1887
image of Impoliteness as an indexical marker of flirtatious teasing in Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy
Mistress
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

While existing scholarship has examined the rhetorical structure, gender politics, metaphorical patterns, and psychological undertones of Andrew Marvell’s , the speaker’s use of confrontational, presumptive, and impolite speech acts remains underexplored. This gap obscures how linguistic strategies function not only to persuade or dominate but also to flirt, generate interpersonal tension and enable playful social negotiation. This study therefore undertakes a pragmatic-stylistic analysis of the poem, focusing on how its persuasive strategy is structured around calculated uses of (im)politeness and flirtatious teasing. Adopting a discourse-pragmatic approach, the poem is analysed for key speech acts, facework patterns, and indexical cues. The analysis draws on frameworks from politeness theory (Brown and Levinson 1987), impoliteness (Culpeper 1996, 2011), teasing discourse (Boxer and Cortés-Conde 1997; Dynel 2008), and indexicality (Silverstein 1976, 2003; Bucholtz and Hall 2004). Findings reveal a three-phase rhetorical progression: ironic admiration expressed through mock politeness; existential pressure articulated through bald-on-record impoliteness; and a final shift to erotic teasing marked by playful imperatives and shared agency. Together, these phases demonstrate how the poem constructs facework, reframes desire, and transforms interpersonal pressure into a form of pragmatic play. This study contributes to pragmatic stylistics by showing how poetic discourse enacts interactional strategy and affective positioning, and it points toward further research on the pragmatics of teasing, seduction, and face negotiation in poetic and historical discourse.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ps.25122.ola
2026-08-25
2026-09-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Babamiri, Navid Salehi
    2016 “Struggle for Seizing the Day and the Sick Love in To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell: An Anti-Platonic Reading”. English Language and Literature Studies(): –. 10.5539/ells.v6n4p95
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v6n4p95 [Google Scholar]
  2. Baykent, Ufuk Özen
    2017 “Metaphysical Concepts of Time and Space in Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Journal of Current Researches on Social Sciences(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Booth, Allyson
    2015 “‘But at my back from time to time I hear’: Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. InReading The Waste Land from the Bottom Up, –. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137482846_28
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137482846_28 [Google Scholar]
  4. Boxer, Diana and Florencia Cortés-Conde
    1997 “From bonding to biting: Conversational joking and identity display”. Journal of Pragmatics(): –. 10.1016/S0378‑2166(96)00031‑8
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(96)00031-8 [Google Scholar]
  5. Brody, Jules
    1989 “The Resurrection of the Body: A New Reading of Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. English Literary History(): –. 10.2307/2873123
    https://doi.org/10.2307/2873123 [Google Scholar]
  6. Brown, Penelope and Stephen C. Levinson
    1987Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511813085
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085 [Google Scholar]
  7. Bucholtz, Mary and Kira Hall
    2004 “Language and identity”. InA Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ed. byAlessandro Duranti, –. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Christinawati, Christinawati and Moses Glorino Rumambo Pandin
    2019 “Andrew Marvell’s Poems Viewed from History of the British Coloniser Perspective”. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Clark, Billy and Siobhan Chapman
    2019 “Pragmatics and Literature”. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lal.35
    https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.35
  10. Cousins, A. D.
    2014 “The Replication and Critique of Libertinism in Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Renaissance Studies(): –. 10.1111/rest.12032
    https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12032 [Google Scholar]
  11. Culpeper, Jonathan
    1996 “Towards an Anatomy of Impoliteness”. Journal of Pragmatics(): –. 10.1016/0378‑2166(95)00014‑3
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(95)00014-3 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2011Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511975752
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511975752 [Google Scholar]
  13. de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José Ruiz and María Asunción Barreras Gómez
    2015 “Time and Cognition in Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Cognitive Semantics(): –. 10.1163/23526416‑00102004
    https://doi.org/10.1163/23526416-00102004 [Google Scholar]
  14. Duyfhuizen, Bernard
    1988 “Textual Harassment of Marvell’s Coy Mistress: The Institutionalization of Masculine Criticism”. College English(): –. 10.58680/ce198811397
    https://doi.org/10.58680/ce198811397 [Google Scholar]
  15. Dynel, Marta
    2008 “No Aggression, Only Teasing: The Pragmatics of Teasing and Banter”. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics(): –. 10.2478/v10016‑008‑0001‑7
    https://doi.org/10.2478/v10016-008-0001-7 [Google Scholar]
  16. Garganigo, Alex
    2021 “Worlds Enough and Time: The Fantastic Afterlives of To His Coy Mistress”. Marvell Studies(). 10.16995/marv.4036
    https://doi.org/10.16995/marv.4036 [Google Scholar]
  17. Grabowska, Milena
    2020 “A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the Conceptualizations of Time, Life, and Love in Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress and Its Polish Translations”. (Master’s thesis, Jagiellonian University). Cracow: Jagiellonian University. https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/241798
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Hartwig, Joan
    1964 “The Principle of Measure in ‘To His Coy Mistress’”. College English(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Khanal, Kamal Krishna
    2016 “Exploding the Center: A Deconstructive Reading of Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Research Journal of English Language and Literature(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. King, Bruce
    1969 “Irony in Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. The Southern Review(): .
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Low, Anthony and Paul J. Pival
    1969 “Rhetorical Pattern in Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Mansur, Visam
    2015 “Coyness as Power in Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Beykent Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi(): –. 10.18221/bujss.96363
    https://doi.org/10.18221/bujss.96363 [Google Scholar]
  23. Miller, Clarence H.
    1975 “Sophistry and Truth in To His Coy Mistress”. College Literature(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Moldenhauer, Joseph J.
    1968 “The Voices of Seduction in To His Coy Mistress: A Rhetorical Analysis”. Texas Studies in Literature and Language(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Mottram, Stewart, Hannah Worthen and Briony McDonagh
    2025 “Time, Tide, and Tempestuous Flooding: Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ in an Age of Storms”. The Review of English Studies, (): –. 10.1093/res/hgaf012
    https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgaf012 [Google Scholar]
  26. Munib, Maha Mohamed
    2022 “Existential Self as Reflected in Two Metaphysical Poets: John Donne’s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning and Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University(): –. 10.21608/aafu.2022.254127
    https://doi.org/10.21608/aafu.2022.254127 [Google Scholar]
  27. Mushtaq, Hammad
    2010 “The Triumph of Id over Ego and Superego in To His Coy Mistress”. IJAR Journal of Language and Literature, .
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Poudel, Uttam
    2024 “Female Subjugation and Body Politics in Song’s ‘Girl Powdering Her Neck’ and Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’”. Literary Oracle(): –. 10.70532/https://literaryoracle.com/wp‑content/uploads/2024/06/19.‑Female‑Subjugation‑and‑Body‑Politics‑in‑Songs‑Girl‑Powdering‑Her‑Neck‑and‑Marvells‑To‑His‑Coy‑Mistress.pdf
    https://doi.org/10.70532/https://literaryoracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/19.-Female-Subjugation-and-Body-Politics-in-Songs-Girl-Powdering-Her-Neck-and-Marvells-To-His-Coy-Mistress.pdf [Google Scholar]
  29. Ruman, Muhammad Abdul Karim
    2014 “Formalist Interpretation of Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress”. Bangladesh Research Foundation Journal(): –. 10.71386/BRFJ.3.2.2014.1‑7
    https://doi.org/10.71386/BRFJ.3.2.2014.1-7 [Google Scholar]
  30. Sasikala, Pavithra
    2020 “Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’: The Conflict Between the Me and Imagery”. Scholar: National School of Leadership(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Silverstein, Michael
    1976 “Shifters, Linguistic Categories, and Cultural Description”. InMeaning in anthropology, ed. byKeith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby, –. Albuquerque, N. Mex.: University of New Mexico Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. 2003 “Indexical Order and the Dialectics of Sociolinguistic Life”. Language and Communication(): –. 10.1016/S0271‑5309(03)00013‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00013-2 [Google Scholar]
  33. Simon, David Carroll
    2022 “Lyric Misogyny and the Comedy of Interpretation: Rereading ‘To His Coy Mistress’”. Representations(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Stockwell, Peter
    2020 “Language and Literature: Stylistics”. InThe Handbook of English Linguistics, ed. byBas Aarts, April McMahon and Lars Hinrichs, –, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Wilson, Emma Annette
    2012 “From One Marvell to Another: Puritan Logic in ‘To His Coy Mistress’”. In: Renaissance Papers 2012, ed. byAndrew Shifflett and Edward Gieskes, –. Martlesham, Suffolk, UK: Boydell & Brewer.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Zengin, Mevlüde
    2009 “Imagery in Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’”. Humanities Sciences(): –.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.25122.ola
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.25122.ola
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error