This poem by Emily Dickinson is focused about the power of the human brain and its function. She indicates a mass of imagery in her writing and uses dashes to create an emphasis. The brain is a powerful tool for humans and without it we will not exist.

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

For—put them side by side—

The one the other will contain

With ease—and You—beside—

Dickinson makes a metaphor of the brain and the sky and describes how vast it can mentally be. Every brain is intellectually unique in its own way and people would push the limits to see how much power they can consume. Intelligence can be built over time and eventually it will grow. Although intelligence is not always the reason for a powerful brain but imagination is limitless. The mind is filled with an infinite amount of imaginations wider than a sky. Even the most beautiful sunsets or the aurora borealis cannot compare to the human brain. If you have ever looked at a human brain physically, the organ itself is intricate and delicate but it can control your whole body.

The Brain is deeper than the sea—

For—hold them—Blue to Blue—

The one the other will absorb—

As Sponges—Buckets—do—

“The Brain is deeper than the sea—,” accentuates that it can absorb so much information deeper than the sea. It connects with the title, “The Brain—is wider than the Sky—.” Blue to Blue represents the color of the ocean and the sky. The ocean is dense and filled with many sea creatures in various shapes and sizes. Dickinson compares the brain’s power to absorb information to a sponge. A sponge has the ability to absorb liquid in a full bucket and so does the function of the brain. We can absorb ideas and information to create this dense sea of imaginations and fantasy. As humans we take in new information and relate it to the outside world. We try to understand different meanings and phrases that can relate to life. Reading a poem, quote, or novel can change a person’s perspective of life and that is the power of literature and its connections with the brain.

The Brain is just the weight of God—

For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—

And they will differ—if they do—

As Syllable from Sound—

Dickinson states that, “The Brain is just the weight of God—.” This comparison is strong because she uses the “father and creator of heaven and Earth,” to describe the brain. She does not say the brain is more powerful than God but she mentions that it has equal power. The brain can be similar to God and his creations but do they differ? She states that they differ like “syllable from sound.” A sound can be anything you can imagine such as the sound of nature, rain, or an instrument. A syllable is more configured to a unit of organization of a sequence of words. The brain is structured and precise while God is seen to be of a more spiritual thought of nature. Dickinson was very rebellious over God because in her childhood she was “conflicted and ambivalent over Christian orthodoxy that she resisted Puritan attitudes around her.”

Emily Dickinson is an interesting poet because as she was living, she did not want any of her poems published. She said that, “Publication—is the Auction / Of the Mind of Man.” Being isolated in her own home was more favorable to her than exploring the outside world. She wanted to keep her poems to herself because it intrigued her. The creation of great poetry can satisfy ones mind and so Dickinson cherished every work she did to herself.

449 [I died for Beauty—but was scarce] by Emily Dickinson

In the poem, Emily Dickinson uses a conversation between two dead people to illustrate the theme of death. She is trying to define the meaning of death in a different way. I feel Dickinson was cynical and disappointed by people’s apathy. The last stanza of the poem illustrate her loneliness and grief. Also, there are a lot of words such as “Beauty”, “Truth”, “Room”, “Night” start with capitalized letter in this poem. I think Dickinson is trying to emphasize these words to make the readers think about the meaning behind them.

I died for beauty but was scarce

Adjusted in the Tomb

When One who died for Truth, was lain

In an adjoining Room (line 1-4)

In the first stanza, the poetess was died and laid in the tomb. She met a man who died for truth. I think Dickinson uses the word “scarce” to suggest that she is not satisfied with her current situation. She may still have a lot of things to do for life. However she was died and could not achieve her goals.

He questioned softly “Why I failed”?

“For Beauty”, I replied (line 5-6)

The two characters are died for “Beauty” and “Truth” which are two valuable things they were looking for. The poetess uses “failed” instead of died in line 5. I think the word “fail” shows that both of them are not success in the pursuit of either “Beauty” or “Truth” during their life time.

