"Housewife" By Anne Sexton

I found this poem to be afully clever simply by the title, overtime, we have created this image of what a "Housewife," is. A woman that stays at home while the husband works. So essentially, the woman really is "married" to her house. But even towards the house, the woman isnt seen as a lover or other half, but almost as a slave. Just as a partner to pleasure the other. Sexton at one point makes the reference, "On her knees." Obviously she is talking about cleaning the house, but it also has somewhat of a sexual inuedo, with the idea that some women are on their knees for the house, and some are on their knees for their husbands, "faithfully." The line "Men enter by force," just suggest the typical dominance role men play over women, especially in marraige. Many women don't have a say, they just work all day, then disrespect what the women hae been working on all day. This also implies more sexual references with the idea that many women have sex with their husbands because they tell them to or make them, not necessarily because they want them to. The only thing that confused me in the poem was the reference to mothers....

Denise Levertov’s “The Ache of Marriage” and “Divorcing”

Both poems share a somewhat similiar veiw on marriage, but at the same time, are portrayed in two very different ways.

"The Ache of Marriage," alot of emotions and struggles on marraige are related to the body. Such as the line thst says, "throbs in teeth." I think she is trying to parallel the image of when once has a tooth ache and the constant throbbing is an annoyance to say the least, but there is nothing you can really do but live with it. It depicts the constant efforts and annoyances associated with marraige. She also refers to the thigh and the tongue, which to me are both very sexual references. They are "Heavy," with the weight of the marriage, showinng that both ends of the marriage are somewhat burdened by the relationship.

"Divorcing," also portrays the same feeling of almost being forced to deal with someone, but in this poem they are set free. Instead of it being a happy-go-lucky feeling of freedom, it a scared hesitant one. I think this is because most people feel this way when deciding to leave their signfigant others. Whether they can or cannot find love and live on their own.

Both poems are obviously about a marraige, and the womans true life within the marraige, but one other similarity i saw were the somewhat relaigious refernes in each poems.“The Ache of Marriage” has some apparent themes such as “communion”, “leviathan”, and “two by two in the ark”. This is because religion and marraige often go hand and hand throughout the ages. In “Divorcing” a garland of thorns is mentioned, with could refer to the Christ’s crown that he wore open the cross. This could be a complete stretch but it definitely caught my eye.

Compare and Contrating "Now that I am Forever With Child" and "The Lost Baby Poem."

Though both of these poems are about benig pregnant with a child, they veiw the experience, and conclude in very different ways. The first poem, "Now that I am Forever with Child," share the beauty of being a mother. As she describes the time process and different stages she goes through with the growing child in her womb, there is a tone of love and excitement, joy. One can tell before the child is even born, the mother is attatched and has a bond with her soon to be baby girl. It portrays the idea that women naturally have a maternal nature. It almost idolizes becoming a mother, and makes you feel confident in the speaker.

"The Lost Baby Poem," does almost the exact opposit. Just by the title you can clearly see this is not a "happy-go-lucky," piece of literature. This poem is potentiallu referring to many things. But what i intitially pick up after first reading it, is a poor(maybe homeless), single woman, who becomes pregnant. The reason i have the feeling she is homelesss is because many times she refers to sewages in the city when talking about bodies of water. Also it relates to the tone of the poem because one usually doesn't find joy in sewage waters. She also talks about having no car in the wonter, when the child SHOULD have been born, so the flee to canada, the authors actual home(fun fact). She also infers the idea if the child were to be born, it;s life would be much better if set for adoption, but they will never know. This poem is definitely a reflection and story of how the narrator had somehow killed her unborn child. The tone of the poem is much different then the first. It is sad, regretful, dark, and has a feeling of shame. This sounds odd, but i almost feel cold while reading it. Due to all the refrences to bodies of water and drowning, i am picking up that the woman was an alcolic, and drank her baby to death.

How do you feel about Life's business in prostitution?

After reading Life, i feel extremely conflicted about the idea of prostitution in the story. Society has taught us to carry a negative connotation with prostitution, and it is normally looked down upon. But as one reads the story, they begin to almost look up to Life, and root for her to keep doing what she is doing. I believe Head made the "village" so narrow-minded and naive to kind of mirror society as a whole. By using prostitution, and have the reader almost agree with the idea as a business, the readers an people of our society start to become more open minded. Even though it seems contradictory, Life's prostitution was her sense of freedom. Even though she was judged by the "village," she felt as if this was the one thing she had control over in the story. She decided what she wanted to do with her body and who would get to use it. It might have been a false sense of control, but it still satisfied her and her freedom. Though i wouldn't normally support prostitution, Head makes the reader believe it was just a proud way to express a womens sense of power, sexuality, freedom, and individuality. When Life does get married, the reader see's all those qualities disappear.

By this story, I believe Head was was trying to reflect how women in society carry false senses of power in almost all we do. Though Life thought she was free by using her body as a business, she was still being controlled by a man, but at least it was her own decision. Once she got married, her freedom really did come to a close. Life and all the women of the village ran their lives under the man's rules.

"The Yellow Wall Paper"

I believe the theme that Gilman was trying to portray i this story was how greatly women were suppressed and limited in the 19th century, and how they were taught to accept it. The narrator is apparently "sick" with nervous depression and other mood habits. Even though she seems fine and desires to get out, her husband and brother, who are both doctor's, force her to stay in this terribly wall-papered room. They make her believe that she needs rest and the real world would make her conditioned worse, and that women belong in the house anyhow. The whole story is written in perspective of the women, through her journals. She is under the impression she must hide her journal from everyone, especially her husband, since it is only "feeding," her disorder. Though she is controlled by the men in her life, and almost a prisoner within the room because if them, all she continues to say is how good they treat her. This shows that most women of that time believed hey were the weaker sex, and played into the social norms of letting them men tell them what is right and wrong. The narrator almost lives in fear, not only of letting her husband see her write, but not coming off as appreciative, or obedient to him. Even though she was being kept from the world, and her child, she was convinced it was all for the best. in the end, the room and the wall paper ended up making her actually mentally and psychologically insane, at least more then she was in the beginning of the story.

Blog post prompt for Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, Think about how bodies are commodified in this poem - pay specific attention to issues of markets and buying. What exactly is being bought and sold?

When i first read the Goblin Market, I could be wrong, but i definitely picked up on some sexual undertones. I don't know if the poem is necessarily implying things of that nature but they human body is very sexualized within this play. The way the goblins grab the girls, the way they eat the fruit, the girls are very objectified within the story. Also i believe that this is just the classic plot of the girl falling for the "forbiddon fruit" of a man. Girls are scene as not having strong wills, so they are easily tempted and swayed. She is selling a part of her body to the goblin men, then makes the sister do the same. She could have fruit from the regular market, but something about that fruit taste so sweet. I guess its all about girls behaving badly!