‘To the Ladies‘ is a twenty-four-line compassionate plea to women to strive for much more than the bare minimum offered to them in the name of marriage. Lady Mary Chudleigh describes marriage for women as a limitation, something to take away their freedom and have them living in servitude.
To the Ladies Lady Mary ChudleighWife and servant are the same,But only differ in the name:For when that fatal knot is tied,Which nothing, nothing can divide:When she the word obey has said,And man by law supreme has made,Then all that’s kind is laid aside,And nothing left but state and pride:Fierce as an Eastern prince he grows,And all his innate rigour shows:Then but to look, to laugh, or speak,Will the nuptial contract break.Like mutes she signs alone must make,And never any freedom take:But still be governed by a nod,And fear her husband as a God:Him still must serve, him still obey,And nothing act, and nothing say,But what her haughty lord thinks fit,Who with the power, has all the wit.Then shun, oh! shun that wretched state,And all the fawning flatt’rers hate:Value your selves, and men despise,You must be proud, if you’ll be wise.
Summary
‘To the Ladies’ by Lady Mary Chudleigh is a poem about empowering women. It focuses on the fight for women’s rights.
The poem begins with the speaker, who also happens to be the poet, saying that wife and servant, save their spellings, are interchangeable. She refers to marriage as a fatal knot. Fatal because it is stifling for the woman. The speaker sees it as an institution built on unfairness, where the man reigns supreme, and the woman answers to him and does all his bidding.
The speaker describes how the woman is expected to be seen and not heard. The woman is said to suffer in her marriage, and the institution is something to be endured, not enjoyed. The people who rigged the system in favor of men do not care what women want. All they are after is the man’s welfare.
The speaker ends by urging the ladies to pick and dust themselves up. She encourages them to aim for great things because they deserve way beyond the miserly patronage they are given.
Structure and Form
‘To the Ladies‘ by Lady Mary Chudleigh is a twenty-four-line poem not divided into stanzas. Although its rhyme scheme doesn’t have a specific name, the rhythm is still there, and there is some form of coherence regarding the sense of rhythm. The poem rhymes this way: aabbbbbbccddddbbeeffffcc.
Theme
Feminism is the theme explored by Lady Mary Chudleigh’s ‘To the Ladies.’ Feminism is a massive movement. It is a fight for women’s rights. It seeks to address the issue of subjugation of women in all spheres of life. ‘To the Ladies‘ focuses on marriage; however, feminism is much bigger than that. Women are not treated fairly in schools, religious institutions, their peer groups, towns, and villages. The discrimination does not miss them, even in their own homes. It follows them all the way, and they live with it.
Addressing the problem as it concerns marriage is important. This is because most children come from marriages, and how the woman is treated in a marriage would determine how a child from the marriage is raised and, inadvertently, how he or she turns out. Lady Mary Chudleigh, even in her time, when women were mostly seen and not heard, championed the cause. Sadly, the issues she raised and tried to address persisted.
Detailed Analysis
To achieve the best result, the poem will be analyzed in halves.
Lines 1-12
Wife and servant are the same,
But only differ in the name:
For when that fatal knot is tied,
Which nothing, nothing can divide:
When she the word obey has said,
And man by law supreme has made,
Then all that’s kind is laid aside,
And nothing left but state and pride:
Fierce as an Eastern prince he grows,
And all his innate rigour shows:
Then but to look, to laugh, or speak,
Will the nuptial contract break.
The speaker (Lady Mary Chudleigh) starts by stating that the only difference between wife and servant is in how they are spelled. She refers to marriage as tying the fatal knot, one that is intended to last until death. Repetition is employed in line 4 for emphasis. The word ‘nothing’ is repeated to show just how long marriage is supposed to last—for the rest of the married people’s lives.
The man is treated as superior. The system is rigged against the woman to fan the embers of the man’s excesses. Emboldened by the unfair system, the man loses bits of his humanity with each day. The animosity suppressed begins to manifest. He seeks to subdue the woman, and the system is for him and against her. This is what marriage is for most women, especially considering when this piece was written.
More women are beginning to speak out, and fewer women are open to tolerating being treated as lesser beings because of the fact that they are women. This is what feminism is about. Things aren’t exactly perfect now, but steps are being taken in the right direction. What the speaker describes is what marriage was like for most women when this poem was written.
It is saddening that even in this day and age, with all the awareness, a lot of women still go through hell baptized as marriage- an institution where they are subdued, and the man is seen as better, for no other reason but that he is a man. The discrimination starts from the birth of the girl child till she grows into an adult and maybe gets married, and likely continues until she passes. This explains why the speaker sees the words “wife” and “servant” as interchangeable.
Lines 13-24
Like mutes she signs alone must make,
And never any freedom take:
But still be governed by a nod,
And fear her husband as a God:
Him still must serve, him still obey,
And nothing act, and nothing say,
But what her haughty lord thinks fit,
Who with the power, has all the wit.
Then shun, oh! shun that wretched state,
And all the fawning flatt’rers hate:
Value your selves, and men despise,
You must be proud, if you’ll be wise.
The wife is to be seen, not heard. This is enforced in a union where both parties should be seen as equal. The speaker insinuates that marriage means the absence of freedom for the woman, where her loudest screams are not to be heeded, but the man’s nods are to be obeyed. This is subjugation. Society has made him her god, and she goes on to please him, losing her autonomy to a person she is likely better than in all ramifications.
Hers is to listen, obey and not talk. His is to wield the power, a weapon given to him by society and by default. The speaker refers to this as a wretched state. She urges the ladies to value themselves and that if they are wise, they must first have pride in themselves.
Daily, more women realize this. You are a person, my lady, and nobody is better than you just because he was born a man. Learn to love yourselves.
FAQs
The emotions evoked by ‘To the Ladies‘ are anger and sadness. It is sad, what women are made to endure in the name of marriage, and that anyone has to be subjected to all the unpleasant things the speaker describes is enough to make one angry. If one would see his ‘partner’ as his subordinate, why get married in the first place? Marriage is a partnership, not a war.
The major topic of ‘To the Ladies’ is feminism. The poem is an important contribution to the fight for women’s rights. Towards the poem’s end, the speaker encourages women to break free and go for greatness.
Lady Mary Chudleigh was a vocal feminist as way back as the 1700s. Most of her works focused on feminism. Her dedication to the cause inspired her to write ‘To the Ladies‘, just like it did most of her works.
‘To the Ladies‘ is a 1703 poem that focuses on women’s empowerment. It was written by an English poet and is a brilliant addition to English Literature and the world of Literature at large. It is a great feat, especially considering the times in which it was written.
Similar Poetry
If ‘To the Ladies‘ sparked or renewed your interest in feminism as it should, check out these other poems:
- ‘Still I Rise‘ by Maya Angelou is a poem that focuses on self-respect and pride in self as a way to maintain one’s worth and not settle for less, and how the poet has lived by this.
- ‘A Woman Speaks‘ by Audrey Lorde is a poem about women across different cultures and their lived experiences.
- ‘Women‘ by Alice Walker focuses on the education of girls and appreciates the women who fought to achieve that.
