Sad Women
While reading various British texts this week I noticed a repeating sense of seriousness in most all of them. I found that “Mariana” and “Tears, Idle Tears” both written by Alfred Lord Tennyson had the same pattern throughout the text. Both of these texts ended each paragraph with the same phrase. This could be a way readers can tell that some British texts are written by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Another similarity was the way that both of the texts dealt with death. Death was a very common theme shown in both texts. In “Mariana” the woman wished for death since she was so unhappy. And in the text “Tears, Idle Tears” it is about how someone is missing a loved one who passed away. I found this text to be relatable since I have had a loved one pass away. “Days that are no more” is repeated at the end of each paragraph in this text, and this is something most people can relate to if they lost someone. Nothing will ever be the same, and spending time with that certain loved one can no longer happen.
I felt like the text “Mariana” many people could relate to. I found this text relatable to real life since the words “I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!” were constantly added to the end of every paragraph. In our world today many people, not just women deal with depression, and anxiety. In this specific text the woman is upset about how her life was dreary, or her day was dreary. I felt like this woman had some sort of mental illness. This text was very repetitive, and made the readers very aware of how unhappy she was with her life. Overall, these texts were challenging for me since I am not familiar with British texts, and some of the vocabulary used. I would suggest looking up some of the words on the computer that are more challenging so you as a reader can better understand the text.
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteI also got the impression that the woman in Alfred Tennyson's, "Mariana" was struggling with mental illness. The class notes mentioned that the poem was about the woman's inability to fit in/distrust of socializing, and that reminded me of depression and anxiety-like you state in your second paragraph.
This poem also spoke to me about the struggle with depression and anxiety. I got the impression that the woman was struggling with suicidal thoughts do to the lines of "My life is dreary, / he cometh not" (9-10) which I believed was the speaker wishing for death to be upon her, and is disappointed that it is not.
ReplyDeleteJenna, I agree with your comments on the relatability of the piece. Good poetry evokes feelings from the audience and I believe that Tennyson's pieces do that on both accounts. I struggle a lot with poetry and so the class notes were particularly helpful for me but I also think your analysis takes things a step further. I think that the conclusions you made about the speaker's anxiety and depression obviously fit in with the notes but also rounded out the piece. It made the speaker's intent more clear and after reading your analysis and the class notes over, I feel like I can understand the piece a bit better.
ReplyDeleteJenna,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading this piece, I also caught on to the redundant paragraphs ending in the same phrases. In a way, it left me feeling this heavy takeaway, like those repeated parts of the reading was what the author wanted the readers to not only take away, but actually feel. I personally struggle with a lot of anxiety, so I really related to this entire reading as a whole. I thought you had some good insight when comparing the different works of the author as well. I'm curious to see if most of the authors works fall into a similar pattern, or if it was just the ones from this week.
-Victoria Rupp
DeleteI agree I felt like these were very emotionally heavy pieces and I think you had some great insights
ReplyDeletethis was Jordan Stocker
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