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  • Essay / Structuralist and feminist perspective of “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell

    “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell is a carpe diem metaphysical poem that dates from the mid-17th century. It is also a poem of seduction, in which the speaker tries to convince his mistress to make love with him. “To His Mistress Coy” by Andrew Marvell can be used through structuralism and feminist lenses. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Structuralism is concerned with structures, “they must be considered in the context of the larger structure of which they are a part” (Barry, 2013, p. 48). It studies the technique, procedure, construction and language of the text; to show how literary devices produce aesthetic effects such as rhyme, rhythmic pattern, arrangement of words, repetition of sound, etc. According to Tyson (2006), structuralists "describe the structure of a single literary work to discover how its composition demonstrates the underlying principles of a given structural system." Ferdinand de Saussure is the one who developed structural linguistics. He used the term "language" to refer to the linguistic system and "parole" to refer to a particular unit in a language. Strauss and Barthes gave a new direction to structuralism and followed the Saussurean principle of binary opposition. Guérin et al. (2005) noted that structuralism uses a close reading of text that examines structure, form, interaction, interrelationships, denotation and connotations, contexts, images, symbols, repeated details, structure drama, balances and tensions, rhythms and rhymes, sounds, voice. , precise words and lines, irony, paradox, point of view, theme, etc. to discover what “contributes to the singularity of the work” and creates its meaning. Meaning emerges from the text itself, not from context or external information. Now, for a structuralist interpretation of Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", this article focuses on the structure of the poem itself; for example, title, syllogistic pattern, style, diction, figurative devices like hyperbole, metaphysical conceit and wit, simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, etc. “To His Coy Mistress” is a dramatic monologue meaning poem in which a single character speaks to a silent listener. The structure of the poem is made up of 3 unequal stanzas of 20, 12 and 14 lines. The metrical pattern of the poem is iambic tetrameter with 8 syllables in each line. Each foot consists of a syllable without accent followed by a syllable with accent. For example, it sits on your skin like mourning dew. Although the rhyme schemes follow a simple couplet pattern like aa, bb, cc, etc., two couplets use rhyme slanted towards an irregular rhyme. For example, lines 27 and 28 represent the irregularity: “try/virginity”. The poem has a less formal sound and is more like a conversation. It reads normally and smoothly. “To his Coy Mistress” is structured with numerous binary oppositions such as male/female, subject/object, consumer/consumed, life/death and present/non-present. There are differences in a language without a fixed term. Structuralists use the terms language and speech. The language that relates to the words “To his Coy Mistress” is the notion of poetry as a genre, as a body of literary practice. The poem is written in the form of what is called a syllogism. A syllogism is an argument developed in a strictly logical form and leading to a definitive conclusion. A syllogistic argument consists of thesesteps and each step begins with three words: “If”, “But” and “So”. In this poem we find three clearly marked sections. The first section begins with “If”: “If we had enough people and time. » The first word of this sentence, “Had” conveys the meaning of “If” and the phrase means that the speaker imagined he had enough people and time. The second part of the poem begins with “But”: “But behind my back I always hear.” Here the speaker said that in reality, life is not eternal. And the third section begins with “Therefore”: “Now therefore, while the youthful hue. » The speaker convinces the mistress to seize the time and make love with him. So in the first section the poem states a condition and in the second section the reasons why this condition cannot be fulfilled are given and finally the arguments end with a conclusion. The conclusion that Marvell draws in the poem supports the “carpe diem” theme of seizing the opportunity. The poem uses a number of metaphysical and witty conceits. In lines 11 and 12, the speaker says that if they do not intervene in the physical union, their love is in bad taste. Another metaphysical conceit is presented in lines 27 and 28 where the woman is lying in the grave where the worms have the power to seduce a woman. The poem was established as a metaphysical poem through the great use of words, wit and personal emotion. The poet's use of metaphor and simile is remarkable. “Like birds of prey in love” indicates the speaker's desire to make love to his mistress. The use of like or as is considered a comparison. On the other hand, the poem uses a metaphor comparing his love to a vegetable. His love grows steadily, just like the vegetables. Personification is also found in this