a wife in london Flashcards
who was it written by and some brief life info?:
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy is one of the most famous Victorian writers and is most famous for his powerfully visual novels like Tess of the d’Urbervilles’.
Hardy was accused of having pro-Boer loyalties.
By the end of the 19th century he had gained a reputation internationally.
What are some of the key themes?
The war that the soldier in this poem was fighting in is the Boer War.
The Second Boer War (1899-1902) was originally welcomed by the British people but after three years people were sick of a campaign that ripped the nation’s civilised reputation apart.
quote 1: ‘Behind whose webby fold on fold’ what can you say about this?
A repetitive and alliterative phrase.
The wife is behind the curtains which could work as a metaphor for her being trapped.
quote 2: ‘like a waning taper’ what can you say about this?
it means a candle is on its way out
symbolic of the life of her husband
quote 3: ‘Of meaning it dazes to understand’
convoluted syntax
It is overly confusing with the order of the words which may mirror the fact she cannot comprehend what she is reading.
she is in shock
quote 4: ‘He - has fallen - in the far South Land…’
the dashes create sense of fractured speech and thought= Illustrates how she is reading it and shows the depth of her despair.
quote 5: ’Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker’
the pathetic fallacy symbolises how her world has gotten darker therefore creating a sense of claustrophobia.
also could be symbolic of her lack of knowledge or doesn’t know what to do/where to go
quote 6: ‘His hand, whom the worm now knows’
the wife recognises her husband’s handwriting. Followed by graphic image of death.
quote 7: ‘page-full of his hoped return’
ironic that the letter is so full of life and thoughts of the future when we know his fate. (CONTEXT LINK!)
context: (historical)
Written during the Boer War. Hardy was accused of pro-Boer sympathies but these are not made explicit in the poem. Thus the poem could be about any war.
Many were increasingly cynical about the Boer War and the imperialist agenda, hence the poem could reflect increasingly cynical attitudes towards the idea of Empire.
context (literary)
Hardy is a Victorian poet and his poetry, a muted celebration of individual tragedy, foreshadows the work of the war poets during World War I.
One of Hardy’s key themes throughout his works is the inexorability of human destiny - the idea that we cannot escape our fate.
form and structure:
The poem is divided into two distinct sections; The Tragedy’ and ‘The Irony’.
The poem has a muted and naturalistic style because it focuses on individual tragedy rather than greater glory.
