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Criticism In Anne Bradstreet's False Feminist

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Anne Bradstreet used false modesty to avoid criticism from a male-dominated society that did not accept women as equals. Anne Bradstreet metaphorically referred to her book of poems as an “ill-form’d offspring” (line 1) as a judgment of its poetic worth. The constant repetition of the book being in critics hands, due to “errors were not lessened (all may judg) (line 6), demonstrated the fear she has to the judgment of her lack of resources and abilities from the press. She instead, judged all her poem’s errors because she had knowledge that her book would be published. In addition, she was not ambiguously sincere, since she bragged about her impressive poetic ability and stated her work as awful and shameful for critics to highlight her virtues. In the last line of the poem, “which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door” (line 24), Bradstreet confirmed her knowledge of her book being published, as well as the purpose of the book …show more content…

Bradstreet lived during the 1600s, where the society did not accepted women as equal to men, which made it difficult for her express her poetic abilities. According to United State House of Representatives, Women’s Movement started until, “1848 with a Woman’s Convention in Seneca Falls with the organizers: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.” The author criticized her work antecedently because she was concerned that her poetry could have been undervalued for not being a man. Ahead of time, she affirmed that no men was involved in her poetry, “if [child’s] father askt, say, thou hadst none” (Line 22). Bradstreet self described as a “poor” (line 23) mother to brag her magnificent work as a woman and for critics to comprehend her, if possible errors were found. She humoristically exaggerated that “[book’s] Visage was so irksome in my sight” (line 10) because she was confident that her work was so well designed that impressed

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