Fallen Women

A fallen women could mean many things, for example: A women who has tripped and now lays splayed across the floor, a women who has "fallen" from a high social standing to a lower social standing, a women who has been consumed by depression and sadness, a women who has become obsessed with drugs and has sacrificed her health because of it.

In my opinion, all of these ways of describing a fallen women seem reasonable, whereas I think the view taken by the villagers in Cousin Kate is not a reasonable view of a fallen women. I think that having sex out of wedlock does not take away a women's virtue or purity, but rather suggests a strong attraction to someone, in most cases anyway. Kate takes the same opinion in the poem, saying " to lead a shameless shameful life" showing that whilst she does not think it is a bad thing that she has done, others do.

I feel that women are viewed quite unfairly by society, in that they are seen in a bad light if they have sex with many people, whereas for a man it is fine to sleep with as many people as he wishes. The general view is quite a sexist one, but I can see why some people may take it. In some peoples eyes, it is easier for a women to have sex than it is for a man, so having sex with many men is abusing this "power", whereas for a man it requires more effort for him to have sex, so it is seen as an achievement, or in other words, not seen as a bad thing.

I feel it is unfair to consider a women a "fallen women" just because she has had sex before marriage. Although, nowadays, this is not as much a prominent view as it was years ago. It usually a view taken by the religious, and because I am not religious, I do not take this view.

On the topic of cousin Kate, I find her treatment unfair. I feel the poem has an underlying message of what I mentioned earlier, that men are allowed to do as they please and women cannot. The fact nobody challenges the man in the poem, and that he is described to be "sitting on high" makes him seem godlike. This may be trying to tell us that the view of men back then was they were more important than women, but not all women thought this way,as Kate feels her treatment was unjust and she is a strong enough women to figure out a plan to get her own back. This may be trying to show that not all women thought that men were so great, and that they could stand up for themselves.