Year of Wonders Study Notes
Themes
The Role of women in 17th Century England
Women at this period of time had almost no rights whatsoever. Their guardian, whether it be there father or their husband ruled everything in their life, and often women had no choice but to comply. Anna marries Sam, in order to avoid staying with her abusive father, who often physically beat Anna, as was his legal right to. Anna’s father, Josiah Bont, regularly beat his wife and children, and muzzled Anna’s mother. Anna’s narration of the story itself suggests that Brooks believes in the strength of women. Anna’s freedom later, as one of many wives later also suggests that this whist ironic, is a form of emancipation from patriarchal society. • He “led her around, taunting her, yanking hard on the chain so that the iron sliced her tongue.” (pg. 133) Such behaviour was accepted within society at this time. • The Hancock women “wearily followed behind their husbands…shackled to their menfolk as surely as the plough-horse to the shares.” • Michael insists on Elinor’s involuntary abstinence as “I, the husband, am the image of God in the kingdom of the home.” • Value of women: “ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine Within your house; Your children will be like olive shoots Around your table.” • Anna at being widowed and helpless, “When you’re a widow at eighteen, you grow used to those looks and hard towards the men who give them.” • Anna’s lack of intital desire for knowledge: “But of her herb knowledge I wanted none; it is one thing for a pastor’s wife to have such learning and another thing for a widow woman of my sort. I knew how easy it is for widow to be turned witch in the common mind, and the first cause generally is that she meddles somehow in medicinals.” • “I have something very few women can claim: my freedom.” • “All he grasped was that a connection with her enhanced his own standing, and to him that was all that mattered.”
Nature/ Science
The novel
The Role of women in 17th Century England
Women at this period of time had almost no rights whatsoever. Their guardian, whether it be there father or their husband ruled everything in their life, and often women had no choice but to comply. Anna marries Sam, in order to avoid staying with her abusive father, who often physically beat Anna, as was his legal right to. Anna’s father, Josiah Bont, regularly beat his wife and children, and muzzled Anna’s mother. Anna’s narration of the story itself suggests that Brooks believes in the strength of women. Anna’s freedom later, as one of many wives later also suggests that this whist ironic, is a form of emancipation from patriarchal society. • He “led her around, taunting her, yanking hard on the chain so that the iron sliced her tongue.” (pg. 133) Such behaviour was accepted within society at this time. • The Hancock women “wearily followed behind their husbands…shackled to their menfolk as surely as the plough-horse to the shares.” • Michael insists on Elinor’s involuntary abstinence as “I, the husband, am the image of God in the kingdom of the home.” • Value of women: “ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine Within your house; Your children will be like olive shoots Around your table.” • Anna at being widowed and helpless, “When you’re a widow at eighteen, you grow used to those looks and hard towards the men who give them.” • Anna’s lack of intital desire for knowledge: “But of her herb knowledge I wanted none; it is one thing for a pastor’s wife to have such learning and another thing for a widow woman of my sort. I knew how easy it is for widow to be turned witch in the common mind, and the first cause generally is that she meddles somehow in medicinals.” • “I have something very few women can claim: my freedom.” • “All he grasped was that a connection with her enhanced his own standing, and to him that was all that mattered.”
Nature/ Science
The novel