Thomas Hardy's philosophy

What is Hardy's philosophy and how does he choose to present it? Hardy has various philosophical views. He uses different themes to show his philosophical views and he presents them through his love for Emma, time and place, nature, war, religion and the industrial revolution. Hardy's philosophical poems include the Oxen, Shut Out That Moon, Afterwards, During Wind and Rain, the Darkling Thrush and He Resolves to Say No More. Hardy chooses to present his views on philosophy through several means such as language and structure. The Oxen shows the way in which Hardy moves from past to present and by doing this it shows Hardy's change in philosophy from the past to present through his childhood. Hardy blames his loneliness as a result of Emma's death. His love for Emma was Hardy's last memory and he has been clinging on to this ever since she has died. The poem shows Hardy's loneliness throughout his childhood into his later years. It shows Hardy's philosophy on life as being a separate individual who keeps themselves to themselves. The rhyme scheme of ABAB shows the continuity of his loneliness and this could have affected his mental mind sight later in life, as the loneliness could have driven him to becoming slightly paranoid. The indents show hesitation which is shown throughout Hardy's childhood. The result of the movement through the poem, showing Hardy's journey, is due

  • Word count: 1417
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What characterises the early poetry of World War 1?

What characterises the early poetry of World War 1? In this essay, I am going to explore the similarities and differences between different WW1 poetry. I will be looking into the points that the poems show and comparing them with each other. Different poems are written for different reasons and they are written to show different things. In terms of the realities of war, 'In Flanders Fields' is the only poem that truly shows this. This is because John McCrae wanted to show the realities of war because his friend had died during the war, this meant that McCrae was determined to show the realities of war and not let people think that it was 'easy' or 'fun' as people said it was. "We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow" (In Flanders Fields) This shows that war isn't all that good. It explains quite bluntly that they are dead, this is to show the harsh realities of war. It represents that they no longer have lives because they are soldiers and so do nothing else but fight. It explains this by using past tense, which shows that it no longer exists. The poem 'In Flanders Fields' also shows mans inhumanity to man. This is also because McCrae is trying to show what war was really like and show the insensitive realities of war. "Take up our quarrel with the foe" (In Flanders Fields) This shows that people in war did show inhumanity to the

  • Word count: 1162
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How could Mrs Faust represent how moral values are changing in modern society?

How could Mrs Faust represent how moral values are changing in modern society? Mrs Faust is a poem that is based on the German legend that talks of a man who sold his soul to the devil for worldly pleasures. From Mrs Faust's perspective, she had the ideal lifestyle that everyone wants but she wasn't satisfied and began to crave something more than just physical wealth. "I grew to love the lifestyle, not the life." This could suggest that she may have expected that having such a rich, and luxury lifestyle comes with being happy but after she's got all the wealth, she realises that actually there's more to life that just money and material things. She begins to separate her lifestyle from her life and sees where she was previously ignorant about what she really wants. At the beginning of the poem, she talks about being in love with Faust and marrying him when they were students. Duffy uses "we" frequently to show the partnership that Mrs Faust had with her husband and the likeness between them, as well as the happiness that they felt. However, as the poem progresses, the reader learns that the couple wanted wealth and the use of "we" by Duffy turns into the use of "I" and "he" showing that as they got richer and their lifestyle became more and more wealthier, Mrs Faust felt her marriage begin to decay and feels the gap between them widen. This shows that in the beginning she

  • Word count: 955
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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the problem with the worlds wife is that having found one joke duffy retells it throughout the anthology

