Important words from Montagu’s:
Wisdom and Merit
Wisdom is used throughout the poem. Normally, we see wisdom as a desirable trait. But here, Montagu seems to be decreasing the value of wisdom. In the beginning, the Doctor tries using his wisdom and wit to joke and charm his way to the lady but that the lady takes no notice of it. What does win the lady’s services is gold. Later she writes “With learning mad, with wisdom blind!” It seems as if she is saying that the wise think that they are always right when they’re not. However, later she clarifies her true point when she writes, “None strive to know their proper merit/But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit,/And lose the praise that is their due/While they’ve th’impossible in view.” Merit is something that is earned. And back then, I’m assuming that merit was earned with status and money. And in men, status and money seemed to be associated with wisdom, good-looks, and religion.
However, Montagu writes that she’s telling this story “to show the wise in some things fail.” She meant to display Dr. S’s arrogance; he thought of himself as having more merit than he really had due to his ‘wisdom.’ He attempted to pay for the lady’s services with his wisdom and wit, rather than gold. She’s saying Swift views himself as an economical object—that he himself has value and because of that, he does not need to pay for the lady’s services. When she says that “none strive to know their proper merit, but strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit,” it seems like she is saying that the higher up someone is, the more they exaggerate and inflate themselves to be. Thus, they will never realize their true worth. Wisdom is thought to earn you merit, but the wise claim more merit than they’ve actually earned.
I have chosen the words lie and raised in “The Lady’s Dressing Room” by Jonathan Swift.
The first word from Swift’s poem that I find important is the word “lie”. Strephon feels that the image of Celia as being sweet and cleanly is a lie after snooping through her dressing room. He expresses feelings of betrayal when he discovers that in order to maintain her appearance Celia must take so many disgusting steps. Not only does Strephon’s opinion of Celia fall, but it also appears that his outlook on female beauty in general changes. His newfound discoveries have caused him to place significantly less value on that particular trait.
The second word important word is “raised”. This word is used by the narrator to say that Strephon should marvel at the beauty that rises from filth, representing a contrasting belief from what Strephon is currently experiencing. Rather than being as revolting as their dressing rooms, women are able to escape it and overcome the disadvantages of the normal human body to appear perfect. Having this mentality appears to increase the value of female beauty.
Each of these words describes the same discovery, one expressing disappointment and anger while the other displays respect and understanding. This contrast highlights the very essence of this poem. Establishing value can be an entirely relative process, often leading to disputes of worth. Most of the time, there is no resolution to this discrepancy, and this poem is a great example of that fact. The narrator disagrees with Strephon, and it is highly unlikely that Strephon will completely change his opinion based on what he had just seen.
From Jonathan Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room”
Women & Men
This poem was written from a man’s perspective, through Strephon. This man saw Celia, his significant other or a prostitute, as this otherworldly beauty. He saw women, in general, as beautiful goddesses.He entered her room without her knowing and was immediately disgusted and disturbed by what he saw.He sees dirty combs, a spittoon, and a chamber pot.
Swift uses Men and Strephon interchangeably, but by using a name, Strephon, Swift made it more personal than “This man…” Swift seems like sexist to his own sex. In a way, he’s claiming that men are so engrossed in appearance that they forget that women are men but with different anatomies. So men should open their eyes to this realization. I believe that is what Swift concludes about men.
Women were portrayed as goddesses who are perfect and clean. It is flattering that men saw women as goddesses but that is only because women put time into making themselves look presentable. It is like celebrities getting their hair and makeup done for some fancy award show. The non-famous folk idolizes them because they are glamorous. Once the award show is over, the “war paint” comes off. The regular people then actually see what they truly look like and like Strephon, they don’t like what they see.
I think that Swift wanted to point out that women are human beings. With their faults and disgusting habits, they are here to stay. And men, like Strephon, should suck it up and realize that as long as he is living and is attracted to women, he better start getting used to it.
Joseph Addison, in “A Vision of Public Credit”, uses the “virgin” as the main character and “dance” to show conflict and resolution. This account represents the strengths and weaknesses of public credits in accordance with stressors and caretakers. Addison makes sure to carefully depict the virgin’s health and her surroundings as time passes, for she is the symbol of public credit. Virgin is usually defined as somebody who has never had sexual intercourse; however the connotations and stereotypes that have collected over the years are important to recognize in order to truly understand the conflict and resolution.
Purity and delicacy are the classically used terms to depict virgins. The qualities of delicacy and timidity lead to being easily influenced by her surroundings. In addition, purity is linked with the term and the idea of value. Purity greatly increases the value of our most cherished items such as gold and diamonds, and gives her the right to sit on the throne because she is uncorrupted by others.
In Addison’s time, virgins were under the control of their fathers. In this case, her father would be the government, trying to protect and find the best suitor for her. This behooves the father to find the best suitor so families can combine and become stronger, but the men are only interested in a pure virgin. Therefore she is only good before she is used. It is in the best interest of the nation not to use her in a tainted way or she could fall into the hands of an immoral idea.
