(PP. 71-74) Literature Section IV: Analysis of... "Rope" → Analysis of... "I, being born a woman and distressed" (ACADEC '25-'26)

What does “Rope” almost entirely substitute narration for?

Dialogue

What is KAP’s fictions frequently experiment with?

Ways to play with how stories normally worked

What would Gertrude Stein often completely forgo in her writing?

Conventional formal features

Was KAP as radical as Gertrude Stein?

No

What does KAP do, rather than having a narrator communicate facts about the characters to the reader?

Porter instead uses unmarked dialogue to not only move the story’s action along, but also guide the reader to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship that exists between the man and the woman in the story

What does KAP’s making “Rope” a story that almost entirely substitutes narration for dialogue?

It can make the story difficult to follow, it also allows for a compellingly intimate look at the way relationships are often built on mutual misunderstanding

In “Rope,” even though the characters communicate, what do they not do?

Connect

In “Rope,” what do the characters speak without?

Any of the traditional dialogue markings like quotation marks or paragraph breaks

In “Rope,” what do the characters speak in?

A stream of language broken up by paragraphs, and there are even instances where the two characters are speaking withint eh same paragraph

In “Rope,” what paragraph has the two characters speaking in the same paragraph?

Paragraph 5

In “Rope,” what does the 5th paragraph say?

“But she was a little disappointed about the coffee, and oh, look, look, look at the eggs! Oh, my, they’re all running! What had he put on top of them? Hadn’t he known eggs mustn’t be squeezed? Squeezed, who had squeezed them, he wanted to know. What a silly thing to say.”

In “Rope,” what does Porter dispense of in the 5th paragraph and replace them with?

She’s dispensing with the usual formal markers of dialogue and instead replacing them with a rapid, often intermingled stream of language as a way of recreating, as much as possible, the actual experience of an argument

In “Rope,” how are we similar to the characters?

We tend to talk over other people, speak at the same time, and simply spin our wheels without making any progress

In “Rope,” what does KAP’s experimental approach to dialogue blend?

Paraphrase, narration, and reported speech, helps make this argument feel more immediate and palpable on this page

In “Rope,” what does the story invite the reader into?

It doesn’t just narrate than an argument takes place, and invites the reader into the argument itself

In “Rope,” what does KAP’s fiction frequently explore?

The many ways that women were subtly marginalized within social and family arrangements

In “Rope,” what is never stated outright?

Marginalization

In “Rope,” what is marginalization

In “Rope,” what is revealed to be a pattern within their marriage?

The husband’s purchasing of the rope while forgetting to buy the coffee—the thing his wife asked for

In “Rope,” what is KAP careful not to suggest about their relationship?

That it’s abusive, or that the husband does not have some reason to be occasionally frustrated

In “Rope,” what does KAP reveals, without ever explicitly saying so?

The degree to which the husband’s refusal to be considerate, as well as his refusal to see his wife’s concerns as something other than foolishness, are endemic to the relationship as a whole, and ultimately contribute to the wife’s breakdown near the end of the story

In “Rope,” what can the husband not imagine?

Why it would be frustrating for the wife to have him forget the coffee; the point is remembering of forgetting the coffee would stand for

In “Rope,” what does the act of forgetting stands in for?

The husband’s consistent inability to center his wife and her needs

In “Rope,” what does the husband complain about in regards to the house?

How much work the house is creating: “And anyhow, for God’s sake, were they living in the house, or were they going to let the house ride them to death?”

In “Rope,” what does the question ““And anyhow, for God’s sake, were they living in the house, or were they going to let the house ride them to death?” diminish?

The wife’s work preparing and caring for their home, treating housework as something burdensome (to the husband) rather than necessary or even potentially fulfilling

Where was KAP photographed in 1947?

Her writing room

When was KAP photographed in her writing room?

1947

In “Rope,” what central issue does the husband skip over that the wife points out?

“[she] reminded him that housekeeping was no more her work than it was his: she had other work to do as well, and when did he think she was going to find time to do it at this rate?”

In “Rope,” how does the husband respond to the wife’s work?

By minimizing it and its financial value to the couple, repeating that he doesn’t understand the true nature of his wife’s complaints and also fails to see their significance

In “Rope,” what is the core pattern KAP wants to illustrate?

He doesn’t understand the true nature of his wife’s complaints and also fails to see their significance

In “Rope,” how does the husband view the wife’s complaints?

Inaccurate and trivial

In “Rope,” what does the story reveal?

How gender dynamics often manifest in a relationship not through explicit abuse or mistreatment, but rather through general patterns of diminishment

In “Rope,” how can power by exerted?

Physically and through habits and structures of concern, or through what is routinely thought about what is ignored

What was Edna St. Vincent Millay’s lifespan?

1892-1950

Who was one of the most popular writers of the 1920s?

Edna St. Vincent Millay

What were the mediums that Millay used?

She published poetry, wrote and acted in plays, and her literary readings were glamorous affairs that attracted large crowds to hear her read her poems

How are KAP and Millay similar?

They both came from humble origins

Who were Millay’s sisters?

Kathleen adn Norma

Who raised Millay and her sisters?

Her single mother Cara

What did Millay’s mother Cara impress on her daughters, despite their difficult financial situation?

The importance of refinement, self-determination, and intelligence

What has Millay always expressed a deep appreciation for?

Her mother’s determination and generosity

What was unlikely in regards to Millay growing up?

That she’d ever be able to achieve fame and success, let alone a formal education, without a stroke of good luck

What did Cara encourage Millay to submit?

To an annual competition held by the poetry publication The Lyric Year in 1912

When was The Lyric Year holding the annual competition that Millay submitted in?

1912

What had Millay been sporadically publishing before her stroke of good luck?

