With Detailed Analysis of the Return of the Soldier
Victorian literature superficial beauty is disapproved of, in this case Kitty; who represents the order of pre-war Edwardian England, an order destroyed by the war in the excuse of Chris’ illness. West swiftly moves the novel along as Chris slowly retrieves his memory; Kitty Is a very devoted wife who when realizing that Chris has forgotten her and is yearning another, she in turn feels empowered which makes him feel conflicted and confused. He finds comfort and confides in his cousin Jenny who is the first person narrator.
HIS shell-shock caused him to go fifteen years back In his memory, and to vive In a time where he was most content and In love with Margaret -? his ex love. It seems that as he retrieves his memory and the more he remembers, the more difficult it becomes for Kitty. The characteristics of shell shock prove it difficult for Margaret, Kitty, and Jenny to come to terms with. West’s portrayal of all three women is first person, as West writes of the relationship between Jenny (West herself), Kitty- the wife of Jenny’s cousin Chris, and Margaret, who was the love of Chris’ life before he went to war.
Jenny is portrayed in the novel as being quite poetic, In the sense that she’s very aware of her own environment and tauter as references are frequently used such as “in the old days a fat fist would certainly have been raised to point out the new translucent glories of the rose- buds” (P. II). From Jenny’s descriptive interpretations, such as this, it appears as though everything In her life is beautiful. However, as the novel develops we notice that these observations can also be quite dark. As with “because a lost Zeppelin sometimes clanks like a skeleton across the sky above us” (P. 5) and again with “All the inhabitants of this new tract of time were his enemies, all its circumstances his prison bars. ” (P. 62). It can be said Jenny’s prose was reflective of particular moods she was In during the course of the novel. Jenny Is presented as kind, caring, shrewd and quietly observant, yet wary, perhaps justifiably. Jenny sits in a quandary between FIFO near emotions toward K Ana Margaret. Consequently, seen Tints It problematic Ana resorts to oxymoron’s, such as “He wore a dreadful decent smile” (P. 187) referring to Chris when Margaret presents him with some of his son’s belongings.
In conclusion to the analysis of Jenny, she is the person in an awkward situation whereby she feels duty-bound to maintain the status-quo between the other parties. In other words, all she really wants is for everyone else to be happy regardless of her own feelings. Jenny as the narrator could be described as the keeper of everyone else’s secrets, the trustworthy and dependable character whom people could confide in. Kitty is the second woman in the novel who has a completely different character. Although she doesn’t come across as vain, Jenny never ceases to describe Kitty’s beauty and appearance.
Jenny doesn’t fully describe her own true feelings about Kitty which makes it difficult for the reader to fully analyses Kitty’s character. Early in Chapter One we are shown how Jenny portrays Kitty and how Jenny is treated by Kitty. It is apparent that Kitty is often quite demanding of Jenny, for example, “Come here, Jenny. I’m going to dry my hair” (P. 1 1), and on passing Jenny a tortoise-shell hairbrush, “Give it a brush now and then like a good soul. But be careful. Tortoise snaps so” (P. 12). Kitty almost treats Jenny like a servant, and Jenny is always accommodating.
There is no reference made to Kitty ever having done any work, although West makes a strong point about Chris’ father having acquired Baldly Court ND after his death Jenny informs us that Chris had Baldly Court re-built. Chris was more than financially capable of managing the property. Throughout the novel Kitty is portrayed by Jenny as being rather selfish, conceited, self-absorbed and contemptuous of the lower classes, which comes to the reader’s attention when Kitty encounters Margaret. Jenny herself first Judges Margaret by her appearance “Her body was long and round and shapely’ (P. 5) and “She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two” (P. 5) this represents the class difference but it seems it was Kitty’s influence on Jenny’s attitude that shaped Jenny’s opinion of Margaret at first glance. It’s apparent that Kitty is very superficial. Essentially Kitty couldn’t understand for the life of her why Chris would want to be with Margaret when such a pretty woman like herself was available for him.
The era has a lot to do with the novel, with regard to social status which was very prevalent at the time; a way in which social class is explored in the novel is through Margaret. Even though Margaret is first portrayed as a beggar in the novel instead of a sincere Oman with moral principles, Jenny assumed she was groveling and says “in which this woman butted like a clumsy animal at a gate she was not intelligent enough to open” (P. 31) here Margaret is compared to a dog, useless and inept.
