Cousin Kate The Cottage Maiden example essay topic

Cousin Kate was set in Victorian times, where as 'The seduction' was set in 1980's. 'Cousin Kate' written by Christina Rossetti, Cousin Kate gets married to the Lord, which the Cottage Maiden has a child to. The cottage maiden sleeps with the Lord, and regrets doing it, which happened between her and the Lord, but see did get something go out of it, her child! Who she happens to love very much. The cottage Maiden feels betrayed by the Lord and the Cousin Kate. 'The Seduction' by Eileen McCauley.

The seduction is written in the third person's view. The girl realizes that she has done wrong, by letting the boy get her drunk, and him taking her down to the river for sex. As a result of this she ends up pregnant. She thinks her life has come to an end. In 'Cousin Kate' the Cottage Maiden feels unclean after having sex with the Lord and him leaving her for Cousin Kate, she is also ashamed of what she has done 'To lead a shameless shameful life. ' This states she is feeling shameless because of her actions.

She also feels contented, 'contented with my cottage mates's he feels she can't do much and that she has to stay with her cottage mates. She also 'woe's me for joy thereof' this is her saying he gives her grief / misery from that / there. The girl in 'The Seduction' feeling as completely different to the cottage maiden, as the girl feels and thinks her life is coming to an end, and will never go back to how it was, or close to how its was, 'better to starve yourself' than to have a baby. She feels that the neighbours will talk about her 'you always look the type's he is thinking that is what they would be saying to her when she goes out.

The feeling of the cottage maiden and the girl are completely different, as the cottage maiden talks about the positive side of what happened 'yet I've a gift you have not got' the cottage maiden has a child which Cousin Kate hasn't got. 'Your father would give a great deal for her son and he will heir to inherit his title. ' But the girl views it all in a negative view, as she does this she breaks her white shoes, and starts to think her has come to an end 'she sobbed in the cool, lock darkness of her room' The poem 'Cousin Kate's hows the Lord as some kind of a user, 'wore me like a silken knot,' he used his palace home, land and his states to lure her. The cottage maiden feels that if the Lord seduced by Cousin Kate, she (the Cottage Maiden) and the Lord could bring her don, up together. The boy in 'the seduction' is also a user, as he used the girl for sex, who ends up having his child. He fooled her buy using alcohol, this worked as she gets drunk and she doesn't know what she is doing, she also thinks she is in control but he really is.

The contrast between Cousin Kate and the cottage Maiden is Cousin Kate's love for the Lord is true, but Cottage Maiden's love was only writ in sand. The Lord bound Cousin Kate with his ring, but he used the cottage Maiden, 'he wore me like a silken knot,' the cottage maiden has a child from the Lord which Cousin Kate has not got. The poem 'Cousin Kate' presents Cousin Kate as a thieve as the cottage maiden lost the Lord to her. The Cottage Maiden is shown as women who got used by the Lord, who ended up having a child to him, that she loves with all her heart. The Lord is shown as a user, as he used the Cottage Maiden, but then settles down with Cousin Kate. The girl in 'The Seduction' treats herself as an outcast, as she got pregnant by a one night stand, 'the seduction's hows the girl as a victim of a one night stand, but it also show her that she has her own reasonability and that it was partly her fault.

When she discovers that she is pregnant, she see her whole world in a different light, and that her life's coming to an end, as when before the party she most properly thought that she had got a good life ahead of her. Both poems 'Cousin Kate' and 'The Seduction' go thought mood of being angry, as in 'Cousin Kate,' as the Cottage Maiden is angry at Cousin Kate for taking the Lord off her 'to sit with him on high'. As in 'The Seduction' through out she (the girl) is angry, the themes in both poems is the girl and the cottage maiden to be used by the boy or the Lord, the both end up having a baby, but only the cottage maiden is happy about it. In 'Cousin Kate' the cottage maiden is telling the story, which makes you feel sorry for her, because of the context of the writing where as 'The Seduction' is told by the third person, who puts the poem, into a context which you don't feel sorry for the girl as she was partly to blame for the result of the evening of the party.