Hutchinson context Flashcards
What is the restoration?
Return of the Monarchy and restoration of the King
How does Hutchinson feel about the restoration?
she disfavours it
What name is given to Hutchinson’s political stance?
She was a Republican
What is Hutchinson’s religious beliefs?
Puritan - English Protestant who was against C of E
How is ‘To the Sun Shining into her Chamber’ politically relevant?
polemical attack on the Restoration regime
What does she grieve in ‘To the Sun Shining into her Chamber’?
her husband’s death
How does her feelings of grief evolve in the poem?
from the agony of grief to a potent anger at the Restoration regime
What does she believe is responsible for her husband’s death?
the Restoration regime
Why is the imagery of the sun politically significant?
King Charles II referred to himself as the sun king
bringing sun to the darkness that he believed was the last 11 years of republican rule
State the lines about the sun in ‘To the Sun Shining into her Chamber’
“thou all-seeing sun”
“reveal; their glories in full grace”
What is the light imagery linked to?
Charles II
tyranny
hell
What does she associate light with?
open decadence and sexual license of the Restoration court where crimes are opnely committed
Literary context of the light imagery
she inverts traditional romantic associations of light
What is the sun a sign and enabler of?
corruption - such corrupted times, the terrible things taking place occurring in the daytime and the sun is the witness
Environmental significance of the sun
the sun is polluting the world, polluting force rather than a cleansing force
How does the inversion of the light imagery relate to her political message
she imagines restoration as an overturning of natural order
Which classical influence is the light imagery subverted from? What can we say about this?
Petrarch - dark inversion of the petrarchan sonnet form
Significance of female writers during this time?
the restoration period / civil war period offers opportunity and impetus for females to write
have a voice publically and politically
playing with poetic conventions of their time using paradoxes and reversals
What is the duality of grief in this poem?
grieving the loss of her husband
grieving the shift of politics
both within the context of the restoration
How is the last line significant in relation to the question
“O that I had but sinned and died alone”
intimacy - she is alone in her grief
bitterly poignant
What is the significance of the duality of grief?
represents the relationship between the personal and the political
