SOURCE: Sheehan, David “The Ironist in Rochester's A Letter from Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country.” Tennessee Studies in Literature 25 (1980): 72-83.

In this essay, Sheehan argues that previous interpretations of Artemisia and Chloe failed to pay sufficient attention to the main character's most distinguishing characteristic—her ironic outlook on the world.

Critics are presently unanimous in regarding A Letter from Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country as perhaps Rochester's masterpiece, but there is no such unanimity about how to interpret the poem's central character, Artemisia herself. Some critics offer an essentially sympathetic assessment of her. Vivian de Sola Pinto describes Artemisia as “a witty lady” capable of making “the wise observation … that really excellent fools are produced not by nature but by civilization.”¹ Anne Righter describes her as “a kind of seventeenth-century Elizabeth Bennett. Witty and self-aware, both amused and exasperated, delighted...