Comparison - Manhunt and A Wife In London Flashcards
What are the things similar about Manhunt and A Wife in London?
- theme of loss
- context of war
- women
- emotions
- rebuilding relationships
What are the things different about Manhunt and A Wife in London?
- focus or main idea
- structure
- state of the relationship
How is the theme of loss similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
The theme of Loss - In ‘The Manhunt’, the speaker is literally searching for her ‘lost’ husband (hence the title) and they have lost the trust that she then needs to try to regain (shown through repetition of ‘would he let me’. In ‘A Wife in London’, the woman receives news of her husband’s death, (‘he - is fallen - in the far south land’)
What are the quotes supporting the theme of loss in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
•‘flashed news in her hand’ = Flashed news is a telegram which is to tell important things – tell her the message that her husband died 3
•‘he-has fallen-in the far South Land’ = ‘has fallen’ is a euphemism for death and hyphens mimics her heartbreak
•‘whom the worm now knows’ = Is able to process death better
Manhunt:
- ‘The Manhunt’ = Wife trying to find her husband
- ‘only then would he let me trace’ = Needs his permission – traces him as she doesn’t know him anymore as she’s exploring him – a stranger?
- ‘let me explore’ = Not familiar anymore
- ‘did I come close’ = nearly there but hasn’t reached it - Emotional distance and detachment caused by war
How is the context of war similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
War - (Context) ‘A Wife in London’ was written about the Boer War in what is now South Africa, and ‘The Manhunt’, despite being written in a different century, still explores ideas about relationships affected by war, this time from the Beddoes couple, the husband of which was a peacekeeper in Bosnia
What are the quotes supporting the context of war in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
- ‘a wife in London’ = Her identity is just of a wife and every wife waiting for her husband while he’s in war
- ‘in the far South Land’ = Killed In war - Thomas Hardy died in South-Africa
- ‘Page full of his hoped return’ = Thomas Hardy was critical of Victorian Society = limited peoples happiness -He was very Anti-war = WWI and Boer Wars
Manhunt:
-‘frozen river which ran through his face’ = Makes the soldier sound inoperative – river can shatter but can’t move
-‘Intimate days’ = makes them sound intimate
- ‘buried deep in his mind’ = links to the idea of PTSD and – war had emotional, mental and physical impacts
•‘porcelain collar bone’ = Delicate and beautiful = Shows that relationships are fragile and care is needed to rebuild them
How is the theme of women similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
Women - Both poems show not only the impact that war has on a relationship (death, loss of intimacy, etc) but shows it from the perspective of a woman. ‘The Manhunt’ is written in Laura’s POV, and Hardy writes about ‘A Wife’ (from the title) - this in itself implies that she is defined by her position and is one of many
What are the quotes supporting the theme of women in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
•‘A Wife in London’ = represents every wife – she exists because of the soldier and herself has a passive role
•‘She sits in the tawny vapour’ = She sits = is a very passive image of her
•‘Like a waning taper’ = Her hope is flickering
•‘A postman nears and goes’ = Stiff = has no interaction with the postman
•‘new love’ = shows confidence held by the British forces as the start of the war and New love is ironic as through mourning his death the wife is learning to live him in a new way
•‘the fogs hang thicker’ = more grief and depression
Manhunt:
•‘after passionate nights and intimate days’ = They had sex without any emotional closeness
•‘the fractured rudder of shoulder blade’ = He’s a ship that she neds to share
•‘climb the rungs of his broken ribs’ = She is actively trying to climb the ladder into his mind
•‘Feel the hurt’ = Empathise with him well
•‘skirting along’ and ‘only then did I come close’ = She’s being cautious around him and starting over
•‘traced the scarring back to its source’ = Trying to find the problem
How is the idea of emotions similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
Emotions - Although they do it differently, both poems show the feelings of the women. Hardy uses pathetic fallacy (‘tawny vapour’ and ‘fog’) to show the confused state and lack of recent news. Armitage shows a loving and caring nature through the use of verbs that demonstrate tenderness - ‘trace’ ‘handle and hold’ ‘finger and thumb’ ‘mind and attend’ - showing caution
What are the quotes supporting the idea of emotions in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
•tawny vapour = yellow fog makes it eerie and sinister – pathetic fallacy
•The street-lamp glimmers cold = shows the wife will never feel warm again, now that her wife is dead
•‘meaning it dazes to understand’ = syntax shows the wife’s shock and confusion
•He–has fallen–in the far South Land . . . = Dashes mimic the telegram and slow down poem’s pace (caesura), Euphemistic language shows that the wife can’t and will not accept the news, ellipses suggest she can’t read the rest of the telegram - wife can’t read more = shows her raw emotional state
Manhunt:
•Let me trace = Carefully trying to find him
•‘handle and hold’ = Alliteration = she’s being gentle with him and trying to understand him
•‘unexploded mine’ = He is suffering inside and she realises – is this why she’s being careful
•Every nerve in his body tightened and closed = - He is closed off and she is trying to reach him
•‘buried deep in his mind’ = recognises he has PTSD
How is the idea of rebuilding relationships similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
•‘Fresh- firm – penned in highest feather’ = dashes used to contrast the news of the telegram and letter - Fresh and firm are words associated with life = shows his vitality when he wrote it but now it’s ironic as he is dead
•‘And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn’ = jaunts = short journey - emphasises soldier’s youth In the summer weather. This is a sad poem and summer is a time of happiness and bliss so it’s ironic and the solider may have been in the summer of his life and had a lot more to live
•‘And of new love that they would learn’ = new love, jaunts = shows confidence held by the British forces as the start of the war New love is ironic as through mourning his death the wife is learning to live him in a new way
Manhunt:
•‘blown hinge’ = He is destroyed and unable to voice himself properly
•‘parachute silk of is lung’ = E has a lack of control over his life and probably feels useless
•‘bind the struts’ = Trying to fix him together
•‘picture the scan’ = May refer to ultrasound – refers to new life – a new start to their relationship?
•‘did I come close’ = She’s nearly there but hasn’t reached it yet
How is the idea of rebuilding relationships similar in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
Rebuilding Relationships - Armitage writes about Laura’s experience with regaining the trust between her and her husband, and though he is dead, the husband of the anonymous wife in Hardy’s poem writes about ‘home-planned jaunts’ and ‘of the new love they would learn’ which portrays an intention to rebuild the relationship following his return from the Boer War
How is the focus or main idea different in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
Focus - Armitage writes mostly about the relationship itself and the injuries sustained by Eddie Beddoes, e.g: ‘the parachute silk of his punctured lung’, whereas Hardy writes more about the state of the wife and her poverty - he refers to a ‘waning taper’ (cheap candle) and ‘firelight flicker’
What are the quotes supporting the focus or main idea in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
A Wife:
•’waning taper’ or ‘firelight flicker’ = Cheap candle – not enough money for electricity – criticism on Victorian society?= poverty
Manhunt:
•‘of his grazed heart’ = The bullet grazed his heart
•‘the foetus of metal beneath his chest’ = Foetus is a metaphor for a bullet – ironic
•‘buried deep in his mind’ = PTSD
How is the structure different in Manhunt and A Wife in London?
‘The Manhunt’ is fragmented into 13 couplets which reflect Eddie’s broken physical and mental state, and also the patience and small steps it took his wife to regain his trust. ‘A Wife in London’ is regular and split into two sections to show a sense of time, and to demonstrate the cyclical nature of life and how life goes on
