In class we have often discussed the concept of women's roles in British society. We have have talked about the implications of those roles and how women were often treated like objects and expected to go through an almost ritualistic process of tedious, torturous, and strange procedures to make themselves "beautiful" in the fashionable manner of the day. Swift's piece is of course a great illustration of that. In her post, Daniela suggested that the construction of the poem is "very sexist" in certain places I think that a few things in the poem point to a different reading. Swift's history as a satirist suggests that the poem be better read as a feminist rebuttal to the constraints society places upon women. This is particularly evident in the last couplet:
Such Order from Confusion sprung,
Such gaudy Tulips rais'd from Dung.
These lines and the preceding text talk about how the expectations of pristine perfection placed upon women are both unrealistic and unfair. Despite this, he urges men to take pride in the fact that those things which they do idolize for their beauty come from a foul process, making their beauty that much more remarkable and worthy to applaud.
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It is also interesting that these lines are when the narrator of the poem interjects explicitly, and suggests that Strephon's approach has led him astray. However, we might also asks if the narrator reinscribes Celia within the constraints of beauty--by saying men should appreciate the beauty that arises from foul processes, is he also suggesting Celia ought to continue is her arts rather than allowing herself to be seen for what she "really" is? (The scare quotes indicate that perhaps Swift thinks appearance *is* the real: tulips were a "craze" in the 17th and 18th century, and were genetically altered in selective breeding experiments).
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, is it possible to view this as almost a sonnet-like construction, where the final couplet would shed new light on everything written beforehand?
ReplyDeleteIn the last two lines, the word that struck me most is "gaudy." I think this word captures Swift's disenchantment with the absurd appearance of aristocratic women. While admitting that this beauty came from filth, he is not enchanted by the artificial veneer.
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