The repetition of the letter “b” is suggests that she may be starting to cry thinking about the things that happened in her past. In both these texts Shakespeare and Duffy give a voice to people who wouldn’t usually have a voice in their society. In the Jacobean times Othello would have been discriminated against because of his race in the Venetian society and Miss Havisham wouldn’t have had a voice in her society as she is a widow, so the play and poem allow us to see how their feelings change. In both Othello and Medusa violent imagery is used to show the characters determination to gain revenge on the people who betrayed them or were accused of betrayal. In Othello Shakespeare uses repetition of the word “blood” in Act 3 Scene 3 and blood is associated with
Browning uses a number of different narrative techniques to tell the story in Porphyria’s Lover. The poem is written in first person, in past tense, from the perspective of our narrator who is unnamed but as the title suggests is “Porphyria’s Lover”. This means that the telling of events is not completely reliable and can be assumed to be biased. The narrator’s first line of speech, “I listened heart fit to break” suggests he is waiting for someone, maybe even longing. Browning structured this poem as a dramatic monologue and has included structural features such as enjambment which makes the poem sound less like a crafted speech and more like a casual conversation, which may be seen as eerie considering the events later on in the poem.
The Differences of Love and Infatuation Love and infatuation, two very different things yet they are confused quite often. For a while most people can not tell the different between the two, both can dominate our thoughts and emotions. Jenijoy La Belle writes in “Loofah Is a Man Splendored Thing” that infatuation is in some ways a form of insanity, but ultimately different from love which based on common desires. She makes this conclusion by thinking of infatuation as being illusory and vapid, and also gives many examples of infatuation being by nature irrational. Love however is mutual and realistic, while infatuation requires neither.
The poems with a ‘Mrs’ in front evidently suggests that the relationship status between the two characters are husband and wife therefore there is or has apparently been some sort of marriage amidst them. Other than that, Duffy has also briefly used nature in her poems which demonstrate how this anthology isn’t just about relationships of men and women, and how everything is become modernised, causing a negative finish. Duffy has created two different aspects regarding relationships. First is a relationship which was worthy and enduring, and second is the negative side of being in a relationship which in other words Duffy has ultimately sabotaged the stereotypical roles of sexes in order to expose male dominancy and suffering of women. In the elegy ‘Mrs Lazarus’, the relationship between her and her husband seemed quite ordinary but more than that, it was the way she was grieving and her emotions after he died which shows that they had a very strong relationship and depended on each other, “Slept in a single cot, widow, one empty glove, white femur in the dust, half.
In the second stanza, last line, “share in its shame” represents the foolishness the speaker feels for loving that woman. In the third stanza, the speaker does not like hearing the lover’s name after their separation. He compares hearing her name to the sound of a “knell” which means a bell usually used in funerals or deaths. By this word choice, the speaker tells the reader just how deep his sorrow is, comparing hearing her name to hearing death bells each and every time. It causes him to question why he ever loved his ex-lover.
Medusa is described in a very negative manner. On the other hand, the final stanza makes us feel pity for her. Her lover had other ‘girls’ meaning he was unfaithful and the rhetorical question that follows makes Medusa seem desperate. This part of the poem evokes feelings from the reader as she is clearly distressed and suffering. She reminisces about when she was ‘fragrant and young’, illustrating her complete lack of confidence.
From here, the couple proceeded to get into quite the argument, showing that their communication habits are, indeed, unhealthy because the husband continued to talk, even though he knew it would lead to a disagreement. This poor communication can transition into tension between partners. The two people in “A Song on Royal Street” by Richard Blessing also struggled with ineffective communication: “’Remember?’ ‘No’” (30). Here, the man is telling the woman about an event that happened on Royal Street many
The most powerful image of the poem comes when she says; “it’s finally having a man reach out for you then caving in around his fingers” (17-20). This demonstrates wanting or needing any kind of love you can get and staying attached to it and despite abuse. In this quote the speaker not only alludes to finding someone but also domestic abuse. The narrators desire to fit in and be socially accepted comes at a price of losing her self image as well as her control. She is not comfortable in her skin and that leads to her dependence on others to fill that void.
Not only does the poem provide the audience with tension between love and infatuation, but love vs. insanity as well. Insanity is the lack of reason or good sense. The fact that the lover was not willing to let love waist, he expresses insane
A Grave Repercussion Emotions can be fatal when left to fester. Often, people’s feelings can cause their rationality to decay and drive them towards abnormal behavior. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia snaps under the heartache of her fathers’ death, forcing her into madness. Eventually, her anguish throws her into a grave with which she cannot escape. The grief she suffers is what leads to her derangement, and in turn, her own death.