“And I for Truth Themselves are One

We Brethren, are”, He said (line 6-8)

In these two lines, Dickinson wants to say that beauty and truth are the same. She uses “Brethren” to describe their relationship which means that they have the same belief. Since they are dead for “Beauty” or “Truth”, they believed they both died with honor.

And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night

We talked between the Rooms (line 9-10)

The poetess tries to depict death in a peculiar way.  Dickinson uses the word, “Kinsmen” to show that we have a pleasant talk. In these two lines, “Night” symbolizes death and “Rooms” represent tombs. The word “Rooms” may also stands for different social classes. I think she wants to say that no matter who you are when you were alive, you will be treated equally after you died. Your social status does not mean anything and will not give you any priority.

Until the Moss had reached our lips

And covered up our names (line 11-12)

The phrase “reached our lips” represents that we do not have the ability to express our feelings anymore. “Covered up our names” means that we are disappearing from people’s memory. I believe Dickinson wants to show that as time passed by, we will be forgotten by the others. No one will remember what we did when we were alive.

Overall, Dickinson wants to tell us that no one will remember you after your death. Old things will be replaced by the new things. The poem not only shows her fear of death, but also her fear of being utterly forgotten.

While doing a close reading on the poem After Death by Christina Rossetti, I have came up with many thoughts in order to attempt to capture the message she is conveying.

Based on the first four lines:

The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept

And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may

Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay

Where thro’ the lattice ivy-shadows crept.

Because of the curtains half drawn, there is not that much light being let in. The floor was swept, therefore everything was neat and tidy. However, there were rushes, rosemary and may all over the bed that the person is laying on. This paints a picture in my head of a sad place like a funeral home. This word may stands out to me because it symbolizes death. The word bed also stands out to me because I believe it symbolizes a casket. Based on these three lines, I can imagine a wake going on at a funeral home, where everything is sad but organized waiting for people to arrive.

Then in the next five lines:

He leaned above me, thinking that I slept

And could not hear him; but I heard him say:

“Poor child, poor child”: and as he turned away

Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.

I think that this man is one of the people that are attending this wake at a funeral. I believe here the man comes up to the bed on which the person is laying, dead. Because he has a lot of sympathy for this person, and unable to withhold the cries, he cries. Based on this information, I think that this man is of much importance to this person’s life. However, I find the word slept interesting in this context because this person is not sleeping, but is dead, so using this word was quite confusing.

After in the next three lines:

He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold

That hid my face, or take my hand in his,

Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:

Here, I feel like the man is sad because he is feeling sympathetic and upset because this person is laying there dead, in front of his own eyes. However, he does not show his sympathy in any actions. He does cry, but he does not take the person’s hand or touch the shroud, which is a piece of cloth used to wrap the buried person.

In the last three lines:

He did not love me living; but once dead

He pitied me; and very sweet it is

To know he still is warm tho’ I am cold.

I think that the man does not show sympathy, like hold this person’s hand or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head and therefore does not love this person. Only when this person is dead, he pities this person. At the end, this person is dead, but will die with the thought of knowing the man is sweet and warm. I feel like these three lines convey the ultimate message of the poem, which is that you do not know what you have until it is gone. Sometimes, people take things for granted, but when we do not have that thing anymore, we feel bad and want it back. Applying that here, the man did not love this person when alive but when this person died, he cared and even wept at the end when seeing this person dead. Death is a powerful event that breaks people down, but sometimes are able to bring relationships closer. Like in this case, the man was very sad that this person died, and the person felt closer to the man because he or she knew his real feelings. Also, in these last three lines, I think that the person is getting a sense of closure symbolically. This is because this person is laying on his or her death bed, knowing that this man did not love him or her. However, now that this person is dead, and the man has come to the funeral home, crying in front of the person, this person is able to now know that he feels sorry for this person and he is really is nice and does care for him or her. I put symbolically because we are unable to know if the person really did feel his presence by her spirit or if it is just a symbol to show the difference in people before and after death.

