Building the Perfect Woman: Pope's Poem, An Epistle to a Lady

Martin Oderinde
British Literature
9/25/2013
Kristen Pond
Building the Perfect Woman 101 In Alexander Pope's poem "An Epistle to a Lady" he clearly sets out to show the qualities of an ideal woman. These qualities are further enforced through the contrast of portraits of women who are in some way immoral or flawed. But do you believe these so called flaws are truly absent in a perfect women? Or is Pope being a little pessimistic and looking at these "flaws" in the glass half empty kind of way? Are the females in our society today more like Martha or like the others that Pope mentioned? Pope's idea of an ideal woman is Martha Blount a long time friend. He stated that she was submissive and respectful of her husband. "She who ne'er answers till a husband cools...Charms by accepting, by submitting sways, Yet has her humour most when she obeys (Line 261-264)." Her moods and loyalties aren't constantly changing and shifting as other women do. She's the exception among her sex and claims that she blends the best qualities of both man and woman. "Woman's at best a contradiction still... Picks from each sex to make it's fav'rite blest, (Line 270-273)." He also compliments even more by stating that the goddess Phoebus blessed her with sense, good-humour and a poet. Sounds like our famous poet had a little crush, but I can't help but notice he didn't really go that deep into detail about Martha's personality like he did the other women. Which brings the question does the perfect women have any of those "flaws." I believe the answer is yes it just at a certain degree. Let's take a look at Narcissa, she's a narcissist hence the name. She's conceited, self absorbed and in her mind she's perfect. But think in reality we are all a bit narcissistic. I know I am, I love me some me. If the women didn't believe she looked good or someone to be proud of. She be insecure about herself and I'm positive the perfect women wouldn't have that trait. Lets look at another female that Pope judges critically. Flavia, he talks about how she shows excessive spirit and quickness. She is very materialistic which is definitely a negative aspect. To me Flavia embodies the phrase YOLO (you only live once), she lives in the moment but that's not necessarily a bad thing. So she has a lots of energy but is that so wrong. I can be pretty lazy at times so a girl that wants to do things, has lots of energy I feel like that's an important trait to have. And she likes to live in the moment which there's nothing wrong about that. She not looking back on the past like I wish I had done this. She is living life with no regrets. So do I think Pope was being a little pessimistic? Yeah I do because there's so much more to women than what he described about Martha. So are females in today's society like Martha? I don't believe so and I'm glad they aren't. The females in our society have lots of different qualities, some that maybe in Pope's time period wouldn't have been acceptable. Females nowadays have so many qualities and it's a mystery. They are strange and that's okay because we as human being our curious people. They spark interest and come on who isn't down for a good mystery.