Female Society in Turkey and England in the 1700s

In the 1700s, people used travel writings as a way to experience and learn about another culture that they had never visited.  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s writings about her travels in Turkey were good examples of that.  Because she was a woman, Montagu was also able to provide a certain perspective that travel writing had previously been lacking.  We can learn many things about the differences between women and society in Turkey and England in the 1700s from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s letters written about the Turkish baths.  Montagu’s position as an influential woman allowed her to give us some insight into the Turkish culture that we would not be able to get from a man. 

Due to her unique position, Montagu was able to enter the Turkish baths and spend time with the women there.  One of the first things Montagu notices when she arrives at the baths is that she is dressed very differently from the others.  She observes that “I was in my traveling habit…and certainly appeared very extraordinary to them.  Yet there was not one of them that showed the least surprise or impertinent curiosity, but received me with all the obliging civility possible” (2761).  Her clothing is very out of place there, but they still treat her very kindly.  She comments that women in England would never have been this polite to a stranger, particularly one dressed as differently as she is.  In England there are “…disdainful smiles or satirical whispers…when anyone appears that is not dressed exactly in fashion” (2761).  The Turkish women are much more accepting of Montagu’s differences than British women would have been in a similar situation.  The women in these baths were much kinder and more considerate than the women Montagu was used to being with.  Their kindness and acceptance was so enjoyable, in fact, that Montagu was disappointed by other attractions she later saw in Turkey. 

Source:
Montagu, Lady Mar Worley. "Letters...Written During Her Travels." The Norton Anthology English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Noton, 2012. 2760-2762. Print.

Swift's Commentary on Early Eighteenth-Century Ireland

        Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a piece of satirical writing commenting on the influence England had on Ireland in the early eighteenth century.  During the time Swift was writing, religious and economic difficulties had caused Ireland to become a “virtual colony” of England (Baker).  The Irish were miserable and penniless.  Swift writes that “It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town…when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and all importuning every passenger for an alms” (Swift 2633).  Living conditions were terrible for nearly everyone outside of the upper class. 

        Swift uses satire in A Modest Proposal as a way to condemn the control that England had over Ireland and the policies they had put into place that caused so much suffering for the people living there.  Swift flipped England’s stereotype of the Irish being cannibals in order to incriminate the English themselves (Zeenat 165).  Swift writes that the babies they will eat “will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for the landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (Swift 2635).  He is implying that England is, in fact, engaging in cannibalism as it slowly consumes and destroys the Irish. 

        In the end, Swift’s writing had a great impact on the people involved in this turmoil in Ireland.  An earlier publication of Swift’s entiProposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture caused an “…extraordinary flowering of economic publications in Ireland….after two decades of near silence on the subject” (Zeenat 162).  Likewise, A Modest Proposal eventually achieved Swift’s goal of addressing the English while also encouraging the people of Ireland to try and improve their lives. 

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Works Cited:

Baker, Lyman A. "Conditions in Early Eighteenth-Century Ireland." Kansas State University, 28 Mar 1999. Web. 24 Jan 2016.

Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." The Norton Anthology English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 2633-2639. Print.

Zeenat, Afrin. "Writing Irish Nationhood: Jonathan Swift’s Coming to Terms with his Birthplace." Nebula 6.2 (2009): 19. Print.

Mary Astell's Views on Marriage

In her essay "Some Reflections upon Marriage," Mary Astell's views on marriage seem very progressive for her time.  She writes “what poor woman is ever taught that she should have a higher design than to get her a husband?” (2423).  Most women during this time believed that getting a husband should be their main goal in order to be supported and have a happy life.  Astell, on the other hand, argues against this belief in saying that marriage does not automatically create a happy life if it is not done for many of the right reasons. 

                This unhappy marriage that Astell writes about was likely very common during this time period.  In her “Answer to Some Objections to Reflections upon Marriage,” Astell states that many believed that her work was “destructive to the government” (3019).  She goes on to state that this government is run entirely by men and that women are treated unfairly in it.  She writes that “if all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” (3020). Women during this time were subjected to the interests and desires of men without having much of a say of their own in how things were done.  She questions “why is slavery so much condened and strove against in one case and so highly applauded and held so necessary and so sacred in another?” (3020).

Mary Astell’s idea of marriage seems as if it could directly relate to the family seen in William Hogarth’s “Marriage A’la Mode.”  In these paintings, it is clear that the couple married simply for financial reasons. As Astell states, “…an estate…should not be the main, much less the only consideration; for happiness does not depend on wealth” (2421).  This couple married purely for financial reasons and; therefore, do not achieve happiness.