My Rivals House - Liz Lochhead - notes and quotes Flashcards
Effect of Caesura in this poem?
-punctuation used to interrupt the flow of the poem.
-gives quality of a stunted, uneasy conversation - like the one the reader might expect the two women to have.
Figurative language techniques?
-Alliteration and repetition - create impression speaker is hostile/speaking through clenched teeth.
Title
-bold use of caesura.
-interrupts flow from outset.
-impression of involuntary pause - e.g. intake of breath or sigh - speakers frustration.
‘Ormolu and gilt, slipper satin, / lush velvet couches’
Stanza 1
‘Stiff’ ‘sink in’.
-particular attention paid to surfaces.
-suggests facade, and superficial nature of owner.
-‘ormulu’ - gold over bronze.
-‘gilt’ - gold over brass.
-Things appear superficially more valuable than they are.
-sense of proud ownership - evident in furnishing of the house - anticipates own possessivness.
‘cushions so stiff you can’t sink in’
‘Tables polished clear enough to see distortions’
stanza 1
-lack of warmth and comfort, foreshadows cold and rigid relationship between two women and their inability to bond. “so stiff you cant sink in.”
-distortions - suggest something unpleasant beneath surface.
-Mood established through setting, feeling of discomfort and coldness in furniture.
‘Silver sugar-tongs and silver salver’
stanza 3
-sibilance - sense of sinister spell established in ‘shuffle stocking-soled’
-silver - second place - how mother view daughter in law.
-serving of tea is superficial for appearences ‘she glosses over him and me’.
-rival uses serving tea to indicate her social standing - middle class - superior to speaker’s.
‘Soon, my rival
capped tooth, polished nail
will fight, fight foul for her survival’
stanza 3
-use and omission of punctuation interrupt flow - lack of comma or dash before and after middle line - forces reader to consider ‘tooth’ and ‘nail’.
-hints at animalistic drive for survival - survival of the fittest. - hyperbole and animal imagery could be viewed as humerous
-alliteration emph fight.
-caesura - accompanies elements of animosity that define relationship.
-/ first blood to her -
stanza 4
-parenthetical dashes - isolate word s - expresses speaker perception of relationship - impending - long drawn out strugglle.
-hints she can’t compete with blood bond of many years.
‘sour pot luck of family’
stanza 4
-believes odds are stacked against her in this competition.
-Theme of the maxim that you cannot choose family.
‘Lady of the house. /Queen Bee’
stanza 5
-Euphemism - note of sarcasm.
-Satirising mother desire to be upperclass - surfaces.
-Matriarchal power in anmal imagery ‘queen bee’.
-Almost mocking mother in Law.
-expects a degrees of deference from her visitors.
‘Listen, I was always my own worst enemy. /She has taken even this from me.’
stanza 5
-Direct address ‘Listen’
-self-pity and low self esteem, deeply insecure.
-Not empowered or powerful.
‘She dishes up her dreams for brakfast. /Dinner, and her salt tears pepper our soup.’
stanza 6
-shift of mood from breakfast to dinner - deterioration of relationship.
-dinner and breakfast - eternity of rivalry - constant.
-Emotinal blackmail of mother ‘salt tears’ ‘dishes up her dreams’ - alliteration to emph.
‘Salt tears’ - symbolise bitterness.
-‘Dreams’ - metaphorical meals she has served her son throughout his life - to ensure stable healthy family - salt tears - new threat.
She wont
give up
stanza 6
-Enjambment - spoken through gritted teeth.
-Short sentences - determined stubborness.
Theme of family/ownership
-familiar in my stand-up comedy routines.
-domineering comic villain mother in law - makes life for her child’s partner hell.
-shift from usual light hearted comedy cliche to something more bitter/menacing.
-toxic relationships between women over men.
‘I am all edges, a surface, a shell’
-reveal speaker as defensive and brittle at rivals mercy.
-reveals she is also one of the surfaces that take the place of people in this family ‘peopled with many surfaces’.
