Last updated: 28 May 2026
A Married State Katherine Philips analysis: Philips warns a young woman against rushing into marriage, presenting wifehood as a source of fear and motherhood as a source of pain. The revision grid gives you a complete Grade 9 exam answer plan: four moments, fully analysed and ready to reproduce in the exam.
Stuck on A Married State by Katherine Philips? This Cambridge IGCSE guide gives you a line-by-line translation, the four key moments fully analysed, and a Grade 9 answer plan you can take straight into the exam. Written by an Oxford-trained tutor with 20,000 hours of teaching, this guide takes the guesswork out of revising A Married State and turns the poem into something you can quote, analyse, and explain in under 60 seconds. For a paired Restoration reading, see Love Armed by Aphra Behn.
What happens in A Married State by Katherine Philips?
- Speaker observes married women looking worried and anxious.
- Wives hide their unhappiness behind composed faces.
- Speaker contrasts married life with single life.
- Single life brings happiness, dignity and peace.
- No angry husbands, no painful childbirth, no crying children.
- Single women have time to pray and worship God.
- Speaker directly addresses Madam at the poem’s close.
- Tells her to reject love and resist marriage pressure.
- Dismisses the myth that single women face hell.
- Argues devotion to God is the honourable alternative.
A Married State translation
| Poem Line | Translation |
|---|---|
| A married state affords but little ease; | Being married gives you very little peace; |
| The best of husbands are so hard to please: | Even the best husbands are so hard to please: |
| This in wives’ careful faces you may spell | You can see this in wives’ worried faces |
| Though they dissemble their misfortunes well. | Even though they hide their unhappiness well. |
| A virgin state is crowned with much content, | Being single is filled with much happiness, |
| It’s always happy as it’s innocent: | It’s always joyful because it’s free from trouble: |
| No blustering husbands to create your fears, | No angry husbands to make you afraid, |
| No pangs of childbirth to extort your tears, | No pain of giving birth to force your tears, |
| No children’s cries for to offend your ears, | No children’s screaming to hurt your ears, |
| Few worldly crosses to distract your prayers. | Few life problems to interrupt your prayers. |
| Thus are you freed from all the cares that do | So you are freed from all the worries that |
| Attend on matrimony, and a husband too. | Come with marriage and having a husband too. |
| Therefore, Madam, be advised by me: | Therefore, lady, listen to my advice: |
| Turn, turn apostate to love’s levity. | Turn away, reject love’s foolish games. |
| Suppress wild nature if she dare rebel, | Control your natural female desire if it fights back, |
| There’s no such thing as leading apes in hell. | The myth about single women being punished in hell is not real. |
Vocabulary
- careful: full of care
- spell: observe
- extort: extract forcibly
- crosses: troubles
- apostate: a person who renounces a belief or principle (sometimes religious belief)
- levity: treating a serious matter with humour or a lack of seriousness.
- leading apes in hell: refers to the idea that spinsters (single women) are punished in hell.
What is the message of A Married State?
Marriage is oppressive; not marrying is not sinful if women devote their lives to God.
What is the aim of A Married State?
To warn women against marriage.
What are the key themes in A Married State?
- Patriarchy and gender roles: Husbands hold legal and social power; wives hide suffering behind composed faces.
- Marriage as conflict: Wifehood means anxiety, fear, and pain, not partnership.
- Motherhood and childbirth: Childbirth is dangerous and exhausting, not a gentle duty.
- Singlehood as dignity: A virgin state is “crowned with much content” and worthy of pride.
- Religious threat dismantled: Philips rejects the myth that spinsters are punished in hell.
- Devotion to God: Prayer and worship are presented as the honourable alternative to marriage.
- 17th-century female voice: A rare woman’s argument for female autonomy in print.
- Direct address: The speaker commands “Madam” to think and choose for herself, like Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18‘s direct address to its subject.
A Married State revision grid: quotes, form and techniques
| Point and Evidence | Analysis |
|---|---|
| The speaker opens by observing married women. Their faces betray the anxiety and burden of married life. Philips begins the speaker’s argument with a sense of pathos for married women. “in wives’ careful faces” “Careful” meant “full of care/worry” in 17th-century English. The faces of wives are marked by constant sorrow and anxiety. | Wordplay “careful” –
|
| The speaker contrasts married life directly with singlehood. She argues the unmarried woman has greater dignity and happiness. The writer suggests unmarried women enjoy more dignity and contentment than those trapped in marriage. “A virgin state is crowned with much content” Being unmarried brings great happiness, peace, and a sense of honour and dignity. | Metaphor “crowned” –
|
| The speaker lists the specific burdens of married life. She presents husbands as threatening and motherhood as painful and exhausting. Philips warns that marriage brings only suffering, fear, and pain to women. “blustering husbands… pangs…childbirth… children’s cries” Loud, aggressive husbands… sharp pains… the agony of giving birth… the never-ending, exhausting noise of children. | Emotive adjective “blustering” –
|
| The speaker directly addresses single women at the poem’s close. She urges them to reject the myth, pushed by male-dominated society, that unmarried women face punishment in hell. Philips ends the speaker’s argument with a sense of persuasion, urging women to reject a male-dominated myth. “Turn, turn… there’s no such thing as leading apes” Change direction now!… The old myth that spinsters are condemned to lead degrading creatures in hell as punishment is completely false. (A common 17th-century belief used to frighten women into marriage.) | Imperative/ Repetition “Turn” –
|
Conclusion
Philips warns that marriage brings fear, anxiety, and pain, while a single life devoted to God brings dignity and content. She rejects the myth that single women face punishment in hell, taking away the threat used to push women into wifehood against their will. Sixteen lines, one argument, and now you have it. If revision feels as heavy as the burdens she lists, the rest of the Follower by Seamus Heaney guide and the wider Cambridge IGCSE Songs of Ourselves anthology are waiting for you.
