With Detailed Analysis of the Return of the Soldier and the Complete Poems of Keith Douglas, and with Wider Reference to the Behaviour of a Fish in an Egyptian Tea Garden, Compare and Contrast the Presentation of Women in All Three Texts.
With detailed analysis of the Return of the Soldier and the Complete Poems of Keith Douglas, and with wider reference to The Behaviour Of a Fish In An Egyptian Tea Garden, compare and contrast the presentation of women in all three texts.
Gender has a specific role between the texts. As a main theme it raises interesting yet different thoughts. For example, in Return of the Soldier, in 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 realising 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 live 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 nature 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.10). 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
Gender has a specific role between the texts. As a main theme it raises interesting yet different thoughts. For example, in Return of the Soldier, in 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 realising 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 live 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 nature 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.10). 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