The exploration of Ghosts and Absence in Thomas Hardy's The Voice and The Haunted

Authors Avatar by dmseitler (student)

Explore the presentation of ghosts and absence in The Haunter and The Voice

From the first line of The Voice  Tomas Hardy  reminds the reader that the ghostly nature and presence of ghosts , as well as an underlying faculty of absence, can be expected in his poems. The repetition of the words ‘call to me’ in the first line of The Voice can be cited as the first example of these themes being encountered. The repetition allows an echo, in this case of a particularly haunting nature. This echo is central to the poem and can be linked to the idea of the presence of ghosts within the poem. The tendency for ghosts to appear as real as what they represent and then merge back into thin air can be compared to the nature of echo, starting off strong and fading away, of the words ‘call to me’. The fabricated image that the narrator see’s in his mind, seemingly of Hardy’s deceased wife Emma is present throughout the poem which can be drawn as a parralell to the eternal and indefatigable nature of ghosts.

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The image that is illustrated by Hardy can be likened to one of a ghost further, thanks to the diction deployed in line 2 of the poem: ‘now you are not as you were’. As well a potential reference to the change that Hardy reluctantly noticed and felt in the relationship between him and his wife, it can also be interpreted as a reference to the contrast he now feels between the image that confronts him and his memories of her. The confusion that anyone encountering a ghost (a sceptical one that approaches the situation in denial) is evident ...

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