1. To His Coy Mistress
A Feminist Approach…

2. The Speaker… Addresses himself to a coy or an unwilling woman
Pleads for sex using the argument that they have not “world enough and time” to delay.
Seeks to frighten her into compliance: this is shown in his descriptions of her body: her eyes, forehead, “ the rest” and “every part”
He wants her to “show” her heart

3. The Woman Is unwilling to accept the speaker Is quite intelligent
Is compared to a “marble vault”
Despite her charms, her vault is coldly closed to him
The speaker clinches the attack with the next image “then worms shall try/that long preserved virginity” (line 27-28)
She has no reaction to this…

4. This poem is pro-feminist because…
(1)the woman remains in control throughout the poem
Despite the speakers assaults, she remains in control- she doesn’t give in
The speaker is put down: “Nor in thy marble vault shall sound my echoing song” (line 26)
The speaker’s tone is frustration/anger towards the end: “then worms shall try that long preserved virginity, and your quaint honor turn to dust…The grave’s a fine and private place” (line 27-31)

5. This poem is pro-feminist because…
(2) the speaker, a man, is shown as foolish, irrational, and arrogant
He puts her on a pedestal while assaulting/harassing her: “Though by the Indian Ganges’ side shouldst rubies find; I by the tide of Humber would complain” (line 5-7).
He is irrational: he puts her on that pedestal, showing how she’s beautiful and precious, but then later on says, “But at my back I always hear times winged chariot hurrying near;... Thy beauty shall no more be found;” (lines 22-25).
Shows how he lives in the present; stupid- doesn’t think long-term.

6. THE END!!!

7. A Feminist Approach to
A Farewell to Arms

8. The Feminist Approach says…
“Woman aren’t different from men; women are constructed differently by men”
De Beauvoir
Man defines human, not woman.
A woman CAN be a hero or code hero!!!

9. In A Farewell to Arms…
Frederic is not in control of his relationship with Catherine
he is controlled BY HER
example: Catherine plays “the game” of love with Frederic “not for diversion, but for survival. Hers is a sophisticated game, over his head, and Frederic does not understand the stakes” (Spanier 135)
example: Catherine declares, “We’re going to have a strange life”
“thereby taking control, and casting Frederic-compliant, convenient, and quite unsuspecting- as substitute player for her boy who was killed” (Spanier 135).

10. Frederic is not in control…
He does what she says
Ex: interesting dialogue:
Catherine: “Say, ‘I’ve come back to Catherine in the night.’”
Frederic: “I’ve come back to Catherine in the night.”
Catherine: “Oh darling, you have come back, haven’t you?”
This was during her third meeting with Frederic, and she’s already controlling him!!!
Implying her dead lover!!!

11. Frederic is not in control..
A final example of a revealing dialogue
Frederic: “Do you always know what people think?”
Catherine: “Not always. But I do with you.”
Catherine knows all about him- she can control situations in a way that benefits HER, not THEM.
Goes back to the idea that her game is for survival

12. THE END!!!