Reading Analysis

Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” and Zora Neal Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits,” provide the reader with different views in regard to the attitude of women towards men.
In Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” the narrator continuously attempts to woo his “mistress” while she coyly refuses. He tells her “had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime,” (Lines 1-2). Meaning, had they enough time in this world, he would not be bothered by her coyness. The poem presents a woman who refuses to give up her “long preserved virginity,” (Line 28) despite her lover’s repeated attempts to persuade her. The woman in this poem evidently hold her virginity in high regard, in contrast to the women presented in Millay’s “I Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” and Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits.”
The woman in Millay’s “I Being Born and Woman and Distressed,” has a much more modern view on the relationship between man and woman. As she addresses her lover, it becomes evident that she expresses her sexuality in a more explicit way than the woman in Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.” She tells her lover that his “propinquity,” (Line 3), arouses her desires and passion, an evidently different perspective than Marvell’s “coy mistress.” The rhyme scheme of this poem is a bit awkward; it does not fit into the rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet does not have a couplet to bring all of the ideas presented together; instead, Millay uses the last two lines to clarify the point of the sonnet.
Zora Neal Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits,” brings the modern views of the woman in Millay’s sonnet together with the more old-fashioned views of the woman in Marvell’s sonnet. Missy Mae appears to be a coy woman, deeply in love with her husband. She waits for him to come to the door everyday after work and playfully searches his pockets for candy and money while he teases her. The manner in which she is first introduced, leads the reader to believe that she is as coy and playful and the woman in Marvell’s sonnet. However, towards the end of the story, the reader is shown another side of Missy Mae. She has an affair with the owner of the local ice cream parlor for what she believes is gold. The nature of this relationship takes the reader back to the woman in Millay’s sonnet.
When contrasting these works, it is important to understand the circumstances of the times during which they were written. Marvell wrote “To His Coy Mistress,” in the late 1600s, during which time, women were expected to behave according to the views of society. However, Millay wrote, “I Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” during the 1920s, when the expectations of society were much less severe.