Hughes - Her Husband

Question 1

About

Answer 1

Man and woman’s disconnection

Question 2

S1

Answer 2

5 quatrains

-Constrained – suggests the oppressive nature of the poem

Question 3

S2

Answer 3

Enjambment

-Potent imagery of the grinding cogs of a machine

-People too concerned with the materialistic aspects of life and not on the spiritual

Question 4

Critic

Answer 4

Stevenson “some Chauvinistic working-class ape”

-Female lens the man is seen to be ungrateful and nihilistic

Question 5

P1

Answer 5

-Emphatic opening “comes home dull” sets pessimistic tone of poem

-“dull” pun – he is miserable but at the same time he is physically dull with the coal-dust

-Post – war industry – coal dust and pollution

Question 6

P2

Answer 6

-“let her” Accusatory

-Feminine pronoun “her” relegates the wife to the role of ‘other; which further emulates the divide in the relationship

Question 7

P3

Answer 7

-“The stubborn character of money” – personified to dramatize the hardships he faces in his role as the male which she does not understand

-Repetition of “money” conveys how it is one of the main causes of the divide

-Materialism – not appreciating life
White Goddess

Question 8

P4

Answer 8

-Harsh monosyllabic “slam” accentuates anger at her not imploring his ever need

-

Question 9

P5

Answer 9

-“back bunched in a hump” fairytale paradigm

-Grotesque imagery of a hag in contrast to the beautiful damsel you would expect

Question 10

P6

Answer 10

The definitive statement “they will have their rights”

-Collective “this ey” first used in the poem but ironically it is still to emulate the divide as they go against each other in a court of law

-Trade unions? How everyone thinks that they have ownership over something and do not realize that we belong to nature