Definitely, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Instead of rolling over and dying, it seems like Felicia Hemans took to her paper and pad to scorn her mate, as well as to warn other women on the entrapment's of love and man. As tragic as her situation might have been, the imagery she uses in the poem, The Wife of Asdrubal, conveys a woman who walks into death as the real heroine. Much like her own story, Asdrubal abandons his kingdom and takes flight to save himself from the tragedies of war. The wife is left to defend herself and face the tragedy of their kingdom and the people. In the midst of all the tragedy that surrounds the wife, she appears beautiful; "Al regal in magnificent attire, And sternly beauteous in terrific ire? (p. 407). Towering above the all, she appears, and who would have thought she would come defeated? Evidently, Hemans wants the reader to know that woman know how to rise to any occasion, defeat or otherwise. Another poignant piece of imagery that "leaped" off the page at me was; "The dark profusion of her locks unabound, Wave like a warrior's floating plumage round" (p.407) I could almost envision a woman with long thick black hair, wearing a velvet dress, standing on a tower clutching her children. Not in fear, but in determination and courage.
The wife sees her husband, probably in spirit, knowing he is somewhere safe and calls him a traitor, liar and actually wants him to live; "live, traitor, live!" she cried, "since dear to thee/E'en in they fetters, can existence be! I think at this point Hemans portrays that the husbands life will be worthless anyways if he lives. As he lives, he will not be able to live down the "shame" of his cowardly act.
Although the poem takes an "insanity" turn for me at the end when she kills her children and throws them into the fire and then herself, I am reminded of the book by Toni Morrison, Beloved. In Beloved, the main character flees with her children to freedom. Of course, slave masters come looking for her and demand her return. The character does not commit to the defeat of returning to slavery. However, she does kill her children before they can get to her. Her thoughts were that she would rather them die, than be slaves. Hemans could have been portraying the same in the Wife of Asdrubal. Killing her children was an act to save their lives from whatever tragedy that they would have encountered had they lived. I did think about it some more and wondered if Hemans wanted the reader to struggle with the imagery of a mother making the choice to kill her children.
All of her poems do not always portray this type of heroine figure. In fact, in Properzia Rossi, it exudes the opposite. It's prose is romantic and heart felt as the woman longs for the man who has abandon her; "Thou form, whose life is of my burning heart!" (p.410). She helps him to escape persecution, only for him to "run off". "in that devotedness,-the sad and deep,/and unrepaid-farewell!" (p.411). Even in this part of the poem, Hemans doesn't make the character seem like she's too ill-stricken that he didn't stick around out of obligation. The feelings I elicited from this poem were feelings of unabounded, unabridged love-possibly even agape love. The love that bleeds from the heart and is felt when a relationship falls apart. The love that says "he is wrong, but I can and will forgive". Of course, I think Hemans wanted females, in particular, to know that you cannot always go quietly into the night and those memories that you have with a loved one, always remain-good and bad.
The wife sees her husband, probably in spirit, knowing he is somewhere safe and calls him a traitor, liar and actually wants him to live; "live, traitor, live!" she cried, "since dear to thee/E'en in they fetters, can existence be! I think at this point Hemans portrays that the husbands life will be worthless anyways if he lives. As he lives, he will not be able to live down the "shame" of his cowardly act.
Although the poem takes an "insanity" turn for me at the end when she kills her children and throws them into the fire and then herself, I am reminded of the book by Toni Morrison, Beloved. In Beloved, the main character flees with her children to freedom. Of course, slave masters come looking for her and demand her return. The character does not commit to the defeat of returning to slavery. However, she does kill her children before they can get to her. Her thoughts were that she would rather them die, than be slaves. Hemans could have been portraying the same in the Wife of Asdrubal. Killing her children was an act to save their lives from whatever tragedy that they would have encountered had they lived. I did think about it some more and wondered if Hemans wanted the reader to struggle with the imagery of a mother making the choice to kill her children.
All of her poems do not always portray this type of heroine figure. In fact, in Properzia Rossi, it exudes the opposite. It's prose is romantic and heart felt as the woman longs for the man who has abandon her; "Thou form, whose life is of my burning heart!" (p.410). She helps him to escape persecution, only for him to "run off". "in that devotedness,-the sad and deep,/and unrepaid-farewell!" (p.411). Even in this part of the poem, Hemans doesn't make the character seem like she's too ill-stricken that he didn't stick around out of obligation. The feelings I elicited from this poem were feelings of unabounded, unabridged love-possibly even agape love. The love that bleeds from the heart and is felt when a relationship falls apart. The love that says "he is wrong, but I can and will forgive". Of course, I think Hemans wanted females, in particular, to know that you cannot always go quietly into the night and those memories that you have with a loved one, always remain-good and bad.
Denise,
ReplyDeleteGood insights and observations into these poems by Hemans. You do a good job here of complicating rather than oversimplifying her by contrasting her women in these two poems, and of supporting your observations with textual examples. By the end you are following the accepted practice of indicating line breaks in quotations from poems with slashes, but you are not really consistent. Be sure to separate lines in future posts, and also to proofread for missing words or misspellings. On the whole, though, you are off to a very good start. Keep up the good work!