View of Puritans through Anna Bradstreet By One can learn the culture of early Puritans by reading the poems by Anna Bradstreet, one the many famous authors at her time. In her poems Anna described the position of a women in Puritan family. In specific she talk about how their position, duties, and religion affected them and how it made them feel. In Anna poems you clearly see that, she very much believes in God ” My soul, rejoice thou in thy God” quote from the poem ” My soul Rejoice Thou thy God” here Anna tells how much she loves God yet further down the line, she hates her husband. I believe that women prayed to God a lot and with much passion, they asked for a better life, not in the country it self but a better family environment, and the their life to move faster. After a careful analyzes of the poem, I was able to draw my conclusion that, in their period of time, Puritans practiced the absolute male authority and the assumption that of female weakness and inferiority.
Good example of this would be a quote from the same poem as above “Boast of him all the day, Walk in His law, and kiss His rod Cleave close to Him always.” Notice how “him” and “his” are always capitalized in each poem. This quote also tells us how women were treated and regarded as. Although they were not treated well or with much respect as today, it can be learned from the poems that women were also very important individuals. Their duties were to farm and to devote themselves to the family.
The Essay on The Puritan Family
Edgar S. Morgan gives a complete understanding of the Puritan Faith in his novel, The Puritan Family. He shows how the Puritans honored God above all, and that the Puritans primary goal was to lead an honest life filled with blessings which, in turn, would secure a place in heaven for themselves. The novel describes in detail the duties and expectations of every member of the Puritan family. ...
Anna Bradstreet poems are vital for our ability to learn the social class of Puritans women, her poems gave us a chance to learn for a personal experience of a women from her perspective, and not from the men’s one.
