1. The Wife's Resentment by Delarivier Manley
Manley is, very clearly, refuting the accepted ideals of feminine passivity and the defenseless position in which a blind execution of such ideals leaves women. ... The first of the contradictions Manley addresses appears in relation to the economics of an 18th-century woman. Specifically, Manley highlights the disparity between the belief that a woman's sexual chastity was priceless and the extent to which this supposedly invaluable entity was treated as a bargaining tool, a material representation of the value of a "proper" woman. ... Thus, the text reveals the paradox: sexua...
- Word Count: 1986
- Approx Pages: 8
- Grade Level: Graduate