Felicia Hemans, a best- selling poet in England and America during the early 1800’s, became much more popular in the late 1900’s with the rise of feminist movement. However, during her day, she was frequently criticized for the fact that she was a woman in a “man’s profession” and was not performing society’s stereotypical domestic roles. Much of her works involved the themes of gender roles as well as her criticisms of men and women in society. This may have been influenced by the fact that her father and husband deserted their families, which prompted themes of men’s unreliability. Her work reflects the struggles many women still feel today with the mixing and combining of the roles of mother, housekeeper, and loving wife yet a yearning for one’s own independence. Much of her work centered around women who became famous in non- traditional feminine roles at the cost of happiness.
Hemans’ poem entitled Tales, and Historic Scenes, in Verse: The Wife of Asdrubal, begins with an epigraph of the Third Punic War in 149-146 B.C where a city- state in Africa was destroyed by the Roman Empire. Asdrubal, the general of the African army, pathetically surrendered so that he could escape slavery. After convicting him of being a coward, his wife murders his two children and then commits suicide as she would rather do that than be a slave to her enemy.
Her poem then begins with a description of the African people in “Roman chains, Gaze in mute horror on their burning fanes; And shouts of triumph, echoing far around, Swell from the victor’s tents with ivy crown’d (p. 407)”. Hemans than describes the wife as “A being more than earthly, in whose eye There dwells a strange and fierce ascendancy… But a wild courage sits triumphant there, The stormy grandeur of a proud despair (p. 407)”. I think in a way Hemans admires what the wife is about to do. Even though it is a horrible crime, she has the courage and the will to stand up for herself and against her husband. I like the words “proud despair”. It is a sort of ironic contradiction, but the wife is proud that she is able to stand up for her country and her people even when her husband, the general, could not.
Just as Dr. Glance questions in his pod casts; was the wife a hero? A homicidal mother? Was it an act of bravery? A murder? Was she avenging her spouse? I think considering her past with men and them leaving when times get hard instead of standing up for what is just, Hemans sees the wife as a hero. Yes, she did murder her children, but her husband left his family behind and surrendered cowardly to the enemy. Hemans sees what the wife did as an act of heroism and bravery.
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Alex,
ReplyDeleteNice job in this post--good focus and attention to specifics in Hemans's poem. I like the way you consider and speculate on Hemans's attitude toward the title character, too. Keep up the good work.
I agree,although it was cold blooded murder, Heman's appeared to be fascinated by the wife ability to murder her husband and his two kids. I felt like Heman was happy that a woman can take the role of a man...because typically a man is usually the one who would do something as gruesome as what took place. I think Heman saw it as bravery to do what she did. Great Post!
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