Notes - Jealous Husband

Four have already left home, one will leave soon and the other three still dwell in the house with her. She then begins to express the dangers of the world around her in a bird’s point of view. For example, she is afraid that her young will fall in a fowler’s snare, be caught in a net or by birdlime on twigs, or hurt by a hawk. In a human world a fowler’s snare might be fallings into the hands of trickery, robbery, or any other type of crime. Caught by net or birdlime might represent being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a hawk-inflicted injury might symbolize being wounded or killed by an Indian or criminal.

Nevertheless, in the poem ‘Nesting time’, Stewart interprets a personal experience in first person of the appearance of a bird that lands upon his daughter and forgets the thought of the harsh world. Stewart’s descriptive language repeatedly explains the poem as if seen in his viewpoint, beginning with an interjection, ‘oh’ communicating of his incredulity of an ‘absurd’ bird. Symbolizing the bird with strong coloured imagery its ‘mossy green, sunlit’, described to be bright and joyful, with sweetness shown with the type of bird, ‘honey-eater’, Douglas Stewart takes the time to describe its admiration juxtaposed to the dangerous world surrounding it. While visualizing the birds actions, ‘pick-pick-pick’ of alliteration and repetition of its

As a parrot our narrator is forced to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard he tries to communicate with his wife or other people, it will prove useless and even if the context fit's the conversation, they'd think of it as an humorous coincidence. As our narrator hangs onto and tries to repeat every word to his "wife" says he demonstrates his frustration of being unable to communicate and his yearning for her to realize it is him. Butler also keeps this story very comedic with the fact that he is a bird with a grown man's education and allows him to still think and have emotions similar to a human. Our narrator's wittiness and male pride are still evident in his words no matter how subtle they are. For example, "up, cracker, peanut, open" and even changing the context from "pretty bird to bad bird".

The major theme of this story is to some people, animals are more important than any human. The author and his sister love Henry, the parrot, like one of their family member. Sedaris makes his audiences confused. At first, he makes everyone think that Henry is a human being as he says: “My sister’s home didn’t really lend itself to snooping, so I spent my hour in the kitchen, making small talk with Henry”(445).

In the story the father didn’t understand his daughter which made their relationship rocky. In the text it says ‘‘...watching him get out of the truck and walk toward me, noticing that there was no smile on his face but still feeling my body move toward him, my arms opening for an embrace, something rising in my throat. My father stopped and held out his right hand.’’ This quote shows that the father had a hard time showing his emotions to his daughter. In the end of the story they bonded over a bird and the father began to understand his daughter.

The bird then returns to his former place in the cage, the speaker emphasizing the pain in the bird’s “old, old scars”, imparting that the bird has attempted to escape in this manner multiple times in the past. From the line in which the speaker says “And they pulse again with a keener sting,” which refers to the bird’s scars, the reader can assume that the “keener sting” is a fire in the bird’s wings fueled by determination to achieve freedom, and that the bird will continue attempting to escape relentlessly. The speaker states that he “knows why he beats his wing”, meaning that he knows the forces that can drive a creature to harm themselves in the process of trying to achieve something, and he has come in contact with those forces in his life.

The men were still looking for evidence, but women are replaying the scene of murder in there minds. They conclude that Mrs. Wright was sewing in kitchen, when Mr. Wright came into the kitchen and saw the bird. This explains why Mrs. Wright was sewing nervously. I assumed that Mr. Wright didn’t like birds, because they are very noisy referring to conversation with Mr. Hale about the joining party phone line. Mr. Wright must have seen the birdcage with the bird. He must have broken the birdcage and broke the bird’s neck. This was enough of a motive need for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband. The

The old woman, when she says of the bird “I don’t know…in your hands,” means that the fate of the bird is inevitably going to be decided by the children. She repeats the phrase, “it is in your hands,” being as the bird symbolizes language, to emphasize that the use of language can be once again corrupted or pure, literally the bird’s fate. This phrase has become a metaphor

