Poem Foolish men you accuse: Analysis and Meaning

The poem Foolish men you accuse, by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, exposes the inequality and injustice of which women are victims through machismo and female discrimination.

The main theme of the poem is the criticism of the man's position before the woman, his hypocritical, selfish and impulsive attitude, before which Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz makes her disagreement very clear.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a religious of the Order of San Jerónimo and an outstanding writer of the genre of lyric and prose during the Spanish Golden Age. He defended the female figure and its value, hence his call for attention to the treatment and place that men gave to the women of his time.

Despite the passage of time, this creation, belonging to the New Spain Baroque, is still in force today, but what is the reason? How can we interpret this poem today?

Let's get to know the poem and its analysis below.

Poem Foolish men you accuse

Foolish men you accuse
to the woman for no reason
without seeing that you are the occasion
of the same thing that you blame:

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yes with unequaled eagerness
you request their disdain
Why do you want them to do well
if you incite them to evil?

You fight their resistance
and then, with gravity,
you say it was lightness
what the stagecoach did.

Seeming wants the boldness
of your looking crazy
to the boy who puts the coconut
and then he is afraid of her.

You want, with foolish presumption,
find the one you are looking for,
for pretended, Thais,
and in possession, Lucrecia.

What humor can be weirder
than the one who, lacking advice,
he himself blurs the mirror
and feel that it is not clear?

With favor and disdain
you have the same condition,
complaining, if they treat you badly,
making fun of you, if they love you well.

Opinion, no win;
Well, the one that is most modest,
if she does not admit you, she is ungrateful,
and if she admits you, she is light.

You are always so foolish
that, with unequal level,
a blame for cruel
and another for easy blame.

Well, how must it be tempered
the one that your love pretends
if the one who is ungrateful, offends,
and the one that is easy, angry?

But between anger and grief
that your taste refers,
well there is the one who does not love you
and complain at good time.

Give your lovers sorrows
to freedom wings of it,
and after making them bad
you want to find them very good.

What greater fault has he had
in a wrong passion:
the one that falls by request,
or the one who begs to be fallen?

Or what is more to blame,
even if anyone does wrong:
she the one who sins for the pay,
or the one who pays to sin?

Well, why are you scared
of the fault that you have?
Want them which you do
or make them which you are looking for.

Stop requesting,
and later, with more reason,
you will accuse the fans
of which I will beg you.

Well with many weapons I found
what your arrogance deals with,
Well, in promise and instance
you put together the devil, the flesh and the world.

Analysis of the poem

The poem Foolish men you accuse addresses the issue of unequal treatment of women by men and by society. It is composed of 16 stanzas of the round type. In it, issues related to the abusive and contradictory attitude of men towards women, also to their double morality, are announced.

This poem could be analyzed in three parts according to its structure. First of all, the opening stanza is the introduction to the protest topic and indicates to whom it is addressed. Then, he brings out the arguments of the prosecution almost until the last two stanzas. Finally, appeal to men to treat women fairly.

Defense of women

The poem begins by sentencing the man, to whom he is addressing. The poetic voice, in this case it would be a woman, takes a critical stance towards the way in which the man acts in a hypocritical, selfish and impulsive way towards the woman. But what is the reason?

This critical stance of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz emerges in an unequal and patriarchal world. In the seventeenth century, this nun defended the female figure and its value. This poem seems to be a call for attention to the treatment and place that men gave to the women of their time.

In each of the verses the insulting and defamatory attitude of the masculine gender towards the feminine, as well as all the defects that men possess, which they use to slander women women.

In her opinion, they are the ones who incite women to commit bad deeds to be with them and then accuse them of being light.

Accusations to the man: his contradictory attitude

As the poem progresses it seems to increase in tone. Sor Juana Inés is compiling a series of arguments to, effectively, demonstrate the hypocritical and inconsistent attitude of men. But how does he do it?

She draws attention as, in one of her stanzas, she uses a more humorous tone when comparing the behavior of men with that of boys:

Seeming wants the boldness
of your looking crazy
to the boy who puts the coconut
and then he is afraid of her.

