Lanyer Vs Whitney

            Not many women in the Elizabethan era could be called proto-feminist, whereas that term is used frequently when discussing Amelia Lanyer or Isabella Whitney. These two empowering authors have used their voices to elevate the roles and opinions of females of their time. Whitney's disposition contributes to the manner of criticism against male discrepancy using a voice embedded in experience and knowledge to contradict the conflicting discussions encircling men's attitudes concerning women's roles and their lifestyles, while Lanyer uses her words and divine intuition to contest the hypocritical viewpoints of men concerning the purpose and responsibility of women, and to advocate for women's religious and social equality. Both Lanyer and Whitney defy the roles and placement that society places upon them as women through their writings. .
             In Whitney's text "Last Wyll and Testament", which describes her possible compulsory choice to leave London, she depicts the city as a place that is filled with economic misfortunes and injustices surrounding women. She uses her "Wyll" as a preparation of death, like all other wills, differing in the aspect that many things that were left, were not left to specific persons, but instead to the situations or problems that Whitney felt mistreated women. Using her words, Whitney leaves the city of London and other various situations, something other that material riches being "very weak in purse" ("Wyll", E3), leaving her opinions of the city as a whole and the roles one places in it, in place of her materialist goods traditionally giving as inheritance. She attempts to instruct women in how to protect themselves from the pressures of the world outside the traditional home and services and yet also stay true to God. Her voice throughout the "Wyll" promotes feminine participation in social, sexual and economic relations, by making and acting upon one's own feelings and choices.