The interration between Pip and other characters having both Positive and Negative influence on him certainly makes the novel taste more and more like a soap opera.
In most ways, Joe is a positive influence. he is kind, simple and just. However he does inadvertantly affect Pip in a negative way because Pip is so ashamed of him, since he is a blacksmith, that he takes pains to avoid being a simple man himself.
Magwitch had an overall negative affect on Pip. Besides scaring him to death as a boy, Magwitch's giving him his "great expectations" gave him a chance to turn into a greedy little brat that never did anything for himself! On the other hand, there is that saying that you never know what you have until its gone, in which case it was better that Pip found out what being rich is really like BEFORE he spent his life loathing where he came from.
Estella is a NEGATIVE influence on Pip because it is her comments about how coarse and common he is that lead him to act the way he does, and him wanting so badly to be a gentleman. He also falls in love with her to the point where he cannot see clearly the good intentions of those that he should love and listen too, such as Joe and Biddy!
Magwitch is a good influence in the end. He helps Pip to a better life. After his arrival at the temple pip begins to like him and becomes a little kinder because of it.With the money he gives a partnership to Herbert. Overall, at the end of the story, he is Pip's friend.
In the abridged ending is typically that of a soap opera because, Pip marries Estella. And learns to forgive and forget. Even though Estella has treated him horribly his whole life-used him and then thrown him away-he can still love her and be happy with her.
The last line is made up of one syllable words (besides every) which help emphasise the young age of the victim.
2004-02-24
Added by: Christina
I doubt the father is crying because he feels responsible (even though he might be), I think he is just crying because he has lost one of the most important persons of his life, and he deeply misses his presence.
the poem
2004-05-03
Added by: coll
this poem was quite sad.The last line makes you feel emotional as it tells you that henaeys little brother was only 4 years old and got killed by a speeding car.
WoW
2004-09-13
Added by: Elle
I'm currently studying Seamus Heaney as part of IGCSE for school, but Mid-Term Break is not one of the poems my class are studying. I'd heard about the poem from my friends, and read various Heaney articles which proclaimed this poem as his best, so made the decision to read it purely out of curiousity. WoW. A very moving poem, and quite different from the earthy poems of his we are studying (Digging, Blackberry Picking, Death of a Naturalist, An Advancement of Learning...). Just wondering, although this is probably a dumb question, is it based on truth?
2004-09-19
Added by: Lucy
Mid-Term Break was one of Heaney's poems I have studied for G.C.S.E and I enjoyed analising this poem not only because of its sadness and anger but because there was a deeper meaning to why the poem was wrote. A truly individual and interesting way of expressing emotion.
heanye
2004-10-15
Added by: sgs
i am rally moved by seamus heaneys poem, i having been reading his poems for the last few weeks. i have read following,digging,an advancement of learning ad churning day. by all these poems i am moved, the past still haunts him, he still has confilct whether to become a farmer or a poet. He writes about his past memories and decisions that he has had to make.
Incredible poem.
2004-10-27
Added by: Ann Margaret
Heaney portrays a sense of detatchment all throughout the poem -- perhaps a result of him being away in boarding school at the time -- until the last stanza where he is alone with his brother. Here, his brother finally becomes HIS brother and not just a "body" or "corpse".
The last line is the climax of the poem although nothing happens. We are made aware of exactly how old his brother is and it is the only time that Heaney uses a proper rhyming scheme througout the poem. This adds a double emphasis that really leaves it engraved in your mind.
2004-10-28
Added by: Lisa G.
This poem is powerful because it's real. It's real because it is plain. It's plain because it doesn't probe the poet's feelings. It doesn't probe the poet's feelings because he probably wasn't aware of them. What he was aware of was what was going on around him, so this is what he described in the poem. This allows the reader to really feel the impact of the tragedy from the poet's standpoint. The enormity of the shock on Heaney can be seen from the way his brain can't fully absorb it yet.
