The Tenant Flashcards
Main Message
- How difficult it is to let go of love.
-How past relationships affect the ones to follow
-We need to acknowledge our feelings and role in any relationship.
Imagery or Figures of Speech
The extended metaphor of a heart is compared to a home.
The extended metaphor of previous relationships being compared to baggage or marks left behind.
Structure
- Irregular (varied stanza length) - how disrupted life is after a breakup.
- Caesura - stops mid-line which shows how he is shocked.
- Free verse- there is a stop-start rhythm and it is staccato.
- Enjambement- the flow of impact of past relationships into the present.
Emotions are overflowing as he struggles to form coherent sentences because he is so hurt. - Full stops - the finality of the relationship and no chance of reconciliation.
Tone
Melancholy, sad, sacred and hesitant.
Title
A tenant is someone who rents a space for a short period, they are not permanent.
The definite article suggests that there is only ONE lover, she rents a space in his heart.
The title introduces the extended metaphor of a heart is compared to a home, and the tenant being compared to the ex-lover.
There is no room for you
‘you’ is a direct address to the reader, this introduces justification and an explanation. He is speaking to a possible future partner, he explains how there is no space in his heart for her; he is not ready for a new relationship.
This is a simple sentence which means it is assertive declaration that he is not ready to start a new relationship.
in my heart. The only tenant
Caesure which is a stop mid-line. This shows how his life was so suddenly disrupted due to the breakup he was left completely confused and shocked.
She left without a word.
who ever lived there left
The alliteration of the soft ‘l’ sound emphasises the pain he felt after she left.
some luggage behind.
The full stops emphasize the finality of their relationship, she is gone and she is not coming back.
Luggage is being compared to the memories she left behind.
luggage gives connotations of travel that are not permanent. This means that there was always a possibility of her leaving.
Stanza
He is left alone feeling completely rejected and heartbroken. He is in so much pain and he is not ready to start any relationship as he is unable to move on.
I didn’t evict her. She
She is a non-personal pronoun which suggests how he is in so muhc pain that he is unalr to even emntion her name.
This can also be so that the audience is able to relate as this is a universal experience.
Caesura: literally breaks them apart. She left him so suddenly. They are no longer together however he did not want this breakup.
simply wihout a word
She left him with no prior disscussion, he has no closure ans, therefore, he is in so much pain and is unable to move on and get over their relationship.
Stanza:
The breakup was so quick and sudden like the short stanza.
The use of active voice emphasises his helplessness.
I keep hoping she will come
back and collect the luggage
come//back
- she will return to him and they will reconcile.
- she will return and give him the closure he needs.
or at least arrange for disposable
clean out the place, throw out
old memories.
He is listing the things he eeds to be done in order to move on.
His heart, like the house, is cluttered with all the memories and feelings that she left him with , therefore there is no space for anyone else to move in.
