That's What They Want You to Think

An observation I made while reading Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book” and Cavendish’s “An Excuse for So Much Writ upon My Verses”, was that they talk about their writing as their children. In one way, their writing was precious to them and was created by them like a child. For example, Cavendish said “Condemn me not for making such a coil/About my book, alas it is my child.” It is literally an excuse for writing, as if she could not help but pursue her maternal instinct. This gives the impression that they were taking on a socially accepted maternal role, but toward their writing. These women were basically saying that it was acceptable for them to be writers because they took on such a feminine role towards their work. Also, they take on a very inferior position in their explanations. For instance, Bradstreet talks about herself as a weak writer who had no business being published. She makes it sound like her writing is so bad that even she does not like it, but she has to take ownership for it as her motherly duty, just like the mother of a flawed child. This paints a picture of weak women who cannot help but indulge their natural need to nurture. This is such a clever approach because they use the guise of socially accepted inferior women to accomplish their socially rebellious goals of being women writers.