Guisseppe

Question 1

Irregularity in form/structure

Answer 1

• free verse with irregular stanzas and rhyme scheme
• shows a sense of worry and disturbance, showing how the traumatic murder has confused and fractured the community and the individual
• creates a sense of realism and authenticity to the story

Question 2

Use of caesura/ enjambement throughout

Answer 2

• enjmabment creates an authenticated pace true to the storytelling nature of the poem
• However the emphatically placed end stops and commas particularly towards the end are used to put emphasis on a sense of detachment and restraint and guilt from the event
• in particular, the emphatically placed end stops at the end of each stanzas serve as a struggle to keep the story final and composed
• it is also used to aliviate the blame and justify the actions but ironically puts emphatically pressure on the guilt of the speaker

Question 3

Title/perspective

Answer 3

• the title is named ironically after the uncle and not the mermaid, this shows how men in a phallocentric society are able to unreliably dominate female stories
• the story is entirely told from the biased and evidently guilty perspective of the uncle

Question 4

The only captive mermaid

Answer 4

• oxymoronic term as mermaids are symbolic of unattainable and untouchable freedom
• the suffix of the lexis ‘mermaid’ implies subordination and that the girl is servile- showing how women are subordinated by men

Question 5

A doctor, a fishmonger and certain others

Answer 5

• very vague and plural phrasing which expresses how this murder was the desire of the entire of the community not one twisted individual
• plays into the concept that the violence and subordination of women is a very internationally human desire

Question 6

She, it

Answer 6

• emphatically placed caesura creates an emphasis on the guilt experienced by the uncle as he knows he is wrong
• transition from female to indefinite pronoun is a disconnect from the disturbing event in order to justify

Question 7

Throat was cut

Answer 7

• symbolic murder as it represents the silencing of female voices rather than just a casual death
• metaphorically represents the beating down, diminution and subordination of females

Question 8

Episotphe of fish

Answer 8

-happens thrice
- implies a constnat reminder to himself that she was indeed not a human, placed emphatically at the end of a clause however to leave the reader time to comprehend the matter

Question 9

Repetition of ‘said’

Answer 9

• men dictate the female identity and story
• dilutes the reality of the story in order to aleviate the guilt from Giuseppe
• also shows how reality and authentications of female trauma is diluted down

Question 10

Starvation forgives men many things

Answer 10

• again a dilution of the reality of the murder by trying to contextualise the behaviour
• aliteratative ‘m’ sound blurs together the words which takes away from the raw horrors and echos that he si retiterating the story
• the generalisaing nature of the lexis ‘men’ implies again that no one person came up with this but it was of group desire, but it also generalises the trauma and makes it seem like its not an isolated evil

Question 11

My uncle, the aquarium keeper

Answer 11

• humanising the killer; this shows both a denial that men are capable of this evil but also an aspect of generalisation in the sense that everyone is capable of the atrocity and its intrinsic with all men
• aquarium keeper connotes to protection especially of animals, thus it shows her denial of his part in the murder, fish or women
• caesura emphatically placed to remind the audience of his position as a human rather than a murderer
• familial position as an uncle connotes to warmth and love

Question 12

But couldn’t look me in the eye
For which I thank god

Answer 12

• emphatically placement at the very end of the poem which underscores the overwhelming sense of guilt
• draws an image of guilt and shame and implies that the reality of the story is likely being hidden showing men’s smearing of female stories
• perhaps the speaker, representative of the every person, is in denial to as a belief and relief in benevolence over reality shows a blissful ignorance to calling out the truth
• indeed, the cyclicality of the lexis ‘uncle’ implies she still loves him and thus nothing has changed