Landmark Flashcards
Describe Hunzvi’s views on women.
His wife fled from him, stating that he was a cruel man who took pleasure in beating her.
What is this poem concerned with?
The type of people who find attraction and beauty in the realm of artificial things. In the first quatrain we have mention of ‘aftershave’ and ‘fireworks’; both man-made sources of attraction.
What is the significance of ‘aftershave’?
The fact that the aftershave is a metaphor for the ‘power’ which women find so attractive in him shows that the superficial relationships that are described in this poem work both ways.
It is also overpowering and smothers the women.
How else do we see that nothing is natural in this man’s world?
- ‘CD selected’ = manufactured and chosen rather than natural.
- The women are not beautiful, but rather ‘film pretty’ which further links the poem to the idea of playing roles (society’s expectation of pretty) as well as reminding us of the spreading influence of American culture.
How does this poem link to Show?
Just as with the ‘hocus pocus’ in ‘Show’, the woman’s beauty is derived from her ‘jewellery’ and her ‘blue-painted eyes’.
How is Hunzvi different to the speaker in Show?
- He is clearly content with this strain of beauty and satisfied to live in a fake world of ‘asked-for laughter’ having emotionally ingenuine interactions with all around him.
- In ‘Show’ however, the speaker is clearly not satisfied with the woman who looks like a model, for they have a falling out in the next poem.
How does this poem link to Inheritance?
Another subtle link in this poem is the way that the woman’s ‘slow blink’ mirrors Sheers’ as described in ‘Inheritance’. The woman’s ‘slow blink’ appears to be a deliberate gesture, whereas Sheers’ ‘tired blink’ is an involuntary mannerism.
Describe the moral of this poem in relation to Inheritance.
The comparison we may therefore make is that there is sometimes a convergence between the real and the contrived, and it can be difficult to distinguish between the natural and the man-made.
How could Sheers be criticising capitalism?
Businesswomen = corrupting human values, whereas nature brings them out.
