“An Apple Gathering” Flashcards
Themes
- Fallen Women
- Temptation
-Consequences
-Female Sexuality
CONTEXT
-Fallen Women
Effect of 1st person narrative
-universal experience of women’s struggle/judgement in upholding Victorian stereotypes
-r’s own experience of society misjudging each other for their own discontent
-channels/depth depth of R’s emotions on betrayal of her lover
Effect of the continuous enjambment
-R pouring out her sincere emotions
ANALYSIS of “I plucked pink blossoms”
-personal pronoun “I” - isolation
-her presence is discarded, giving her inhuman status
-semantic field of nature/floral- imagery of the “blossoms”
ANALYSIS of APPLES
-she was betrayed by her lover
-represents knowledge, fertility and joyfulness only consumed by married women
-Associated with earthly desire
-Biblical reference to Garden of Eden- Temptation- joy/satisfaction is only temporary
“With dangling basket”
-symbolic to her position within society of being disregarded after losing viginity- purity/ innocence
ANALYSIS of “mocked me as I pased”
-gossip
-evokes empathy from reader
-vulnerabilty
ANALYSIS OF “Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by”
-names related to putiry
-further sematic field of nature/floral
-names similar- reflects Victorian steryotypes- not to stand out
-“trudging” -onomatopoeic verb- being oxymoronic as innocence is lost
-there’s are “heaped up” juxtopsed with “dangling basket”
ANALYSIS OF “Sweet voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky”
- tautophonic sibilance- reflects speaker’s jealousy
-“their mother’s home was near” — due to their journey on becoming mothers, this is why they are considered to be pure in society
ANALYSIS OF “Plump Gertrude”
ANALYSIS OF
“A stronger hand than hers helped it along”
-reflecting how women need man/marriage for stability
ANALYSIS OF “Ah, Willie, Willie, was my love less worth”
-Rhetorical question- R self-critical/blames herself
-Mention of her own personal past first lover
-‘Willie’- anaphoric, Scottish- meaning ‘determined protector’
/However,
-Name contradicts with man’s behaviours as they take away their identity, respect, place within soceity
-criticing the double-standards made for women within society
ANALYSIS OF “as the night grew chill”
-Pathetic fallacy
-Transition from day to night
-Reflects R’s hopelessness, empty void
ANALYSIS OF
“I counted rosiest apples”
-“Rosiest”- superlative
-Peak of her virginity/femininity,
“Apples” associated w earthly desire
