A wife in London Flashcards
Context
Boer war
Untrained soldier
Hardy was against the war
war not specifically named suggesting universality of story
Structure
Two sections
headings clarify moral message
Four quintains
Language and Imagery
third person narrator
unnamed - saying it could be anyone widowed by war
dominant images - the letter and telegram
Tone
Melancholic, exaggerating the tragedy
She sits …
She sits in the tawny vapour
Symbolic and ominous , example of pathetic fallacy which mirrors the mood.
Represents the London Smog
Webby…
Webby fold on fold
Gives a sense of entrapment - as she is trapped in her own grief.
Like a…
Like a waning taper
Ray of light becoming weaker, potentially alluding to hope thinning out.
The street-lamp…
The street-lamp glimmers cold
oxymoron of glimmer is light while cold is the opposite.
street lamps of time would be dim
sinister tone established by the end of first stanza.
He–has…
He–has fallen–in the far South Land . . .
unnamed - universal
tragedy would have befallen many during Boer war
Punctuation mirrors her intakes through sobs from the sadness of the event.
Fallen is a military euphemism - ironic as it is a violent profession
The fog…
The fog hangs thicker
Fog in staza 1 replicated yet now it could allude to the fog of grief suffered by the wife.
Thicker suggests the claustrophobia worsens after hearing of the letter.
Pathetic fallacy.
Firelight…
Firelight Flicker
Fricative alliteration
sounds gentle and welcoming, ironic in the situation.
Home planned…
Home planned Jaunts
idyllic scene
disregards London fog
assonant rhyme expresses this.
And of…
And of new love
could allude to a pregnancy
Hardy tended to leave hints to imagination of reader.
Exaggerates sadness
