Oct 4, 2009
Abigail Adams' Attitude Towards the Past
Abigail Adams thinks of the past and future, remembering the time before revolution, stability with John, and her united family. Those parts of her life have been replaced by the division of her family, the difficulty of keeping a household by herself, and dealing with the effects of disease and war on all sides. It might be easy to believe that Adams would resist and disregard the hope that progress is to be made, the desire that is keeping her her husband away. However "few people... accept the idea of... 'turning the clock back'" and Abigail is not one of them. She notes that change is imminent in the first lines of paragraph three in "Absolute Power over Wives" (Adams 320). Abigail signs her letters as 'Portia', indicating an awareness of history and a desire to be treated in a similar way. This does not mean that Abigail seeks a return to the past, for the most the past she knows is not a similar one. Abigail looks back but realizes that her future and that of her family will be nothing without forward motion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs Cora said, I think too, she easily seems to resist her progress to future, because she is scared to the current political situation in which her husband is fighting for liberty, and family affairs under prevailed disease. As Absolute Power over wives showed her emotional conflicts, Man is Dangerous Creature represents her same condition between progress and resisting future. In first paragraph, she expresses the severe disease’s effect to her hometown and cold weather which harmed the apple cider of the home town. (ADAMS 316) This is continued the fact that she is sacrificing by division of her family for the citizens. And also she adds dark side of “Human Nature” and expresses nation’s instability. However, she admits that future is coming which will be different from current situation, in and out of her family. She says in the paragraph 8 (ADAMS 316), “Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.” in Man Is Dangerous Creature changing from expressing her inner problems to expecting bright future is found, as Absolute over Wives showed the hope for progress at last. She, as John’s wife, is not just remaining with agony and making her husband concern, but with patience expecting for better condition.
ReplyDelete