Anne Bradstreet

Sample Solution

    Anne Bradstreet was an important female poet in Puritan society, who is known for writing religious and personal poems. During the time period she lived in, women were expected to be submissive and take on a certain level of modesty; however,

her passion for poetry contradicted this notion. Her frequent self-deprecation is both a shrewd strategy and sincere feeling at once; Bradstreet used it as a way to test public opinion on her work while also bridging the gap between the private struggles of womanhood with societal expectations. The content of her works reflects these tensions: female bodies are compared to spiritual concepts such as silence, submission to male authority, beauty within virtue, love being directed towards God instead of men. The sense that she had to hide her innermost thoughts from those around her is reflected in lines like “I can not act but inwardly I mourn” (Bradstreet). This type of duality between expressing herself through writing while having to adhere to social norms created a unique problem in terms of how much faith she could put into what was seen as acceptable verses speaking out against it or demanding more attention or respect for herself. This internal struggle became even clearer when she wrote about warping fabrics as a metaphor for gender roles within Puritanism which forced women into domestic labor ("To My Dear & Loving Husband"). It was difficult for many women living during this era because they were restricted in their mobility due to traditional gender roles; unable travel freely unless accompanied by a man or covered up entirely so that no one knew it was them walking alone outside ("A Letter To Her Husband Absent Upon Public Employment"). Bradstreet's expression of personal anxieties reveals an interior conflict between wanting freedom from these limitations yet remaining loyal to the community and its traditions; something that many other female poets during this era would have been able empathize with since they too were facing similar predicaments. Through her writings we get a glimpse into how difficultit must have beento navigate through such a patriarchal environment without completely surrendering one’s wants and desires in order tomaintainrespectabilitywithinsociety .Herself-deprecationservedbothasa shield from criticism along withan outletfor expressingherinternalizedconflictsandambiguitiesofmaintaininga womanhoodunder heavily enforced societal expectations.