Societys Role in Margery Kempes Autobiography Essay

Societys Role in Margery Kempes Autobiography In her essay Professions for Women, Virginia Woolf recounts her experience with Coventry Patmores Angel in the House. The Angel, societys ideal woman, is concerned primarily with others, identifies herself only as a wife/mother, and remains conventional in her actions, conscious of the standards for women. Woolf indicates that women writers are guided by this Angel unless they liberate themselves. Societys ideals (the Angel in the House) have influenced Margery Kempes autobiography as revealed by her content, form, and identity. Kempe chronicles her struggle to obey God while attending to her marital duties: she says to her husband, I may not deny you my body, but the†¦show more content†¦Kempe writes her autobiography in the third-person perspective, which is indicative of societys influence on her writing. Referring to herself as this creature, Kempe puts the reader in a situation where she/he more likely associates with the creature as a character than a real person. Also, the focus chapters 3, 4, and 11 is primarily on Kempes spirituality, illustrated best by her diction: God, Heaven, sin, temptation, and an array of other religious jargon characterize her speech, as opposed to sexual or spiritual liberation or subjective truth. Because of the time in which she wrote this, Kempes work must have been of religious significance, not an example of feminist or existentialist theory. Furthermore, Kempe seems to have internalized the condemning voice of the church, as she chastises and demonizes hersel f. For example, She thought she was worthy of no mercy, for her consent was so willfully done, nor ever worthy to do Him service, because she was so false to Him (22). Even if she really felt this way about herself, Kempe seems to be stating readers reactions, especially when she quotes her husband, who told her, Ye are no good wife (23). Coventry Patmores nineteenth-century Angel in the House post-dates Margery Kempe by about four hundred years. Thus Kempe does not