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Jonathan Swift The Lady Dressing Room Analysis

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In the writing piece “the lady’s dressing room” by Jonathan swift. Swift criticizes the standards that men bring upon women and the pressure that women bring upon themselves to meet those standards. The author conveys his message in various satirical way, including the vivid descriptions of the horrid secrets held within a lady’s dressing room. Swift discourses this issue through a Juvenalian form of satire using hyperbole to target both men and women, along with the use of distortion to emphasize the number of things that women use to look like, what is characterized as pretty, and the shock that men experience when they find out about a woman’s true nature. Swift presents his writing piece by introducing Celia, a woman described as “The …show more content…

Strephon ultimately leaves the room when he finds out that Celia poops and that she performs bodily human functions and is not a perfect porcelain goddess “array’d in lace, brocades and tissues”. The ending finishes off with the final judgment of men when Celia find out about Strephon snooping in her room. Irony and hyperbole interconnect in the last paragraph in order to support the woman’s side. It’s as if Celia rises and ignores what Strephon must have seen. She addresses that he should be blessed to be able to see “such gaudy tulips rais’d from dung” which is ironic because flowers aren’t raised from feces and flowers often portray beauty. By using such contrast Swift is able to reconnect with his initial paragraph and prior points that women are subjective to the constant pressure of looking like a ‘flower’ or a perfect, flawless, human being when in reality they do not naturally look like that and which is why 5 hours is the least amount of time needed to be given to them to live up to the standards set by men. In all, Swift uses hyperbole, irony, and distortion to expose both, male and female and the standards that they selves for others or themselves. It proves both sides in a balanced organized way and is able to carry out each technique effectively to show it’s audience to not allow the manipulation of other to drive them into fixing themselves for the sake of

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In fact, he refers to “A very worthy Person, a true Lover of his Country, and whose Virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my Scheme”(17). As a result, Swift shows that even the most patriotic person to both Ireland and Britain (since Ireland was under British control at the time) realizes that within this current situation of poverty, this proposal is a solution and can be acted out in many different

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Societal Expectations are not Barriers Two inspiring pieces of literature called Macbeth by William Shakespeare and “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkings Gilman share one eminent theme, which is the suppression of the female gender. Societies often place barbaric labels on those who seem unworthy rather than fight the judgments that are concrete and see for themselves. Social ideas during the two diverse time periods demonstrate how women are not seen as powerful figures and insanity progress within those who are stereotyped. Women are seen as creatures that are ineligible to think for themselves in.

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A man’s perceived opinion about women can negatively shape society’s views and perceptions of them. The poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” is a satire about a woman’s appearance. In the poem the character Celia was fully degraded due to the state in which her dressing room was kept. Celia was criticized in the poem because she spent hours in her dressing room getting ready.

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Dr. Jonathan Swift uses rhetorical devices, logical, ethical, as well as emotional appeals to highlight the difference between Swift’s satirical attitude and the narrator’s serious attitude concerning poverty and starvation. In order to understand the nature of Swift’s proposal,

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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.

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Samuel Washburn Prof. Russell EN 231 2 October 2014 The Poetic Argument Between Dr. Johnathan Swift and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Dr. Swift’s, The Lady’s Dressing Room, is an 18th century satirical poem that addresses British social issues via the lens of feminine beauty, and how that beauty is a form of artifice. The poem uses beauty as a sort of philosophical metaphor for the main character, Strephon, to confront the realistic underbelly of feminine beauty/hygiene, which is portrayed as lurid and shocking, for the purpose of personal and social vanity. The poem was labeled misogynistic at the time of its writing, and continues to be viewed as such.

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For instance when Swift says on page 1 “But my intention is very fat from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars.” The persona Swift puts on in the introduction is a persona of a goodhearted person of society. This use of this specific persona contributes to the suspense towards the reveal of the proposal. A shift in Swift’s persona can be found on page 2 “that a young healthy child well nursed, is at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food.” This statement shows that Swift has put on a new persona.

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She “appeared confident in innocence and did not tremble” (Shelley 68), which is an admirable quality of female who accepts her fate. Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine are ironically described in these submissive and objectifying terms in order to support the ideal that women were inferior and insignificant to

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It’s no surprise, that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was clearly constructed as a rebellion against femininity roles of the time. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to believe they were inferior to men since men obtained desired masculine qualities such as strength, and loyalty, whereas women were viewed as figures of hospitality (1; 6; 28-31). Obviously, not being tempted by the luxury of subservient women, William Shakespeare rebuked this twisted belief, applying that women deserve more respect than their kitchen tables.

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At the same time, she gives women a perspective on men’s feeling about women’s rights. Charlotte Gilman uses a variety of rhetorical devices in the short story to make her point that the establishment of societal gender roles causes the viewpoint of male supremacy over females. One of the first rhetorical devices that an audience may notice is Gilman’s unique pace and syntax that she uses to show the different minds of men and women. She uses a variety of sentences like “[w]himsical, capricious, charming, changeable, devoted to pretty clothes and always “wearing them well,” as the esoteric phase has it” (Gilman 1).

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For example, Swift says “I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females.” This is an example of Juvenalian satire because Swift harshly suggests that the children be reserved for breeding just as animals. Swift also says “Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.” The use of the words “breeders”, “unjustly”, “cruelty”, and “objection” in this sentence shows how the women are being dehumanized, which displays a negative and rude attitude that voices his distaste in the English’s behavior towards the

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Swift uses his satire as a way to draw attention to daily conditions that many families in Ireland are suffering from. His extreme plan of eating children is used as a way to draw the attention of the government towards helping improve the economy. By using irony Swift is able to help make his plan a more believable solution to invoke change. Even today Swift 's plan can be seen as a persuasive technique, using logic and statistics to convince the

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791 Words | 4 Pages

The reaction to the novel showcases how women were treated in the 17th century with a reviewer in The London Quarterly Review stating that the character, Jane Eyre was “destitute of all attractive, feminine qualities” and

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Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook.

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Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a great example of her works that looks at the role of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Austen shows us the gender roles inflicted on women during this time period and how they are perceived. We see the strict gender roles that women were adhered to and the struggle for identity as a woman. Central to this novel is the vulnerability of women and the expectations surrounding gender influence everything and produce define results. Gender definitely determines and structures the world in which these characters live.

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