Contradictory nature of Puritan faith

• Imperfection

Anne followed the Bible and Puritan rules, but still faced consequences from God

• By referencing Job, she reminds the Puritans of his undeserved downfall

• Contradicts Puritan doctrine

Writes frequently about Puritans' beliefs in God's authority over her world through repeating God's role in the burning down of her house

• "Yea, so it was and so 'twas just./It was His own, it was not mine," (Bradstreet 16-17).

  • Puritans believed in God's force over all

  • If bad things happen to them they weren't elect

• "Those hast a house on high erect./ Framed by that might Architect" (Bradstreet 43-44).

  • Belief that God shaped their life

  • Tries to be a "perfect" Puritan, but her house was still burnt down by God

Supporting

• Anne Bradstreet illustrates her perspective of God through the repetition of God in times of distress.

  • “I starting up, the light did spy,/ And to my God my heart did cry” (Bradstreet 7-8).

    • As soon as she hears her house is on fire, she begs for God to come help her

    • She reflects a Puritan ideal that God is above all and is their strength

  • “Yet by His gift is made thine own;/There's wealth enough, I need no more,” (Bradstreet 50-51).

    • She finds reassurance in in the fact she is wealthy enough

    • She reflects the Puritan belief that materialistic things are temporary but God’s love is undying

• Child forced into public view → child is metaphor for her poem

• Believes child has flaws, likewise believes her poetry has many flaws

• PURITAN IDEALS: Puritans view art & personal expression as something shameful and distracting from god

  • Bradstreet admits her poems are unfit for the public and is ashamed of her work

• “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw/And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw” (13-14)

  • Efforts to fix child →symbolizes Bradstreet revising and correcting her poems

  • “Washing” her child’s face is figurative for attempting to cleanse it from non-Puritan beliefs.

  • PURITAN IDEALS: Puritans wanted to attain perfection (desire proves one had received God’s grace)

    • Bradstreet desires to perfect herself and writing abilities → Conversion narrative

• “Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, / Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,” (4-5).

  • Directly parallels what happens to her writings when her brother-in-law published it in England

• “And for thy mother, she alas is poor, / Which caused her thus to send thee out the door” (23-24).

  • She is the mother of her writing’s and therefore she is the one discarding the impure writings, displaying pro Puritan beliefs.

  • After she sees she cannot save her writing, she gets rid of it altogether.

    
    

• By making this poem full of self-criticism and moral reflection

• It was difficult to balance between modesty and creativity back then

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

• Faith and religion guide Bradstreet to remain humble by shaping how she views her accomplishments

  • "Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, / Who after birth didst by my side remain,” (Bradstreet 1-2)

    • Never wanted her works to be published

    • Compares to a flawed child

  • “At thy return my blushing was not small, / My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,” (7-8)

    • Embarrassed that her work was exposed to the public

    • Avoids claiming pride in her own work

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

• “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,/And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.”(Bradstreet 13-14).

  • Puritan ideals taught her that humans are naturally flaws so she could not see her work as good enough either

  • Made her overly self-critical, constantly focusing on flaws

• “O cast thee as one unfit for light,/The visage was so irksome in my sight;”(Bradstreet 9-10).

  • Puritan values of modesty and humility pressured her to think that showing pride in her writing would be sinful and shameful

    How can faith and religion revealed the truth to people?

    • She shows readers the pressure religion placed on writers, especially women

    • She demonstrates how their values of modesty and humility made people doubt their own talents

• Reveals how her religious values shape her writing

• Puritan ideals emphasized the belief that all gifts come from God

• Bradstreet criticizes her own writing

• Shows the embarrassment Anne felt regarding her own works

• The Puritans' strict tents made her unable to express her true thoughts

• According to her, many flaws/blemishes in her writing

• She thought it wasn't perfect enough to be seen by the public

  Opposing

• She challenges the Puritan belief of Predestination through the mother who attempts to fix her child's flaws

  • "I cast thee by as one unfit for the light," (Bradstreet 9)

  • "I wash thy' face, but more defects I saw,/ And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw," (Bradstreet 13-14)

    
    

• Has themes of human imperfections that are shown through Bradstreet's use of an extended metaphor in the poem

  • “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain” (Bradstreet 1)

  • “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw/And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw” (Bradstreet 13-14)

  • “I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet/Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet” (Bradstreet 15-16)

    • Metaphor between her work and human imperfections reflect and connect to the Puritan belief that humans were not perfect

• Incorporates Puritan beliefs to help portray emotion

• Uses it to express her relationship with God and what values a Puritan should have w/ her poem

• Including these things in her poem has allowed for readers like us to know of their faith and identify themes

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

Opposing

• “He in his Bottle put my tears/ My smarting wounds washt in his Blood” (Bradstreet 10-11).

  • God comforts those that go through hard times

• “And banisht thence my Doubts and fears” (Bradstreet 12).

  • God brings assurance to those who oubt

• “My hungry Soul he fill’d with Good” (Bradstreet 9).

