Gender Disparity and Social Disintegration: A Critical Study of Andrew Marvell’s Selected Poems

Abstract

The present study provides an analysis of two major poems written by Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress” and “The Garden” from a feminist perspective. The study examines how women are exploited by men; how they are considered as objects of their pleasure in “To His Coy Mistress” and how they are demeaned to a very degrade status and as less attractive and less beautiful when compared to the beauty of a tree in “The Garden”. The poet condemns women and establishes a world without them in a way that indicates his hatred to them. One focal issue the paper is to underscore how the misogynistic tendency adopted by men toward women adversely impacts their relationships as lovers. Women, in the two selected poems, are shown as so naïve and innocent that men can easily befool and trap to gain certain physical advantages. How patriarchy manipulates the fundamental rights of women is another focal point of the study. Through a close textual examination of the lines of the selected poems, the researcher will pinpoint how Andrew’s frame of mind in his portrayal of women is feminist oriented. The study concludes with examples from the selected poems that Andrew Marvell’s narrator shows his specific frame of mind in portrayal of female characters. The female characters have been presented in such a way so that readers’ sympathy might be achieved and by doing this he deploys various literary tactics. The Female characters are so naïve and innocent that male characters are able to easily make them fool and trap them to gain certain advantages.