Carol Ann Duffy's Mean Time
Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Mean Time' is about loss of love and the different ways in which time brings about change or loss of life itself. The poem is very personal and autobiographical to Duffy's life as are most of her poems. 'Mean Time' is based on mourning your lost love and how regrets seem meaningless when one day you get up and realise its not just time which has passed you by, but time has stolen your life too, and in the end it will only be the mourning that you regret. The idea of time and how it is finite is one of the main themes in the poem.
The title 'Mean Time' could be emphasising a few points one of which is how time can be 'mean' when one needs a
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The stanza is ended by stating that it's 'our mistakes' she is recognising that her partner is not all to blame and they need to share mistakes, this shows the first sign of putting her life back together.
The poem moves on and tells us how she wants just 'one hour' to be lifted so she 'would never have said' the words she did. This sets the tone for the whole poem; regret and longing. It makes the reader feel that she has wasted enough time of her life on this one man, its time to move on. However one moment she is regretting spending too much time mourning her lost love, now she is stepping over old territory again, which makes the poem a bit cliché, so the sympathy for the woman is now lost.
One of the last important themes of 'Mean Time' is conveyed in the final stanza, this is how time is finite 'we will be dead' because death is rapidly approaching everyone, which highlights the fact that mourning is pointless. This is where the reader can relate to Duffy because they can share their 'mistakes' too because the events in the poem can happen to all most anybody. I believe that Duffy's conclusion is do not let your heart take control of your life, you need to no when to move on.
The language throughout is very calm and well organised which helps
In different ways and for different lengths of time. But grieving a love one is one of the hardest thing I think a
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
her to get a job and provide for her family. When she says ‘Next week
Grief is a natural response to a major loss, though often deeply painful and can have a negative impact on your life. Any loss can cause varied levels of grief often when someone least expects it however, loss is widely varied and is often only perceived as death. Tugendhat (2005) argued that losses such as infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, adoption and divorce can cause grief in everyday life. Throughout our lives we all face loss in one way or another, whether it is being diagnosed with a terminal illness, loss of independence due to a serious accident or illness, gaining a criminal record (identity loss), losing our job, home or ending a relationship; we all experience loss
Life involves many losses. There are small losses: losing a football game, failing a test, or forgetting an assignment. At some point, though, all of us will experience a major loss: the death of a close family member, a major illness, or a divorce in the family. Loss is inevitable for all of us. If you have ever experienced grief and loss, or if you are currently experiencing it, then you might be trying to recover the wrong way. You might believe that you have gotten over it, but it could come back even years later. When it comes to grief and loss, there are a lot of components that people do not understand, but today there are many methods to coop that will lead you down the path of healing.
The poem ' In Mrs Tilscher's Class' written by Carol Ann Duffy, is written in free verse and includes four stanzas. The poem consists of metaphors, similies and the five senses. This essay will outline the areas in which Duffy uses diffrent literary terms to define the theme of growing up.
Geraldine Brooks provides a well-written novel. She achieves her goal to deliver an entertaining and informative story by incorporating accurate historical events and personal experiences with the fictional character March. This helps drives the story to create a convincing novel. The element regarding Grace and March enhances the story by creating an ulterior relationship that the reader may create strong feelings towards. Brooks also enhanced the book by including the character Marmee. She represents the women of the period, but unlike most women, Marmee is outspoken and strongly opinionated about the subject of slavery. Overall, the novel is historically based but
Oppression is mental pressure or distress and there is women, men, and racial oppression. At a point in someone’s life, the feeling of being trapped or stuck arise. In The Story of an Hour, a woman gives her own thoughts on marriages and life. She has heart issues and the thought of her husband’s death causes her to trap herself in her room. Now in “Sympathy” , a male figure has his thoughts and similar feelings to a caged bird. In both the story and poem they show oppression in some way. Though these two stories and characters are completely different, they share the same mindset, feeling trapped but one is mentally and the other is physically.
In “The Story of an Hour” we are taken through a journey. The journey is the thoughts and emotions going through Mrs. Mallards (Louise) mind. The journey only takes an hour, so everything moves at a fast pace. Louise seemed to process the news of her husband’s death without an initial element of disbelief and shock. She goes right into the reaction of grieving for her husband. She quickly begins to feel other emotions. At first she does not understand them. The journey is a way that Louise comes to her final thoughts of freedom. She looks into the future and looks forward to living a long life on her own terms.
The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time
When first reading Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour," one may not typically be surprised at its ending, write it off as one of those creepy "back from the dead" horror stories and forget about it. There is more to this story than simply horror. The author is making a very strong, however subtle, statement towards humanity and women's rights. Through subtle symbolism, Kate Chopin shows how marriage is more like a confining role of servitude rather than a loving partnership.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Kate Chopin presents a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes that occur upon hearing of her husbands’ death. Chopin sends the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, on a roller coaster of emotional up’s and down’s, and self-actualizing psychological hairpin turns, which is all set in motion by the news of her husband’s death. This extreme “joy ride” comes to an abrupt and ultimately final halt for Mrs. Mallard when she sees her husband walk through the door unscathed. Chopin ends her short story ambiguously with the death of Mrs. Mallard, imploring her reader to determine the true cause of her death.
Write a critical analysis of any aspect of "The Story of an Hour" which you found of interest and significance.
Angelou uses a variety of structural techniques within the poem, the first of which is rhetorical questions such as “Did you want the see me broken”? This is used to openly question why her oppressors are hostile towards her. Half way through the poem the tempo begins to change as Angelou dramatically changes her mood from negative to positive, and begins to express her beliefs towards the oppressors. “The Story of an Hour” is about how things can change in a short amount of time, due to the small amount of time it makes you feel as though you are going along the journey with Angelou. This engages the reader as it is in such a small time frame, that they want to know