poem. Time is personified by a winged chariot. Time is not a human being and has no chariot. In the poem, the poet uses images. The image of the “winged chariot” represents time passing quickly. The imagery of “birds of prey” and “violent conflict” focuses the self-destructive. The image of the “iron gates of life” presents the cruel reality of the world and life. Irony is also noticed in the poem. For example: “This long-preserved virginity, and your old-fashioned honor, are transformed into dust, and into ashes all my desire; the grave is a beautiful and private place, but no one, I think, can kiss there.” The speaker tells the mistress that time will turn her honor to dust and her desire to ashes. He also threatens the mistress if she doesn't take the time to have fun, she will regret it once she dies. Andrew Marvell shows the best aesthetic qualities in “To his Coy Mistress”. More generally, feminism “is concerned with the marginalization of all women: that is, their relegation to a secondary position” in a society dominated by men. ". It contains political and social aspects, which differentiates this approach from many other critical approaches. More specifically, "feminist critics generally agree that their goals are to denounce patriarchal premises and resulting biases, to promote women's discovery and reevaluation of literature, and to examine social contexts , cultural and psychosexual of literature and literary criticism. Feminist critics therefore study sexual, social, and political issues formerly considered “external” to the study of literature” (Guérin et al. 2005). Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. This form of literary critical analysis appeared at the endof the 1970s. Feminist literary criticism today is the direct product of the "women's movement" of the 1960s. This movement is literary from the beginning, in the sense that it becomes aware of the importance of images of women conveyed by literature and considers it vital to combat them and question their authority. Critical attention was paid to books by male writers in which influential or typical images of women were constructed. Most feminists viewed language and literature as a means of male domination. The content of the poem “To his Coy Mistress” is nothing but a reflection of male psychology which represents social notions of patriarchy. This patriarchal ideology is discussed on different levels, such as the images of women conveyed in literature, the socialization of women and the exploration of women's identity, etc. All feminist critiques fight against the formation of women's identities. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” is an example of sexual discrimination and the patriarchal notion that imposes certain gender rules on women. The poem is structured into three parts, and each part accumulates its frustration and the poet soon becomes agitated with desire. Marvell begins the poem in a tone of courtly love. He tries to convince her in the manner of Petrarch. Throughout the poem, the speaker shows women that they are first desirable, then disgusting, but in the end it is the female body itself that becomes for him a loathsome symbol of death and death. the decadence to which all ultimately descend. The first two lines of the poem state: “If we had had enough people and time, this shyness, madam, would not be a crime.” Here, his shyness is interpreted as his inability to express himself in society. The representation of the lady in this poem is purely patriarchal. He is competent enough to give her both sexual and social fullness. Male superiority is expressed through the concept of "vegetable love", a reference to one's penis and fertility and the woman is only a medium in the process, a fertile soil. The mistress represents an object of prey. The speaker considers it “his” property. Here in the poem the speaker says that he is ready to worship her for many years rather than on every part of the Lady's body. The speaker sees beauty in women's physical objects. He praised her eyes, her chest and every part of her body for centuries as beautiful doll objects. A woman's beauty cannot be limited to her physical appearance, but this type of representation is made by proponents of patriarchal notions and "To His Coy Mistress" is a reflection of these notions. With the beginning of stanza II, a frustrating tone begins to prevail. and the language becomes more aggressive. Speaker shows disgust for the female body and compares it to death and decadence. The very idea of ​​worms breaking a woman's long-preserved virginity is nothing short of humiliating. The speaker says that the worms will be the ones to admire her virginity once she dies. "...then the worms will try this long-preserved virginity: and your picturesque honor will turn to dust." Rather than upholding the value of his virginity, he mocks it as an "antiquated honor", which is a direct reference to female genitalia. She is compared to the “winged chariot” and the “marble vault” which does not represent her, not hers. The speaker thinks that this preserved virginity is of no use after death. Even after his death, he fears that his flesh will be eaten by worms or insects in the marble vault. Although he knows this, he wants to make love with her. He calls making love a "sport", which means that..