What I found particularly interesting in John Clare's Don Juan A Poem is the negative view of women throughout the work. In lines 15-16, Clare writes "Wherever mischief is til womans brewing Created from manself--to be mans ruin." Without knowing his past or relationship history, I would guess that he had been heartbroken by a woman or have ill will toward women.
During this time period I know it was common to view women as closer to nature and "hysterical." I also know that women were blamed for the fall of man because Eve ate the apple in the biblical story of how mankind succumbed to sin. I wonder if Clare felt that women were to blame for his misery and thus is "mischief" is about, it is most defintely "womans brewing."(line 16)
This also makes me wonder if Clare viewed woman as wholly more sinful than men, and if so, who does he blame his own sin on? Does he believe that his sin is a result of something that a woman did to him?
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