He expresses admiration for Helens beauty, comparing her beauty to “Nicean barks of yore.” (line 2) He continues comparing her hair to beautiful flowers, which apparently held a wondrous smell according to Greek mythology. On the contrary, Hilda Doolittle portrays Helen as the cause for a terrible event, where many lives were lost. Doolittle sets the stage for the tone in the first line, “All Greece hates.” (line 1) This tone does not change, while Doolittle does acknowledge Helen’s beauty, the poem ends stating that the world could be a better if she was dead. She also writes, “All Greeece reviles the wan face when she smiles,” (lines 6-7) meaning that all of Greece scorns at the sight of her smile, “hating it deeper still when it grows,” (lines 8-9) The tone used in this poem is obviously a dark, bitter (for the war) and indignant. The title of each of these parts plays a part in the tone of the play, “To Helen” is a title written to make the poem more of a personal note, speaking directly to Helen.
The final line, which is a stanza on its own, is an exception; this underlines it and creates a sense of evil as she suggests that she wasn’t to kill him as from the Greek mythology when you look at her she will instantly turn you into stone. The first paragraph of the poem sums up the whole poem. The words ‘a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’ show the whole process she is going through and the emotions that she is feeling. It also goes onto talk about the curse that she has. The danger shown by upsetting Medusa is emphasised by the metaphor of "bullet tears", since tears are commonly seen as weak and fragile, but bullets are shown as cold violent and deathly.
Hawthorne also makes the scaffold a very important main stage for the characters. A. “Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.” (Hawthorne 50) B. “Thus she shal be a living sermon against sin […]” (Hawthorne 58) C. “After the kiss on the scaffold, Pearl, reconciled to the conditions of life, will not ‘forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.’(p.386)” (MacLean 14) D. “The minister who had once sinned but would sin no more died on the scaffold exposing his guilt.” (Bell) IV. Finally, at the end of the book, Hawthorne makes Hester go back to Boston in order to make the reader feel different things about her.
And last, the language of different scenarios, i.e. battles vs. joyous occasions, lends itself to glorifying deadly and gruesome struggles. Homer has a unique way of devising the plot, giving mixed signals and paradoxes, but it all just gives to the realism of this amazing piece of literature. Odysseus’ faithfulness for his wife is questionable. In the first book, you find that he is sleeping with a woman named Kalypso, a sea nymph.
Patriarch society and the view of the woman as an irresistible allure that threatens to lead men astray and corrupt them. Then we have the concept of love and devotion, adultery and values of the family. To that we add the idea of immortality and ‘motionless in motion’ – that is capturing what is fleeting and transient and giving it the gift of ‘eternity of light’ and the choice that a mortal faces when given the opportunity to live forever. Regardless of the ancient provenance of the story, the characters and the dilemmas they are faced with, Archibald MacLeish captures in his poem all the aspects of the myth and puts in words all the ambiguity and controversy Odysseus’ decision holds and successfully conveys the message of the prominence of life and the beauty of the fleeting moment. All these concepts in the context of the poem are further developed in the next section.
A. Explicate (meaning analyze and interpret) a single poem The poem: Resume by Dorothy Parker I chose the poem Resume by Dorothy Parker because her callousness and frank tone in this poem is amusing and although she is kind of making light of the subject of suicide, her use of satire is entertaining. This poem is short, concise and straight to the point. A lot of people can appreciate how she does not attempt to mince words; she says exactly what she means. She lists the ways one can commit suicide but you can tell the central theme of this piece is that suicide is simply not worth all the extra effort. One can tell she feels living is a lot easier than taking one’s life.
On the other hand, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ brings about extreme patriotism, that it is sweet and seemly to die for one’s country, though the poem itself discourages the act. “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori”. Owen uses his personal experiences to present an incredibly realistic image, and sets out to shock his readers. Owen expresses his anger at this waste of life shown in his description of the man’s suffering, it all seems unfair. In the first stanza of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, the reader is drawn in with: “Bent double” .
The repeated imagery of “essential oil of truth” throughout the novel suggests the purity of what Woolf is searching for in order to draw out and expose the found truth about the position and demoralisation of women. This position is one endemic to Woolf’s patriarchal context, whereby women were seen as inferior, however more importantly focusing on man’s own superiority. Unsuccessful in her search Woolf turns to historical illusions and biased opinions to analyse and draw out truth from. “Perhaps now it would be better to give up seeking for the truth, and receiving on one’s head an avalanche of opinion hot as lava… to light the lamp”. The red imagery of the lava represents the burning down of truth in that it is pervasive and destructive, therefore symbolising illusion.
This biased view of the female role is very undermining and upsurd. Marlow shows men are the only ones capable of facing the “Heart of Darkness.” This is proven when Marlow says, “It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset”(48). He offends women and uses a satirical tone to use a sexual metaphor, “we penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness”(59).
The shadow represents sorrow or death. The wall in “The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe” represents their parents never achieving true union with their children. Yet, the wall also represents hope: “… the lovers found the slit and made it/ The hidden mouthpiece where love’s subtle words in sweetest whispers came/ And charmed the ear” (ll. 18-22). Cold, bitter separation for the lovers but, even though their parents forbid them from being together, it only makes the flames of their love burn even hotter, every higher.