The virgin observes the “dances” of a variety of phantoms. Addison uses “dance” to describe how the incoming spectres and apparitions attempt to court the virgin. The intentions were to show the interaction between the phantoms or different beliefs that could hurt or help the health of public credit; increasing the complexity of the conflict. It is beneficial to the audience to see the direct change in her health as each phantom passes. Dance becomes a term to replace the flow of the economy.
“Virgin” and “dance” refer to the main idea and conflict, which helps the reader understand the action. In this particular text, the action is directly related to the variance of value through the resolution of the virgin’s health. Credit, money, labor and more are all correlated through the rises and falls, or dance, of the economy. Addison utilizes different parts of the community, as an underlying theme, to show the proper use of credit. Understanding these terms helps readers see large effectors on the economy that they come into contact with daily.
Rereading “The Ladies’ Dressing Room,” I realize that the poem is not about two lovers at all, but about a john frustrated with the quality of a prostitute. Strephon feels he has been had, having to pay so much for a defective product. He finds Celia is worth less than he paid, and so feels cheated, because she uses the bathroom, has dirty stockings, leaves hair in the brush, and wears makeup. In short, he finds her humanity disgusting. In my opinion, he has no right to object if he still chooses to purchase her services. Swift’s poem is misogynistic, but still has some self-conscious humor. Strephon does still choose to sleep with Celia despite her imperfect hygiene. In the end, he is the butt of the joke: men are not picky: When Celia in her Glory shows, [135]
If Strephon would but stop his Nose;
(Who now so impiously blasphemes
Her Ointments, Daubs, and Paints and Creams,
Her Washes, Slops, and every Clout,
With which he makes so foul a Rout;) [140]
He soon would learn to think like me,
And bless his ravisht Sight to see
Such Order from Confusion sprung,
Such gaudy Tulips rais’d from Dung.”
In the end, Celia is still a woman, and Strephon a man. No matter how disgusting her hygiene habits, or how ugly or fat, men will sleep with anyone if they want it badly enough. So, when Celia finally “in her glory shows,” he must learn to stop his nose and go through with it.
Lady Montague’s poem is a counter to Swift’s male-oriented view of prostitution. Montague writes that the cause of Strephon’s ire at Celia, which led him to bash her hygiene, was that she wouldn’t sleep with him. Montague accurately takes the standpoint that the most likely reason for a man to bash a woman is because he has been spurned. It is a direct affront to a man’s masculinity when a woman will not sleep with him, and he in turn must undermine her value as a woman. This, according to Montague, is what would lead someone like Smith to write a poem about a woman called “The Lady’s Dressing Room.” Smith was attempting to make up for his own loss of esteem by devaluing someone else. If romance is a game of relative value, then this stance makes since.
Rereading both poems, the most important words are still “Strephon,” “Celia,” and “Gold.” This is because the poems are about a competition for value in relationships between a man and a woman. This competition for worth dictates who has the upper hand in a sexual partnership, or even between a prostitute and a john. Swift writes from the point of a generic male, Strephon, who feels that he is worth more than he is getting. Montague provides another scenario where Celia will not sleep with Strephon because he is not good enough for her. Though each author takes opposing viewpoints, both poems center around the same struggle: the economic battle of the sexes.
I picked words from Lady Mary Wortley’s “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to write a Poem called “The Lady’s Dressing Room” To pick words from.
I chose the word “Offering” from the poem used near the beginning, when Betty’s maid tells him that he’ll need to bring money if he intends to enjoy her mistress’ company. The word “offering” stuck out to me because I have always considered an offering to be a gift, something that one doesn’t intend to get recompense from; whereas Dr. S in this story is obviously looking to get something out of this arrangement. I think that by using the word “offering” in what is to very soon become a cut and dry business transaction Wortley is foreshadowing the conflict that is to come by almost making light of this transaction.
The second word I chose is from the same poem, down towards the middle where the narrator momentarily leaves the characters after money has changed hands and you fully expect the services to continue as planned, as do they “Expects the doctor’s warm embrace.” The word is “mad” from ” With learning mad, with wisdom blind!” Wortley is getting across that mankind is driven crazy with their own learning and are blind with our own wisdom; meaning that we can’t see the answers to things we think are already discovered. I think the line in which this word is used in particular meant for people (and maybe Dr.S) to open their eyes to what power and value shifts are going on around them.
I chose these two words because they both have to do with a kind of obliviousness in power. The first is used almost satirically, Dr. S ‘offers’ his money fully intending that he’ll get his money’s worth. “Mad” refers to a state of mind that one reaches when one thinks they know everything, like how Dr. S “knew” he would leave Betty’s fully satisfied. Instead, the economics of the situation didn’t play out the exact way he thought they would. Understanding this connection is important because it helps put into perspective the intentions that Dr. S has going into Betty’s and why things go the way they do when he *ahem* can’t perform.
The words lie and raised in “The Lady’s Dressing Room” by Jonathan Swift.
