Mary Astell Essays
Role of Women in the Restoration Period
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
There are many texts that deal with the role of the individual male in society; their positions are discussed politically, socially and personally. However, in-depth discussion of the individual female role in society is often lacking during the...
Mary Astell: England’s First Feminist or Product of the Patriarchy? College
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
Mary Astell is often attributed as being England’s first feminist because of her writing which questioned gender politics of the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century. For the time period, Astell’s writing was groundbreaking. She...
18th Century women writers and the reclamation of Milton’s Eve College
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
Since its first publication in 1667, Milton’s Paradise Lost has continued to exert its influence over literature, having particular resonance with the romantics, Wordsworth citing it as among ‘the grand store-houses of enthusiastic and meditative...
Mary Astell: England’s First Feminist or Product of the Patriarchy? College
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
Mary Astell is often attributed as being England’s first feminist because of her writing which questioned gender politics of the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century. For the time period, Astell’s writing was groundbreaking. She...
Milton Versus Astell: A Study of Paradise Lost, Reflections on Marriage, and Holy Matrimony College
Some Reflections Upon Marriage
When comparing their two works, it becomes clear that while John Milton’s Paradise Lost shares the general viewpoint on marriage found in Mary Astell’s Reflections upon Marriage — that being that the institution of marriage of the time period was...