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This suggests that she is slightly unhappy and has considered leaving, because it is so easy. The gate to freedom is at the bottom of the road, a short walk and she will be away from the life that she has. But this makes me think why? Why doesn't she just leave? I think she stays because she thinks that if she leaves she might not get anywhere, or she might regret leaving all the things she already has. This stanza is an early look of how she is feeling deep down, she is wondering, is that lifestyle right for her or is there something else.
Stanza three focuses on her ambitions, what she wanted to be, before she married this man from Roscommon.
Her first ambition was to work in a well know theatre in Dublin called the Abbey. I know this because she says, "I had thought to work on the Abbey stage" She wanted to be famous. She wanted a rich and fabulous life.
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“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”
She wanted to still a crowd with a look. I know this because on line four in stanza three she says, "or still the crowd with a look" She wanted to make people look at her and think Wow. She wanted to be the centre of attention and have all eyes on her whilst she is on stage.
She had an artistic ambition but she didn't follow it, instead she married a man from Roscommon. Her other ambition was to have her name in a book, which is another artistic ambition, to be a novelist.
She wanted to write stories that would stun people and make them think she was such a talented writer. I know this because she says, "or have my name in a book, to see my name on printed page," She really wanted to be famous; unfortunately she married a man from Roscommon and had to give up these aspirations. She seems to mourn over this fact. She married someone who prevented her from fulfilling her dreams.
Stanza four shows us that she has a very boring life that is mundane. She cleans up, folds the breakfast cloth polishes and dusts. That's basically what the first three lines says, its line for that give us another large clue of how she is really feeling inside herself. It says, "... find my face in the glass" This suggests that she is lost; and not happy about that fact either. She needs to find herself, but she doesn't think she can find herself in her current environment. To find who you really are, many people have to leave their environment and go elsewhere to find out what really drives them in life.
This woman is lost and doesn't have anything to empower her to do what she wants with her life. The alliteration in this is in there for a reason "... find my face in the glass" That is there so you don't forget it, finding my face. It sticks in your head, because it is such a key line to the poem, she wants to find herself which is the main story of this poem, she is lost and very unhappy and she wants to find herself before it too late but she can't do it because she has committed to this man from County Roscommon. Her identity is lost and she wants to find it, this alone highlights her unhappiness.
The final stanza of this poem is very interesting. It starts off with her admitting that she should be a happy person I know this because she says, "I ought to feel I'm a happy woman" She isn't a happy woman though, but she knows that she should be. That shows how unhappy she is. She is so unhappy she knows that she should be happy, but she also knows that she isn't capable of being happy in her current situation and environment. Then the last two lines are the same as the first two lines which is very interesting. "I married a man from County Roscommon
and I live in the back and beyond" This suggests that she is trying to reassure herself that she is ok and she is capable of being happy when she can't where she is. Other people would be content with her lifestyle. But she isn't, this isn't fair on her either. This poem portrays a woman who is trapped in a life she doesn't want, and its like she cannot get out. I think that there is a hidden meaning to this poem and I think the meaning is this : "Don't get into anything that won't make you happy because in the long term you will be the one getting hurt".
That is like the woman in the poem, she got married and it isn't making her happy, she is hurting inside. I'm going to finish up the essay now by looking for the similarities and the differences between the two poems and what I think of these. I will start with the similarities. The main protagonists in each poem are women; both women are upset and need something. I noticed that both of these women are burdened with all the house hold chores. This annoys both the women and makes them both very bored. Both of the women dislike doing these chores. This is for different reasons though, which I will expand on in the differences.
They both seem to live in a scarcely populated area, one living in a village and another living on the back of beyond. They both seem to be day dreamers, the woman in 'Woman Work' dreams about being released by nature, whereas the woman in 'Overheard in County Sligo" is day dreaming about what she could have done with her life. There is a difference about this day dreaming that I will get to on the differences. They both seem to be alone, in 'Woman Work' she only has children and the occasional company around, and in 'Overheard in County Sligo" she only has her husband and some animals.
Both of these women are from countries that are outside the UK, one from USA and one from Ireland. They both have very similar social mannerisms. The woman from 'Woman Work' seems to live for work and is committed and loyal and will do anything for her husband or owner. She seems to be a hard worker and she seems to do it to please. Whereas the woman in 'Overheard in County Sligo' seems to be more sociable, more outgoing, I can tell this through her ambitions, to be an actress, to be an actress you must address a lot of people, and you must be polite and have social skills.
These similarities show that they have a lot in common, but some of these similarities come with difference attached. I will expand on these in a paragraphs time. These similarities show how people can be in totally different situations, different cultures but can still be having the same feelings, they both feel disheartened by their situation and that shows how much they have in common their hearts are feeling very similar emotions. Although these emotions are abstract, because they do not have the exact same feeling and no body in world has the exact same feeling.
So these are abstract emotions but they are so similar. They are saddened, tired, bored, annoyed, and frustrated. The list goes on. That is basically what I noticed about the similarities of these two very different but strangely very similar poems. I think that the two woman are both equally unhappy, its just for different reasons, the reasons will be expanded on in the next paragraph, but there doesn't seem to be much difference in unhappiness, it seems to be quite similar. Now I am going to talk about the differences that I noticed.
In 'Woman Work' the woman merely wants a rest, whereas in 'Overheard in County Sligo she wants to be an actress. This seems to be quite a self centred ambition, because in other parts of the world people can't marry and have brutally horrible lives and all she can think about is possible leaving, when she can. In 'Overheard in County Sligo' the woman says, "I had thought to work on the Abbey stage or have my name in a book, to see my thought on the printed page, or still the crowd with a look. " This shows that she has previous ambitions. When she was younger she could have done these things.
She wanted to be the centre of attention, not stuck in the middle of nowhere. She is saying she had previous ambitions that she could have fulfilled. But she didn't act on that and due to the culture of Ireland, the Catholics in Ireland are very strict and divorce is not an acceptable option she may have also been pressured into marrying young and if she did leave she would receive nothing. Now at her age she probably would not get to work in the Abbey or become a famous author. In similarities, I mentioned about how they both dislike doing chores, I said I would expand on the differences of that.
In 'Woman Work' the woman dislikes the chores because they tire her out and she struggles to do them all when she is so tired. In 'Overheard in County Sligo' she doesn't like them because they are boring; she wants to do something with her life. She seems to be a very self centred woman does the one in 'Overheard in County Sligo'. They day dream, but, in 'Woman Work' she dreams of a release by nature, setting her free so that she can have the night's rest, when in 'Overheard in County Sligo' she dreams of being famous. Once again that seems very self centred.
The final difference is that in 'Woman Work' she is from the USA and in 'Overheard from County Sligo' she is from Ireland. These cultures are different; this means the woman from 'Overheard in County Sligo' could easily leave whereas the woman in 'Woman Work' cannot leave, this is due to the culture. Having these differences is a good thing, because it gives you things to look out for in the poem, these things can then move on to other things etc. So these differences how that the poems may be similar but they are still very different.
Comperative Analysis of Women Characters in Poetry. (2017, Sep 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/comperative-analysis-of-women-characters-in-poetry-essay
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