"Oh how I fell like a long worshipped idol
Discovering all the cheat.’’
In the poem entitled "Angellica’s Lament’’, the narrator talks about her youth and how she believed as a young woman that every man was born to be slaves to women. Thus, as a young woman, she believed women were the ones who ruled everything from the distance and men would do anything in their power to make women feel safe and protected. As time passed, she was forced to recognize that was not the truth. The narrator found that not men were slaves but rather women were slaves, controlled by the men in their lives and with no say in their lives. This quote is important because it shows just how women were deceived and fooled into believing they were more valuable and had much more influence than they actually had in reality.
"My richest treasure being lost, my honour, ''
Aphra Behn was a woman who lived in the 17th century in Great Britain and being a woman from a good family, she was shielded from many truths women had to face in everyday life. For example, Aphra Behn believed me were put on this earth to be slaves to women but as time passed, she found the opposite to be true. She had to find this through the hard way, by losing the biggest treasure a woman could have, namely her honor. This is mentioned in the poem entitled "Angellica’s Lament’’ where the narrator admits she lost her biggest treasure. In those times, a women’s honor could be either her virginity or her good reputation. If a woman from a good family lost those, it could mean ruin for her since it could mean she could no longer find a suitable suitor for her.
"Which now each List'ning Angel smiling hears,
Such pretty Harmonies compose the Spheres;''
The quote from above is taken from the poem entitled ‘’ Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven that Died Before’’ and it told most likely from the perspective of a woman standing near her child’s grave. In the time when Aphra Behn wrote, it was quite normal for children to die in their infant years as they contact many diseases from which there was no cure. Because of this, families had to find ways to deal with the loss of their children. One way through which they did it was by telling themselves their children were in a better place, with angels in the heavens and they were watching over those on earth. This point of view presents a coping mechanism many had to adopt to be able to move past their tragedies and their loses.
