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Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction, her description of the wife’s submissive actions, and her negative attitude towards the perceived future of a woman who gets married show the similarity among wife and servant (1). Chudleigh presents this poem as a warning to women who are not yet married, and as an offering of regret to those who are. Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction is key to understanding her view on the matter of marriage. She emphasizes the word "obey" by using it twice in the poem (5, 17). Along with the usage, Chudleigh capitalizes and italicizes "Obey" in line five, "When she the word Obey has said,/ And man by law supreme has made" (5-6). The word "obey" (5) is used as a synecdoche to represent all of the marriage vows, and the infamous "I do" at the end of the marriage ceremony. Chudleigh chooses to use "obey" as a synecdoche of all of the vows because it most fully describes her disdain of marriage. "Obey" conveys submission, servitude and required commitment, the aspects of marriage she scorns. All of the words that describe the tone and emotion of "obey" are incorporated in the action of slavery. Chudleigh uses the word "obey" to stress that when you take your marriage vows, a woman is ultimately agreeing to obey her husband, she is yielding to a life of servitude, hardly differing from slavery. Chudleigh claims "Him still must serve, him still obey" (17) to re-emphasize the servitude a wife must perform for her husband. Obey concedes that this servitude is not optional, the wife must be at hand to do what "her haughty lord thinks fit" (19). To use "obey" again brings us back to the beginning of the poem. This reflection reminds us of the original meaning of "obey," the offering of vows, the beginning of marriage. It is very important to remind us that we are talking about a wife’s servitude and not a slave’s. Without this reminder that Chudleigh is talking about speaking about a wife, the message she is trying to convey is weakened because we expect this type of servitude from a slave in 1703. You can slip back and forth between wife and slave because both are treated as possessions and not as people. Chudleigh invites us to see some interaction between husband and wife. She articulates how submissive a wife can be by saying that a wife is "governed by a nod" (15). This demonstrates the simplistic, servant like nature a wife will exhibit to her husband and his expectations of her submissiveness towards him. The husband expects his wife to obey him by a nod of his head. This pomposity a husband displays in the way he acknowledges his wife is recognized in other parts of the poem when he is referred to as "law supreme" (6), "eastern prince" (9) and "god" (16). The simplicity of a nod is condescending and lowers the importance of a wife to the value of a servant or slave in 1703. Through the wife’s submissive actions a clear connection is drawn between her and a servant. In the servant/master relationship a servant’s actions toward his/her master are agreeable and passive. Actions such as quiet compliance and complete loyalty. These actions, that are so agreeable and passive, are highlighted as qualities that are found and expected from a wife. Twice, quiet compliance is mentioned. First, the wife is referred to as a "mute" (13). "Mute" extends past quiet compliance and tends to forced compliance. When a people are medically mute, it means they are unable to speak. Speaking is not an option, just as it is not for the wife, "nothing act, and nothing say" (18), if she speaks when she is not supposed to she is out of line, or if she questions her husband’s authority it is unacceptable. This situation lowers the wife to no more than a means to an end for the husband, as a mere utility, not a lover or a life long companion. If Chudleigh hasn’t shown her readers her disdain for marriage by now, she seals it with her tone when she talks about this not so blessed union. In the beginning of the poem "that fatal knot is tied" (3), "that fatal knot" being marriage. The tone of this phrase is quite negative; "fatal" is the key word here. In terms of marriage it has a double meaning. "Fatal" means till the end, till death do us part. This side of fatal shows an unending love, one that will last for an eternity, but it connotes a much more ghastly meaning. The fatality that occurs is the marriage; a woman’s independence and her womanhood will be confiscated and cannot be regained after the "knot is tied" (3). Chudleigh says, "And never any freedom take" (14) re-affirming the loss of independence from this "fatal knot". Freedom is a word strongly associated with slavery, fortunately the end of an era. But we can see that there will be no freedom, no end to this life long servitude of a wife. The lack of freedom connects servitude and being a wife together in a disheartening way, but puts Chudleigh’s message simply in her poem. A wife will lose her freedom if you commit to marriage. Chudleigh offers a very plain and simple warning to women. She says, "Value yourself, and me despise:/ You must be proud, if you’ll be wise" (23-4). The claim is that the only way to be a wise woman is to be a proud woman, and the only way to do that is to avoid marriage. A woman is warned not to place herself in the position of servant, when she should value herself and be proud and wise. Even though Chudleigh eloquently forewarns women about the consequences of marriage, she neglects to address the aftereffects of not getting married. Chudleigh discounts how difficult it is to be an unwed woman in 1703. For the amount she detests marriage, it is ironic that she doesn’t offer and help to the brave women who venture into life on their own. There is no alternative posed to women as to how they are going to make money, where they are going to live or any other issue imperative to survival. Not only does Chudleigh elide the issue of basic survival, she also avoids offering a means of "getting out" for the women who are already married. It appears as though Chudleigh is very quick to condemn marriage, but not as eager to assist women whom she believes need a way out of a "fatal" matrimony. Bibliography: Word Count: 1144
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