Have You Forgotten? Flashcards
Structure & Form
14 line = sonnet - talks of unrequited love
ABBA enclosed rhyme scheme which shifts to CDECDE after the volta - sestet
change/volta represents his change in attitude/breakdown of the relationship
Use of rhetoricals
‘Have you indeed forgotten all?/Ah how then is it I cannot forget?’
- cont. use of rhetoricals subverts prototypical fem. as she is inquisitive.
Last line = bitter, superior tone = her reputation is tarnished whilst he is free to withdraw a marriage offer, crit. of soc. norms - Lapsarian culture = womens rep is fragile
church bells - marriage question
‘distant call of church bells’ ‘sounded a second time’
church bells symbolic of marriage question
2nd chime - reminder that she is ‘incomplete’, ref. to his 2nd marriage?
relentless nature of societal expectations
AO3/5 - Jan Marsh
Key quotes
- repetition of ‘Have you forgotten…?’
- ‘distant call of church bells’
- ‘sounded a second time’
- ‘how…I cannot forget?’