Lady Mary Wortley Montague Essay Research Paper

Lady Mary Wortley Montague Essay, Research Paper

Literature is a form of art with many facets, many obvious and others

subtle. The surface of literature can be composed of many elements

such as genre, form, rhythm, tone, diction, sentence structure, etc.

Time periods, authors’ personal style and type of work all determine

what elements are used in the literature. The deeper more subtle side

of literature is the use of symbolism, imagery and the significance of

the work. In most works of literature, parallels can be drawn between

the author’s personality and current life’s events through the subject

matter, the characters, and the use of specific literary techniques. Lady

Mary Wortley Montagu’s use of literary techniques in the first two

stanzas of The Lover: A Ballad, are consistent throughout the six

stanza ballad identifying and refuting the ways in which women were

defined by literature of the 18th century era.

“At length, by so much importunity pressed,

Take (Molly) at once the inside of my breast;

This stupid indifference so often you blame

Is not owing to nature, to fear, or to shame;

I am not as cold as a virgin in lead,

Nor is Sunday’s sermon so strong in my head;

I know but too well how time flies along,

That we live but few years and yet fewer are young.

But I hate to be cheated, and never will buy

Long years of repentance for moments of joy.

Oh was there a man (but where shall I find

Good sense, and good nature so equally joined.)

Would value his pleasure, contribute to mine,

Not meanly would boast, nor lewdly design,

Not over severe, yet not stupidly vain,

For I would have the power through not give the pain”

(Montagu, 2567)

The ballad has been traditionally known as the earliest form of

poetry in conjunction with the folk world. It is one of lyrical work,

usually in a simple song or dance form eluding to its’ roots in oral

presentation among the rural culture. The ballad commonly uses

simple language and can be in the form of 3rd person, dialogue or a

combination of the two. The ballad form generally shortens action in

that it focus’ on a single, usually, climactic event and eludes to the

building and conclusion of this event. Coincidentally, the rural roots of

ballads parallel the themes that generally deal with basic aspects of

life, such as; love and death, but seem to have a supernatural element.

“The quatrain, a stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed, is the

most common of all English stanzaic forms. And the most common

type of quatrain is the ballad stanza, in which lines of iambic

tetrameter alternate with trimeter, rhyming abcb (lines 1 and 3 being

unrhymed) or, less commonly abab” (Fergueson, 1114). Montagu uses

many of these elements in that she stays remains consistent with the

theme of ballads and writes about love. The supernatural aspect to her

ballad is not necessarily supernatural, but in fact leans to Greek

mythology. Her conclusion ends with reference to Ovid alluding to

The Metamorphoses’ which “…tells stories of virgins who are

transformed into a laurel tree (Daphne) or a fountain (Arethusa), rather

than succumb to the importunities of a pursuing god” (Footnote to The

Lover: A Ballad, Damrosch, 2568). Greek mythology can be

categorized as supernatural though, depending on the audiences’

beliefs, in that it’s main characters are Gods and humanlike creatures

with supernatural, superhuman abilities. Despite staying in the

framework of themes and elements of the ballad, Montagu goes

against the traditional definition and sets The Lover: A Ballad, in six

eight line stanzas composed of anapestic tetrameter rhyming couplets.

During the 18th century, the literary world was dominated by

male poets and writes leaving the women poets and writers

unsuccessful and unestablished. Notwithstanding the male circles of

literature, Aphra Behn was the exception, she could hold her own and

helped lead the way to women writers at a time when women were

depicted to be passive creatures. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a

strong character not only in her literature but also in her personal life.

After her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, was appointed

Ambassador to Turkey she joined him. She saw something that was in

great interest to her, inoculation of smallpox. As being a survivor of

smallpox, when she returned to England she supported, if not lead the

way, to inoculation in England. Her writings at this time became the

groundwork for her fame as a writer (Damrosch, 2558). Nevertheless,

by going against the traditional form of ballads, she shows that women

were not going to define themselves by traditional stereotypes or try to

fit into an image of what women were supposed to be. Montagu’s own

frustration directed at an era in literature

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