Women In Puritan Society

In Puritan society, even though men and female had access to education, a very small amount of women attended school in comparison to men. In Puritan society, men were the only ones able to instruct their families and influence in decisions making. Anne Bradstreet was one of the first poets in the New World. Bradstreet was part of a well-educated family and was able to learn several languages and literature, which provided her knowledge and inspiration to compose books and poems at a young age. Puritans believed men were superior to women. Bradstreet expresses dissatisfaction towards her writing abilities to mock Puritan beliefs that women were inferior to men and to portray Puritan women’s lifestyle. As we all know, according to Puritans,

In the poem, she, as the mother, orders the child to express he “hadst none” father (22) involved in the composition of the work. This indicates she was the only person in charge of the production of the work with no help at all; expressing that if she could set up that piece of work, any women was capable of doing it. In line 23, she states “thy Mother….is poor”, aiming to convince the readers that she was poor, in the sense of her writing abilities, so her work is not valuable or a menace to free speech right, which only men had. She was criticizing some Puritan beliefs, but she adheres them to be accepted in the society and keep herself out of any trouble. Puritan women acknowledged little education, but it does not prevent them from writing great pieces of art, like poems, books, etc. In fact, Anne Bradstreet wrote a vast amount of literary works, which exhibited the capacity of women in Puritan time, but their beliefs did not support nor encourage women to express their opinions. Likewise, she uses different writing techniques in her works to mock Puritan beliefs of women being less smart than men. Just like Anne Bradstreet could have the ability to develop great works, any other women