“On Being Brought From Africa To America” By Phillis Wheatley“
Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, taught my benighted soul to understand” (Wheatley lines 1-2).
In lines 1-2 in the poem “On Being Brought From Africa To America” by Phillis Wheatley, she writes about being kidnapped and taken from her home in Africa to America as a slave at the age of seven or eight years old. Wheatley was born in Senegal, Africa and when she was taken to America she was brought to live in Boston Massachusetts. She was raised by Mrs. John Wheatley who gave Phillis an education because she saw that she was very intelligent. Phillis Wheatley was the first African American woman who wrote and published a book of poetry in 1773.
“On Being Brought From Africa To America” By Phillis Wheatley
“Taught my benighted soul to understand” (Wheatley line 2).
According to the English Oxford Dictionary the Word Benighted is defined as without understanding. The origin of the benighted can be traced back to the late 16th century. The word benighted is used in the poem to show that Wheatley did not understand what was happening to her when she was taken from her home in Africa and brought the America to live. She was only a child of seven or eight years old and did not have complete understanding that she was being kidnapped and turned into a slave against her knowledge.
Oroonoko By Aphra Behn
“All that love could say in such cases being ended, and all the intermitting irresolutions being adjusted, the lovely, young and adored victim lays herself down before the sacrificer, while he, with a hand resolved and a heart breaking within, gave the fatal stroke, first cutting her throat, and then severing her yet smiling face from the delicate body, pregnant as it was with the fruits of tenderest love” (Behn 72).
In the novel, Oroonoko writtenby Aphra Behn, there are several themes. The theme of death appears throughout the novel but the tragic death of Imoinda is the most heartbreaking of them all. Oroonoko kills his beloved wife Imoinda because he does not want her to suffer by the hands of Byam who wants to kill him. Oroonoko fears that his wife will be raped and murdered by his enemies and he can not bear to have that happen to her. The tragedy of her death is that Oroonoko himself was the one who killed her.
“On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic” By Charlotte Smith
“I see him more with envy than with fear” (line 10 Smith).
In this line, Smith is speaking to her frustration that due to her being a woman she is not allowed to come and go as she pleases. Charlotte Smith does not fear the lunatic, she envies the freedom that she does not have. This poem was written in 1797, during that time period women were not allowed to make their own choices. According to A Vindication of The Rights Of Women written by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792, some men believed that a woman’s mind is not in a healthy state due to their conduct and manners. It can be said that during this time period men made most of the decisions for women because men believed that they were the superior sex. Therefore, her envy of the lunatic is due to her lack of freedom.
Excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Women By Mary Wollstonecraft
“ I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them, that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt” (Wollstoncraft page 4).
Mary Wollstoncraft was an English writer and a leader in advocating for educational and social equality for women. She believed that both women and men should be educated equally, which she wrote about in one of her published works, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This work written by Wollstonecraft is known as a work of feminism. She called for women to be more than just good wives to men and good mothers to their children but to be strong in both mind and body. Wollstonecraft’s desire was for women to receive an education just as good as the education that men receive. Mary Wollstonecraft believed that with a good education, women can work in various professions. Mary Wollstonecraft fought for the betterment of women.
Citations
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” from “Selected Poems by Phyllis Wheatley (1773).”https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/untitled-edbd5bb9-ec50-4524-b55d-d5d87ffd0e1e/section/f6d1defd-e474-4d04-9a64-c7f108e6028d
Original source: National Cyclopedia of American Biography (Bio Ref Bank)
Database: Biography Reference Bank. Accession Number: 203046903. April 15, 2020.
“benighted, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2020. Web. 26 April 2020.
Oroonoko. Place of publication Not Identified: Penguin, 2016.Print.
“Two Sonnets By Charlotte Smith” in “Two Sonnets, Charlotte Smith (1797)” on manifold Schloarship at CUNY
“Excerpts from A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792). Cuny.manifoldapp.org
