Abigail Williams, Puritan or Egotistical Brat In this passage, I will be comparing Abigail Williams with the average Puritan women as described in both “To My Dear And Loving Husband”, and “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House”. The first thing you should know, is that I am using only primary sources from puritan communities based in 17th century New England. The second thing you should know is that puritan women had a very low status in their society.
Puritan women were expected to be submissive, humble, and to never question their husbands. One example is the fact that every part of this letter, even the title, is meant to complement the receiver. The women continually says things like “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold”(Bradstreet), or “If ever man were loved by wife, then thee” (Bradstreet) and “My love is such that rivers cannot quench” (Bradstreet). So, essentially, the entire letter entitled “to my dear and loving husband” (Bradstreet) is simply a wife patronizing her husband in fancy words.…show more content… For example, after Anne Bradstreet’s home burns down she can be quoted saying, “Far be it that I should repine”,(Bradstreet) and “so it (the fire) was, and so 'twas just.”(Bradstreet). If that doesn't prove she was accepting, I don’t know what will.
Yet another characteristic that a Puritan woman is expected to demonstrate, and probably one of the most important ones, is the ability to exhibit self restraint. This includes self restraint of one’s own thought and mind. Take Anne Bradstreet, for example, after finding herself having nostalgic thoughts about her house that burnt down, she, as she put it, went, “straight I 'gin my heart to chide”(Bradstreet) . In English that means she chided herself for wishing her house fire did not occur. This would require a huge amount of self
