How are Relationships Presented in the Poems you Have Studied?

In Havisham, Quickdraw, Salome each(prenominal) by Carol Ann Duffy, the current poet laureate of Britain and The Farmers Bride by Charlotte Mew, family relationships argon presented as being constant power struggles between the 2 parties involved. These poems do not conform to traditional romantic poetry, but sooner take a earth-closetdid approach to the aspects of relationships that arent conventionally explored. all four of the poems I studied are dramatic monologues, giving the referee a first psyche perspective of what happened in the build up to, or during the poem itself.Although a comprehensive psychological insight into the cite is available to us, allowing us to engage our own judgements about the partings adopted by the poets, we are nonetheless given a biased account of the occurrences and hence it is difficult to conclude whether or not their portrayal of what happened is trustworthy. The calls of the poems serve to bring outside the person they are refe rring to the lack of honorific title in Havisham takes out the pronounceers ability to judge the g block offer of the persona, which, in dig expresses the book of factss loss of status.Those who have read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens would be aware that Havisham refers to Miss Havisham in the book. The lack of an honorific title symbolises her embarrassment and denial about her rejection in hit the sack and except puts her on par with computer addresss like Hamlet and Othello, who werent at each point called Prince Hamlet or General Othello. This technique gived by Duffy portrays the persona as being of great importance however, to anyone who hasnt read the book, the question remains who, or what is Havisham?Both the title and the first kris of the poem Salome, in any case by Duffy, is a single word Salome. Igniting our curiosity, we oddment whats Salome? It could be a person, a place or a thing. This uncertainty is what encourages the reader to continue readin g. Lastly, The Farmers Bride is a perfect(a) example of rejectification. This suggests to the reader that the wife is the property of the farmer, which is further emphasised by the lack of a name for her by means ofout the poem.According to the context of the poem, this was customary of the term in the 19th Century, many farmers would choose wives who had a useful accomplishment set forlife on a farm. The institution of marriage gave primitive legal authority to the man and a wife could not legally refuse the sexual demands of her husband. This borderline misogyny expresses the position of women in the community. The title portrays the wife as nothing but a mere object that can be used to aid its owner either through with(predicate) manual labour or sex. The incongruous poem, with regards to objectification, is Quickdraw. Duffy instead plays on raging westbound iconography, suggesting that the relationship the poem describes is a battlefield.Immediately, we can guess what this poem will be about dissimilar to Havisham and Salome level off if is in a metaphorical sense. A quickdraw is a tense gunfight at the end of which only one person is left standing further check that the title is a metaphor for this all-consuming relationship. Plosive consonants are used by Duffy to show the emotional callousness of the typesetters cases she adopts in Havisham the character shows the reader that love doesnt serious affect us emotionally, but is felt in our entire beings, when she says that it isnt just the heart that b-b-b-breaks.This could suggest that her speech is just as broken as her withering body and life however, it also shows the violent side to the persona, making us question her sanity. From very primal on in the poem, the reader doesnt question that the character of Salome is tired of(p) due to her flippant attitude to her actions, but the use of the onomatopoeic oral communication which happen to contain plosive consonants clatter clutte r adds not only to the fast rhythm of the poem, but also to the coldness and devilry of the persona.In Quickdraw, the character adopted by Duffy is portrayed as being the inferior person in the relationship however, after being stoic and obsequious for so long, she attempts to retaliate, ultimately failing squeeze the trigger of my tongue, wide of the mark. The westerly imagery, wide of the mark adds to the heartlessness of the character, as in Wild West cinematography, people didnt often show mercy. The trigger of her tongue may have been her only weapon left in the destructive relationship she found herself in and furthermore, this parody could perfectly describe an argument the fateful truth is that words do hurt.Additionally, the alliteration of the t sounds is comical, juxtaposed with the undefendable matter. The use of irony in both Havisham and Salome seems to emphasise the psychogenic dissymmetry of the characters, which