Institution and individual in conflict

Though the Early Middle English Ancrene Wisse is of a genre that almost requires a certain amount of misogynistic tropes and figures, the text itself reveals an authorial voice that is reluctant to condemn the women for whom the author writes. Using speech act theory and sentence analysis, this paper examines the ways in which certain structures and usages in Ancrene Wisse undercut its generic antifeminism, almost ironically to empower its readers with a sense of their own spiritual agency and responsibility.