How effectively have the texts you have studied convey aspects of power?
The composers Stephen Spender, Robert Browning and Margaret Atwood of the texts My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough, ¬¬¬My Last Duchess and The Handmaid’s Tale, all convey various aspects of power in their corresponding texts through the use of a variety of language techniques embedded in their writing. The poems My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough, and My Last Duchess both explore aspects of personal power, while My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough in parallel with The Handmaid’s Tale look at authoritative power. The poem ¬¬¬My Last Duchess alongside The Handmaid’s Tale conveys a sense of patriarchal power, serving to further illuminate …show more content…
The texts My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough and The Handmaid’s Tale convey aspects of authoritative power in two distinctive ways. Spender references an aspect of power through a unique presentation; delving into the authoritative power that in within reach of Spender’s parents. This aspect of power is conveyed through the title in the verb “keep”, with negative connotations implying that the persona’s parents were adamant on restraining him from such company. The narrator’s parents additionally have an indirect effect on the other children, the simile “like dogs to bark at our world”, enable the readers to gain an understanding of the importance of the class system that was predominant in England at that time, and also to see how heavily Spender’s thoughts and opinions are based off his parent’s views. Although Spender’s parents’ authoritative power is not apparent to begin with, it eventually surmounts to a substantial amount. Spender’s parents coerced him to forego the company of these “rough” children, in a similar, but less extreme fashion to the Aunts who force and manipulate the Handmaids to give up their rights and aim to control all aspects of their lives. Atwood cleverly incorporates the authoritative power of the Aunts in The Handmaid’s Tale, an aspect which is quite often overlooked, mostly due to the misconception …show more content…
The poem ¬¬¬My Last Duchess alongside the novel The Handmaid’s Tale conveys a strong sense of patriarchal power. Browning demonstrates the patriarchal power of the Duke throughout the whole poem, from a rhyming couplet of the poem “that’s my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive, I call”, the use of personal pronouns emphasises the power the Duke possesses over the Duchess. Browning utilises symbolism, enjambment and an allusion; “Notice Neptune though taming a sea-horse” allowing the observation of a parallel between the relationship of the Duke and the Duchess, and Neptune and the seahorse as the Duke’s intentions to assert dominance over his future Duchess follow the same pattern as Neptune’s taming of the seahorse. Additionally, the euphemism “I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together” makes reference, through alliteration, to the transformation of his last Duchess into a medium to which he is no longer subject to her “trifling” situation and can exert his power and control over who is exposed to her smile. Atwood also presents the notion of a perhaps more commanded version of patriarchal power in her novel, predominantly through the Commanders; the masters of the house and through the theocratic dictatorship of the regime of the Republic of Gilead. The epiphany experienced by Offred “and of course she is, the new one, and
The composers Stephen Spender, Robert Browning and Margaret Atwood of the texts My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough, ¬¬¬My Last Duchess and The Handmaid’s Tale, all convey various aspects of power in their corresponding texts through the use of a variety of language techniques embedded in their writing. The poems My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough, and My Last Duchess both explore aspects of personal power, while My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough in parallel with The Handmaid’s Tale look at authoritative power. The poem ¬¬¬My Last Duchess alongside The Handmaid’s Tale conveys a sense of patriarchal power, serving to further illuminate …show more content…
The texts My Parents Kept Me from Children Who Were Rough and The Handmaid’s Tale convey aspects of authoritative power in two distinctive ways. Spender references an aspect of power through a unique presentation; delving into the authoritative power that in within reach of Spender’s parents. This aspect of power is conveyed through the title in the verb “keep”, with negative connotations implying that the persona’s parents were adamant on restraining him from such company. The narrator’s parents additionally have an indirect effect on the other children, the simile “like dogs to bark at our world”, enable the readers to gain an understanding of the importance of the class system that was predominant in England at that time, and also to see how heavily Spender’s thoughts and opinions are based off his parent’s views. Although Spender’s parents’ authoritative power is not apparent to begin with, it eventually surmounts to a substantial amount. Spender’s parents coerced him to forego the company of these “rough” children, in a similar, but less extreme fashion to the Aunts who force and manipulate the Handmaids to give up their rights and aim to control all aspects of their lives. Atwood cleverly incorporates the authoritative power of the Aunts in The Handmaid’s Tale, an aspect which is quite often overlooked, mostly due to the misconception …show more content…
The poem ¬¬¬My Last Duchess alongside the novel The Handmaid’s Tale conveys a strong sense of patriarchal power. Browning demonstrates the patriarchal power of the Duke throughout the whole poem, from a rhyming couplet of the poem “that’s my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive, I call”, the use of personal pronouns emphasises the power the Duke possesses over the Duchess. Browning utilises symbolism, enjambment and an allusion; “Notice Neptune though taming a sea-horse” allowing the observation of a parallel between the relationship of the Duke and the Duchess, and Neptune and the seahorse as the Duke’s intentions to assert dominance over his future Duchess follow the same pattern as Neptune’s taming of the seahorse. Additionally, the euphemism “I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together” makes reference, through alliteration, to the transformation of his last Duchess into a medium to which he is no longer subject to her “trifling” situation and can exert his power and control over who is exposed to her smile. Atwood also presents the notion of a perhaps more commanded version of patriarchal power in her novel, predominantly through the Commanders; the masters of the house and through the theocratic dictatorship of the regime of the Republic of Gilead. The epiphany experienced by Offred “and of course she is, the new one, and