What do you learn about the speaker in the poem W Essays - Behavior

What do you learn about the speaker in the poem? What attitudes does she have towards her lover, women's roles within a relationship and love? Firstly, Millay presents the idea that the persona believes that a female is immediately born to fulfil the societal expectations of women, through using the first person title;"I, being born a woman and distressed." The use of the word "distressed" conveys a sarcastic tone, which suggests that the persona is toying with the idea that women are more empathic and emotional, or are certainly expected to be. The use of these words together conveys that the writer believes that society considers them synonymous, which further implies that the persona feels trapped by these societal expectations of women. Additionally,Millay also uses the word "possessed", which implies that women are possessed by societal expectations. Furthermore, Millay presents the view that the persona believes that women are isolated. The use of the word "my kind" suggests the abnormality of women and their detachment from society, as the historical setting of women post WW1 in the 1920s, women were not involved dir ectly in conflict, but forced to stay at home without male sexual partners to satisfy them. The use of the word "propinquity" juxtaposes the reality that men were absent for long periods of time during the war, but now men are returned and in close proximity, the persona and women can't help but desire sex, after years of abstinence, or at least that was what was perpetuated by society. Millay also presents the idea that women are actually superior to men in a relationship. By formatting the poem as a sonnet, Millay further juxtaposes societal norms of women and men, as sonnets were traditionally written by men to women. By reverting this, Millay depicts female dominance and an equal capability to do men's work'. Millay divides the sonnet into an octave (8 lines) and a sestet. The first part encompasses the lack of control the persona has over her actions, through the use of language such as "undone" and "possessed", whereas the latter part established dominance and control over the lover and a woman's sexuality, "let me make it plain", which further depicts a woman's established superiority to men, particularly in sex, where a woman is expected to be subservient and virginal, particularly within the 1920s, as although women behagn experiencing greater sxual liberation, traiditonl patriarchali ideology was still prevalent within society. Thus, edna st. vicent millay , further explores the notion of views of female sexuality, as also eluded to in a few figs from thistles. Moreover, Millay uses lexical polysemy to describe her mind as "staggering", which could depict her feminine indecision, or reference her superior intellect over the male. Also the fact that she was born a "woman" connotes the maturity women encompass. Millay presents the persona as viewing love as a social construction that she does not conform to. The poem is a sonnet about sex with a partner, who the persona does not wish to pursue after the casual encounter. Although the poem is about sex, contrary to typical romantic poems, there is little or no imagery throughout. Instead, there is direct, masculine dialect, such as "let me make it plain", I find this...insufficient reason". This suggests that Millay is defying the romantic societal expectation of women to be engulfed in love and romance before sex, and be subservient to their husbands, and instead addressing the reality that love is not always necessary for sex. Ironically, Millary uses alliteration to present the act of ultimate love (sex)as a chore rather than romantic ; "to bear your body's weight upon my breast", which is antithetical to the flowery language used amongst romantic poets at the time. Additionally, Millay presents the persona as viewing her lover as insignificant and inferior compared to herself. Millay writes, "..am urged by your propinquity". The use of the word "urged" implies that the persona, and women in general, have no control over their sexual attraction, and that it is animalistic behaviour rather than romantic, connoting the fact that this belief would have been controversial during the 1920s, as the romantic notion of virginity until marriage has been completely juxtaposed, by no more than a young,