In “A Carcass,” Charles Baudelaire manages to include various interesting contrasts in the poem. He begins the poem by recalling with his “love” (line 1) about a “beautiful morning in June” (line 2). As the reader, you start out visualizing a sunny, nice, flowery summer morning. However, as you keep reading, Baudelaire contrasts this beautiful morning with the carcass that was seen. He becomes extremely descriptive about this carcass as we can see in the following excerpt:

“Her legs were spread out like a lecherous whore,

Sweating out the poisonous fumes,

Who opened in slick invitational style

Her stinking and festering womb.” (lines 5-8)

It seems that Baudelaire somewhat personifies this “thing” which is just a dead human, or animal, and is not supposed to have personality. He gives this non-living thing personality by giving it verbs such as “sweating.” Why is it that Baudelaire used the word “sweating” when describing the fumes coming out of the body? He must have wanted to give some sort of life to this dead creature through his words. He also describes the carcass’ legs as “opened” and inviting, like a “lecherous whore.” Again, we see this dead creature coming to life. We see this dead creature as appealing to Baudelaire in a state that does not constitute death. His vulgar contrast of life and death perhaps suggests that he is able to bring life out of this carcass. He is able to see the humanity and liveliness of a still, and dead creature. His words show that this carcass has personality, beyond its death. Perhaps he is suggesting that his words and poem may bring life out of death.

As Baudelaire continues to describe the carcass, he gives the feeling that nature works in harmony to do what it needs o do in order to bring the carcass to the state it needs to be in. We can see this when he says:

“The sun on this rottenness focused its rays

To cook the cadaver till done …(lines 9-10)

…And the sky cast an eye on the marvelous meat… (line 13)”

It is as if the sun, and sky work in harmony in order to prepare the carcass for the next step, or do what nature inclines for. We also see Baudelaire personifying nature here, by giving the sun the verb of focusing, and allowing the sky to “cast an eye.”  It is interesting, however, that in the previous excerpt we saw the carcass being personified as if it had life. However, in this excerpt, as soon as nature is involved, and as soon as Baudelaire begins to personify the sun and sky, he suddenly stops personifying the carcass, by calling it “meat” and taking it away from this ability to have lifelike abilities. Perhaps he does this to show the superiority of nature.

Baudelaire goes on to say:

“The shapes wore away, as if only a dream

Like a sketch that is left on the page

Which the artist forgot and can only complete

On the canvas, with memory’s aid (lines 29-32)”

I feel that again, Baudelaire, is trying to show how he, as the artist is able to bring color to this “sketch” that has lost itself. He, as the artist is able to tell what something is that other people cannot see, such as this carcass. He sees the life past the death of this carcass. He sees more than just a dead thing, and I think that he is trying to say that through his art, or poems in this case, he can bring life to this dead thing and show people what it actually is beyond death. I feel this concept again in this last excerpt:

“Ah then, oh my beauty, explain to the worms

Who cherish your body so fine,

That I am the keeper for corpses of love

Of the form, and the essence divine! (lines 45-48)”

Again, I feel that Baudelaire is saying that he will keep the memories of the “form,” or souls of the bodies. He will allow them to be immortal through his art, and poems.

*Please note that everything that is in bold are my notes and thoughts! I do have a paragraph at the end that brings in some of my back ground on Poe so if some of my notes sound like they can’t be backed up, maybe they can make more sense after the last paragraph is read!

Eldorado

by Edgar Allan Poe

(published 1849)

GAILY bedight,

Bedight is defined as adorned.

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long,

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old —

This knight so bold —

And o’er his heart a shadow

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

The shadow that is spoken of here could elude to a darkness that came over the knight as many of Edgar Allen Poe’s characters have gone mad searching for something or keeping something hidden or at bay (as can be seen in the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Read Death”).

And, as his strength

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow —

“Shadow,” said he,

“Where can it be —

This land of Eldorado?”

So, here, I think the shadow is not a person that he can’t see, but a phantom of some sort, as Edgar Allen Poe always has phantom, ghosts, etc. in his works as well.

“Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,

(Impossible)

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

(I think this eludes to the Valley of the Shadow of Death)

Ride, boldly ride,”

The shade replied, —

“If you seek for Eldorado!”

(So, I think that this pretty much means that you have to be dead in order to find El Dorado which makes a lot of sense. El Dorado is always seen as a symbolism of Heaven (we saw that in Candide). It is also a place that can’t be found which makes sense as to why 1) the knight hasn’t found it in all his searching and why 2) no one knows where it is. Also, as you can see, the knight is already dying. This is why the Shadow is being really encouraging to “Ride, Boldly Ride”… I saw this as a way for the Shadow to say “don’t be afraid of death”.)

This is where I found the poem:

http://poestories.com/read/eldorado

——————————————————————————————————————–

Annabel Lee

BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

“Many and many a year ago” obviously implies that the woman is dead. This is not surprising because Edgar Allen Poe often writes about dead women, women dying, or women who are resurrected.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me.

…So the angels wanted the kind of love they had?…

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So she got sick and died… like his mom… and wife in real life…****

So that her highborn kinsmen came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

A sepulcher (the word was misspelled… or was it written like that on purpose?…) is defined as: a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me—

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

Okay, rude. So the angles “kill” her… or at least that’s what he’s blaming it on…

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

I thought the dreams alluded to him seeing her ghost… which is totally possible if he’s sleeping next to her tomb every night… very concerning…

I got this poem on:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174151

****To bring some back story to Edgar Allen Poe, his life, and how it influenced his writing, he grew up without a father really present in his life. His mother was an actress and every night Edgar Allen Poe would watch his mom die. (She acted as Juliet in the play… Romeo and Juliet…). This was very traumatizing for him when he was younger but he eventually saw this so many times that he began to believe that every time his mother would die, she would come back to life. So, when his mother really did die (he was a big kid, not yet a teen, I don’t think) of tuberculosis, he was traumatized that she didn’t come back to life. To make matters worse, his wife (who was also closely related to him by the way) died of the same illness that took his mother. They both died very young (both in our standards and the standards of the 1800s.) The death of the two most important women in his life has greatly influenced his writing. He always writes about women dying or being dead and he writes about death in general. There were other things that influenced his writing of course (like the fact that he was an alcoholic, served in the military, and that he lived in the south for some time), but his mother and wife were instrumental to the writings that we know about today. Another is The Masque of the Read Death. This is a short story that personifies death and so many people who tried to be cautious were the ones to die. This is seen in the short story where they lock every important person in the castle grounds but death finds everyone any way.

Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

In this poem, Dickinson used a popular theme, death, for her poem. She did a good job in describing death; the poem shows you that death is horrible but can also be peaceful. She didn’t waste anytime on getting to her point in the poem, she lets us know the poem is going to talk about death at the very beginning.

In the first stanza, she capitalized “Carriage,” “Ourselves,” and “Immortality.” We can probably imply that they have a special mean to the writer, For example, I think “Ourselves” on the third line represents death and herself.

In the second stanza, she states that “We slowly drove, we knew no haste;” this shows us how death is a kind gentleman who gives his passenger a pleasant ride. I think it’s an interesting way to describe and personify death as a gentleman suitor who drives a horse-drawn carriage. Also, it is a way to say that death didn’t hurry.

In the third stanza, she describes the view that they are riding past. They see children playing in the playground during recess. I am guessing that these views are coming from her own memory, because many say that people tend to think of important events that happened in their lives when they are close to death.

In the fourth stanza, she states “ He passed us;” which represents the sun passing them. The sun passes her because of the sunset, which means the the sunshine and warmth is leaving. When the sun falls below the horizon, it also shows the night is coming; darkness and cold is the symbol of night. Obviously, she is talking about death; the cold and darkness are always used to refer to death.

The final line of the poem reads“I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –” It seems to recall the horse-drawn carriage mentioned previously. It shows us that they are not regular horses, It refers to her whole life, she was bringing out her life to us through the horses.