"The problem with The Worlds Wife is that, having found one good joke, duffy just tells it over and over again" How far do you agree with this assessment? Refer to at least two or three poems in your answer. Within The Worlds Wife Duffy explores the idea that men are inadequate. Although the book of poems does unveil feminist issues and coveys an inequality between men and women, it does also contain other issues such as social acceptance, self-confidence and love. Duffy places an interesting slant on a number of these poems that serves to establish the idea that feminism can be ironic. Poems such as Anne Hathaway directly oppose the idea that Duffy is re-telling a 'joke' throughout the anthology. The poem creates a persona of Shakespeare widow and the best bed becomes the focus of the fourteen-line sonnet. In the opening two lines, Duffy uses a metaphor to express the magic of the bed in which Shakespeare made love to Hathaway "it is a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff tops seas". By using these metaphors, she embraces his talent and, when describing the notion that Shakespeare would 'dive for pearls' suggests he is somewhat a sexual athlete and far from inadequate. From line five to ten Duffy uses imagery in a fascinating way that relates directly to the fact Shakespeare was a writer. Anne sees her body as a "softer rhyme to his.... now assonance"

  • Word count: 708
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Presentation of Hopelessness of War in Futility and other Owen poems.

"Consider the ways in which the sadness and hopelessness of war is presented here. How does Owen convey this in different ways in other poems in the selection?" Futility is a two stanza poem possessing many of the characteristics of an elegy - it is both mournful and plaintive, expressing feeling of regret, as well as a deep consideration for the past. The poem describes the first morning after the death of a soldier. The poet laments the man, whom he clearly knew personally - giving details of his life in the first stanza: "At home, whispering of fields unsown". The second stanza is filled with grief; it shows the poet's potent anger over the death of his friend, as well as the regression into naïveté it causes within him. He becomes child like and in denial, failing to see why the soldier - "Full-nerved, - still warm" cannot be awoken by the sun. Finally, Owen seems to collapse into a state of disbelief, questioning the necessity of life itself. "- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth's sleep at all?" Owen's aim in this poem is to convey the futility of the young soldier's death - the fact that he has seemingly died for nothing. The semantic field of cultivation and farming hints at the idea that before going to war, the man was a farmer or farm hand: "fields unsown", "wakes the seeds" and "clays". This impression of a previous vocation provides a strong

  • Word count: 1272
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Duffy- Feminist Propaganda?

It has been said that 'The World's Wife' is simply feminist propaganda. Discuss weather you agree with this view or not. You should refer to 2-3 poems or range through the collection. Propaganda is a message purposefully written to influence opinions, causing the viewer to agree with the message writer's point of view. These are often written in a misleading manner with equivocations. However in 'The World's Wife' many of the poems see women in a negative point of view and many of the women described in the poems are described as happy at the thought of children and child-birth. There is a lack of continuity in the themes of the poems, some are about lesbianism, some are about not conforming to society, but others are about accepting family life and other themes of conformity. There are a few decisively feminist poems, for example 'Queen Herod'. This poem is a different view of the bible story in which Herod sentences to death every male infant in his kingdom to kill the son of God. However instead of 3 kings to celebrate the birth of Jesus, 3 queens visit Herod to see their new baby daughter. They warn Queen Herod of a boy who will take her daughter away from her, thus Queen Herod orders the death of every male infant of the kingdom to, in her view, save her daughter from heartbreak. This poem has powerful overtones of homosexuality- predominantly lesbianism, although

  • Word count: 1033
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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ComparativeCommentry of Two Passages

COMPARATIVE COMMENTRY OF TWO PASSAGES Winter is the season which is very cold and calm, is the season when we usually have snowfalls all around the city and this is what both of the passages are all about. The first passage is adapted from an article written by Duan Jones in 'The Observer' on 21st January, 1996 and what Mr.Jones is trying to tell us is about the exaggeration made by the TV journalist and people's thoughts about the snowfall in the city of New York. Where as the second passage is written by Pual Theroux in year 1979 in the magazine called 'London snow' which is all about people loving, enjoying and praising the environment of snowfall in London. Though it is similar for the two passages that both of them are something about the snowfalls, there are still so many comparisons between them. Like in the first passage the writer is talking about the snowfall in the city of New York whereas the second passage is all about the snowfall in London. What Mr. Jones has written in his passage is about the repeating exaggeration made by the TV journalist, which makes the passage very boring, just as it is written there in the passage that ''Almost every New York news show was either doubled in length...flakes upon flakes...corner of the city...wasn't covered by snow-speckled...weather.'' from (line 6-8) meaning that though there was a heavy snowfall that people started

