Truly the Americas’ First Feminist? Failing to Set a Precedent In Estela Portillo Trambley’s play Sor Juana the main character Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was considered to be one of the earliest feminists. Sor Juana’s eternal struggles to study and unshakable craving for knowledge and wisdom, from whatever source it may be, support this attribute. In my opinion however, there are also significant elements of the play that suggest that Sor Juana would not be considered a true feminist. Of these reasons, there are three major ones that I will analyze. The first reason is that Sor Juana gave up her struggle for the acquirement of knowledge from books and settled for reading from religiously accepted writing, essentially giving up what she had been originally fighting for and abandoning her previous ideals. Secondly, Sor Juana only fought for herself and what she wanted to pursue.
She did not fight for other women or in other political, economic, or social spheres. Finally, the play fails to identify how Sor Juana set any kind of precedent or example by accomplishing anything that women before her had never accomplished. In the remainder of this essay I will analyze how Trambley’s representation of Sor Juana is that of a woman concerned only with her own desires and also a woman that gave up her struggle for personal rights that she had once been so motivated to attain prior to setting any precedent for women as a group. One major reason that I do not consider Sor Juana to be the “Americas’ First Feminist” is that she gave up her struggle for what she originally wanted so badly.
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CRL James’ Minty Alley and Herbert G. Delisser’s Janes’ Career both illustrates the realities that women are confronting in the society. In his novel, CRL James demonstrated this women condition not only by the women characters in the novel but also by the male character who exhibited the macho image which relegating women as sexual object. This was particularly exemplified by the characters of ...
In the beginning, Sor Juana went through so much and worked so hard to learn and read and attain knowledge. She seemed so strong, looking past being laughed at and not taken seriously and continuing her quest to study. She began to give in and her original goals started to slip away. .” … and the Church will let me learn.” (151).
This quote illustrates how Sor Juana joined the convent to be able to learn because she was not allowed to learn otherwise. Sor Juana settled for life in a convent. She was then forced to live a stricter lifestyle and was limited in her reading materials. It seems she complied with little struggle. Then she felt guilty for having used God in the first place to help her achieve her goal. This led to the abandonment of her original purpose altogether.
Sor Juana says, “My whole life was sinful… .” (164), and “They accuse me of loving knowledge more than God.” (171).
Both of these quotes show how Sor Juana used the Church to be able to learn rather than to continue fighting for admittance into a university. This whole progression of events is evidence that Sor Juana was never a true feminist. Although she was an assertive and determined young woman earlier in life, Sor Juana learned to accept the way the world was, abandoned what feminist ideals she had had, and devoted her later life to pleasing God and being a good nun. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, as portrayed in Trambley’s play is only concerned with her own desires.
She never shows interest in other women’s rights and she never speaks to other women about the idea of equal rights. She does not encourage her fellow females to fight to attend colleges and learn. It is like to Sor Juana, there is no such thing as another woman who desires the same things as she. To me this limits the extent to which Sor Juana could be called a feminist. She never, in any way, attempted to fight for the rights of anyone beside herself, and for no thing besides the freedom to study and become learned. It is much more applicable to refer to Sor Juana as one of the first in a sort of evolutionary linearity of what finally became feminism.
The Essay on Sor Juana De La Cruz Hombres Necios que Acuasis
Sor Juana De La Cruz naci? alredador 1648 en San Miguel Nepantla, una puebla cerca de la Ciudad de M?xico. Sor Juana era hija natural de Pedro Manuel de Asbaje y Isabel Ramirez. Su padre no est? muy conocido porque se abandan? a Sor Juana y Isabel cuando Juana tenia solo tres a?os. El abuelo de Sor Juana, Pedro Ramirez, era muy educado y desde su ni?ez Sor Juana tenia un pasi?n para leyendo y ...
At the low end of the evolutionary spectrum are characters like Sor Juana. She was forthright and assertive about what she desired, but she lacked the ability or means to organize or extend her struggle to any topic area that did not directly interest her. When Sor Juana says, “My journey is at an end, my purpose chills… .” (184), it demonstrates how after awhile Sor Juana realized that she probably would not change anything, abandoned her struggle, and resorted back to a life that society advocated.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is what we consider a true feminist today: eternally fighting, protesting, and organizing for equal rights for women in every aspect of everything that does not yet hold equal rights for women, and even some that do. I interpret feminism to be the belief that women have the right to do whatever men do. This belief is not abandoned when the struggle becomes frustrating and little progress is being made. It is this definition of feminism that keeps me from agreeing that Sor Juana, as represented in Trambley’s play is the “Americas’ First Feminist.” She may have been one of the first in a sequence of assertive women that later organized, struggled, and became feminists, but as far as the play is concerned, Sor Juana was only interested in being able to pursue her own desires. The only argument I can contrive that would contradict these ideas is that Sor Juana may have thought that one of the only things she would have been able to accomplish would have been to set a precedent. Had Sor Juana been successful in entering a college of study or pursuing her dreams of learning, people would no longer be able to say that doing so was something women didn’t do or couldn’t do.
According to the play, Sor Juana was not successful in doing that. She gave up before succeeding. She never set a precedent in the plight of women for equality. No evidence was ever shown to support the idea that Sor Juana accomplished anything that women before her did not accomplish. Sor Juana says herself, “I am only a woman incapable of changing worlds.” (184).
This is also a main reason that Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, as she was represented in Trambley’s play, is not truly the “Americas’ First Feminist.” In conclusion, the reasons I have discussed above are sufficient evidence to show that Sor Juana, as she is represented in Trambley’s play is not truly the “Americas’ First Feminist.” Assertive and intelligent she was, but determined to make any change to the inequality experienced by women by being anything other than a precedent she was not. Also preventing her from being a true feminist is the fact that she was unsuccessful in accomplishing something that no woman had done before. Sor Juana abandoned her struggle to follow her dreams of pursuing something that no woman had ever accomplished prior. She was also unconcerned with the plight of other women, only her own desires to pursue her dreams. Ultimately, becoming just another obedient woman following the constraints of society is what prevents Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz from being a true feminist.
The Essay on Sor Juana
Sor Juana In?s de Asbaje y Ram?rez de Santillana, naci? en 12 de noviembre de 1651 en San Miguel de Nepantla, Amecameca. Fue hija de padre vasco y madre mexicana. Toc?le en suerte vivir una ?poca en que la literatura nacional era copia, m?s o menos fiel, de la espa?ola; culteranisrno, estilo que se agudiza en gongorismo; y la tendencia de los escritores de ese tiempo a escribir ?nicamente en ...
