Who Has Control?

This is the first chance I have had to create a post on the development of my essay. As most undergraduate students can attest to, this time of year gets to be a little overwhelming. I am currently working on four English essays and a project for Gender studies. Throw in a couple of mid-terms and you get the idea. On top of all the usual time constraints, I have found myself of late turning into a terrible procrastinater and being very easily distracted. For example, the cute graphic above was very easy to find but I proceeded to browse through a lengthy choice of pictures available through Google images; yet another big waste of my precious time. I have now created a do or die situation for myself. In the next 24 hours I have to complete my essay, blog on Gulliver's Travels, and do reading for two other classes. Strong black coffee will be my only saviour at this point. Now, on to the essay....

My first topic of choice for my essay was the representations of the rake in 18th century literature. Sounded like a fun topic to me; fun-yes, focused-no. I had to narrow down the topic somehow so I could come up with a reasonable thesis for my essay. This process led me to the works of Aphra Behn and everyone's favorite libertine, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. I thought Behn's "The Disappointment" was an answer to Wilmot's "The Imperfect Enjoyment" and thought I would go from there. While looking for information on both poems I soon discovered I was leaning more towards Behn's work as it seemed to have so many layers to peel away so I refocused my essay once again and looked at the following issues in "The Disappointment":
- who actually has the power in this poem
- female object of desire / male sexual subject
- conventions of "imperfect enjoyment poems" (Quaintance)
- challenges of gender / literary conventions
- social code vs female sexual desires
- subverting roles
- personal identity / social constraints
- constructions of love
- control: physical, social, literary
- comparisons between "The Disappointment" and "The Imperfect Enjoyment"

Now I know I cannot include all of these in the essay but I have touched on several of them in my draft. As of right now my essay is entitled, The Battle of the Sexes: Challenging Gender Roles in Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment"; this is a working title and may change by Tuesday. Here is a snippet from my essay (not sure if it will be the beginning of the first paragraph when complete but it sits there now):

From the first stanza of Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment" it is clear the speaker will play with the idea of control. The poem begins with Lysander being "impatient" and "sway'd" by his passion and physical needs (2). In the next two lines Cloris can "defend herself no longer" (4) but the reader is not sure if she has to defend herself against Lysander or her own strong sexual desires.

The above is just a little tease and everyone knows it is good to leave your audience wanting more.