Stretching from sociable conversations, and satiric epistles, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu became one of the most crucial female figure of the early eighteen century. As the eighteenth century was fascinated by the written word, Montagu expressed the themes of contemporary scandals by focusing on gender discrimination in publishing “Epistle From Mrs. Younge to her Husband” and “Epistle From Arthur Gray to Mrs. Murray”. In the first poem Montagu writes as Mrs. Younge, in protest to a familiar seducer, who legally separated from his wife and cashed in on the love affair by recovering damages from her seducer, then by divorcing her and remarrying as revenge. Montagu expresses angst that wives have no legal recourse in the case of their husband’s infidelity, and she notes that for women, options to do so are unattainable: “All bargains but conditional are made; The purchase void, the creditor unpaid; Defrauded servants are from service free; A wounded slave regains his liberty For wives ill used no remedy remains To daily racks condemned, and to eternal chains.” (l.19-24)…show more content… Imposing a comparison of the marriage contract to “servants” and “slaves” shows the underlying inferior position the wives have been succumbed to. While the issue can also be seen as ironic, due to the fact that slaves and servants are still in fact awarded a certain form of protection, the wives are left with “no remedy”. Montagu abandoned all metaphors, and depicts the marriage as a form of imprisonment through the use of using the terms “eternal chains” and “daily racks” as her final line of the poem. While women had no say in their husbands infidelity, Montagu attempted to demonstrate how gender roles and double standards were a function of eighteenth century