Again we see an example of Kitty’s attitude towards who she considers to be of lower order where she says Mimi have read in the Harrow Observer or somewhere that my husband is at the front, and you have come to tell this story because you think that you will get some money. Vive read of such cases in the papers. ” (P. 33) consequently as a result of Kitty attitude, Jenny felt as indifferent towards Margaret as Kitty did. Margarita’s overall demeanor is one of a person who is polite, well-mannered, intelligent, caring, considerate and genuine.
As we know Margaret is married as with “l suppose I ought to say that he isn’t right in his head and I’m married-but Oh! ” (P. 95). As the novel develops we can see Tanat Margaret Is ten savior AT snarls Ana Trot ten Sleekness AT her heart goes out of her way to be of assistance in his recovery. The class difference is highlighted indirectly when Margaret says cried Margaret, glowing. “She just have a lovely nature” (P. 96) she had no malice towards Kitty even after Kitty treated her no differently to one of her servants in Baldly Court, and this in effect shows Margarita’s sincere nature.
Although all three women struggle to understand Chris’ predicament, Kitty was proven to be everything the reader interprets her to be, pompous with delusions of grandeur. Conversely, Jenny is the third party balancing between her cousin’s wife and his ex lover who innocently sets out to please everyone. Margaret inevitably is concerned for Chris’ health and recovery, and is the mediator at the end who suggests presenting Chris with belongings of his dead son, having lost a son herself of the same age as Oliver.
Kitty’s negative attitude persists through the novel but doesn’t affect Margaret. When the items of Chris’ dead son are shown to him by Margaret, his distant and cloudy outcome that has been created from his experiences of war suddenly disappear and he is “cured” of his amnesia and he returns to reality. Along with his recovered memory he puts Margaret in his past and now remembers Kitty as his wife so in turn the emotional interactions of characters in the story change. The irony is that all three women lost a person that they each Ovid in different ways.
Keith Douglas Unary 24, 1920 – June 9, 1944), was an English poet who is known for his war poetry during World War II. Undeniably after reading The Complete Poems I get the impression that he has a negative attitude towards women. Additionally from researching his early days it is apparent that his mother struggled financially, and there is no mention of his father. I personally think that after reading about his ex partner Whinnying who refused to take his hand in marriage, and his failed relationship with Millennia Guttered Penny, may well have distorted his view of women which is sometimes reflected in his poetry.
A reference to this assumption can be found in the poem ‘Cairo Jag’ whereby Douglas is in a brothel and the poem opens with the line, “Shall I get drunk or cut myself a piece of cake”. His use of the term “piece of cake” in reference to the prostitutes around him adds to his obvious misogyny. He seems to suggest that women are deluded in thinking they are something they’re not and uses very negative language towards them such as the women he sees on the streets of Cairo, “The women offering their children brown- paper breasts dry and twisted, elongated like the skull, Holiness’s signature.
At this point the poem sounds more like a rant, as if Douglas is disgusted rather than sympathetic for these women in such a state of poverty. The portrayal of women or in this case “woman” in an Egyptian Tea Garden, firstly she is seen as a fish. It is said the fish represents Christianity, and that different fish symbolism different things, but the fish in general holds a range of different symbolic meanings including femininity, eternity, happiness, creativity and knowledge. This is the essence of the poem; the fish is how the woman is presented. The poem is about a Dialectal woman Ana near power to seduce Ana annulated men AT any age.
Douglas appears to be trying to demonstrate that woman have power too; The author uses metaphors and similes by comparing the woman “as a white stone” which represents purity, and men as fish “A cotton magnate/… A crustacean” to show how man’s behavior is like that of any other animal species or as conventional as fish. The poem could be arranged into four segments. The first stanza introduces the “sly’ woman and her purposeful position as “she draws down the fish”. Douglas describes the woman moving along into section two it is clear that it describes the witnesses which are men, and section three discloses which man she picks.
The first section of the poem has a reasonably gentle tone which is maintained through the whole poem, describing a very beautiful woman. The second stanza introduces the second speaker of the poem which is the most “important fish”. Part two is sarcastic but natural, mixing the duties of the male with oceanic life. The third stanza introduces the men who gaze on the woman’s beauty. It has a very strong, bitter undertone. It shows the woman is concerned with the wealth of the man she chooses rather than is beauty or personal qualities.
The fourth stanza switches back to the original speaker of the poem and concludes the woman’s choice to which one of the men she chooses or does not choose. The manner of the poem varies in the different sections and begins with a most intriguing title- “Behavior of Fish in an Egyptian Tea-Garden” which sounds somewhat like a documentary and quite disconnected, dry, cold and formal. The tone of the poem is interesting throughout, Douglas uses soft and delicate language in the first section, it consists of seven stanzas of four lines each.
