The Wife of Asdrubal:
The thing to note about this poem is the title. The title does not refer to being a mother, but it refers to the speaker being a wife. I believe the speaker in this poem has developed mental issues. The reason I believe this is because she kills her own two sons. I do not know any mother who would kill their own children, unless they are mentally unstable. Not only does she kill her own children she kills them to spite her husband who is standing safe from the fire. I could not imagine a mother saying what she says in line 61 "the arms that cannot save/ Have been their cradle, and shall be their grave" 61-62. She is pretty much saying that I cannot save them from the fire so I will kill them in front of you to make you suffer. I believe the Hemans and the speaker in this poem are very closesly correlated. I feel this way because Hemans suffered rejection throughout her life. She did not have a father figure in her life because her mother's marriages did not work out. Also, after she was married her own husband left her for "illness issues" and he never returned to help her take care of the children. At this point Hemans became determined to make a living for her and her children through writing. Possibly Hemans was also a bit crazy, and she expressed it through her writing. Another thing that points to the speaker in the poem being very angry with her husband and border line crazy is when she says "Live traitor live!" 45. To call someone a traitor even today is very harsh. It would have been a very harsh thing to say to him at that time. She is pretty much telling him since you are a traitor go ahead and live, but the three of us will die. Nobody wants to be called a traitor. It would have been neat to have heard some type of response from the husband. Once again though I feel that the evidence of the poem is sufficient to say the speaker has some type of mental dammage because she killed her own children. It makes one wonder just what people will do "in the name of love".
Hemans may not have been crazy in her own life, but I do believe that she felt similar feelings as the wife of Asdrubal felt. She had to many similar experiences in her life. I believe this is why this poem is so strong and has so much feeling though, is because Hemans was able to express these feelings due to the fact the she really felt them. I feel poetry is much stronger when the author has had real experience on what they are writing.
About Me
- Jenny
- I am a Senior at Mercer and will be finished with school after this summer! I am going to work for Cedarstream, and I will be doing Marketing and Sales for them.
4 comments:
I think Felicia Hemans was a fairly remarkable woman. She was very intelligent and successful. On the contrary, her personal life was very difficult. Her father left her and her mother at a young age and her husband deserted her as well. Through these personal experiences, she became very jaded in her view of men. I think she uses material from her own life and the heartache that she faced to inspire many of her works.
For this reason, I like what you said at the end of your post: that poetry is much stronger when the poet uses real life experience in their work.
While we don't know for sure how Hemans related to the speaker in "The Wife of Asdrubal," it is probably safe to assume that she could relate to the speaker in some way. As you say, perhaps Hemans was a little crazy. I tend to think that Hemans used wife in the poem to express some of the deep and burning anger that she felt. I do not think that Hemans ever thought of killing her own children; Hemans does show however, how intense her feelings really are perhaps through the actions of the wife in the poem.
Overall, I found this poem very interesting; especially in contrast to some of her other poems. I enjoyed reading your analysis of Heman's work--good job!
Jenny,
Nice job on this post! You clearly had a very passionate reaction to the poem, and that passion comes out in a positive way in your response, which is both emotional and supported by textual evidence. Good discussion!
It's very easy to think of Hemans relating herself to the Wife in the poem. The situations are clearly similar and the way in which "The Wife..." is written speaks to a reasonable amount of bitterness on the part of the wife. It's not difficult to picture Hemans possessing this same hostility. I agree with Karen, it certainly was not enough to kill her own children, but it was a serious examination of the hypothetical power that an embittered wife over her family.
I didn't think she killed her children to spite her husband but instead to save them from the pain they were soon going to endure. I thought she was a good mother for doing something so hard and disgraceful but for a very good and positive reason.
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