Self Representation In 18th Century Womens Poetry

In this essay I will be looking at how women represented themselves in 18th Century British poetry. I will be focusing on the poetry of three 18th Century women writers Lady Mary Chudleigh (1656-1710), Anne Finch (1661-1720) and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762).

Poetry accounts for a large proportion of women's writing during the 18th Century and offered a rare outlet for self-expression and an opportunity to examine 'complex and troubling matters' (Turner 18). The themes that run through women's poetry in this period concern marriage, in which women consider their role as a wife and question the fulfilment it brings; women's unequal rights to an education; depression - a source of much frustration at a time when Reason ruled and anything unfathomable or illogical was swept aside; and the notion of beauty as an important tool of power for a woman.

Social pressures affected women's writing since 'wit belonged to the masculine province' (Turner 18) as Anne Finch observed in The Introduction (1689):

'Alas! A woman that attempts the pen,

Such an intruder on the rights of men' (Lines 9-10).

As a result of this, women suffered from a fear of 'violating femi

Turning now to Anne Finch, her attitude towards marriage is more positive than either Chudleigh or Montagu. In A Letter to Dafnis: April 2nd 1685, Finch celebrates marriage and the joy and comfort she found in it. She describes her husband as 'The much lov'd husband, of a happy wife' (Line 2) and believes that other women 'err, who say that husbands can't be lovers' (Line 6). Her husband actively supported her writing both emotionally and practically by compiling and correcting her manuscripts.

Looking firstly at the theme of marriage, both Lady Mary Chudleigh and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu have used poetry to express anger at the institution of marriage. Writing at a time when a man had absolute unquestioned authority over the most important features in life - education, career, marriage and property; the wife's role was expected to be that of a loyal, and preferably silent, supporter. Relations between husband and wife were expressed in terms of duty and obedience and not consultation and consent. "The will of the wife is subject to the will of the husband" stated Lord Chief Baron Hall in 1663, as were the wife's land and goods (Ezell Patriarch 2). Women depended on their husbands as sources of financial support and identity and so it was difficult for them to publish without their husband's permission. Therefore, the earliest women poets tended to be from aristocratic backgrounds and thus financially independent.

To anything above a Chamber Maid' (Lines 570-2)

To be the comforts of our nobler kind' (Lines 291-2)

Through the Parson, Chudleigh addresses the 18th Century belief that women were made by God for men:

Some topics in this essay:
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