The Rights Of Woman Analysis Essay

In the modern era of the 21st century, it is very widely known that women way back in the 18th up to the 19th centuries and from the much earlier periods do not have a right of their own and was merely treated as second subjects, chattels, and lowly citizens. The poem The Rights of Woman written by an Englishwoman named Anna Letitia Barbauld was in a way a prime example of feminist attacks against the unfair treatment towards women. Back then, majority of the world’s societies were based on patriarchal concept that men were stronger than women and therefore, the former should assume all the roles had all liberties. On the other hand, because of the women’s role as part of the inferior beings, the writer intended the poem probably to educate all people that despite their genders, women can also take part in important society proceedings and therefore, should be deemed as equal like their male counterparts. The opening stanza of the poem vigorously proclaims the woman’s right to improve their identity to become meaningful citizens of the society. The author details the unjust treatment of women by the society throughout the decades and convinces all the womenfolk to improve their situations by actively pursuing their freedom of expression and equality. The author also encourages women to educate men about their rights for freedom; that the women had more rights of ruling compared to men because of their untarnished reputation, which the author explains that women should use in order for men to see the women as potential social activists and not only properties.
The speaker of the poem was obviously feminist. The poem encourages women to muster their spirits to explore the world as well as the glories deprived from them by the menfolk. In the fourth stanza, the author argues passionately why women should take their stand; it was because to take stand meant that women will be able to show the brilliance of their thinking which they needed to utilize to pacify men to be their loyal subjects. There was an implied violence to which the author explains that women should never make men as their trusted confidante to which she rebutted that by entering a close acquaintanceship with them meant disaster for limiting their rights. The author also points out to the women of her time to avoid becoming the stereotyped females who have no identity which makes them a target of ridicule especially with the women’s capability to ridicule other women just to get their suitors attention. Based from this, the author strongly suggests not becoming the majority of the females and instead, women should be more intelligent like the men. Yet despite this feminist’s declaration, in the last part of the poem, the author explained that her poem must not be a tool to make women a radical citizen of the society. And recognized one of the important truths; that part of the women’s weakness was to fall in love, and according to the author, despite how many times women tried to struggle for their independence and retain their dignity, love will eventually deprive them all of these rights because it erases all the discrimination about individual freedom. As a whole, the poem was in fact written based from a feminist modernist perspective; however, the writer merely wanted women to be recognized based from their intellect and not for physical appearance. Barbauld did not want women to become higher than their male counterparts; what she intends to explain was the fact that women can do the same things like men if there was an opportunity given to them. Furthermore, the poem serves somewhat as a pat on a woman’s shoulder to become actively involved in society without abandoning her grace, manners, and intellect.