  • God brings satisfaction to the discontent

• *Religion shapes believers worldviews as well as provides a place to find comfort and assurance in difficult times*

Supporting

• "Who freely hath done this for me?/I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live/ And Loue him to Eternity”(Bradstreet 14-16).

  • Shows how deeply Bradstreet valued her relationship with God. She expresses her lifelong commitment to serving and loving him for the rest of eternity

  • Reflects the Puritan belief that devotion to God is a lifelong duty.

  • *Faith and religion provide people with purpose and guidance in life and help shape their morals and values of puritanism through devotion in god*

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

• Her devotion to God blinded her from actual values she should have of him

• She was blinded when seeking comfort, rather than serving him

How can faith and religion reveal the truth to people?

• In the poem, it is shown that she has wounds, fears, and many more

• This shows her that the God that she is highly devoted to, allowed her to go through that in the first place

• Faith and religion provide people with purpose and guidance in life and help shape their morals and values of Puritanism through devotion in God

  • “Who freely hath done this for me?/I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live/ And Loue him to Eternity” (Bradstreet 14-16).

    • Shows how deeply Bradstreet values her relationship with God

• Expresses gratitude to God, reflecting Puritan beliefs about faith and devotion

• Focuses on her personal struggle to acknowledge and repay God for his work in her life

• Religion and faith in the Puritan lifestyle were deeply personal, emotional, and centered on an individual’s private relationship with God rather than outward public expression of faith

  • She turns to God in the silence of night --> shows the Puritan ideal that faith should always be constant and present in all aspects of life

• Expresses feelings of unworthiness while seeking God's mercy -->connects to the idea that all humans are sinful and can only be saved by God's grace

Opposing

• “By night when others soundly slept/ And hath at once both ease and Rest,/ My waking eyes were open kept”(1-3). 

  • The contrast she creates between her and the rest of the Puritans indicates that her self-examination and search for God is not the norm. She claims the rest of the society are just passively trying to reconcile their fate.

• “I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live/And Loue him to Eternity” (Bradstreet 15-16).

  • Shows that faith is lifelong and active, not temporary.

  • Highlights the puritan belief that obedience and devotion guide every aspect of life.

  • Connects her personal promise of faith to the broader expectations of Puritan culture.

• The purpose of Stanza 3 is to show her conversion narrative by showing how God's grace changed her into a better Puritan.

What role does your stanza play within the context of the whole poem?

• The poem is demonstrating her devotion to God through a spiritual experience rather than for human eyes.

  • The stanza proves her spiritual transformation because it shows her wounds and fears getting diminished

• Bradstreet uses words with a significant amount of religious connotation

  • "blood"--> God's death is being represented by blood (what Puritans believed they were saved by) and "his Bottle" --> refers to Pslam 56;8

How do these words impact the reader and overall purpose of the stanza?

• Related to the people of her time as the words she used demonstrated God's faith and her deep devotion to God

• The diction she uses religious connotation to strengthen the spiritual tone of the stanza

• MEANING --> shows that God helped her unfulillness

• IDEAL --> God fed her empty soul with goodness as she was elect

"He in his Bottle put my tears," (Bradstreet 10).

• MEANING --> shows how God knows of her sorrows and acknowledges them (Psalm 56;8)

• IDEAL --> she aligns herself with the Bible, therefore speaking with the Bible verses which displays the Puritan ideal of the devotion to God

"My smarting wounds washt in his blood," (Bradstreet 11).

• MEANING --> her wounds were cared for and diminshed by God's sacrifice ("blood" refers to God's death)

• IDEAL --> saying that she is an elect and that God has cleansed her wounds (sins) which was a significant Puritan belief of a conversion narrative

"And banisht thence my Doubts and fears" (Bradstreet 12).

• MEANING --> God had diminshed all of her her fears and worries for about the world

• IDEAL --> shows that she is an elect because she had flaws before but once God had "gone through her" she has no more wor

• Similar themes --> decision between earthly pleasures and spiritual desires

  • Big theme during the time period of the Puritans

    • Anne Bradstreet incorporated the same theme in this poem

      • Flesh --> earthly pleasures

      • Spirit --> spiritual desires

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

• Puritan religion --> God is the ultimate ruler and people have to be strictly devoted to Him

  • Flesh is material wealth, while Spirit is religion and God

    • Spirit shows that wealth fades but God does not just like Puritans believed

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

• Spirit represented their spiritual world while Flesh was materialistic possessions

  • Spirit --> often overlooks the truth that materialistic possessions are also important in someones life

  • Bradstreet's faith made it seem as though worldly goods are useless but devotion to God is everything

How can faith and religion reveal truth to people?

• Spirit proves that earthly wealth are temporary while love for God is not

• Showed Anne Bradstreet and many other Puritans that God is what truly matters

  • “The city where I hope to dwell,/ There’s none on Earth that can parallel.” --> referring to Heaven where God is