A Woman's Influence

When comparing Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “I, Being a Woman and Distressed,” and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” the theme that they all exhibit is the love of women, and the affect that they can have on all men.
“I, Being a Woman and Distressed” shows the yearning of the man and his attempts to woo the narrator. The narrator, however, will have no part of this because of the stressed on the physical appearance. This demonstrates the power that women have over men, where the narrator is in complete control of the man’s emotions, and chooses to have him writhe in an agony of desire. The love for women demonstrated by the man in this poem is completely physical, making it the most shallow and insincere kind of love that a man can show.
“To His Coy Mistress” also has the same effect to where the man is driven crazy by his lust. The narrator in this poem seems very contradictory and is also concentrating on only physical pleasure. While he is professing his love to his mistress, he talks about how he wishes to have her abdicate her virginity so that they can have sex while she is still physically attractive. The contradiction here is that love is not supposed to be about the physical attraction between two people, it is supposed to be the unrequited unity of two people as one. This is greatly embodied in “The Gilded Six-Bits” between Missie May and Joe.
Joe has an unwavering affection for his wife, he is proud to call her is wife and has an affection for her that is more than skin deep. Joe thinks his Missie May is the most beautiful in the world because she is his wife and tells her. This is exhibited on page 268 and 369 when he says “Go ‘head on now, honey and put on yo’ clothes. He takin’ ‘bout his pritty womens , Ah want ‘im to see mine.” and “Don’t be so wishful ‘bout me. Ah’m satisfied de way Ah is. So long as Ah be yo’ husband, Ah don’t keer ‘bout nothin’ else.” The only true love exhibited by any of the men is by Joe in “The Gilded Six-Bits”, he loves his wife unconditionally, even when she cheats on him.
A man’s love for a woman can be more than instinctual, which is exhibited by the short story rather than the poems. However, all of them demonstrate a woman’s power of man, which is responsible for the physical infatuation, as well as the unwavering love that can occur between a man and his wife.