Sunteți pe pagina 1din 9

JD Hunnicutt 03/19/13 The Evolution of Masculine Identity In English Renaissance Poetry

At the dawn of the English Renaissance, the role of the masculine remained defined by traditional masculine roles set forth in the older feudal system which proceeded. With the ascension of Henry VIII to the throne, a courtly system began to develop, supplanting the former. As more and more individuals attained political and monetary success, a middle class of nonroyal citizens developed around new codes of gender conduct. These social changes were reflected in the poetry of the time. Two poets, in particular, showcased this evolution. The examination of this poetic shift illustrates the comparable social changes they reflect. By comparing and contrasting poems written by Thomas Wyatt and John Donne, the role of the masculine is seen to develop and change in regards to its effect on female and social identity. Wyatts Transition in They Flee From Me. Throughout the lyric journey of Thomas Wyatts, They flee from me, gender roles are permeable, including the transposition of the male and female. Historians generally agree that members of Wyatts emerging and increasing influential middle class were rising into positions of greater public importance than were available in the prior generations (Kamholtz 352). This shifting in the social male identity is demonstrated by Wyatts description of the narrators view toward women in the first stanza. The definition of love here is aggressive. The narrator describes the women he encounters in an animalistic way. The women are wild and do not remember / That sometime they put themselves in danger (Norton 653). These women are fluid, both in their actions and in the classic gender role they occupy. The male force is seen as

Hunnicutt 2 constant. It is the one that remains in control. This not only reflects the social position of the traditional Englishman, but also serves to establish the role of the male in regard to love at the beginning of the English Renaissance. Transitioning to the second stanza, Wyatts narrator goes from the point of male dominance to one of submission. A key aspect of this transition is the shift from sexual dominance to love. Love here is used as a shared component of both the masculine and the feminine. The traditional avenue of how the male should approach the female is categorized in stanza 1. In the second, love is blocking the traditional public avenues of young men towards success. The female now catches the man in her arms, taking control and both emotionally and physically dominating the masculine force of the narrator. This showcases the ambiguity of the masculine functioning in this transitional state (Kamholtz 354). The male lover is without an authentic, natural place and is thrown back into himself by the power demonstrated by the female when she asks the male narrator, Dear heart, how like you this? (Norton 654). This question, being asked to the male, illustrates how Wyatt expresses the gender shift from the dominance in the first stanza. The third stanza is an introspection of the narrator into this ambiguity. The situation the narrator experiences, being reality and no dream, underscores the importance in the narrators mind of understanding the role of the masculine in his society. He can no longer treat the feminine as something to be controlled and tamed for his pleasure, nor can he allow the feminine to dominate him. The narrator has entered a third stage of gender, one of raised equality. Wyatts use of the word newfangleness showcases this new state of gender identity. It is a state of confusion. The rigors of courtly love has passed, along with its accretion of traditional and restrictive understanding, yet the females use of the newfangleness suggests a systems

Hunnicutt 3 without any clearly defined roles, where lovers serve no system other than the appeasement of the ego. Kamholtz quotes Raymond Southalls The Courtly Maker, where the author insists that the readers of Wyatt not overlook the political aspect of this amorous complaint (352). At the time of Wyatt, England is transitioning from a feudal society into a courtly one, through the radical reforms of Henry VIII. The problems of this shift are reflected in each stanza. The masculine narrator confronts the power of the new feminine, where he transforms the actions of the female from the stereotypical fickle portrayal into emblems of mutability (Kay 217). Through this mutability, the confusion of the third stanza reflects onto the social changes Wyatt is observing. The concept and definition of love are questioned. The identity of subject is pitted against the dominate. Wyatt use of a male narrator to question these transitions in the poem still shows that the masculine voice is the one of overall strength. The male is the one left to question the females actions, questions, and what she hath deserved (Norton 654). This indicates that in Wyatts society, the masculine voice remains the one of power. Donnes The Flea in Separating and Defining Gender Identity Whereas Wyatt explored confusion in the masculines changing role, John Donne expresses a sheer delight in the secular and spiritual aspects of love and sex in The Flea. Donne leaves the realm of courtly love and shows a world of seduction where the masculine can utilize guile and charm for the sake of physical passion. By using the symbol of the flea, Donne is able to engage in a realm of symbolism in order to give his readers the image of a masculine sexual conquest while remaining within the bounds of social decency. By employing this metaphysical approach, with remains outside of objective opinion, Donne was able to examine the boundaries of masculine power when positioned against the feminine.

