I have finished reading Jonathan Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room.” In summary, the poem is discussing how Swift believes women who make themselves appear beautiful (doll themselves up) are lying, disgusting creatures. Swift despises human pride and believes that women are full of pride which is his reasoning behind writing the poem. If you have not read the poem I will summarize it for you.
In the beginning stanza Celia, a beautiful woman, appears from her dressing room after taking five hours to get ready. In response her lover, Strephon, goes inside her dressing room to take a look around. The stanzas following the first illustrate what Strephon sees, each stanza making Celia appear dirty and grotesque. Some examples of what Strephon sees include: cosmetics made from Celia’s dead dog, smelly used towels, tweezers that pluck her facial hair, and a dandruff filled comb. Swift even alludes to Celia’s chest as Pandora’s Box (the first woman in Greek mythology whose box contained all evils) to express Celia’s dressing room and Celia herself as horrific. In the concluding stanza, Swift discusses how he views women and hopes that Strephon can now view women in the same way—lying, deceitful, grotesque creatures whose hide their true appearance.
In response to the piece, I was horrified and angered. Swift illustrates women as creatures who take too much pride in their appearance and thus are deceitful people. He spends the majority of his poem degrading women. The two lines that hit me the most are the last two which read, “Such order from confusion sprung/Such gaudy tulips raised from dung.” These two lines express Swift’s whole perspective on the women population. Women take too much pride in themselves but are truly nothing but dung, dirt, crap. To think that one poem could contain such degrading and unfathomable expressions is incomprehensible to me. Swift is a clear misogynist who knows nothing about the true intentions of a woman, such as myself. I do take pride in my appearance. On occasions I take the time (not the exaggerated five hours that Swift sarcastically writes) to make myself appear a certain way. I do not do this to deceive men or because I believe myself to be better than others. I do so because I am a woman. I am a feminine being who likes to show that femininity through my choice in clothing, and though I am feminine that does not make me part of the patriarchal society. (I believe that even in a dress I can dominate in what is supposed to be a male role, a career field, strength, hard labor, etc.) Though I take pride in my appearance as Celia does I am not deceiving nor am I hiding my grotesque nature (as Swift would like to say). Swift is simply a man who believes in a patriarchal society where the women must not overstep their bounds. Taking pride in appearance or even the work of a woman would be impossible for Swift and he believes that any woman who does so herself is simply a “…gaudy tulip raised from dung” but I believe Swift to be the dung that those beautiful tulips are tainted with and his character Strephon to be the average Neanderthal that follows along.
~A Girl and Her Heels
Yes Girl and her heels, I'm afraid you've got Swift wrong. He is saying, at the end, that he loves women and thinks them beautiful even though he knows they are earthbound creatures who shit just like men. For love resides in this creature of the earth.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how I read the poem!
ReplyDeleteits a satire, as in the poem is criticising how men view women as these perfect creatures when behind closed doors they shit and are just like men. Look at the context of the time he was writing and his satirical style and you'll see how the poem works as a criticism on 18th century and ideals on feminine beauty. lt's very exaggerated which adds to the shock value of the events taking place but also remember to separate the author from the voice and not just look at one perspective of it. it is just a poem after all
ReplyDeletelol this is satire, not a hate speech on women. Swift utelizes satirical irony quite a bit. in one of his other works (a modest proposal) he talks about the eating of children during a famine, as a commentary on society, not actually on eating children
ReplyDeletethis is a satire, its not to be taken as a jib at woman.It is meerly swift pointing out taboo subjects at the time.woman were put on pedestols thats why men had to work so hard in the chase for them.victorian woman had to be good housewives.woman at this time had to be beutyfull .he is meerly pointing out that woman crap just like men do!
ReplyDeleteThe message of the poem is that there are two ways to degrade a person: to degrade them, or to put them on a pedestal. Strephon first viewed Celia as unnaturally perfect, then became disgusted at finding out that she's human and poops just like he does; in other words, he fell into both pitfalls, and Swift is mocking him for it.
ReplyDelete