Poetry · Chapter
A Double Standard explained
The poem critiques the double standard of morality that condemns women for the same actions for which men are celebrated.
What happens
The poem critiques the double standard of morality that condemns women for the same actions for which men are celebrated. The speaker, a woman betrayed and abandoned, questions societal hypocrisy and finds solace in divine justice, where both sinner and seducer will be judged equally.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Class
The poem exposes the class and gender double standard where a man's status shields him from blame while a woman is ostracized.
Faith and Divine Justice
The speaker finds hope in God's impartial judgment, where earthly hypocrisies are overturned and both parties are held accountable.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The speaker, a woman who loved and was betrayed, now bearing society's shame while her seducer is honored.
- The People
Society that hypocritically condemns the woman while excusing the man.
Key passages
“Do you blame me that I loved him? If when standing all alone I cried for bread a careless world Pressed to my lips a stone.”
Can you fault me for loving him when I was desperate and the world offered me nothing but cruelty?
The speaker justifies her love as a response to her isolation and need.
“Crime has no sex and yet to-day I wear the brand of shame; Whilst he amid the gay and proud Still bears an honored name.”
The same act is treated as a crime only for women; the man remains respected.
Central critique of the double standard.
“I think before His great white throne, His throne of spotless light, That whited sepulchres shall wear The hue of endless night.”
In God's judgment, hypocrites who appear pure will be exposed as corrupt.
Biblical allusion to Matthew 23:27, promising divine reversal of earthly judgments.