The Manhunt Flashcards
What are the main themes of ‘The Manhunt’?
War,
Broken relationships,
Romantic relationships.
How is the structure of ‘The Manhunt’s middle couplets effective?
The first line of each couplet contains sensual, loving verbs that reflect the wife’s feelings (e.g. ‘mind and attend’).
The second line of each couplet focusses on the husband’s injuries, and contains more violent, war imagery (e.g. ‘blown hinge’).
This structure reflects the separation between the couple.
What language technique does the writer use to describe the husband’s injuries?
Metaphors.
E.g. ‘The foetus of metal beneath his chest’.
Why does the writer use metaphors to describe the man’s injuries?
The writer uses metaphors to make the man’s injuries relatable to the reader, and also to link them to war to show how the man got his injuries.
The metaphors also imply that the speaker (the wife) is trying to make sense of what has happened to her husband.
How does the title, ‘The Manhunt’, reflect the poem’s content?
The speaker of the poem, the wife, is metaphorically hunting for the man her husband once was, and is trying to get close to him again.
Why does the writer use rhyming in the first couplet of ‘The Manhunt’?
To reflect the fact that in the ‘first phase’, everything seemed to be fine, as they had ‘passionate nights and intimate days’.
Why does the writer use rhyming in the middle of the poem:
The foetus of metal beneath his chest
Where the bullet had finally come to rest.
This demonstrates a tone change. After this, the structure of the couplets change, and the tone becomes more serious.
What is effective about the final words in ‘The Manhunt’s last couplet?
Every nerve had tightened and closed.
Then, and only then, did I come close.
The words ‘close’ and ‘closed’ are a half rhyme. This links to the fact that the speaker only came ‘close’ to emotionally reaching her husband, but didn’t quite get there.
What is ‘the foetus of metal’? Why is this metaphor effective?
A bullet.
This shows that, just as a foetus grows and changes a woman’s body, the man’s experiences of war are changing him.
This is effective because the reader would expect a foetus to be a positive thing, not something destructive.
What is the ‘unexploded mine’? Why is this metaphor effective?
The mine represents the man’s negative thoughts and memories of the war.
As it is ‘unexploded’, this implies he could lose control at any time. The poem is from the wife’s perspective, therefore she may be scared of this metaphorical explosion.
Why does the writer compare the man’s injuries to things such as ‘porcelain’, ‘silk’ and a ‘foetus’?
This emphasises the fact that the poem is from the wife’s perspective. It suggests that the wife is comparing his injuries to things she can relate to, such as household items or a baby.
