ROBERT BURNS’ PATRIARCHIC RESPONSE TO WIFE’S DOMINANCE OVER HUSBAND IN HIS POEM, THE HENPECKED HUSBAND (1788)

Reza Noviana Cahyani ,Yunita Nugraheni,Heri Santoso

doi:10.35315/bb.v14i1.6722

Abstract

The Henpecked Husband is one of classic poems written by Robert Burns, a neoclassical poet. This poem overall tells about a man who lives under the dominance of his wife. It also contains the some (parts of) lines that represent his opinions about the situation, which tends to blame the couple for the situation. Given the author’s tendency in the writing a research was conducted, aimed at comprehending in detail the manifestations of woman’s (wife’) dominance over the husband in the poem and analyzing and classifying the poet’s opinions theory. To do this library research, gender feminist theory was employed, with primarily feminist concepts written by Rosemary Putnam Tong. Based on the research, there were some major findings. Firstly, there were some manifestations of wife’s dominance over the husband, i.e. in power relation, leadership, decision making, and family’s economy. Secondly, there were some expressions (lines) in the poem that showed the poet’s patriarchal response towards such dominances.   Keywords: patriarchal, wife’s dominance, gender, gender feminism

Highlights

Poems are – by and large – expressions of humans’ thoughts and/or emotions using beautiful words and having lots of meanings (Waloyo in Koesasih, 2003)
The Henpecked Husband tells about a married woman, a wife, who is dominant over her husband in many aspects, which is wrong and unacceptable in the poet’s perspective
As a response the poet’s reacted negatively with opinions and gender construction under the patriarchal mindset that blamed both of the couple, especially the woman

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Poems are – by and large – expressions of humans’ thoughts and/or emotions using beautiful words and having lots of meanings (Waloyo in Koesasih, 2003). Robert Burns' The Henpecked Husband (1788) to a certain extent is relevant to patriarchal as well as feminist issues This poem tells about a married man who is dominated by his wife. The Henpecked Husband tells about a married woman, a wife, who is dominant over her husband in many aspects, which is wrong and unacceptable in the poet’s perspective This is what motivates the researchers to analyze the poem using feminist approach, primarily gender feminist theory. According to Goefe (in Sugihastuti; Saptiawan, 2007), feminism is group of theories which tells the struggle of women to get their rights and roles It discusses equality of women and men. According to Goefe (in Sugihastuti; Saptiawan, 2007), feminist approach explains about women’ rights and roles He mentions that the struggles of equality between men and women include social, political and economic areas. ROBERT BURNS’ PATRIARCHIC RESPONSE TO WIFE’S DOMINANCE OVER HUSBAND IN HIS POEM, THE HENPECKED HUSBAND (1788) – REZA N.C, HERI DWI S., YUNITA NUGRAHENI – DBB 26

MATERIAL AND METHOD

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS