The Manhunt - Quotes, Context and Form & Structure

?
  • Created by: Noah_S
  • Created on: 21-03-19 18:38
View mindmap
  • The Manhunt
    • Simon Amitage
      • 2007
    • Middle
      • "Only then could I bind the struts"
        • Implies that she is starting to fix him to what he was like before he went to war.
        • A strut support a structure - Suggesting that she is trying to get him supported mentally.
      • "and feel the hurt / of his grazed heart"
        • More optimistic tone - his heart is only damaged and not broken, suggesting he could love again.
        • His heart is damaged, suggesting he maybe struggling to let people back into his life.
    • Context
      • Eddie/Laura Beddoes
        • Eddie is the solider (who served in Bosnia) in the play.
        • Point of view is from Laura.
        • She traces a path that a bullet went through Eddie.
        • Eddie suffers from PTSD.
      • War
        • Lots of soldiers come back with PTSD.
        • Armitage felt that he was writing an elegy or a memorial for people who had been injured or killed at war.
    • Beginning
      • "the frozen river which ran through his face"
        • Describes the scar from his injuries - showing a physical change.
        • Metaphoric language for his love being frozen, suggesting that he is stuck.
      • "‘fractured rudder of shoulder-blade"
        • The adjective "fractured" suggests damage and incompletion due to the war.
        • The common use of nouns related to the body makes it sound more real and serious.
    • Form and Structure
      • Each stanza is only two lines.
        • Implies the small steps the wife had to take to reconnect her husband.
        • Gives the poem a fragmented feel, like their relationship.
      • Irregular Rhyming Couplets
        • Reflects their irregular life when he returns from war.
      • “Only then” is repeated at the start of four stanzas
        • A technique called anaphora.
        • Helps to convey the slow process the wife went through to ‘find’ her husband again
    • End
      • "every nerve in his body had tightened and closed"
        • The determiner "every" implies that his whole identity has been affected by war.
        • His nerves are "tightened and closed", suggesting that his new identity is more colder than before the war.
      • "only then, did I come close"
        • The line emphasises the distance between husband and wife - the reader questions if the wife can fully connect with the soldier.
        • "come close" implies that the wife is still searching, showing that the relationship isn't what it once was.

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all AQA Anthology resources »