Marxist-Feminist: 'Things Fall Apart' & 'To His Coy Mistress'

When looking at a literary text, details that feminist critics are drawn to, or are interested in, seem to be the dominance of the male character over the female character (or characters), as well as the need of women and their role in society.

Simply stated in the 'Reading as a Woman: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Feminist Criticism', "women are viewed as child bearers and help mates for their husbands" (para. 6). A feminist critic would read this and be drawn to the fact that in this specific quote, women only seem to be viewed as baby making machines. For centuries, not only in African culture, as shown in 'Things Fall Apart', but in virtually every culture in the world, women have been viewed as such, and nothing more than just that. It is only recently that women have begun to emerge in society (and still struggle to do so) and receive the same level of respect as men by obtaining equal jobs and educations. Men seek to find an attractive woman in their life that will be useful to them in providing a son to keep the family name alive for generations to come, and this was exemplified in Achebe's novel through the main character Okonkwo and his second wife Ekewfi, who was only able to give birth to a daughter after several losses. Therefore, in this aspect, women really serve no other purpose.

In 'To His Coy Mistress', instead of portraying "the mistress" as a baby making machine like women seemed to be portrayed in 'Things Fall Apart', "the mistress" (or one could assume women in general) are viewed as pieces of meat, or as 'The Marxist-Feminist Collective' better puts it, "as a desiring subject, a sexual subject seeking personal fullfillment..." (p. 171); love does not seem to matter in either at all. In his poem, Marvell uses beautiful language to describe this mistress of his but alternately symbolizes her as his death, or just death in general. In other words, he must use these luring words to grasp this mistress' attention so he can fullfill his needs with her, and later confront their inevitable death; her beauty was the death of him.

So to finalize, a feminist critic, (I would assume) would take great pleasure in criticizing both 'Things Fall Apart' and 'To His Coy Mistress' for their continuous mentions of women and their degrading stances in society.