Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz’s work from “The Poet’s Answer to the Most Illustrious Sor Filotea de la Cruz” is an energetic text defending women’s intellect through her own personal story.
This 17th century text uses intellect as well as raw emotion to convey Sor Juana’s innermost feelings about women’s ability and intelligence. There was what seemed to be a contradiction at first, about her own intelligence and how she was downplaying it in the beginning; however, I think her strong vocabulary and relentlessness in her argument shows that there is definitely no down playing her intelligence.
This text arguing for the advancement of women’s rights and education naturally is somewhat similar to Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” While both texts clearly show women’s ability, as well as experience, of being intelligent; the two works are executed in very different fashions.
While Wollstonecraft’s argument is effective and very to the point, Sor Juana employs a more emotional and personal approach. Sor Juana uses anecdotes with vivid imagery such as finding inquiry from the yolk of an egg, or the spinning of a top in children games. The fact that Sor Juana uses these minute experiences to show her hunger for intelligence as well as her ability to turn everything into learning experiences underhandedly shows just how smart she is.
Additionally, one of the most important aspects of Sor Juana’s argument is her use of religion. This is one huge difference from Wollstonecraft’s argument. The main reason Sor Juana is successful for using religion, is her ability to pull passages from the bible and accurately apply them to her argument, and show her true understanding of them. A nun even advises her to further her talent’s on religious texts, but Sor Juana declines; however, it is evident she does further her education through the reading and analyzing of religious texts.
Throughout the whole story, there is this sort of contradiction of Sor Juana being intelligent and wanting to keep pursing that intelligence, but then also not feeling “worthy” enough to.
This notion shows the societal norms of the time, and also shed’s light on just how bold this text by Sor Juana is. Her message is ultimately effective because of how the text is beautifully and intelligently written and her endearing yet passionate tone.
Her other two works “Poem 145” and “Philosophical Satire” are definitely more direct in their approach of calling out the injustices of women in Society.
Both works set up the “trap” that women are inevitably going to fall into because of society, and how women are set up to fail from the beginning. The two works use a parallel structure to send out the message that you basically can’t win for losing. This notion can be seen through phrases like “ complaining, if they treat you badly; mocking, if they love you well.” These two texts rely less on personal stories and emotion, and more societal instances as a whole.
jessekeener 