One of the women made the comment that Mrs. Wright used to be pretty and happy, when she was Minnie Foster not Minnie Wright. This is just the beginning of realizing that she was just pushed to far into depression and couldn't live up to John Wright's expectations anymore. The Wrights had no children and Mrs. Wright was alone in the house all day long. The women perceive John Wright to be a controlling husband who in fact probably wouldn't have children and this may have upset Mrs. Wright. They eventually find vacant bird cage and ponder upon what happened to the bird, realizing Mrs. Wright was lonely they figured she loved the bird and it kept her company. The women make reference to the fact that Mrs. Wright was kind of like a bird herself, and that she changed so much since she married John Wright. They begin looking for stuff to bring her and they find the bird dead and they realize someone had wrung its neck. This is when they realize Mrs. Wright was in fact pushed to far, John Wright had wrung her bird's neck and in return Minnie Wright wrung his.

Mr. Wright is not frightened by the consequences of his actions towards Mrs. Wright and her belongings. The County Attorney thoroughly examines the relationship between Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale explains how she has “ . . . not seen much of [Mrs. Wright] of late years” (Glaspell 4) which reveals how isolated Mrs. Wright is. Mr. Wright does not think twice about keeping his wife secluded from everyone because he thinks Mrs. Wright is incompetent in expressing her feelings towards him. The dead canary is found by the women and they debate whether Mr. Wright was a factor in the death of the bird. Mrs. Hale replies to Mrs. Peters that “ . . . Wright wouldn’t like the bird--a thing that sang. [Mrs. Wright] used to sing. He killed that too” (Glaspell 9). Despite his wife’s feelings, Mr. Wright believes that he can get rid of anything to satisfy his happiness.

Publica fama, what today’s society would call hearsay, was what everybody knew, so it was socially accepted as reliable (Fama 17). The husband’s actions put a stop to the lovers’ nightly talks but not before she sent the body of the bird to her love with a message explaining why she could no longer speak with him. Thus proving how strong the ideology of women being subservient to her husband in all regards.

?Sylvia still watched the young man with loving admiration. She had never seen anybody so charming and delightful, the woman?s heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love.? As the symbol of masculinity, the hunter is an aggressor although he is described to be kind, handsome, friendly and sympathetic. When first met Sylvia in the woods, he ?called out in a very cheerful and persuasive tone? and spoke to her in a courteous way. In fact, he takes advantages of Sylvia because he is in need of home and food. When he needs Sylvia?s help, he proves he cares for her so much, ?He listened eagerly to the old woman?s quaint talk, he watched Sylvia?s pale face and shining gray eyes with ever growing enthusiasm.? ?He told her many things about the birds and what they knew and where they lived and what they did with themselves. And he gave her a jack-knife, which she thought as great a treasure as if she were a desert-islander.? However, he is cruel and merciless to nature, his gun is a convention which is to destroy the nature. ?I have been hunting for some birds?. At the end, he goes away and does not help her family when she refuses to tell him about the heron?s nest.

The broken birdcage can also be seen as a symbolic item within the story. The birdcage represents how women were oppressed, or “caged in” by men during this time in history. The bird, which symbolizes Mrs. Wright in the story, is not mentioned by the men when they notice the birdcage. This is because Glaspell wanted to emphasize that most men during this time were focused on what women were limited to doing, not who they were as a person. As the men overlook yet another important detail, the women realize that the door to the birdcage is broken. This symbolizes Mrs. Wright breaking away from the chains of oppression put on her by her husband.

At the bird’s appearance and apparent vocal articulation, he is at first impressed, then saddened. He compares this evening visitor as only another friend which will soon depart, just as “other friends have flown before” (58). But the raven again echoes quite aptly his one-word vocabulary, thus leading the man on to think more deeply about the possibilities that exist at this juncture. Somewhere deep inside him, he has realized that it doesn’t matter what question he poses, the bird will respond the same.

He tries to suppress the bluebird’s existence through means of denying it, using escapist techniques such as drinking, smoking and participation in prostitution to deter his mind from the presence. “there’s a bluebird in my heart that/wants to get out/but I pour whiskey on him and inhale/cigarette smoke/and the whores and the bartenders/and the grocery clerks/never know that/he’s/in there”