In "To His Coy Mistress," the poem's narrator is trying to persuade his girlfriend to have sex with him. He does this by using the carpe diem or "seize the day" theme, saying to her that they don't have all the time in the world, for at any time they could die. If he had world enough and time, the narrator says, he would spend 200 years praising each of his beloved's breasts and 30,000 years lavishing praise on the rest of her body. He would take her to India, at that time an immensely long journey from England, and once there, would lounge with her by the Ganges River and find her rubies. However, he says, there just isn't time for all this.
A feminist lens would focus on what is at stake for an unmarried woman in that time and place. She would have no access to reliable birth control, because there was none, and, in that culture, would be shamed and dishonored were she to become pregnant without being married. Having a baby without being married could also leave the woman unable to marry someone else, as she would be considered damaged goods. A feminist reading would question why the narrator is so blind to the possible consequences of sex on his beloved. Is it selfish of him to put his own desire for sex above the problems it could create for her? Why doesn't he see or acknowledge this reality? What might the beloved say back to him, were she to be given a voice? Why isn't she given a voice in the poem to respond?
No comments:
Post a Comment