A Comparison Of A Certain Lady

A Comparison Of A Certain Lady The portrayal of women in literature has varied greatly as history has progressed. In the Jazz Age, women were seen as breaking free from being just a housewife and the shadow of a man. The flapper was a woman who closely resembles the women of today. She smoked, drank, wore revealing clothing for the time, and considered herself an equal to men. A woman who had a career that rivaled most men was Dorothy Parker. She was a founding member of the Vicious Circle meaning that some men even treated her as an equal during a time when women’s right were still new and the role of what was expected of a woman was changing. In the poems A Certain Lady, To a Lady, and The Lady’s Reward Parker explores the mind of a woman, and how said woman used what she had to get what she needed. The poem A Certain Lady depicts how a certain woman would act while a man told her of his exploits. The woman is expected to just listen and almost be happy that the man is having successful conquests. The woman is supposed to be passive and bat her eyes and be oblivious to the entire situation because historically women were thought of being not as intelligent as men. However in this poem it is obvious that the woman is extremely intelligent. The last two lines of the poems read, â€Å"And what goes on, my love, while you’re away, /You’ll never know.† It is obvious that the speaker knows how the man really is because it is implied that while he is away she has her own agenda. This also implies equality between them, at least in the speaker’s mind. The speaker believes that as the man is allowed to do as he pleases that she is equally as deserving to do the same. Despite this, the speaker seemed slightly upset at the man’s actions although she likely might be doing the same: And you laugh back, nor can you ever see The thousand little deaths my heart has diedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights, And when, in se arch of novelty, you stray. The speaker definitely seems hurt by what this man is telling her. It is as though every time the man tells her of his conquests, a little piece of her heart dies. It seems like it is slowly crushing her. The speaker goes on to say that the man does not see her â€Å"staring eyes.† Perhaps this means that the man does not see what he is doing to her or even that she stares into the night wondering what he could be doing at that moment. It seems that the woman lives by the saying â€Å"ignorance is bliss.† It seems that as long as he is not telling her of his exploits. She can go on with her life and do as she pleases. As long as she pretends she is not intelligent she can have pretend happiness or continue to try filling a void that is cannot be filled. A poem that continues with the concept of the woman being intentionally ignorant to what is going on is To a Lady. However in this poem, the ignorance is used with a different motive.