Comparison - Manhunt and Dulce Flashcards
What are the things similar about Manhunt and Dulce?
- Same theme of War
- Same theme of Man
- Same theme of Power and Authority
- Both make use of structure and pace
- Both conjure sympathy for the soldiers
What are the things different about Manhunt and Dulce?
- Time periods
- Different kind of sympathy evoked
- Scale of impact and audience is different
How is the theme of War similar in Manhunt and Dulce?
Both poems show the psychological effects of war on the men
Both poems show the physical effects of war on the men
Both show the tragic consequences of war
Both use a first-person speaker
What are the quotes supporting the theme of War in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
• ‘blown hinge’ = Total destruction
• The parachute silk = Military reference
• The foetus of metal behind his chest = Metaphor for a bullet and ties life to death = juxtaposition (similar to Sheers writing ‘the broken bird’s egg of a skull’)
• Unexploded mine = Shows him as a time bomb so he is suffering internally
Dulce:
• ‘haunting glares’ = The adjective ‘haunting’ emphasis the nightmares of war the men would experience afterwards and ‘flares’ has connotations to SOS flares suggesting that you need help – ironically when they are in trouble due to the bombs, no one will come
• ‘men marched asleep’ M sound produces the sound of tired men = extreme fatigue of them men = they were barely awake or aware of what they were doing
•’The blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs’ = recreates the sounds of the man dying and the froth coming from his lips and the c of the corrupted sounds like the start of a cough
• ‘bitter as the cud’ = harsh-sounding sibilance
How is the theme of Man similar in Manhunt and Dulce?
- Both poets show how war can destroy human psychologically
- Both present man as vulnerable and not a hero
- Both poets show how men can be destroyed by war
- Both poets seem angry about the effects of war
What are the quotes supporting the theme of Man in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
- ’ parachute silk of his punctured lung’ = Metaphor ‘parachute silk’ creates an image of life-saving but also suggests that the soldier could need saving – imagery of deflated lung = damage is significant
- ‘buried deep in his mind’ = links to the idea of PTSD and – war had emotional, mental and physical impacts
- Every nerve in his body tightened and closed = He is closed off and she is trying to reach him = it shows that his identity is much colder post war – result of PTSD?
Dulce:
- ‘drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the roots’ = decline in mental state and giving in as if already ready for death
- ‘If in some smothering Sheer dreams, you too could pace’ = repetition of face shows his anger and it builds up in pitch and the sibilance becomes angrier by using one syllable words
- ‘His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin’ = You shows the anger toward the reader and the sibilance slows down the time and we live the nightmare the poet has
- ‘In all my dreams before my helpless sight’ = wants to put the reader in the position he is in and feel the anger from the harsh sounds of guttering, choking and drowning death appears in ALL his dreams as if it’s Owen’s fault
How is the theme of Man theme of Power and Authority similar in Manhunt and Dulce?
- They are left destroyed – their lives ruined by a governmental decision to send them to war
- Men in both poems seem powerless
- War has destroyed them and taken their power
- Both poems explore the injustice of war
What are the quotes supporting the theme of power and authority in Manhunt and Dulce?
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 – 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
Dulce:
• ‘My friend, you would not tell with such highest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie’ = used to show irony when he calls us “our friend” we think is it our fault for celebration as all these young men die “high zest” is the opposite to the description of the children and children shows that these people are no more than boys and “some” shows that the desperate glory is illusionary and these boys are desperate to grow up and we tell them a big lie. The next line shows that the lie is in the capital as it is going on for ages and “old” shows that the old don’t have to die but the old are sending the young to die. The Latin word shows that they died for nothing just as the Romans did not gain anything from all these empires
• ‘incurable sores on innocent tongues’ = alliteration of ‘I’ sound creates a sad and regretful tone – metaphor shows the physical injuries and scars that soldiers have suffered
How is the structure and pace similar in Manhunt and Dulce?
Both poems make use of changing pace and structure throughout the poem. Both poems make use of changing pace and structure throughout the poem.
What are the quotes supporting the structure and pace in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
• In Manhunt, the poem rhymes initially but then breaks down and falters, mirroring the degradation of their relationship
• Poem made of couplets, mostly unrhymed – sense of fragmentation crated as the wife tries to understand her husband – shows the phases of a wife’s search – poem ends when the search is brought to a close
Dulce
• In Dulce, the pace is slow at first while the men are marching, and quickens when the attack happens. – first 2 stanza in sonnet and last few are looser in structure
• 4 unequal stanza – reflect spontaneous attacks
• Stanza 1 sets a gruesome scene on the snapshot of war and Stanza 2 shows the scene developing and focuses on one soldier who couldn’t get his gas on
How do both poems conjure sympathy for the soldiers in Manhunt and Dulce?
Both conjure sympathy for the soldiers. Dulce emphasises helplessness in describing the gas attack, and Manhunt uses the phrase “fractured rudder” to show the soldier as directionless and unable to move.
What are the quotes supporting the idea that both poems conjure sympathy for the soldiers in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
• ‘fractured rudder of shoulder-blade’= Fractured shows damage and incompletion and commonly used nouns related to the body make it seem more real = helplessness
• ‘blown hinge’ = Shows he is unable to function properly
Dulce:
• ‘obscene as cancer’ = Simile shows a brutal comparison of war as cancer is a killer and ‘obscene’ emphasis that blood is as offensive to sight as is death, drowning in poison gas
How is the time periods different in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
• The Manhunt is set in the modern day
• Time period influences the poems in several ways, one being that the historical context allows The Manhunt to focus much more on the psychological scarring that results from being in a war, due to the increased awareness about mental health.
Dulce:
• Dulce et Decorum Est is set in WW1
• Conversely, when Wilfred Owen was writing Dulce et Decorum Est, he had to describe the physical, tangible conditions in graphic detail in order to conjure feelings of sympathy from the reader.
How are the types of sympathy different in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
•The Manhunt tells a tragic tale of someone whose relationship has been damaged due to his experience, it makes the reader feel sympathetic to the soldier and respect his sacrifice.
Dulce:
• Dulce et Decorum Est has a much more explicitly anti-war message; it addresses the reader directly, telling them they have been lied to
• Dulce is much more inflammatory. It describes the soldiers not as delicate but as retched, using gruesome imagery: “knock-kneed, coughing like hags … obscene as cancer” ,
• Displays the message if the soldiers have been lied to and taken advantage of by their governments who repeated “the old lie”
How is the scale of the impact different in Manhunt and Dulce?
Manhunt:
• The Manhunt focuses on a localised struggle involving one soldier and his wife
• Manhunt uses personal pronouns “I”, “his” “my
Dulce:
• Dulce tries to tackle wider issues and attitudes towards war.
• Dulce uses collective pronouns “we” and “all”
• There are other ways in which it widens the focus of the poem, for instance the phrase “someone still was yelling out and stumbling”. Using the deliberately vague term “someone” emphasises the fact that the same thing was experienced by thousands of people; and the word “still” emphasises that, at the time, it was ongoing (the poem was written during World War 1). It could also be to raise awareness about the fact that unless awareness is raised and action is taken, it will continue to be an issue.
