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Essay about Brothers and Sister Maude Comparison

Decent Essays

Brothers and Sister Maude comparison
Matthew Davis
Comparison between the range of emotions felt by the speaker in ‘Sister Maude’ and ‘Brothers’.

In Both ‘Sister Maude’ and ‘Brother’ a range of language devices are used in order to portray the different emotions and the varied relationships the poem focus on.

Both poems use structural elements in order to portray a certain effect on the reader and to make them feel certain emotions just based on the way the poems are structured. In ‘Sister Maude’ the enjambment between each of the lines emphasises the jealousy of ‘Maude’ herself and the continuation of the jealousy she undergoes for her sisters lover. The Rhyme scheme could also symbolise the continuation of the poem as the …show more content…

However ‘Brother’ has a much more simpler meaning towards the reader as it is the emotion felt by the younger brother as his older brother has left him while the younger brother went back to get some bus fare. The brother cowardly says to his younger brother ‘you should go and ask mum’ for the bus fare as the brother does not want to confront him. The older brother thinks he is old enough and mature enough to take his younger brother out and be trusted; this turns out to be a complete juxtaposition to the reality and juxtaposition to the title as true brother are not ones that leave you for a ‘joke’.

Guilt is a theme that occurs in both poems as the individual feels remorseful for what they’ve done. In ‘Sister Maude’ the guilt is quite an obvious one; the guilt of Maude killing her sisters lover out of jealousy. The hatred of Maude’s sister is emphasised particularly in the last two stanzas and most effectively in the last line; ‘Bide you with death and sin.’ Even at the end of the poem Maudes sister has not forgiven her and has no future plans of doing so due to the full stop appearance at the end. This really cuts off the poem and the relationship between Maude and her sister as a sister relationship is thought to be a loving and caring one which completely juxtaposes the entirety of the poem. The guilt in ‘Brothers’ is an obvious one

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