Metaphors In Jocasta

In her poem, “Jocasta” published in the 1960s, human rights activist Ruth Eisenberg emphasizes how women were constantly suppressed and deemed inferior to men. She supports this claim by using Queen Jocasta and King Lauis as stand-ins that represent the stereotypical societal roles of men and women, during the 1960s, while also utilizing metaphors and aggressive diction. Eisenberg’s purpose is to highlight the awful treatment of women and the abuse of power by men. Throughout her poem, Eisenberg utilizes metaphors to highlight the maltreatment of women and to exemplify the pain they endured. She describes women to be no “more than merely bedside pawns”, suggesting that women were only used to benefit their husbands (Eisenberg). Comparing women to pawns also explains how they were like pieces in a game in which they had an

Eisenberg recounts how Lauis (Jocasta's first husband) took Jocasta “and threw [her] on [her] back to have his way. [She] [was] fifteen and afraid to resist and [she’d] tell herself it was [her] husbands right;” and that the “gods decree a wife obey her spouse”(Eisenberg). Hostile words and phrases such as “threw”, “have his way” “resist”, and “decree” are all used when recounting Lauis’s mistreatment of Jocasta, which helps to delineate the abusive behavior, not only towards Jocasta, but all women. Furthermore, this threatening diction represents men's aggressiveness towards women, and how if a man did not get his way undeserved retribution would be inflicted upon helpless women. Due to the fact that men have deemed themselves superior to women, they have abused their power to personally benefit themselves, by preying on women ultimately leaving them powerless. Eisenberg uses hostile and belligerent diction, in order to highlight the pain and violence inflicted upon women through the abuse of power by a