In the poem "To the Ladies," Lady Mary Chudleigh demonstrates affinity between wife and servant (1) through the use of a controlling metaphor. She describes a wifes role by depicting it through ideas that are strongly associated with slavery. Chudleighs use of deigning diction, her description of the wifes submissive actions, and her negative attitude towards the perceived future of a woman who gets married show the similarity among wife and servant (1). Chudleigh presents this poem as a warning to women who are not yet married, and as an offering of regret to those who are.Chudleighs use of deigning diction is key to understanding her view on the matter of marriage. She emphasizes the word "obey" by using it twice in the poem (5, 17). Along with the usage, Chudleigh capitalizes and italicizes "Obey" in line five, "When she the word Obey has said,/ And man by law supreme has made" (5-6). The word "obey" (5) is used as a synecdoche to represent all of the marriage vows, and the infamous "I do" at the end of the marriage ceremony. Chudleigh chooses to use "obey" as a synecdoche of all of the vows because it most fully describes her disdain of marriage. "Obey" conveys submission, servitude and required commitment, the aspects of marriage she scorns. All of the words that describe the tone and emotion of "obey" are incorporated in the action of slavery. Chudleigh uses the word "obey" to stress that when you take your marriage vows, a woman is ultimately agreeing to obey her husband, she is yielding to a life of servitude, hardly differing from slavery.Chudleigh claims "Him still must serve, him still obey" (17) to re-emphasize the servitude a wife must perform for her husband. Obey concedes that this servitude is not optional, the wife must be at hand to do what "her haughty lord thinks fit" (19). To use "obey" again brings us back to the beginning of the poem. This reflection reminds us of the original meaning of "obey," the ...
