The Double Role of Women:
Elizabeth’s Double Life
Elizabeth I was a woman who symbolized the virtuous image of the Protestant religion and was very smart woman whom had a remarkable judgment and became a legend in her lifetime. She was worshiped and admired and an inspiration to sixteenth century women. Her speeches demonstrate her great articulation. In her fight with her public dealings, she has also used her gender card. The duality of existing social constraints and natural, emotional maternal behavior are exemplified in the poetry of Elizabeth I. “On Monsieur’s Departure”, is one of the poems that show her articulate strong poetry and expresses the life of Queen Elizabeth.
Women didn’t have many rights before and they had more of a restricted lifestyle compared to today. Women are supposed to be proper and dignified, but in this poem the author wants to be maternal and emotional. This poem written by Elizabeth was a prayer written to show her terrifying ordeal as a woman that she must goes through. In the first line of “On Monsieur’s Departure”, it says “I grieve and dare not show my discontent” Here it shows that she must not show her feelings because she is a woman of power. She cannot show that is she is weak as a Queen she has to uphold a high sense of dignity and she represents a strong figure for women everywhere. Women were treated as emotional slaves that were there to support men and take care of the children and so they build up many different types of emotions that they cannot show.
“I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not. I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.”
Here is where she later expresses more about her feelings about a relationship that she can never obtain. It looks like she really loved and cared for him but was denied her love probably due to her position as Queen and her duties she must keep. A woman’s job was to take care of a husband. If she were to get married, she would debilitate her role as ruler also and would be subjected into the rule of her husband so this puts her at a state of turmoil. In line 2 where it says, "I love and yet am forced to seem to hate". The words love and hate are very strong words and this line shows her two dual roles fighting each other. These are an example of her contradictions of her poetry that expresses her frustration as a leader with boundaries and her yearnings to be a regular human being so when her next line is “I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate…./Since from myself another self I turned” (4 and 6) She is explaining her thoughts deep inside her that her desire to be her regular self, she cannot so she throws away her emotions to be a regular woman and becomes another person to become a better ruler.
My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid from him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be suppresst.
The first line of this stanza is her comparison between her shadow and the sun and then the shadows follows her while she flies to pursue it. These lines 7 and 8 talk about her personal feelings that she cannot control and it follows her as if it was her shadow asking her what she has done. She is starting to have mixed emotions about throwing away her emotions as ruler because these feelings will always stand by her, mostly feelings of regret. In lines 11 where she says, “No means I find to ride him from my breast,” expresses her deepest feelings that she cannot remove and that there will no way to remove these emotions for a man from her heart. She finally just gives in and says that she can no longer escape the feelings that she dearly desires.
Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.
In this final stanza, she talks about how she is made of melting snow and this is like saying her feelings are fragile. Lines 16-18 she is looking for a way to find an answer to all her problems because she feels hopeless right now. Then she ends saying that her only other final way is for her to die and forget about all that is love. She is feeling so low right now that says very big statements such as ,”be more cruel” or ,”float or sink” because her feelings are split into two. Her passions will always be untamable and confused due to the fact that she doesn’t know which to follow, either her heart or her head?
This poem is a poem that expresses one’s love of that that cannot be shown. Queen Elizabeth I lived in a life where she always had to represent a strong image to the public and in order to do so she must sacrifice one thing to get another. She becomes confused by her decisions of whether to following her heart or mind, to her being a full complete woman or to throw away her own self to become something else. The poem was a back and forth swing of emotions with no answer but rather emotions trapped in a box that cannot be shown. In the end, even though it is a sad love poem, it shows great courage and strength to be able to do the things that Queen Elizabeth has done.