A Wife In London

Thomas Hardy1899

• A wife waiting in London for news about her husband who has been fighting in the Boer War in South Africa.

• Symbolic fog, swirls round the London streets.

• Fog is ominous & can cover things up, much like communications in war.

• She receives a message to tell her that her husband has died.

• In her shock she finds it hard to process the information.

• Ironically & tragically the next day she receives a letter that her husband sent to her before he died.

• In it he speaks of his excitement at coming home to her & the happy times they will have.

• An unpleasant coincidence (of which Hardy was interested)

• Written in his ‘naturalist style’. Describing events quite visually & symbolically & allows reader’s imagination to fill in the rest.

• Mainly known for his novels set in the English countryside, but he described poetry as his ‘first love’.

• Written unusually from the pov of a wife waiting rather than a participant or observer of the battlefield.

I--The Tragedy

• She sits in the tawny vapour   

•  That the Thames lanes have uprolled,  

•   Behind whose webby fold on fold

• Like a waning taper   

•  The street-lamp glimmers cold.

• A messenger's knock cracks smartly,  

•   Flashed news is in her hand  

•   Of meaning it dazes to understand

• Though shaped so shortly:  

•   He--has fallen--in the far South Land . .

II The Irony

• 'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,   

•  The postman nears and goes:   

•  A letter is brought whose lines disclose

• By the firelight flicker   

•  His hand, whom the worm now knows:

• Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -  

•   Page-full of his hoped return,  

•   And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn In the summer weather,

•    And of new love that they would learn

I--The Tragedy

• She sits in the tawny vapour   

•  That the Thames lanes have uprolled,  

•   Behind whose webby fold on fold

• Like a waning taper   

•  The street-lamp glimmers cold.

Brown, dull, foggy London. In stark

contrast to place of husband’s death

Spider’s web imagery. Evokes

poverty & sense of entrapment & anxiety As a

widow she will be further trapped.

Mist rolling up streets. Poor,

houses all very close together.

A thin candle often used to light

lamps/fires. Waning-going out

Perhaps the ‘light of her life’ is about to go out? All her

hopes for the future?

Street lamps lit by gas, would gradually burn out during the

night-early morning. Contrast in heat & light/life & death.

Mist & fog, sinister, can

connote foreboding.

Symbolic

• A messenger's knock cracks smartly,  

•   Flashed news is in her hand  

•   Of meaning it dazes to understand

• Though shaped so shortly:  

•   He--has fallen--in the far South Land . .

Why the word ‘crack’? A sharp, breaking noise, splits silence-

cracks her life too

Smart- uniform-army.

Bad news often sent by

telegram

Speedy &

difficult to take in

She can’t take in bad news, line structure is awkward too, reading it is difficult

scan.

The message is short & to the point, in italics, even so her head is spinning &

she can’t quite take it in.

Uses a ‘euphemism’, fallen rather than

died. Why try & divert the horror of the

reality? Does it lessen the effect of the

message?

Onomatopoeia of ‘knock’,

Dashes

show how she

reads it

II The Irony

• 'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,   

•  The postman nears and goes:   

•  A letter is brought whose lines disclose

• By the firelight flicker   

•  His hand, whom the worm now knows:

Depressing, gloomy,

isolated in her grief

Ironically, after his death she receives a letter from him.

Lines of communication in

war are often unreliable

Homely image of fireside, usually comforting & warming. Now very

visual imagery highlighting his words on the page.

Adds pathos, the imagery makes it easier for the reader to

empathise with the wife. If we can picture something, we may

feel a deeper connection & understanding

His handwriting

, irony, it may have given her fresh hope

Buried in the soil, worms part of

the decomposition

process.

A twist of fate: Hardy interested in this.

Coming & going, normality of postman’s

round=normality of casualties &

bereavement in war.

• Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -  

•   Page-full of his hoped return,  

•   And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn In the summer weather,

•    And of new love that they would learn

Full of flourish, life & enthusiasm. Alliteration

enhances frivolous feeling

How excited he was to be returning

Full of ideas of what they would do on his return.

Simple pleasures

Promises of new love they would find. Their love all the stronger for

his absence and return

Reinforces waste of life that war can

bring about

Hardy leaves it here, more powerful than

describing the Wife’s grief. Often readers

imagination can be more powerful than a

description.

Irony, he is no

longer fresh &

firm now he

is dead. Their hopes

& dreams dead too