  • Word count: 1757
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Examine the use of the dramatic monologue in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy

"Examine the use of the dramatic monologue in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy" Unlike the soliloquy, the dramatic monologue speaks directly to the reader and voices a single character or persona's thoughts, this offers a better understanding of the ideas and message the poet is trying to express. The dramatic monologue is used to form a bond or relationship between the speaker and the reader, taking the poem to a personal level, and in turn more effective in conveying a certain message. This essay will explore the way the dramatic monologue is used in both Demeter and Mrs. Midas by Carol Ann Duffy, taken from her collection of poems The World's Wife. The phrase, 'Behind every great man there is said to be a great woman' comes to mind when reading The World's Wife. The title of this collection reveals much about it's content and Duffy's intentions. The World's Wife places emphasis on the wife, giving the woman the centre stage and allowing her the chance to speak through the medium of the dramatic monologue. From Mrs. Midas to Mrs. Beast, Duffy explores the thoughts and feelings of the women behind famous men, be it through history or through myth or fairytale, Duffy makes it very clear that every woman has a tale to tell. Mrs. Midas tells the untold story of the well-known Greek myth King Midas, who is miraculously, granted the wish of turning everything he

  • Word count: 2214
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Carol Ann Duffy Litany and Stafford Afternoon

Explore Duffy's presentation of memories in "Litany" and "Stafford Afternoon". In the poem Litany the memories are presented in the form of a young girl (which could possibly be Carol Ann Duffy, as there is no evidence that it is not) remembering catalogue evening/afternoons her mother used to hold, where the women would look through catalogues, drink tea/coffee, eat tea cakes and gossip. However the women wouldn't say any embarrassing words aloud (e.g. sex, cancer and affair) instead they would spell them out. The speaker tells us that no-one could have leukaemia, as the women couldn't spell the word. In this poem the young girl remembers and describes the women as artificial, stiff-haired, red smiles, polyester and American Tan stockings (all artificial materials, also hinting that their marriages are artificial) the way the women are described is always in a negative light. Everything in the poem has its place and everything seems to be perfect, except for the ladder running up Mrs Barr's stocking which is described as "a sly rumour" which shows that something is out of place and would be quite shameful for her. The title of the poem "Litany" which means chant or prayer that is recited which drones on, which is used to describe the women looking through the catalogue lists the objects they like or wish to purchase. This suggests to us that these meetings have been

  • Word count: 1395
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What are the concerns in Sonnets 116, 130 and On Monsieur(TM)s Departure and how are they conveyed?

It anyWhat are Shakespeare's concerns in his three sonnets and how are those concerns conveyed? Sonnet 73, one of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare, is essentially a sonnet about death, time, transience and love; love for both his friend and for his youth. These four key themes are the foundation of renaissance poetry, and can be found in a number of sonnets and poems. The sonnet conveys the sad truth that the poet is approaching the winter of his life, and is preparing his friend for his death; not that of his physical body, but of his youth and passion: 'In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie'. The poet warns the reader that they must cherish their youth while they can, as before they know it, it will be gone. By reading the sonnet, there is an immediate sense of the mental anguish that the poet has endured through the ravages of time. The sonnet form was originally Italian but was adapted by the French and then the English. As the quatrains progress, the initial idea is expanded and explained, and the couplet is the clincher. This structure reinforces the idea that he is approaching the winter of his life; the first quatrain emphasises the 'autumn' of his life, 'That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang', indicating the remaining youth he has won't last much longer, and will

  • Word count: 1642
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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