in turn symbolises their superiority, as they re fuse to take responsibility even when the truth is obvious to us. The character of Havisham asks herself, Who did this to me? . This shows her genuine confusion at the situate she is in, but to the reader, it is blatant that she did this to herself.She made a conscious choice to be self-pitying and not move on with her life. However, due to the context, we know that it would have been difficult. The persona sets herself a spinster. She, evidently showing how condemned she feels, spat this Victorian label out in distaste, as if she was worthless without a husband. The character of Salome verbalise that her last lover had come like a lamb to the kill to Salomes bed. Here, the persona refers to herself as Salome, who according to Christian mythology was the stepdaughter of nance Herod.After dancing for him, he said he would grant any of her wishes, so, prompted by her mother, she asked for the headword of John the Baptist. He had said that her mother, Herodias marriage to King He rod was vicious and incestuous. Herod sent an executioner to the prison where John was being kept and his head was brought to Salome in a dish. By comparing herself to this Biblical character, she is portrayed as being able to use the powers of seduction and lust to defeat her run-down and naive prey, making us view her as a astute character.The irony lies in the fact that she had, in fact, murdered him the night in front and seems proud of it I flung back the sticky red sheets, which insinuates that, firstly, the blood was clotted and thus relatively old, and that she was delighted to present what she had created by flinging back the sheets. The structures of Havisham and Quickdraw are organised into four quatrains each, directly juxtaposing the personalities of the characters and relationships portrayed in them.The persona of Havisham lacks stableness and the relationship in Quickdraw is whimsical and fast-paced, emphasised by the two lines you ring, quickdraw, your vowel sys tem a pellet in my ear, and hear me groan. These erratic verses are followed by the crux of the poem, cleverly disguised by Duffy through the use of enjambment. If lines 5 and 9 are put together, they read youve wounded me through the heart. This ingenious manipulation of structure intensifies the meaning of the poem and makes us sympathise with the speaker about her failed relationship.On the other hand, it is the chaotic structure and poetry scheme in The Farmers Bride that reflects the wifes seemingly unpredictable personality. At first, the wife is described by Mew as not being a woman, but more like a little frightened fay. On the surface, this simile would suggest that she was a demure, graceful character who is afraid of human contact nevertheless, according to Elizabethan folklore, fays also called fairies or faeries were wicked creatures that would happily unleash their wrath on those who didnt cajole them and comply with their every demand.This paints a much more fri ght plan of her persona, which could somewhat reflect Charlotte Mews own mental state, as she had a thorough insight into mental illnesses. Similarly, the speaker in Salome, by means of the tumultuous structure and rhyme scheme, paints an ominous picture of the insane character. The chilling aspect being that throughout the poem, the persona is stabilise and collected, adding to her menacing satisfaction by using throwa style remarks such as there, like I said was his head on a magnetic disc.Both of the poets I have studied are young-bearing(prenominal) and homosexual, thus it can be said that they may have taken a roughly biased approach to talking about the idea of power struggles in relationships. In all but one of the poems namely Salome, in which the female acts as a despot the female is the sycophantic character, clinging onto the idea that she would be nothing without a man by her side.In all of the poems however, there is an division of trying to make their lives bet ter, regardless of if the relationship continues or not the character of Havisham says that she stabbed at a wedding cake. This is a metaphorical way of saying that she gave it a stab but the cake symbolises her failure to make it work. In Quickdraw, the use of Last Chance saloon, a function of cliched Wild West iconography shows that she tried to fix their relationship, but the funds bullets of her partners kisses eventually drained the life out of her.The character of Salome declares Never again , although it was short-lived, the addition of an exclamation mark shows us that she was obdurate to change her ways. The farmer in Mews poem describes the establish as being spread white with rime. This symbolises the inevitability of the decline of their relationship. This unconventional take on relationships is more realistic than idealistic and provides a cynical viewpoint on what is usually heavily romanticised literature.