Strange Case of Kayerts and Carlier

Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Conrad’s An Outpost of Progress both seem to have themes of personal deterioration. Not only does health and morality deteriorate in these stories, but as good things fail and shrink, evil and disease grow in response. Dr. Jekyll’s health fails as Mr. Hyde’s wickedness begins to take over his body. This slow descent into death is spurred on by Hyde’s complete lack of morality and adherence to carnal desires regardless of consequences. In a similar way, Kayerts and Carlier become plagued by diseases as their trades in Africa become greedier and more corrupt. Their cooperation in the slave trade draws them down into their eventual madness and doom at their own hands. Before Kayerts kills Carlier, both men become as violent and wild as Hyde is described. I found it interesting that both Stevenson and Conrad link moral degradation with mental and physical degeneration in surprisingly similar ways.

Deeper into the Goblin Market

I enjoyed reading Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, but I felt my first reading was too straightforward. I saw the poem as strictly allegorical with strong Christian themes, as it almost seems a reenactment of the scene with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. With its heavy description and deep narrative, I found it a strong allegory, but I wanted to learn about some other reading perspectives to delve deeper into the richness of the poem. When searching for other interpretations of Goblin Market, I came across a helpful article on Poetry Foundation that provided a few different readings, such as the psychoanalytic interpretations of the poem’s sexual elements and the Marxist criticism of separation of domestic and commercial spheres. If anyone is interested in reading these, you can find them embedded in this biography: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/christina-rossetti

Hopelessness, Pride, or Animosity?

In West London, Arnold describes a coldness toward the rich and an interesting camaraderie between the poor. The “tramp” in West London sends her daughter after local workmen to beg, and the little girl returns “satisfied.” However, when rich people pass by, the woman lets them “pass with frozen stare.” I think there are a few reasons she might have done this. Arnold states “She will not ask of aliens, but of friends, Of sharers in a common human fate,” but he does not extensively describe the woman’s reason for this.  It seems most likely that the woman believes she and her children will have better luck begging from people who understand their condition than from the rich, who have no knowledge of the poor’s suffering. But I wonder if it is hopelessness, pride, or animosity that prevents the woman from begging the rich. She may know from experience that the rich will not help her, or she may not want to grovel at the feet of someone who looks at her as if she is the alien. The “frozen stare” she gives them may also imply her contempt for the selfish upper class, or even terror at the power they possess. Even if knowing the woman’s motivations is not key in understanding Arnold’s point in the poem, I am still curious to hear what others think about this.

Natural Communion

Wordsworth’s “We Are Seven” is a surprisingly innocent and sweet poem surrounding the idea of death. In it, Wordsworth tells of a little girl’s connection to her late siblings, and relates it to human connection with nature. The innocence of a child is often thought of as natural, and the child this speaker addresses is “a little cottage girl” with “a rustic, woodland air.” The child, in her youthful and wild state, is closer with the natural world. As the poem continues, the reader learns that she is also close with her siblings who “in the church-yard lie.” She refuses to reduce her number of siblings, insisting that they are seven even though two have passed away. As a poet who loved nature, Wordsworth may be suggesting that those connected closely with nature are also connected with the dead in a way that most do not understand. He allows the child to have the last word in the poem, as she again says, “Nay, we are seven!” This suggests the authority of the child’s statement, as if she knows a truth that the readers and speaker have forgotten.

The graves in this poem are not described as frightening or ominous. Instead, they are “green” and close to the home, as if the departed children never truly left. The little girl spends time with her siblings, communing with the graves as she sits in the grass and sings to them. From this perspective, death is as natural as the environment itself, and there is little to prevent the little girl from being with the dead. The poem is somewhat reassuring, perhaps suggesting that as long as humans, dead or alive, are all a part of nature, nothing can separate them.

A Hill of Moss

I have always enjoyed reading Wordsworth’s vivid descriptions of the natural, but the tone of description in his poem, “The Thorn,” surprised me. I was expecting the nostalgic, healing view of nature, as expressed in works such as “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” but I was thrilled by the richness with which Wordsworth depicted the gloomy hill and its secrets. The music of the iambic lines aided in creating an eerie, haunting ballad. There is a brief respite from the gloom in stanza four, with the "fresh and lovely sight" of the hill of moss which is then described in beautiful detail. But the shift is stark in stanza five, when the mound is compared to an infant's grave. It is the mention of that grave that leads into the story element of the poem, which I thought was a great transition into the tale of the mourning woman in scarlet.

When I reached stanza eight, I was uncertain of why the text was in quotes when it was clearly not spoken by the only character mentioned thus far (the woman). At first, I thought it was Wordsworth asking himself the questions, but it became clear to me in stanza ten that the speaker is conversing with another unknown person. I imagine this to be Wordsworth directly addressing the readers and inviting them to join him on a journey through the mysterious history of the hill. But I would be curious to hear if anybody read that differently!