Is this comparison showing your maturity and his responsibility? Possibly the writer is affirming that the man's attitude is contradictory. First he asks the woman for something, then he himself is terrified by what he has requested.

Two types of woman: allusions to Greco-Roman mythology

It is also interesting how Sor Juana Inés makes allusions to Greco-Roman mythology through the figures of Thais and Lucrecia in the fifth stanza of the poem.

With these two figures the author refers to two prototypes of women. Thais, related to Greek mythology, was an Athenian courtesan who accompanied Alexander the Great, in this poem she is referred to as a symbol of bad timing or lack of morals.

Lucrecia, according to Latin legend, was a beautiful and honorable Roman woman, which she ended with her own life after suffering a rape. Here her name is mentioned as a sign of purity and honesty.

It is evident that with this antithesis, Sor Juana Inés makes it clear that men look for a woman like Thais to “pretend” her. But as a wife they claim Lucrecia's honesty. Both have opposite qualities and reiterate the permanent contradiction of men.

Double standards morality

It is evident the double morality that you raised in the men when blaming the women. Sor Juana Inés defends women, always attending to arguments that reveal the hypocritical behavior of men.

The author seems to fight for a just and equal morality for both parties. The man is the one who seduces and the woman is captivated. Therefore, it also highlights the moral value that both should have and differentiates both the good and the bad of each.

Or what is more to blame,
even if anyone does wrong:
she the one who sins for the pay,
or the one who pays to sin?

This pun, to a certain extent, blames both of the "crime" or "carnal sin." Well, the woman who is dedicated to marketing her body for money is equally guilty as the one who buys the service.

The final request

Towards the end of the poem. The author dedicates the last stanza to make an obvious request to men, for this she makes use of the imperative of the verb leave. With it she wants men not to blame women. However in the last verse, with a mocking tone, she doubts that this will happen, since she points out that they are "arrogant".

Stop requesting,
and later, with more reason,
you will accuse the fans
of which I will beg you.

Well with many weapons I found
what your arrogance deals with,
Well, in promise and instance
you put together the devil, the flesh and the world.

First feminist statement?

This poem is actually a philosophical satire and as such its purpose is to express, with a burlesque tone, the indignation towards something or someone. It is important to understand this poem in its context, but how has it stood the test of time? Can this be considered the first "feminist manifesto" as pointed out by some research? How can your reading be today?

We are facing a creation of the seventeenth century, in which it is evident that society was notably macho. Sor Juana Inés, to a great extent, breaks with the prototype of woman as wife and mother, which does not contemplate female academic development, since she decides to dedicate herself to the study of letters.

This poem is, to say the least, pioneering and revolutionary at the time, as there is nothing like it written by a woman up to that point.

It is evident that the reality of women from the 17th to the 21st century has changed. However, society still continues to be discriminatory in some respects. Nor is it egalitarian in all countries, while in some points of the world geography some barriers in terms of gender have already been overcome, in other places some women face an unequal society in terms of rights because they are woman.

As long as there is an obvious "struggle" on this issue and real equality is not reached, a reading This poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz can always be an opportunity to inspire change.

Structure, meter and rhyme

The poem Foolish men you accuse es una roundup is made up of 16 stanzas of four eight-syllable verses each, which is considered minor art. The verses rhyme the first with the fourth and the second with the third, which is considered embraced rhyme.

The rhyme is consonant and is repeated in each stanzaabba.

Literary figures

The use of literary figures is constant throughout the poem, let's see some of the most important:

Antithesis, which is generated thanks to the opposition of affirmations.

Give your lovers sorrows
to freedom wings of it,
and after making them bad
you want to find them very good.

Parallelism, occurs when repeating the same grammatical structure and altering some element.

If you are not admitted, it is ungrateful
and if you are allowed, it is light.

Apostrophe, is used to impetuously invoke an interlocutor, in this case men.

Foolish men you accuse
to the woman for no reason
without seeing that you are the occasion
of the same thing that you blame.

Pun, with this rhetorical figure two sentences are contrasted and the words are ordered differently to create a contrary meaning.

The one who sins for the pay
or the one who pays to sin.