To the Reader by Charles Baudelaire by Victoria Dai

(Words & sentences that are highlighted in italics are my own thoughts & comments).

Infatuation (foolish or extravagant passion), sadism (enjoyment in being cruel), lust avarice (greed for riches)

Possess our souls and drain the body’s force;

We spoonfeed our adorable remorse (deep and painful regret),

Like whores or beggars nourishing their lice. (comparing lice to something extremely terrible & still feeding it)

*First paragraph: Humans fall prey to temptations laid out by the devil due to their weak nature. Unfortunately, these temptations control and drive humans to do terrible deeds. I noticed here that the author used a simile to compare how humans continue to repeatedly fall into the same temptations and misdeeds, as often as whores and beggars continue to “dirty” themselves, even though there’s really no way of helping it.

Our sins are mulish (stubborn), our confessions lies;

We play to the grandstand with our promises,

We pray for tears to wash our filthiness, (could be a reference to how we think crying or feeling bad will help us rid of the nasty feeling we have or to compensate for our wrongdoing)

Importantly pissing hogwash through our styes. (a circumscribed abscess caused by bacterial infection of the glands on the edge of the eyelid)

*Second paragraph: We continue to sin and we continue to lie and we exaggerate our promises to the point where it’s meaningless. The last two sentences could be a metaphor of how we think crying or showing a sign of guilt will help make us feel better about all the things we did wrong. The author is almost making fun of us, as if crying will actually help wash away our ugly human nature.  

The devil, watching by our sickbeds, hissed (when a cat hisses, it is considered a warning sign)

Old smut (soil or smudge) and folk-songs (song that is well known and passed by ppl) to our soul, until

The soft and precious metal of our will (soft and precious metal can be referring to our heart?)

boiled off in vapor for this scientist. (what scientist? The devil?)

*Third paragraph: We are pawns of the devil, and he’s watching us and slowly bending our good nature to his will. Hissed stood out to me because it has a negative connotation, especially since only powerful and unlikable creatures hiss, such as cats and snakes. (I have nothing against cats but they do look scary). Also, when a cat hisses, it is considered a warning sign or a fearful sign. Another word that stood out to me is folk-songs, which is something that is well known and is passed down through generations so what I think this paragraph means is that the devil is causing a lasting effect on us (that can be seen as almost as strong and lasting as folk-songs) and inevitably make us his loyal subjects. I also think that scientist is used to describe the devil because he’s experimenting with us.

Each day his flattery makes us eat a toad, (the devil is literally described as a puppet master controlling our strings)

And each step forward is a step to hell,

Unmoved, through previous corpses and their smell

Asphyxiate (choke, suffocate, smother to die) our progress on this road.

*Fourth paragraph: The devil is controlling us and with every passing day, we become uglier and uglier and closer to hell and we don’t know or even care about past people who have gone through this road (ie, we know what happens to people who lie or kill and yet, there are still people who follow in this path). In this paragraph, the author takes a dramatic step from just criticizing human nature and the basic flaws of humans to the point where he shows his hatred for humans, and is basically saying that there are only negative aspects of living which leads to our inescapable and terrible death and whatever happens after death.

Like the poor lush (lush means fresh, but here it might mean something else) who cannot satisfy,

We try to force our sex with counterfeits, (counterfeits meaning with other people who we do not truly have a connection or genuine bond with, basically replacements of the true and original thing we love)

Die drooling on the deliquescent (water build up) tits,

Mouthing the rotten orange we sucky dry. (the orange is the tits, apparently its changed colors)

*Fifth paragraph: At first, I had a different interpretation of this paragraph when reading line by line but afterwards, I decided that the author is talking about newborns. Poor lush, meaning new baby, is brought into this world as poor suckers who are forced to identify themselves (as either male or female based on society’s view of roles of men and women) and are actually starting to die (even though technically, they just started to live as well) when they’re drinking breastmilk – as described so vividly in the last two lines. Basically, the author pities newborns who are brought into this world to turn ugly and evil and then simply die in the end.

