th century life, many women served as good wives. Women were often married, and, like everyone else they would be second in charge if anything happened to the husband. By law, marriage of the husband and wife are just only one person. That is, the presence of a woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is joined and build up into that of the husband under the men’s wing, protection, and