Demonstrate the persistence of Wordsworthian ideal of country folk, childhood and natural education in the two texts that you have chosen.

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Demonstrate the persistence of Wordsworthian ideal of country folk, childhood and natural education in the two texts that you have chosen.

Critical Essay by Rachel Gowland.

Wordsworth, as a poet of the romantic era, had several themes, which contribute to this title. This essay will be looking at these themes and discovering whether they have any relevance in the texts studied. These are, the Secret Garden and Goodnight Mr Tom.

The preference for rural life and its people was at the height of fashion at the time of Wordsworth. Social reformers such as Rousseau talked about the "noble savage" and the rustic idyll was an accepted theme for artistes and poets alike. While the social revolutions may have changed by the time the texts were written, the ideals are still continued to some degree.

Wordsworth had many sympathies with the victims and vagrants that wandered in the cities and the countryside. Many of his short poems were portraits of simple rural people, intended to illustrate the nature of these folk and their basic wisdom. Poems such as Michael (1880) have the characters almost fused with their natural surroundings. In Michael, patience and tenderness are the key features of the old man's character. There is strength and a "natural affinity to the hills and fields in which he lived and worked." 1

The Secret garden is almost a glorification of rustic folk and their simple way of life.

Mary Lennox first encounters Martha, who gives her glimpses of a simple life quite alien to her.

"There's twelve of us an' my father only gets sixteen shilling a week. I can tell you my mothers put to it to get porridge for 'em all. They tumble about on th' moor an' play there all day an' mother says th' air of th' moor fattens 'em." (Page 32) 2

Through Martha, she begins to emerge from her egotistical former self. She starts to think about others rather than herself.

"Thank you. She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her" (Page 71) 2

Martha appears a particularly content and dignified individual, who takes pride in her work and her family. She treats Mary as an equal in many ways and is amazed by Mary's colonial pride. Martha's plain good sense is treated with respect throughout the book and her dialogues with Mary often bring about great changes in her young charge's attitudes.

"It was not the custom that Mistress Mary should do anything but stand and allow herself to be dressed like a doll, but before she was ready for breakfast, she began to suspect that her life at Missthlewaite Manor would end by teaching her a number of things quite new to her." (Page 32) 2

Martha's is described as an "untrained Yorkshire rustic" who was not trained to be subservient and had no notion that she should be. In this way she becomes an emboldened character, who helps Mary to grow through her plain sense.

Martha was obviously trained well by her mother who also is a rustic woman. She is almost the guiding hand in the background, helping Mary, and later Colin, to transform. Her wisdom shines through Martha and Dickon and all the principles held in family life.
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Hers is the good mother, the mother earth in Wordsworth's poems. The respect for her and her kind shines through in the text as it does in the poems, through the voice of the narrator. She is again a considered equal in the narrator's eyes to all who she comes into contact with. This makes it possible for her to contact Colin's father and speak to him about his charges.

" I sent for you today because Mrs Sowerby said I ought to see you. " (Page 112) 2

The idea of simple sense and ...

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