Stevie Smith And Marriage Essay Research Paper

Stevie Smith And Marriage Essay, Research Paper

Stevie and Marriage: Preface

Florence “Stevie” Smith grew up in unstable family conditions. Her family was falling apart, and she observed every moment with hushed censure. These repressed feelings can be seen in her poetry. Her unfortunate childhood experiences attribute to a mistrustful, cynical tone in her poem “Marriage I Think.”

For sources I have consulted three separate levels of libraries. At the high school library I found a series called Critical Survey Of Poetry that has been most helpful in providing background information on Smith, as well as critical reviews of some of her poems. The Shippensburg Public Library as well as the Bosler Library has provided a collection of Smith’s later poems (of which I chose my focus poem) called Me Again, as well as The Norton Anthology Of Literature By Women that has helped with finding out about Smith’s childhood and other biographical information. The Dickinson College Library has been most helpful. There I checked out Stevie Smith, In Search of Stevie Smith, and Stevie, all of which contain vast amounts of research into her childhood and younger years as related to her later poems, thus providing a wealth of both criticism and biographical information. I have also consulted numerous websites to look for her poems and other information, but with very little success.

I have two main sections to my paper, excluding my introduction and conclusion. The first section contains information about Smith’s view of the institution of marriage. This section provides evidence from the focus poem, Smith’s friends, as well as her own life. The second section of my paper contains information regarding the way in which she saw men or interacted with them as a result of her childhood. It has evidence from her further literary works, her own life, as well as interviews with friends.

Stevie and Marriage

Florence “Stevie” Smith grew up in unstable family conditions. Her family was falling apart, and she observed every moment with hushed censure. These repressed feelings can be seen in her poetry. Her unfortunate childhood experiences attribute to a mistrustful, cynical tone in her poem “Marriage I Think.”

Smith’s poem “Marriage I Think” contains many references to her belief that the bond of marriage between a man and a woman is fraudulent, particularly for the woman. Her poem reads,

Marriage I think

For women

Is the best of opiates

It kills the thoughts

That think about the thoughts,

It is the best of opiates.

(lines 1-6)

By comparing marriage (for women) to a mind-numbing narcotic, Smith clearly uses a pessimistic tone. She contends that the marital bond, contrary to popular belief, hurts women on the inside. In 1906 4-year-old Smith, her ill mother Ethel, sister Molly, and aunt Margaret are deserted by her father Charles, the main support of the family. Charles grows bored with the marriage, and abruptly sets out on his childhood dream of becoming a naval officer (Sternlicht 4). At this point, Smith’s family of four women, including two children and a sick mother, are left to fend for themselves, with the care of Smith’s aunt. In another one of Smith’s poems entitled “Papa Love Baby,” she writes that she “wished mama hadn’t made such a foolish marriage./…it showed in my eyes unfortunately/And a fortnight later papa ran away to sea” (Barbera and McBrien 9). As she grows up in a predominantly feminine household, Smith dwells on her father’s family desertion. She jokes that “for many, marriage is a chance clutch upon a hen-coop in mid-Atlantic” (Barbera and McBrien 65). The evidence in the poems points to feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Smith also wrote in her poem “Every Lovely Limb’s a Desolation” about women who are caught up in dead-end relationships fretting over loneliness (Magill 3075). The evidence from “Marriage I Think” shows that later in her life, she focused on the abandonment of her mother in a supposedly sacred marriage. Smith grew up in an England where women were to support and submit to the furthering of men, but “broke out of that trap, not with a powerful rebellious thrust of a sword, but subversively, with the stealth of oil (Stevie Smith 16). In her maturity, Smith maintained a calm, passive exterior. “Inwardly she laughed, cried, seethed, suffered, and defended ‘self’” (Sternlicht 24). No matter how much she resisted the female stereotype, Smith was not in the least a feminist. Rather, “Stevie fought the ancient battle against male control alone and in the only way she could: by being herself” (Stevie Smith 105). After growing up knowing the harsh reality of an uncaring husband, Smith realizes that a marriage is nothing more than a mental narcotic that dulls a woman’s perception of reality.

Smith’s realization of marriage as a fraud leads to loneliness and heartbreak in her life, most of which stems from her father’s desertion. “Stevie nursed a lifelong resentment against her father. She took the desertion personally, and it made her suspicious of men and their commitments (Stevie Smith 2). Evidence of this grudge can be found in Smith’s lifelong devotion to poetry.

But too long in solitude she’d dwelt,

And too long her thoughts had felt

Their strength. So when the man drew near,

Out popped h

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать