A Lesson in Hospitality

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu notices several different cultural aspects when she travels to Turkey. The one that caught my attention was the way the ladies immediately welcomed Montagu to the bath chambers. They are very welcoming of this stranger and are willing to have her join them which quickly reminded me of the Odyssey. The hospitality offered that is offered by the Turkish is similar to hospitality offered by the Greeks.

Hospitality is very important in the Odyssey and is very different than what we are used to today. Both Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, experience warmth when they land on new territory. The first example of this is in Book Three when Telemachus and Athena visit Pylos. When the king of Pylos sees them he begins “waving them on in welcome, urging them to sit”. Telemachus and Athena are strangers to the king, but he still welcomes them. All that he asks is that they say a prayer to Poseidon before they are welcomed with a feast. It is protocol throughout most of the Odyssey that strangers are greeted with a bath and a feast.

Lady Montagu is greeted with a great amount of respect. She is also offered to join the women and they offer to help her undress so she can bathe. She notes that she does not know of a “European court where the ladies would have behaved themselves in so polite a manner to such a stranger”. She even goes on to say that she is not met with “disdainful smiles or satirical whispers” which occur in her assemblies when someone is not dressed appropriately. This seems to still be true.  One reason is that we do not have public bath chambers, but our hospitality skills do seem to lack. It seems as though most people are skeptical to welcome a stranger into their home, or even just to offer kindness to someone who appears to be different. Perhaps we could learn something from the Greeks and the Turkish. 

Allusions, Allusions Everywhere

     Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is full of drama, satire, and allusions. The first time I really picked up on this was near the end with Pope’s reference to Othello. In The Rape of the Lock, Belinda cries out to the Baron “Restore the Lock” just as Othello “in so loud a strain/ Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain”. Both Belinda and Othello have lost something important to them. The lock of hair and the handkerchief also lead to the over dramatic downfall of the character. For Belinda, this is a loss of part of her beauty. For Othello, this is death.

      There are also references to Homer’s poems, The Iliad and the  Odyssey. The first example is that this piece is written in the form of an epic poem. This piece is an epic poem.Of course there are more specific allusions. Pope mentions “Homer’s tripod” which is an allusion to the Iliad. In the Iliad, Vulcan creates tripods for the gods. Soon after that, a “wondrous bag” is compared to the one “where once Ulysses held the winds”. Ulysses, or Odysseus, was given a bag by Aeolus. The bag contains the west winds to guide them home, however his Odysseus’ men are greedy and open the bag. They are expecting gold and instead find the winds which sail them farther from their destination. These allusions show Belinda's greed. She took for granted what she had and this cost her. She values her looks, but now they have been compromised. 

      Historical references are also easy to spot. Pope makes a reference to “Galileo’s eyes”, or as we would say, Galileo’s telescopes. In this is also an allusion to astrologer John Partridge who was often satirized. It was a common belief that Partridge was a quack and would not last long. In this piece, he is using a telescope to tell the "fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome". Pope is saying that Partridge can tell the future by looking at the stars, an idea that was not common and still seems a little unrealistic today. Yet another crazy exclamation, it shows the ridiculousness of Belinda's reaction. 

     Alexander Pope has several other allusions throughout this piece, but it took footnotes and extra research to notice these. He calls on different literary greats and historical moments to create a very satirical piece. Pope chooses some of the craziest times in literature and in history to show just how dramatic this experience is for Belinda and just how crazy it is that she reacted in such a way. He uses The Rape of the Lock, and all its allusions, to make fun of vanity and to show how it unimportant it truly is. 

Mary Astell: A Woman before Her Time

      When reading Mary Astell’s “Some Reflections upon Marriage”, I could easily picture reading something like this today. She has some strong feminist ideals, such as telling women, and men, not to marry without thinking through the choice. I have always been taught that marriage is not something to go into quickly and Astell seems to mimic that idea. Her first sentence, “If marriage be such a blessed state, how comes it, may you say, that there are so few happy marriages?” is a strong start and conveys her ideas. I expected this piece to take a more bitter approach to marriage, especially after reading the first sentence, but she is really just a woman who thinks marriage takes thought. 

        It is fairly easy to tell that this a feminist piece, but Astell includes an important part of feminism: not placing all the blame on someone else. She says that men should not just fall in love with wit or beauty, but she also says that women should, as they are allowed, make the choice to accept or decline what is offered. She later says that it is not entirely a woman’s fault because women have been taught that “she should have no higher design than to get her a husband”. Even if a woman’s thoughts are a product of her environment, she does, or at least should, have the option to refuse a proposal. A woman should think about who she is marrying before going along with it. Women did not have much of a choice, but Astell makes a case as for why they should. 

        Mary Astell makes several claims that are ahead of her time. This causes backlash, but it is also an inspiration for change. She has an opinion and is not afraid to write it down. What she says makes sense and these are ideas that should definitely be around today. Marriage should not be thought about and there should be several reasons for getting married. Marrying for beauty, wit, and money are not the best options.