The Author To Her Book

In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book”, Bradstreet uses her role as an advocate for women’s rights as she touches on a variety of social issues in relation to female rights and breaking the patriarchy’s oppressive limits for women in the 1600's. She touches on these issues through the lens of a Puritan female poet, in fact, the first New World poet, who had recently beared a child: her book of poetry The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America. “The Author to her Book” is a poem that examines women’s lack of rights throughout this era and the radical actions that Bradstreet makes in publishing The Tenth Muse in contrast with her humble response to its publication. Additionally, Bradstreet uses the metaphor of her book as analogous to her child, a child that is raised by her and without a father, as another outlet to discuss the how the publication of The Tenth Muse is incredibly radical at this time as she is a woman. In “The Author to her Book”, Bradstreet addresses the male figures in her society that may have judged her book due to the revolutionary ideas that it presented. Moreover, these ideas disobeyed their standards and rules of society, leading to Bradstreet confronting these men in her poem. Bradstreet also addresses the women of her British Puritan society to motivate them to also make radical actions as she has done with the the goal of gaining more rights and joining her in the fight to break the bounds of the patriarchy. In the poem “The Author to her Book”, Bradstreet successfully addresses women’s roles in society and family in a highly patriarchal Puritan society.

Anne Bradstreet’s “The Author to her Book” reflects the historical and cultural context of the era in which it was written. Bradstreet sparks a discussion regarding the patriarchal society that she lives in and reveals her intentions of breaking its bounds through her radical collection of poems. Anne Bradstreet: wife, daughter, and mother. These were roles set out for her the moment she was born in England in 1612. Like other girls of the time, her “identity and property were always connected with the men in her life”(“Gender and Sexuality”). However, before following her husband, a fellow Puritan, to North America, Bradstreet had something that set her apart from most other girls: The prized gift of education. At a young age Bradstreet “received an excellent education from her father, who was widely read…and from her extensive reading in the well stocked library of the estate of the Earl of Lincoln”(“Anne Bradstreet”). Though there was increasing literacy in England throughout the late 17th and 18th centuries due to the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press (an invention that allowed young Bradstreet to read the Geneva version of the Bible(“Anne Bradstreet”) which translated “the Bible into common speech”(“Anne Bradstreet and Her Time”)) and the Restoration, girls in the middle class were taught writing, music, and needlework (subjects that were believed to be more in line with their abilities) while boys went to elementary and grammar school (“Social And Family Life”). However, Bradstreet was born and raised a Puritan, a religious group known to be “one of the most literate groups in the early modern world…and they worked to achieve universal literacy”(“History Of The Puritans”). This was a situation that was evidently most advantageous for Bradstreet as it allowed her to explore literature. Furthermore, Bradstreet was given a gift that other girls of the time were not given: the ability to write, something that was made such due to her great education. Though at this time “women were taught to read so that they could learn the Bible,…few were taught to write, as it was thought there was no reason for a woman to know how to write”(“The Role Of Women”). When Bradstreet wedded her husband Simon Bradstreet, she became more highly acquainted with Puritan values associated with marriage such as the fact that marriage was the main pillar of family and society(“History Of The Puritans”). Furthermore, this marriage allowed Bradstreet to become familiarized with the gender roles associated with Puritan marriage that she must take up. As with her father, Bradstreet lived under her husband’s care and was in charge of tending to the household as she lived in a highly patriarchal society that supported “the concept of a strictly male-controlled, nuclear family”(“Social And Family Life”). When Bradstreet accompanied her father and husband to the British Puritan colonies in North America, she was greeted by the same patriarchal Puritan values. Here she began writing The Tenth Muse, a collection of her poems which covers concepts and values such as “domestic life in the Colonies, her role as a woman and mother of eight, and her devotion to her husband”(“Historians Searching North Andover”), concepts that she discusses in most of her works. Additionally, Bradstreet’s work delineates her ponderings regarding “the religious and emotional conflicts she experienced as a woman writer and as a Puritan”(“Anne Bradstreet”). However, though Bradstreet was luckier than most girls of this era as she received “access to educational opportunities many Puritan women did not” due to “her family’s prominence and support”(“Historians Searching North Andover”), she was still subjected to certain patriarchal family roles upon her marriage. Therefore, she was familiar with the prejudice and oppression that Puritan women were forced to face. In fact, Bradstreet’s “acquaintance Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts Bay for holding meetings in which she criticized the colony’s ministers and challenged male authorities”(“Humble Assertions”). Therefore, though throughout this era women who stepped out of the roles “assigned” to them were punished (a fact that Bradstreet evidently knew full-well) due to the fact that they “represented a world turned upside down; a world in which men were simply unable to make sense of their position”(“Gender And Sexuality”), Bradstreet took this risk and published The Tenth Muse. Through The Tenth Muse and, more specifically, Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book”, Bradstreet reflects the historical and cultural context of this era in relation to the main ideas that her work encompasses.

Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book” in her book The Tenth Muse demonstrates Bradstreet’s plans to break the patriarchy that she has grown into. Through phrases such as “If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none: / And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, / Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door”(“The Dover Anthology”), Bradstreet presents several ideas in opposition of and in critique of the patriarchy. Foremost, she brings forth the idea that her book is analogous with a child and that she is a single mother to this child. Therefore, this book or “child” is created and raised without a father, a notion that obstructs the nuclear family standards that the Puritan society that Bradstreet lived in had created. Additionally, it broke the standard that a woman must live under and care for a male figure. This was an especially radical idea for the Puritans because, as previously stated, “for Puritans, the family was the ‘locus of spiritual and civic development and protection,’ and marriage was the foundation of the family and, therefore, society”(History Of The Puritans”). Therefore, Bradstreet was not only breaking free from the gender roles of the era, but also of the societal standards and roles of the era. Therefore, throughout Bradstreet’s life she may have had more advantages in education than other girls of this era, but she was no stranger to the patriarchal standards set by her Puritan society. In The Tenth Muse and, more specifically, “The Author to her Book”, Bradstreet tackles these standards set for her with the goal of breaking its bounds.