Gangs of demons are boozing (perhaps leaving the same effect that booze does in our brains, which is a hangover feeling, numbness and unsettling feeling) in our brain –

Ranked, swarming, like a million warrior-ants, (literally, intestinal worms)

They drown and choke the cistern (container for storing or holding water) of our wants;

Each time we breathe, we tear our lungs with pain.

*Sixth paragraph: Every minute that we are alive, the gangs of demons that the author is referring to (bad, negative stuff that swarms our minds – murder, infidelity, etc.) takes a great toll on us and just makes us less humane.

If poison, arson (setting on fire), sex, narcotics (dulling), knives

Have not yet ruined us and stitched their quick (lethal things can happen momentarily and the consequences can be quick),

Loud patterns on the canvas of our lives,

It is because our souls are still too sick. (Literally not bold enough)

*Seventh paragraph: (Love the beat!) If all the negative aspects in life has not yet ruined us, it’s because we are either not bold enough to fully experience life, which in turn they will come to haunt us, or we are already past the darkness.

Among the vermin (pest), jackals (person who allows themselves to be used), panthers, lice,

Gorillas and tarantulas that suck

And snatch and scratch and defecate (eliminate) and fuck

In the disorderly circus of our vice (bad habit),

There’s one more ugly and abortive (futile) birth.

It makes no gestures, never beats its breasts,

Yet it would murder for a moment’s rest, (literally, swallow the world in a yawn)

And willingly annihilate the earth.

It’s BOREDOM. Tears have glued its eyes together.

You know it well, my Reader. This obscene (offensive)

Beast chain-smokes yawning for the guillotine-

You-hypocrite Reader-my double-my brother!

*Eighth & Ninth & Tenth paragraph: Among all the terrible people and things in this world that continue to grow and reproduce, there is apparently one thing worse than all – it is silent and rarely mentioned but also very deadly – boredom. It may not look dangerous but it can actually cause some real damage (which I totally agree with). Then the author turns on the reader and accuses the reader of already falling into that path and are guilty of being horrible human beings.

• Does the revolution address the rights of women? (Article I)
• Why are women unrepresented when half of the nation and workforce is made up of them? (Article VI, XIII, XVI)
• Why are women unable to claim their own property? (XVII)

• A child born out of wedlock has no legal protection, while a bastard child does. (Article XI)

Marie Gouze more famously known as Olympe de Gouges was a political activist and her feministic views had a major affect on the world. She lived in the France in the 18th century, and life was far from simple in that time period. She was born in the South of France into a low class family, this meant she did not have an easy childhood. Pre the French Revolution (1789) there was much social inequality in France and there were only two social classes; upper and lower. As you can imagine, women had minimal to no rights, whether they were a member of nobility or simply a peasant.

Political tension was rising in France due to the poor leadership of Louis XVI. Poor leadership in addition to the Enlightenment views of the masses ( which were anti a king ruling over the masses and having complete power) were two main causes of the French Revolution. Olympe decided to get married at the young age of 18 to a man she says ” I did not love”. Her husband passed away one year into the marriage and she moved to Paris. In Paris she found a wealthy man and they lived together. This man Jacques had many colleagues who were writers and politicians and Olympe used this to her advantage. Olympe was extremely frustrated about the lack of equality and chose to do something about it. In 1791 Olympe joined the “Social Club” which was a group of leading feminists in France who met weekly to try to improve women’s rights.  Amidst the French Revolution in 1791 she published her famous work ” The Declaration of the Rights of Woman”. Unfortunately, she was arrested in 1793 and eventually put to death via the guillotine.This was essentially a response to to the ” Declaration of the Rights of Man” which was published a year before. Olympe takes the 17 articles of the ” Declaration of the Rights of Man” and makes the text applicable for women. For example, the first original article was 1. ” Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. Olympe’s first article states ” WOMEN is born free and remains equal to man in rights.” She changed other articles but it notably known for making the version “woman friendly”. The argument in the publication is hopefully clear to you after you have read this post. Women deserve the same rights as men. Obviously, this is a strong argument as half of the world is female and there is no reason as to why they should not have the same rights and ability to act as they choose just like men. I thought the preamble was the strongest and most powerful portion of this piece. It begins with “Mothers, daughters, sisters, representatives of the nation, demand to be constituted into national assembly…”  The word demand drew my attention while reading this, and I went back and read that sentence a few more times before moving on. The word demand shows that Olympe was not saying women should or want rights, she purposely used the word demand to show we will get those rights it is not up for discussion. After reading this preamble I was struck with awe. Honestly, I  can not find any flaws in her argument. The only weak part of her story is that her life was taken from her. She did an excellent job, as it is clear to the reader what she wants. Her argument is supported with detailed examples as to why she is correct and If I was living in France in the 18th century I would surely side with her.

