Anna Brammeier
12/04/06
An Explication of "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women"
Aemilia's Lanyer's poem entitled "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women" is an excellent example of metaphysical poetry as defined by the writers Harmon and Holman in their book A Handbook To Literature. In it they list many components metaphysical poetry, namely that "The poetry is intellectual, [and] psychological...absorbed in thoughts of death, physical love, [and] religious devotion...The imagery is drawn from...erudite sources...The form is frequently that of an argument." (310) The poem's premise is centered around its narrator, Pontius Pilate's wife, who is begging him to spare Jesus' life, and in the process she defends the shoddy treatment women have received over the centuries at the hands of man. Pilate's wife compares the persecution of innocent women to Pilate's decision to condemn an innocent man.
Lanyer, in the guise of Pilate's wife, skillfully segues to defending Eve's actions in the garden of Eden, saying: "But she, poor soul, by cunning was deceived; / No hurt therein her harmless heart intended." (11.29-30) In contrast, she believes Adam's sin was greater because he was supposed to be the stronger of the two, endowed with great power and strength by God when he was created. In addition to failing in his responsibility to Eve, Pilate's wife implies Adam fell for a less logical reason as well: "If Eve did err, it was for knowledge sake; / The fruit being fair persuaded him to fall: / No subtle serpent's falsehood did betray him; / If he would eat it, who had power to stay him?" (11.53-56) Adam responds to the beauty of the apple and of Eve herself rather than the more intellectual quest for knowledge. In stanza eight, Lanyer notes that Adam never attempted to degrade Eve by deriding her weakness until he sinned, and now his male prgeny believe women lack the level of intelligence men are capable of, and now guard their knowledge as if it was the Holy Grail itself. Moreover, Pilate's wife admits to the fact that Eve was weak in allowing herself to be deceived, but posits that Pilate is committing a worse offense by killing Christ, the Son of God, "Whom, if unjustly you condemn to die, / Her sin was small to what you did commit." (11.73-4)
Finally, in the eleventh stanza, Pilate's wife insists that women be exonerated, on the grounds that "Your fault being greater, why should you disdain / Our being your equals, free from tyranny? / If one weak woman simply did offend, / This sin of yours hath no excuse nor end." (11.85-8) She ends the poem with a warning and asks her her husband is he is willing to give up his soul as a direct result of sanctioning Christ's crucifixion: "To seek the death of him that is so good, / For thy soul's health to shed his dearest blood?" (Ll. 95-6) Lanyer makes the strong argument that one woman's mistake should not speak for an entire sex. But her point is twofold, for the purpose of the soliloquy of Pilate's wife is to persuade her husband not only to refrain from punishing a blameless man, but also to listen to her as an equal. As a woman, she is fighting for the respect she deserves, and skillfully supports her argument with Biblical evidence. As to the question of whether Lanyer is a good example of a metaphysical poet, the answer is in the affirmative. She formats an argument, exhibits an intellectual thought process, and analyzes the weighty matters of murder and gender politics. Her diction is easy to understand and interpret, and the imagery is produced from a respected source. But most of all, she boldly tackles a topic which many women writers avoided because of its incendiary nature, which could have ruined their already fledgling careers, as well as their reputations, and is still relevant, hundreds of years later, to 21st century readers.
Works Cited
Harmon & Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 9th Ed. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. P. 310.
Lanyer, Aemilia. "Eve's Apology in the Defense of Women." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2001. P. 629-632.