The first word from Swift’s poem that I find important is the word “lie”. Swift calls it a lie when other men describe Celia as sweet and cleanly. This one word summarizes the feelings that the main character Strephon is experiencing as he snoops through Celia’s dressing room. He feels betrayed and fooled when he discovers what she must take many disgusting steps to maintain her appearance. Strephon starts believing that female beauty is in fact a lie, and the value he has placed on that trait has been lost.
The second word important word is “raised”. This word is used by the narrator to when they say that Strephon should marvel at the beauty that rises from filth. This represents the exact opposite belief and experience that Strephon is currently going through. By using the word raise, Swift is creating an image that is very positive of women and their beauty. Rather than being as revolting as their dressing rooms, women are able to escape it and overcome the disadvantages of the normal human body to appear perfect.
I chose these two words because they are used in completely opposite manners and yet are both used to communicate the same overall point. Each describes the same discovery, one expressing disappointment and anger while the other displays respect and understanding. I think this contrast between the two is the very essence of this poem. That something that may be of little to no value to one individual can hold great value to another and that value is not an objective quality.
The “virgin” is the center of attention of Joseph Addison’s “Allegory of Public Credit.” Addison makes sure to carefully depict her health and her surroundings as time passes, for she is the symbol of publick credit. The denotation of the word is unhelpful while the connotation enhances the conflict and resolution in the text. The first goal is to directly represent the qualities of delicacy and timidity that is related to damsels in distress or the classical graceful virgin. This leads into the idea of being easily affected by her surroundings. Purity is another theme that is associated with the term and value. Purity greatly increases the value of our most cherished items such as gold and diamonds. In addition, purity gives her the right to sit on the throne because she is uncorrupted by others.
The virgin observes the “dances” of a variety of phantoms. Addison uses “dance” to describe the behavior of the incoming spectres and apparitions. This is fitting word based the distraction rather than direct contact with the virgin. Dance becomes a term to replace the flow of the economy. The intentions were to show the interaction between the phantoms or different beliefs that could hurt or help the health of publick credit; increasing the complexity of the conflict.
“Virgin” and “dance” refer to the main idea and conflict, which helps the reader understand the action. In this particular text, the action is directly related to the variance of value through the resolution of the virgin’s health. Credit, money, labor and more are all correlated through the rises and falls, or dance, of the economy. The dance can refer to different combinations or patterns that affect the success of public credit. This idea is in contrast to Defoe’s “on Credit,” where personal credit is not virginal. The use of these terms helps the reader understand large effectors on the economy they come into contact with daily.
I would like to discuss Addison’s Allegory of Public Credit and the opposing words “decay” and “revive” used to describe the varying state of the virgin of the Great Hall.
Described as beautiful, a valetudinarian, and timorous, the woman reacts to any bad news or phantoms by decaying from her health to take the form of a skeleton. Here, Addison shows how fragile the woman/credit is and how she/it can go from splendor to ruin quickly and easily. This contrasts with the way I normally think of decay, as a slow process of losing strength and viability. Such a state implies that the woman is weakened to the point of death, putting public credit in danger of collapse.
Instead of remaining withered, Addison describes the woman’s immediate revival back to full health upon arrival of the specters. Here he shows how the woman/credit may be weakened by conflict, but can return to her/its former self within a short time when given the right conditions. It is interesting that this revival brings about her exact state of health as is was before, whereas revival can imply a chronic weakness following the recovery. This hope for a reliable public credit is what brings about such joy as Addison sees her come back to life in the presence of the specters.
These words “decay” and “revive” are interesting in this text because they oppose one another, emphasizing the fragile state of public credit. While the woman can be in a very healthy state at one point, the next she could be very near death, and she jumps between these quickly. While credit can decay quickly, it is very important that she is able to revive quickly from even the worst antagonists.
Timorous and Moderation, as used in Joseph Addison’s Allegory of Public Credit.
Timorousness is constant fear, or something that is always timid. As in the allegory, economy tends to be incredibly sensitive to any sort of unrest, shrinking at the fear of war or even just the hint of foul weather. Even though the economy is abnormally timid towards any perceived threats, sometimes the caution towards a dwindling commodity, such as oil, can pay off though it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy with demand and prices shooting through the roof simply because they were predicted to.
Moderation in regards to the economy however is keeping a steady course with careful and minor adjustments to avoid disaster. Ideally an economy will remain moderate, spending carefully within its bounds and leaving fickle credit sitting on the doorstep. But since the economy is run by human beings, moderation is often just a pipe dream, driven by the ever changing and often unpredictable market.
While at first blush moderation and timorousness seem to be diametrically opposed, but caution often can be an asset. Excessive fear and excessive confidence are both deadly, though in recent years reckless spending has disrupted countries such as the United States and Greece and have begun to suffer during this economic downturn, as well as inflicting collateral damage to their neighbors. Other countries such as Germany however have tried to remain within their means and as a result have remained afloat even as the United States’ economy flounders.
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