Anne Bradstreet's Ideal Puritan Women

“But now having seen him which is invisible I fear not what man can do unto me” – Anne Hutchinson. Anne Hutchinson was a fearless opponent of the Puritan faith during the beginnings of America. Hutchinson was born in England but then traveled to what is now America with her family to live in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the Colony she got involved in the Puritan church and eventually fell into controversy within the society. Through her conflicting religious beliefs, Anne Hutchinson imposed the conservative and conventional role of women in the Puritan society.

Throughout History, women have long struggled and fought for the same equality, justice, and rights as males in society. Historians have two opposing views of what life was like in Puritan society. One side argues that Puritan society was a golden age for women as they worked alongside their husbands, had an important role in the household. However, opposing historians argue that Puritan women were inferior to men in the society for five main reasons. Women were inferior because they were supposed to be silent company, they only received half the inheritance of their brothers, they were meant to have and take care of the children, they received harsher punishment for their wrongs, and they had to follow strict rules.

In colonial North America, the lives of women were distinct and described in the roles exhibited in their inscriptions. In this book, Good Wives the roles of woman were neither simple nor insignificant. Ulrich proves in her writing that these women did it all. They were considered housewives, deputy husbands, mistresses, consorts, mothers, friendly neighbors, and last but not least, heroines. These characteristics played an important role in defining what the reality of women’s lives consisted of.

The community expected women to fit into a specific mold and follow certain rules of society. The concept of Eliza’s freedom was contrasting with what the community excepted from her. According to the community, the women could not risk being caught sneaking around or stealing glances from men. They were expected to be courted get married, and live faithful lives to their husbands.

Bradstreet Edwards Comparison What is a puritan? A puritan is a member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who regarded the Reformation of the Church of England under Elizabeth as incomplete and sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are examples of puritans. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are both writers, who write what they feel and believe, such as religious views.

On the other hand Hester doesn’t want or try getting attention through her actions. Also she becomes an outcast of the Puritan community and she slowly finds her way back through hard work and showing she cares. Secondly the way the two characters

Looking back to the Puritan society, the equality between males and females is one of the most controversial faults of the time. The Puritan’s did not view males and females as equal. The Puritans thought of women to be not important in comparison to men. The authorities gave specific rules and expected the people to follow the rules, or they would be punished. In modern day American society, men and women have some of the same roles.

The Puritan ways of the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, lead to each gender having a very set role in society. Men were to be the strong, detached ones, who did all the hard work. Well the women were subordinate, stay-at-home mothers, and could show no temper. These roles lead to the growth of distrust between a married couple. An analysis of John and Elizabeth’s marriage

Anne Bradstreet was a woman full of love for her family, and for God. Her style of writing is cavalier, and though she writes about different topics, she often mentions God, Heaven, and offers thanks to Him. Even when disastrous things happened to her, she still declared God just and merciful, which is a very admirable display of faith, or it could be seen as incredible ignorance, because why would a loving God allow awful things to happen to her? Nevertheless, she attributes God as good, and has a surprisingly optimistic attitude despite everything she suffers through, like her house burning down, the death of her two grandchildren, and her own possible death every time she gives birth. I think it’s interesting how Bradstreet keeps such a positive, hopeful attitude, even though it probably would have been much easier for her to blame God for all of her problems and become bitter and angry, she has faith in Him, despite everything.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in her article “Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735,” argues the ministerial writings of New England during the late seventeenth-early eighteenth century promoted an ideology of gender equality within a larger paradoxical environment. The dominant Puritan culture in which they lived created a separation of status within diverging social and spiritual fields. While legal, economic, and educational opportunities for women were severely limited in society, there existed a pervasive inherent equality among the sexes in regards to godly matters. (Ulrich, 37) To Support her claim, Ulrich relies heavily on ministerial literature, which consisted of marriage sermons, childbirth treatises, and funeral eulogies.

It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

The Cult of True Womanhood in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In her essay “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”, Barbara Welter discusses the expected roles and characteristics that women were supposed to exhibit in accordance with the extreme patriarchy of the nineteenth-century America. The unnamed narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is seen to conform and ultimately suffer from this patriarchal construct that Welter labels the Cult of True Womanhood. The narrator falls victim to this life of captivity by exhibiting several of the fundamental characteristics that Welter claims define what a woman was told she ought to be.

Throughout the novel, Hester is fraught by the Puritan society and her suffering is an effect of how evil society is. Hester continues to believe that the crime she committed was not wrong and she should not be punished for it. Her desire to protect and love Dimmesdale, turn her into a stronger person and become a heroine in the book. Although society still views her as a “naughty baggage” (Hawthorne 73) and is punished for her wrongdoing, Hester never thought to take revenge on them, yet she gives everything she has to the unfortunate and leaves herself with very little. She continues to stay positive no matter what society has for her.

The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.

Anne Bradstreet (1612 – 1672) has been a long-lasting leading figure in the American literature who embodied a myriad of identities; she was a Puritan, poet, feminist, woman, wife, and mother. Bradstreet’s poetry was a presence of an erudite voice that animadverted the patriarchal constraints on women in the seventeenth century. In a society where women were deprived of their voices, Bradstreet tried to search for their identities. When the new settlers came to America, they struggled considerably in defining their identities. However, the women’s struggles were twice than of these new settlers; because they wanted to ascertain their identities in a new environment, and in a masculine society.