The Lady's Dressing Room

The poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” by Jonathan Swift, at first glance, seems to make women look like horrendous creatures. When the poem is thoroughly analyzed, one notices that the message is to free both genders of false ideals of themselves placed by society. Jonathan Swift, in the poem, is criticizing both males and females for adhering to their stereotypes. To begin, Swift is criticizing males for becoming the stereotype that all women are beautifully perfect. One can witness this on lines 3 and 4 where it states, “The Goddess from her Chamber issues, Array’d in Lace, Brocades and Tissues.” This example shows how a typical male views a female, as a goddess. It emphasizes the image of perfection by comparing Celia (females) to the concept
Strephon, the Rogue, display’d it wide, And turn’d it round on every Side.” (11-14) This brings light to the nature of males. In the quote, Strephon is looking at a woman’s night dress. Both males and especially females view this action as being morally wrong. This ruse is perverted which relates perfectly back to the stereotype. Swift is reiterating this fact back to men and telling them of their own wrong deeds. Swift is attempting to tell males that their actions should not be committed because it is offensive. In real life, on the news, one hears about perversive actions being done every day, especially by men. Perversive actions should be stopped and prevented because many people find offence to these actions which is exactly what Swift is trying to
The criticism also applies to females as well. The stereotype of females is that they excessively care for their appearance. In the poem, Celia is going through extreme measures to take care of her face. This is seen in lines 31-32, “With Puppy Water, Beauty’s Help Distill’d from Tripsy’s darling Whelp” In this example, Celia is using dog urine to prevent wrinkles from forming on her skin .This example perfectly displays the stereotype that is associated with women. They go through ridiculous beauty rituals to keep their appearance flawless. This idea of constantly trying to touch up one’s appearance is very prevalent in real life. Women go through rigorous beauty regimes to keep their face looking attractive. They put fat on their skins (through makeup) and pluck their eyebrows to keep them looking clean and symmetrical. Swift is trying to enlighten females by giving an extreme example and is saying that a woman does not need to go through processes like these to please men. Jonathan Swift also criticizes females by stereotyping them as extremely beautiful. In lines 143-144 the poem states, “Such Order from Confusion sprung, Such gaudy Tulips rais’d from dung,” This quote tells females how everything beautiful comes from dung. It is saying how one does not need to gorge themselves on beauty products to be considered attractive. Though the Queen of Love is talking to men,