Rachel Speght was a writer near the beginning of the seventeenth century. This excerpt from A Dream holds some very powerful emotion about the role that women played as parts of society. The images in this poem continue to be relevant to the struggles that women face in gaining
equal rights. This is why I have chosen to analyze this particular work out of all of the pieces that we have read over the quarter.
First and foremost are the personifications of various entities that the narrator faces. We come across ignorance first. Here ignorance is a force that is keeping her from getting what she wants out of life. This is especially clear when we look at the words of this young woman. “And ever since this grief did me oppress,” (line 7) when this is read a strong sense of being trapped in one place is felt. This is consistent with the way that women have been treated for centuries before, and centuries after,
Rachel Speght’s lifetime. She feels as if she is being held back. That she is unable to move forward. Speght feels that an education is the best way to move out of the place in society that she has been given.
Speght refers to the Bible numerous times throughout this poem. “The t
