While reading Lady Anne Halkett's work from The Memoirs, I couldn't help but pick up on the many references to gender and religion of the time period - both subtle and direct.
The passage beings"this gentleman came to see me sometimes in the company of ladies who had been my mother's neighbors in St. Martin's Lane, and sometimes alone, but whenever he came his discourse was serious, handsome, and tending to impress the advantages of piety, loyalty, and virtue" (1764). In her description of his discourse, Halkett attributes the gentleman with not only masculine characteristics and adjectives, but with personality traits such as piety, loyalty, and virtue. These attributes make him masculine, but also make him almost godly. The traits of "piety, loyalty, and virtue" have religious undertones and are each expressed directly in the bible. It just so happens that these traits that are typically used to describe a "good Christian" are here used to describe a "good" man. In this way, we see religious expectations and expectations of manhood intertwined.
However, masculine roles are not the only ones commented on in this passage. Halkett later writes of these traits when she admits that "these subjects were so agreeable to my own inclination that I could not but give them a good reception, especially from one that seemed to be so much an owner of them himself"(1764). In this way, we see her embracing a typical female role as she engages in servitude to the gentleman. This can also be taken as suggestively religious if we take into account the way the man is deified by the adjectives used to describe him. Through this lens, perhaps her servitude to him may be representative of a "good Christian's" servitude to God.
I think that it is very interesting that you brought up the words that are associated with the Bible. It also touches upon values that a woman from this time may wants in a man. I enjoy reading these first person accounts because we learn about life in the time period in an almost roundabout way.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good analyzation about how the words with religious undertones are often used to describe values in a person, rather than in religion, and how God and religion were ever present in this era. It seems that these kind of people were the "ideal" gentlemen during this time because of their so-thought "godliness".
ReplyDeleteI like the way you brought in the misogynistic aspects of the piece. The undertones are there, but because the writer accepts them in the normal course of things they can be difficult to pick up. So kudos for that. I feel like I've been on some kind of anti-christian kick, or rather anti-religion this week(even thought I'm not)but this is another example of how man has warped religious ideas to the advantage of some and the detriment of others. In this case the latter is women.
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