Hunnicutt 4 The opening stanza of Donnes poem "The Flea" provides the groundwork for this metaphysical wordplay with gender. Here, the masculine becomes identified with the female seduced through the mutual sucking of the insect:

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; (Norton 1373)

Donne deploys his linguistic skill as a masculine persuasive force in terms that can seem to denigrate the very women for whom the poet professes love and to undermine even the most apparently genuine expressions of devotion (Mintz 577). In using a creature like a flea, Donne is able to utilize the animals diminutive size with its ability to extract and mingle bodily fluid, in this case blood, for a means of seduction. This device allows the narrator to begin the act of seduction in a lighthearted way. The masculine voice immediately throws off any worries the feminine might hold. The bite of a flea is a natural act. Because it is natural, the mingling of fluid and blood is also natural and therefore not a sin. The masculine use of rhetorical logic continues in the remainder of the first stanza. Even though the flea has bitten the narrator and the woman he addresses, mingling their blood, her virginity remains intact. The speaker demonstrates to the woman not to consider the act of intercourse "A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead" because a flea bite, which, like sex, would mingle the two lovers' blood, could not be classified as sinful by this rational. Donne's speaker urges the woman to see their potential sex act as not sinful, but his attempt to persuade her only

Hunnicutt 5 functions if the terms through which sex is understood (Bach 268). This underlining sexual tone is tempered at the stanzas conclusion. The verb swells, which refers to the fleas ingestion of the mingled blood can also be read a swelling pregnant belly in the female, or by a blood-filled phallus in the male. The male narrator then pulls the focus from his sexual desire again by suggesting that this, alas, is more than we would do, implying that the act of sex he proposes is not for procreation, but rather for physical pleasure. The playful innuendo of the narrator turns towards a religious justification for the sexual act in the second stanza. Now that the definition of whether or not the act of sex constitutes a sin has been muddled in the mind and conscience of the feminine, the masculine narrator employs the tactic of incorporating religious imagery. The three lives contained within the flea is a direct reference to the Trilogy of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not only does this symbolism reflect the spiritual nature of what the narrator purposes, but all three members of the Godhead are male. It is the ultimate expression of masculine power represented in this poem. The narrator never mentions the joining of God with the Virgin Mary. No reference to the power of the feminine is used. For the female to deny the masculine power behind the flea has become a sin against God. In this way, to resist the masculine desires of the flea, and the narrator, is likened to the three great sins of murder, suicide, and sacrilege. The equation of the sin continues into the final stanza, where the feminine has destroyed the flea, implying the she did not sleep with the male narrator. He then claims she will lose no more honor when she decides to sleep with him than she did when she killed the flea. Although the female states that neither is weaker for the sin, the male identity reminds her that all sins are sins against God and whether she engaged sexually or not with the narrator, she has sinned and lost her honor. The author, through symbols and rhetoric, has shown his readers that neither

