A wife in london
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Transcript of A wife in london
A Wife In London
Thomas Hardy1899
• A wife waiting in London for news about her husband who has been fighting in the Boer War in South Africa.
• Symbolic fog, swirls round the London streets.
• Fog is ominous & can cover things up, much like communications in war.
• She receives a message to tell her that her husband has died.
• In her shock she finds it hard to process the information.
• Ironically & tragically the next day she receives a letter that her husband sent to her before he died.
• In it he speaks of his excitement at coming home to her & the happy times they will have.
• An unpleasant coincidence (of which Hardy was interested)
• Written in his ‘naturalist style’. Describing events quite visually & symbolically & allows reader’s imagination to fill in the rest.
• Mainly known for his novels set in the English countryside, but he described poetry as his ‘first love’.
• Written unusually from the pov of a wife waiting rather than a participant or observer of the battlefield.
I--The Tragedy
• She sits in the tawny vapour
• That the Thames lanes have uprolled,
• Behind whose webby fold on fold
• Like a waning taper
• The street-lamp glimmers cold.
• A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
• Flashed news is in her hand
• Of meaning it dazes to understand
• Though shaped so shortly:
• He--has fallen--in the far South Land . .
II The Irony
• 'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
• The postman nears and goes:
• A letter is brought whose lines disclose
• By the firelight flicker
• His hand, whom the worm now knows:
• Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -
• Page-full of his hoped return,
• And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn In the summer weather,
• And of new love that they would learn
I--The Tragedy
• She sits in the tawny vapour
• That the Thames lanes have uprolled,
• Behind whose webby fold on fold
• Like a waning taper
• The street-lamp glimmers cold.
Brown, dull, foggy London. In stark
contrast to place of husband’s death
Spider’s web imagery. Evokes
poverty & sense of entrapment & anxiety As a
widow she will be further trapped.
Mist rolling up streets. Poor,
houses all very close together.
A thin candle often used to light
lamps/fires. Waning-going out
Perhaps the ‘light of her life’ is about to go out? All her
hopes for the future?
Street lamps lit by gas, would gradually burn out during the
night-early morning. Contrast in heat & light/life & death.
Mist & fog, sinister, can
connote foreboding.
Symbolic
• A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
• Flashed news is in her hand
• Of meaning it dazes to understand
• Though shaped so shortly:
• He--has fallen--in the far South Land . .
Why the word ‘crack’? A sharp, breaking noise, splits silence-
cracks her life too
Smart- uniform-army.
Bad news often sent by
telegram
Speedy &
difficult to take in
She can’t take in bad news, line structure is awkward too, reading it is difficult
scan.
The message is short & to the point, in italics, even so her head is spinning &
she can’t quite take it in.
Uses a ‘euphemism’, fallen rather than
died. Why try & divert the horror of the
reality? Does it lessen the effect of the
message?
Onomatopoeia of ‘knock’,
Dashes
show how she
reads it
II The Irony
• 'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
• The postman nears and goes:
• A letter is brought whose lines disclose
• By the firelight flicker
• His hand, whom the worm now knows:
Depressing, gloomy,
isolated in her grief
Ironically, after his death she receives a letter from him.
Lines of communication in
war are often unreliable
Homely image of fireside, usually comforting & warming. Now very
visual imagery highlighting his words on the page.
Adds pathos, the imagery makes it easier for the reader to
empathise with the wife. If we can picture something, we may
feel a deeper connection & understanding
His handwriting
, irony, it may have given her fresh hope
Buried in the soil, worms part of
the decomposition
process.
A twist of fate: Hardy interested in this.
Coming & going, normality of postman’s
round=normality of casualties &
bereavement in war.
• Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -
• Page-full of his hoped return,
• And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn In the summer weather,
• And of new love that they would learn
Full of flourish, life & enthusiasm. Alliteration
enhances frivolous feeling
How excited he was to be returning
Full of ideas of what they would do on his return.
Simple pleasures
Promises of new love they would find. Their love all the stronger for
his absence and return
Reinforces waste of life that war can
bring about
Hardy leaves it here, more powerful than
describing the Wife’s grief. Often readers
imagination can be more powerful than a
description.
Irony, he is no
longer fresh &
firm now he
is dead. Their hopes
& dreams dead too