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Analysis Of The Poem ' Sandpiper ' And Sophy On The Son 's Veto '

Decent Essays

How could, both the narrator in ‘Sandpiper’ and Sophy in ‘The Son’s Veto’, evoke feelings of both sympathy and frustration? –DRAFT-4

Manzar

“The chaired lady”…
This is one of the first impressions of Sophy that Hardy presents to readers. The word ‘chaired’ suggests a sense of weakness, inability and insignificance. These ideas are crucially embedded through Sophy in “The son’s veto” and the narrator in “Sandpiper”. The authors do this to emphasise the tragic lives of the characters and how they are victims of the societies that mould their perception.

To begin with, readers feel sympathy towards Sophy in ‘The Son’s Veto’ as she is constantly mocked by Randolph, who views her with great contempt, ‘I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! A miserable boor! A churl! A clown!” Randolf hasn’t even met Sam yet and already becomes judgmental and compares him to a boor and a churl simply because of his lower social status. This authenticates that Randolph has no concerns for his mother’s feelings and is just being exceedingly egoistic and all he cares about is his status. Hardy might be trying to depict that narcissism is a trait that comes along with high status. This is quite ironic because his father had no problem with marrying a woman with lower status. However, the frustration kicks in when Sophy says, “Say no more-perhaps I am wrong! I will struggle against it”, as she denies the one thing she loves the most, just for her son who almost resents her. This frustrates the

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