Hunnicutt 6 gender is completely dominate in power. The masculine dictates the story, but the feminine does not falter. Donne exhibits not only an ability to recognize women's separate identity, but also, at his most explicitly revisionary, a desire to exceed the restrictions of binary gender roles (Mintz 578) The Merger of Gender Identity In The Flea, Donne demonstrates his ability to separate gender aspects to show the strengths of both. In his poem, The Ecstasy, Donne shows how the power of the masculine and the feminine can be intertwined into a single body. The body here is also represented as the soul, the two both being virtually one in the same, and the differences are Small when we are to bodies gone (Norton 1388). The Flea shows a slowly building agreement to the recognition by the masculine towards the power of the feminine. In The Ecstasy, Donne incorporates both genders into one entity, despite having the only physicality occur by the couple holding each others hand. Here the author is not concerned with narrative as such, or a base sexual desire but with the importance of love. Throughout each stanza, Donne uses the combination of masculine and feminine power to annihilate the differences. The second stanza is the moment where the male and female begin to lose their individuality. Line 4 of the first stanza indicates that the two genders are separate, but the narrator gives the reader the first hint of the ambiguity of power through gender that is to come, as each gender is considered one anothers best (Norton 1386). Immediately, this shows a mutual respect for each gender that is not immediately showcased in the previous poems. Stanza two introduces a shared sense of sight between the two through the first sense showed, touch. The sightlines each possesses twist and become a double strand composed of two smaller, focused on a single point. The concept of one shared vision alludes to the masculine entity and

Hunnicutt 7 the feminine both focused on the same goal. One is not leading the other nor does either follow. The goal is clearly defined in stanza three. Unlike the theme of sexual gratification for the physicals sake in The Flea, here the ideal is a sexual union for the sake of propagation, bringing a sense of noble love to the pair. The sense of speech is the next to meld separate gender identity into one. The two are content to lie in silence, comfortable in this state. Donne uses a contrasting image of Fate leading armies to victory, implying that one gender tends to attempt to dominate conversation in order to showcase a superiority of power. Instead of expressing power in a verbal way, the joined pair uses the souls language, which is one both can understand. The observer of this, called He in line 25, is unable to tell which soul is speaking. The observer describes this as a way of communication as a new concoction that is far purer than where he is from. The pronoun he used by Donne here is an important admission to the theme of a combination of the masculine and the feminine being superior in strength than the individual masculine power alone. The masculine third party observing the action of "The Ecstasy" sees the same annihilation of sexual differences and of individuality in which both lovers become one as a consummation of the ultimate meaning and end of love: This ecstasy doth unperplex, We said, and tell us what we love; We see by this, it was not sex; We see we saw not what did move But as all several souls contain Mixture of things, they know not what, Love, these mixt souls, doth mix again,

Hunnicutt 8 And makes both one, each this and that. (Lines 29-36)

This is a love which infuses the soul of the lover into that of the beloved giving them a new, spiritual form. Donne's lovers are refined, or purified of materiality (Cirillo 91). Through this mixing of the souls of the male and female are observed to be stronger than the individual. Line 40 indicates that this mingling does not double the strength of the two sexes. Instead it multiplies continuously. The more the male and female abandon individual sexual roles, the greater each becomes. The spiritual union at issue here is one in which the lovers are united so that they become one another, not physically but spiritually, by means of an ecstasy which annihilates those barriers separating them (Cirillo 85). The bodies belong to the individual, though it is clearly stated that the bodies are not we: we are/ The intelligences, they the sphere (Norton 1388). The body of the male and female is important, as it was through the physical touching of hands that the souls were able to join. Flesh is a conveyance to a higher plane. The body allows for sensory perception, yet it is through this that the senses are ultimately unnecessary. Once the body has completed the task of homogenous union, the lover is free to have the eternal joining of the soul. The representation of the masculine in English Renaissance and metaphysical poetry was a process of evolution the corresponded to the upheavals and changes in society. Wyatts poem illustrates confusion as to the male identity with regards to female power. The Flea shows how this confusion could be utilized through religious symbolism and rhetorical wit to attempt to achieve male physical desires, only thwarted the feminine power to resist. Donnes The Ecstasy incorporates both the male and female identity in order to show that as society progressed, the combination of the masculine and the feminine was greater than the sum of its

Hunnicutt 9 parts, creating a singular being superior both physically and spiritually to either identity alone. By the examination of this evolution, the concept of how gender was viewed and the traditional roles of each can be explored to show that, although the masculine remained the source of most of the social power, the feminine grew in importance and is shown as eventually developing into an equal force in many regards.

S-ar putea să vă placă și