|
A short response assignment for English 211, Major British Authors: Medieval to Neoclassical, a sophomore British literature survey course taught by Rita Jones-Hyde, written on 28 November 2006 at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Jonathan Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room":
Misogyny or Misandry?
by Matt Wallace
 Thus finishing his grand survey,
The swain disgusted slunk away,
Repeating in his amorous fits,
"Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!"
— "The Lady's Dressing Room," Lines 115-118
|
I was so amused by my initial reading of "The Lady's Dressing Room" that I couldn't help but exclaim yet another paraphrase of a favorite ironic line from my favorite movie, Casablanca: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that women actually defecate!" Almost five-sixths of the poem is a painfully repugnant catalog by Strephon, a male suitor, of the carnage left in the wake of the efforts of Celia, a well-to-do woman, to make herself presentable for polite society. The remainder of the poem relates Strephon's subsequent disenchantment with women and the narrator's chastising him for this. What is the target of Swift's satire?
Taken at face value, Strephon's "strict survey" of Celia's recently-used, yet-to-be-cleaned dressing room portrays the "Lady" as a completely filthy sow. In this reading of the poem, Swift's satirical target is Celia who serves as a metaphor for all women, their vanity, and their charm and beauty which is ultimately a total sham. In this case, given the grotesque caricature of everywoman Celia, Swift is clearly a misogynist, a hater of women, but is such a reading accurate and appropriate?
If read as one man's descent into the underworld of feminine charm and beauty, Strephon's "strict survey" becomes a ludicrous travelogue of a journey no man should ever make. In this reading of the poem, Swift's satirical target is Strephon who serves as a metaphor for all men, their chauvinism, and their inability to recognize women as fellow human beings. In this case, given the pathetic caricature of everyman Strephon, Swift is clearly a misandrist, a hater of men, but is this reading anymore accurate and appropriate than the previous one?
If read without reference to sexual politics, "The Lady's Dressing Room" is a commentary on the human condition and the relations between men and women. In this reading of the poem, Swift's satirical target is both Strephon and Celia who serve as metaphors for all men and women and the often awkward, farcical, and unseemly jig that is the human mating dance. In this case, Swift is an equal opportunity offender of both genders, thus all of humanity, which is precisely what one expects of a notorious misanthrope.
|
