tmoore227F09
tmoore
Marriage and equality for women has come a long way in America. We see the first American marriages from the Indians, a non-Christian marriage. This emphasized the religion in the Puritan marriage when, at the time women writers that published their work was rare and limited. We slowly see a shift of the acceptance for women to write and publish their work along with religion not being the center of all writings from women. Over time, through different kinds of marriage, we see women slowly working towards equality. I looked at marriages that focus on topics like religion, support, independence, and equality. It is in their writing about marriage we see equality for women becoming more common in the how they write and what happens with their writing.
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In her captivity narrative, Mary Rowlandson, introduces a new type of marriage to the American public, and Indian marriage. Her own marriage was a common, Puritan marriage that focused on religion. Since it is extremely unfavorable for women to write about their own captivity, the story is religious based. We only get a biased glimpse of what an Indian marriage was like. She tells about how a man will have many squaws and he will live with them at different times. She describes the women as being proud and forceful; another characteristic that was not looked highly upon if you wanted to get married in Rowlandson’s world. She tells about a dance a man and woman would do, and all the paint and jewelry they would wear. Some of these characteristics of an Indian marriage were not far off from how some marriages were for the early Americans. But, because the Indians were not Christians, most everything they did was a sin or wrong. Because Rowlandson's needed to be religious based, we do not get much insight of an Indian marriage or her own. |
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Anne Bradstreet was a well known poet, but not her for private work like her poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” She did not publish the poem because it was unacceptable for Puritan woman to show these affections. Marriage was not always based on love but sometimes on social and class status. Her husband was supportive of her talents and I believe that is one of the reasons they shared this kind of love. Bradstreet includes religion in the text, something that was still necessary for women writers to speak about. Whether she intended to or not Bradstreet has underlining ideas of women’s rights in this poem. She writes that, “If ever two were one, they surely we.” This indicates that men and women are equal, something future women writers would argue for.
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Frances Sargent Locke Osgood wrote many poems, one called Alone. Women writers were becoming more common, so she was able to publish this Poem, but it still focused on religion. In her marriage, her husband was away for long periods of time. In the poem, she tells about the loneliness she felt when he would be gone. She turns to God, showing that his love is everlasting. She focuses on not looking back on previous human love but to look forward to heavenly love. God’s love is more than her husband or anyone else could give her. Osgood shows the religious side and that women should deal with marriages through faith. She is not dependent on her husband but becomes dependent on God. |
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