Editing Christopher Smart (section)

===Gender===
Smart's role as Mrs. Midnight along with his gendered comments in ''Jubilate Agno'' form the focal point for analysing his understanding of sexuality and gender. With Mrs. Midnight, Smart challenges the traditional social order found in 18th-century England.<ref>{{harvnb|Bertelsen|1999|p=364}}</ref> However, some, like Lance Bertelsen, argue that the Mrs. Midnight persona reveals a split personality torn between masculine and feminine roles.<ref>{{harvnb|Bertelsen|1999|p=365}}</ref> Fraser Easton say the existence of Mrs. Midnight proves that Smart identified a female connection to poetry and her character was used to defy popular 18th-century notions of who is able to attain knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Easton|1998|p=198}}</ref> This role allowed Smart to focus on "social and sexual dimensions" in his satire.<ref>{{harvnb|Easton|1998|p=200}}</ref> However, there is a potentially darker side to Mrs. Midnight, and she could represent his feelings that he was "emasculated by economic pressures."<ref>{{harvnb|Hawes|1995|p=9}}</ref>

The image of "horns" in ''Jubilate Agno'' is commonly viewed as a sexual image.<ref>{{harvnb|Liu|1985|p=121}}</ref> Easton puts particular emphasis on the image of horns as a phallic image and contends that there are masculine and feminine horns throughout Smart's poem.<ref>{{harvnb|Easton|1998|p=234}}</ref> Hawes picks up this theme and goes on to claims that the poem shows "that [Smart] had been 'feminized' as a cuckold."<ref>{{harvnb|Hawes|1995|p=4}}</ref> In response to this possible cuckolding, ''Jubilate Agno'' predicts a misogynistic future while simultaneously undermining this effort with his constant associations to female creation.<ref>{{harvnb|Hawes|1995|p=16}}</ref>