Has progress been made is a very vague question. Of course, there has been positive movement towards women’s rights in the United States and through out the entire world. France has members of the government who are female as does the United States. Olympe de Gouges probably could not have dreamed or imagined that French women could have the rights that they currently have in 2015. Officially, there is no gender discrimination in either country but if you look at the statistics there still is. For example, more women graduate college per year than men, so why do women who are employed in the same field as men only earn 77 cents per dollar that a male earns? Why??? The truth is to be told. Hopefully, our children will not have the same question to ask.

The Rights of Woman (1791) was written by Olympe De Gourges ( birth name was Marie Gouzes) when the French Revolution failed to give men and women equal rights. This declaration was intended to revise the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens. Her declaration is to remove gender equality which existed in a very unjust world she lived in. Why can women be treated which such abuse or extreme punishments but they are not permitted to speak publicly. In the end, she was executed during the Reign of Terror by going against the law in 1793.

The author is Olympe De Gourges ( birth name given as Marie Gouzes). Olympe wanted to promote the rights of women as equal to men. After the French revolutions, there was a declaration of the rights for men only. From this, Olympe felt there weren’t any benefits for the women after the French Revolution. Matter fact, it was so unjust that she had to lay a foundation of rights for women that she had to fight for against the government which eventually caused her to be executed.

The main argument is unequal gender equality. Olympe lived in a gender and social stratified society. Women don’t have access to equality due to their gender; such rights for example, speech, liberty, prosperity, security, and etc. Besides having equal gender rights, she stated that unmarried women should be free to reveal the father of their children. Also, she mentioned widowed women and her children should have a fair share of wealth from their husband.

What is strong about this is that she is one of the early females to stand up for women rights. This piece she wrote which costed her her life was remembered and mentioned in today’s books because it was a groundwork set for women who she felt deserved equality and freedom of speech which women are born to have. What is weak  and very unfortunate was the fact that she was executed because she fought for what she felt was right. Where was unity in this? Did all women gathered to stand up for their rights and unite to form a group to go against government? If no one stands up for their rights, there will be no major force for the government to change the laws. Were their guidelines given to women from Olympe De Gourges to do so? The standards and ideas of Olympe was far to much to be accepted during that time.

Yes, it is successful in conveying her messages to women and citizens. She clearly wrote what was unjust to women and clearly stated 17 articles of what I consider to be equal and fair rights between men and women. After all, she was the early females who went against government to fought for her own rights as well as for other women. This was her passion until death by execution.

Looking back from now, there is improvement in woman’s rights. However, not perfect, but there is good progress. Not talking about the world but in United States, we still live in a gender and social stratified society. Still, men and women don’t have access to equality  due to their gender, social position, and wealth. But back to the topic on gender, now a days, there is still a wage gap between men and women. We are still in a society filled with competition but comparing to the times when Olympe was alive, women have far more rights than back then. Women can be governments, have the right to vote, have arguments, and have a share of wealth from their husband after divorced. Also, we have minimum wage which during her time didn’t have.