Minor poems in various small journals

What work did Millay submit that would become her breakthrough work?

“Renascence”

What was “Renascence” described as?

A remarkably mature poem for such a young writer

What elements did “Renascence” contain that would come to define Millay’s writing throughout her career?

A careful attention to form and a willingness to mix both grand and common language

How was “Renascence” critically reviewed?

Accepted and widely praised

Where was Millay offered scholarships to attend?

Barnard and Vassar

What did Millay study at Barnard and Vassar?

Extensive courses in languages, including Greek and Latin, and comparative literature

Where did Millay move and begin to work in earnest as an artist?

Greenwich Village in NYC

What did Millay do in Greenwich Village in NYC?

She began to work in earnest as an artist

What was Millay’s first poetry collection?

Renascence and Other Poems

When was Renascence and Other Poems published?

1917

Over how many years did Millay publish a steady stream of poetry collections, opera librettos, translated volumes, short stories published under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd, and dramas?

20 years

What did Millay publish for a steady stream of 20 years?

Poetry collections, opera librettos, translated volumes, short stories published under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd, and dramas

What was Millay’s pseudonym for her short stories?

Nancy Boyd

What did Millay’s work come to be associated with?

The passions and freedoms of the 1920s, especially as expressed by the popular figure of the “New Woman”

What did Millay express in regards to the “New Woman”?

“The postwar feelings of young people, their rebellion against tradition, and their mood of freedom symbolized for many women by bobbed hair”

What did Millay’s work reflect a keen awareness of?

The imbalanced nature of gender roles un the U.S.

What popular collections did Millay become known as a “spokesperson for the rights of women and pleasurable and courageous living”?

"A Few Figs From Thistles” and “The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems”

When was A Few Figs from Thistles released?

1920

When was The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems published?

1923

When did Millay’s fame and success peak?

The 1920s

Who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923?

Edna St. Vincent Millay

During what did Millay keep her prolific pace?

Even during bouts of illness

When did Millay die?

1950

What was Millay known for after her heyday as a “spokesperson” for the freedoms of the 1920s?

Becoming invested in social causes, beginning with her protests against the Sacco and Vanzetti executions and continuing through her antifascist poetry written during the late 1930s and early 1940s

When were the Sacco and Vanzetti executions?

1927

What did Millay never stop writing about?

The complexities women faced in trying to navigate a world that simultaneously praised and condemned women’s expression

What classical form did Millay have precise command over?

The sonnet

What was Millay never afraid of using?

More traditional forms to explore uniquely modern contradictions and dilemmas

What is Millay's poetry both tied to?

A specific period of time and also timeless in its formal sophistication and “unprecedented, extensive psychological portrait[s] of the woman lover”

Who wrote “I, being born a woman and distressed”?

Edna St. Vincent Millay

When was “I, being born a woman and distressed” written?

1923

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what is the woman, by all needs and notions of her kind, urged by?

“Your propinquity to find /

Your person fair, and feel a certain zest /

To bear your body’s weight upon my breast”

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” how is the fume of life designed?

Subtly

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what is the fume of life designed to do?

“To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind, and leave me once again undone, possessed”

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the woman say to not think for this?

“The poor treason of my stout blood against my staggering brain”

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what will the woman remember you with?

Love, or season my scorn with pity,—let me make it plain

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the woman find the frenzy to be?

“Insufficient reason for conversation when we meet again”

How are Millay and Robert Frost similar?

They were masters of meter and verse

What is the form of “I, being born a woman and distressed”?

Petrarchan sonnet

How many lines does a sonnet consist of?

14

How does the Petrarchan sonnet open?

An 8-line stanza (or octet) with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA

How does the Petrarchan sonnet end?

A concluding 6-line stanza (or sestet) with the rhyme scheme CDCDCD (or sometimes CDECDE; MIllay’s poem follows the former)

What are the two stanzas in Petrarchan sonnet form separated by?

A “volta” or “turn,” representing a shift in the thought or argument of the poem

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what is the turn marked by?

The word “however” in the middle of the 9th line

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the poem do, like many sonnets?

Enacts the contemplation of a serious problem or question

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the speaker reflect on?

How her identity as a woman, and “all the needs and notions” that go along with it, creates nonnegotiable expectations

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what are the nonnegotiable expectations a woman should be expected of?

Find her male addressee “fair,” she must be excited to have physical contact with him, and be generally overwhelmed—”undone, possessed”—by her desire for him

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what meter does the octet have?

Iambic pentameter

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the octet consist of?

5 metrical feet containing an unstressed and then stressed syllables

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what do the 5 metrical feet containing an unstressed and then stressed syllables help?

It helps make the octet make the passage flow without any complications or hiccups, as if the poet’s speaker is giving some credence to the idea that it is in fact wholly natural and even easy to be totally consumed by her desire for a man

When was Edna St. Vincent Millay photographed?

1920

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what occurs after the turn between the octet and sestet?

A noticeable shift in the speaker’s reflection

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the “poor treason” of her “stout blood against my staggering brain” mean?

The way that she internally resists the supposedly inevitable infaturation that she must feel toward her addressee

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what does the woman temper her passions with?

Reason, challenging the idea that women cannot dictate the terms of their intimate relationships; the “frenzy” that is supposed to overwhelm her, and that perhaps even does on occasion, is not sufficient to carry on a meaningful romance

In “I, being born a woman and distressed,” what has the speaker fully moved from the ironically elevated language in the first octet to?

More direct language: “let me make it plain,” she says, and summarily dismisses the addressee, referring, in the poem’s last line, not to a sustained connection but to a passing affair since, rather than staying together permanently, they will instead have the chance to potentially “meet again”