What will not woman, gentle woman dare; when strong affection stirs her spirit up?
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There are women to whom nature has granted the gift of silent emotion. They have mobile faces, changeful eyes, soft lips, which express joy or desolation naturally, and with the charm of perfect simplicity and truth.
Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish: I confess, that to my misfortune, it is soft.
Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.
In the face of patriarchy, it is a brave act indeed for both men and women to embrace, rather than shame or attempt to eradicate, the feminine.
The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.
Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.
Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
It is a woman's nature to be constant - to love one and one only, blindly, tenderly, and for ever - bless them, dear creatures!
The idea that women are innately gentle is a fantasy, and a historically recent one. Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, is depicted as wreathed in male human skulls; the cruel entertainments of the Romans drew audiences as female as they were male; Boudicca led her British troops bloodily into battle.
This is the fantasy of every woman - to hold at our feet servile and tame slaves, like in Roman times. And the worse we treat them, the more passionate they become.