The Lady 's Dressing Room By Jonathan Swift

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.

Despite the achievements of women in many different fields, society still attempts to limit women to certain roles. Furthermore, in the poem, women “… are defined […] by what [they] never will be,” (lines 19 - 21); once again, the author claims that women are defined by what they are unable to do because of gender bias. Instead of being given the chance to be influential, they are continually limited to staying at home or doing jobs “meant for women.” Finally, Boland tells the tutor that women “…were never on the scene of crime,” (lines 27 - 28). This serves as a metaphor for how women are never allowed to do important jobs; instead, they are left at the sidelines due to the repeatedly ignored restrictions placed on women by our gender-biased society.

Ever since the days of World War I, women have been seen as second rate to men. They had to live up to many social standards that men didn’t have to and had strict guidelines on how to live their lives. This all changed when modernism deliberately tried to break away from Victorian Era standards in which women were subjugated to a lot more scrutiny. Ezra Pound, who was a large figure in the modernist movement, captured the spirit of the era in his famous line “Make it new!” Consequently, many writers started to experiment with many different and wild writing styles, which led to the short stories and poems we have today. The stories The Wife of His Youth and Mrs. Spring Fragrance were all written in this era of modernism. While they are written in a more traditional style of writing, both these stories have strong implications on feminism from the viewpoints of both male and female writers.

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,

I found The Lady’s Dressing Room by Jonathan Swift very interesting to read and learn about. In my opinion this long poem has a twisted meaning of women. From my first understanding of the story, I thought this was a man looking in on a woman’s routine. I believe the speaker wants to know the truth that lies within the beauty of women, what is underneath the pretty standards they only show the public. The speaker being Stephon, watching and trying to understand Celia. He is on a quest to expose the imperfections of women to other men. Throughout this textual analyst most perspectives will be coming from Stephon views because he is the one and only snooping throughout a woman’s personal space. Stephon quickly finds out that what goes on in a lady’s dressing room is for women to know and see. A dressing room for a lady is like a sanctuary get away. It is the only space where a woman can be alone, show all her flaws, and not be worried about getting judged by outsiders. Before Stephon sees the inside of the dressing room he defines women as “goddess”. Now after he seen the truth of women he can hardly bare to look at them when he walks past a lady on the street. While reading this poem I learned that women can be gross and dirty but go to the extreme to cover their flaws. During this analysis I will uncover the weird and twisted context of The Lady’s Dressing Room.

Throughout literature women are often displayed as idealized characters. Women in the eyes of society are plagued with the stereotype of being kind, nurturing, and tender individuals while men are established as ambitious, assertive, and tough. However, when the time comes for women to possess the qualities of men and men of women, a turnaround of events can occur. Women were the individuals that then shape the males into their ending personna. Shakespeare's Macbeth, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrated the reversal of gender roles through portraying women as the instigator of the male character’s ultimate demise.

Writer, Truman Capote in the story, "Nacy's Bedroom" from the book "In Cold Blood" describes a young innocent girl's bedroom. Capote's purpose is to give insight on Nancy and gives reason to why her killing was unjust. He adopts a sentimental tone by using imagery, details, and varied sentence structure in order to appeal to the readers sensitive side. Capote starts his silent argument by addressing that Nancy's bedroom was the most personal. He appeals to the emotions of the reader by helping the them picture he room and the colors it was made from.

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.

Satire is a literary work that uses irony, humor, or exaggeration to expose and/or criticize a vice. Satire has the capability to take serious matters and ease tension on the entire situation. It has a way of making things easier and lighter even though it brings out hardcore facts. The satirist makes an argument that relies upon the intellect of the audience to pick up on the hidden meaning; and due to its critical and judging nature, satire is sometimes deemed as excessive. However, in Last Week Tonight Show John Oliver (Wage Gap), The Lady’s Dressing Room by Jonathan Swift, and Gary McCoy’s political cartoon, opposing views are brought up with the use of Satire. The “Gender Wage Gap” sketch By John Oliver exposes the inequalities of women

Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Ruined Maid” introduces its reader to the harsh reality of lower class Victorian Women. Critical scrutiny through a feminist lens helps widen the scope of understanding to reveal beyond the satirical irony of the writing and bring to light the deep rooted social issue of Victorian England’s paralyzing poverty and its effects on women. In Critical Theory Today feminist criticism is explained as, "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). “The Ruined Maid” clearly challenges

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

Subservient, ignorant, passive, timid: these are the qualities that described the ideal 17th century woman in the eyes of Europeans. In the play Macbeth, author William Shakespeare explores the roles of these women through his female characters, challenging preconceived notions and setting up his personal perspective on what a woman's niche in society truly is. Through his contrasting female characters of the gentlewoman and Lady Macduff versus the witches and Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare depicts the reality of how women actually function is society.

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 prominence of Jonathon Swift and his work is undeniable in the Eighteenth Century. Swift’s emergence into the literary world was spurned on by writing about politics and religion with his strong opinions and wit. Other famous works by Swift include A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books based on the corruptions in religion and learning at the time. Swift’s works in literature were often written to further a cause or reaction. The idea of the antagonising satirist is reiterated in a conversation between Pope and Swift, with Swift stating “The chief end I propose in all my labours is to vex the world rather than divert it’. Swift aims to educate readers on what is actually going on at the forefront of culture at the time through his works, with the embodiment of human downfall and vice being satirised through the characters of Gulliver’s Travels.

People often use humor to mask serious topics, this can be seen in many works of satire such as The Female Tatler. Through the style and tone used by Rosella in passage fifty-five, the reader is able to see how women are treated in this time and the ways the author appeals to the reader to help them fix the problems in society. By using an informal style for passage fifty-five it can be seen that the book as a whole is written to educate all levels of society and is therefore, optimistic. In passage one, the author who goes by “Female Tatler”, says that the purpose of the passages is “not to reflect upon any person whatsoever, but gently to correct the vices and vanities which some...wilfully commit” (Tatler 2). The tone of The Female Tatler is created through style and diction to show the reader the importance of issues at this time in a lighthearted and urgent way. Rosella, uses this urgent yet lighthearted tone to express the problem of men’s control over woman and woman’s obligation to take their power back.