Anne Bradstreet’s poem uses literary and rhetorical techniques in order to engage with the patriarchal society and the gender roles of the society that this book was written in. In Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to her Book”, she begins by reflecting on her recent publication of her book The Tenth Muse. She states, “At thy return my blushing was not small”…”Thy blemishes amend, if so I could: / I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw, / And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw. / I strecht thy joynts to make thee even feet, / Yet thou run’st more hobling then is meet;”(The Dover Anthology). Bradstreet begins by reflecting on the publication of her book through a humble if not self deprecating outlook and tone. She presents her book as analogous to a child born with defects, a metaphor that she carries throughout the poem. This metaphor serves to express Bradstreet’s embarrassment upon the publication of her book as she is not only “blushing” upon its publication, but it is also, in her eyes, ill-formed and not written well. Bradstreet’s self-deprecating and embarrassed outlook on the publication of her book (or birth of her child) are displays of pathos and are possibly ways in which Bradstreet tries to garner sympathy from her readers. However, Bradstreet later states, “If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none: / And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, / Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door”(“The Dover Anthology”). This excerpt demonstrates how Bradstreet not only uses pathos in order to garner sympathy for herself through delineating her embarrassment, but also as she evinces the role that she lives as the woman who is diminished by the patriarchy yet still rises as a single mother( or a published female author of poetry). Moreover, Bradstreet is taking the common criticism of women that they are “weak, vulnerable, and foolish”(“Humble Assertions”) and is turning them around in her favor through the use of pathos as she fits herself into this role as an embarrassed and self deprecating woman and then, after playing this role, depicts herself as the radical and revolutionary woman that she is and demonstrates her role as a single mother raising her child without a father. This demonstrates Bradstreet’s goal to break the gender roles she has been raised into that support the notion of a patriarchal society as she is, as mentioned previously, rebelling against not only the standards of a nuclear family that are supported in this era, but also the idea that she is under her husband or male figure in the family and must care for him. Therefore, Bradstreet utilizes the metaphor of her book as a child and pathos in order to engage with the society that she lives in and its values in relation to gender and societal roles.

Anne Bradstreet’s poem successfully persuades readers regarding the issues of women’s roles in society and in the family in a highly patriarchal society through her radical views that oppose the present views regarding gender roles. The role that Bradstreet plays in relation to her publication of The Tenth Muse, and, more specifically “The Author to her Book”, is to spread her radical ideas regarding breaking the patriarchal standards and gender roles set for women by society. Bradstreet works towards this through ideas such as her book as an offspring created and raised by a mother and without a father and through the idea that she is embarrassed by the publication of her book, an ill formed offspring. The idea of her embarrassment is a usage of pathos in order to demonstrate the way that the gender roles and societal standards set for women hope to make women feel. Therefore, it is able to inform readers regarding the gender Additionally, the idea of the offspring created by a mother and without a father works to persuade readers regarding the issue of women’s roles in society and in the family through the fact that this is a family structure that is incredibly radical for the time as the nuclear family was the structure supported by the Puritans. Furthermore, it is evident that Bradstreet was successful in persuading readers regarding the issues of the patriarchal society in relation to women’s roles in society and in the family as “she was a household name in the 17th century, both here [Andover] and in England”(Historians Searching North Andover”). However, it could be believed that Bradstreet was in fact not successful in persuading readers regarding the issues of the patriarchal society in relation to women’s roles in society and in the family. Though Bradstreet did utilize pathos and metaphor in order to persuade her readers regarding these issues, she is also describing her “child’s” mother as poor “Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door”(The Dover Anthology). So, the child’s mother is a single mother who is poor and unable to care for her child. If she is not able to care for her child, then this family structure is evidently not a viable option from which a child can live and society should therefore remain with the current model of the nuclear family. Additionally, as this model includes the wife under the husband and caring for the husband and the household, it is therefore evident that the “mother” should return to this structure. Furthermore, though there began to be more liberal beliefs regarding the role of husbands as “rulers” over their wives in the colonies, “however, women continued to have very few rights”. Therefore, Bradstreet’s ideas were not successful in persuading readers regarding women’s rights in the family and society as is evident through the fact that in the colonies women had very few rights.

Anne Bradstreet was a revolutionary for her time in several ways, a few of those being first poet of the New World and feminist. The gender roles of her time did not allow room for women to oppose the roles that were set for them. However, Bradstreet did just that, and with great success. Though she suggests in her poem “The Author to her Book” that she believes her work to not be worthy of publication(as it is but an ill formed offspring), a side that allows the reader a look into Bradstreet’s doubts and embarrassment at how revolutionary her work is, she still demonstrates her vigor and bravery as she states that her “child” does not have a father. This statement opposes many of the values of the time such as familial and gender roles, a huge risk to take as it opposes that which the foundation of society rests upon. However, Bradstreet takes this risk and successfully impacts the ideas of society regarding gender roles not only then, but today. Bradstreet’s impact today is evident through the fact that students such as ourselves are reading her work and that students such as myself are so impacted by her work and able to connect to its ideas. If we are able to see such a relation between the societal ideas that Bradstreet discusses then and to our present, then it is evident that a change must be made. That is how Bradstreet impacts us today. By teaching us this lesson and helping us take action in our time. Therefore, Bradstreet’s poem successfully advocates for women’s rights and breaking the gender roles set for women by the patriarchy in an era that suppressed these radical ideas.