The Formalistic Approach to Hay's Rapunzel

834 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare's influence on English literature

The Formalistic Approach to Hay's Rapunzel

Prayer has been always a symbol of faith, and even in modern poetry it is still used as a desperate cry to the One in Heaven. One of the great examples of this desperate cry would be Sara Henderson Hay's "Rapunzel".After reading her modern version, familiarity with Grimm's fairy tale "Rapunzel" will reveal a completely new interpretation. Sara Hay chooses Rapunzel's prayer to be in the sonnet structure. Sonnet, being a part of a lyric genre, represents the most personal and direct speaking manner. Here, the lyric poet is speaking from Rapunzel's point of view almost singing her sufferings, her feelings and her past experiences.

Let's remember the first line of the sonnet: "Oh, God, let me forget the things he said". The elegy starts in the prayer form. It helps us to understand from the first line that the lyric hero is in suffering and is desperate. Through the words "let me forget", we can hear the echo of the past life, past things, that may never come back. The author (heroine) is leaving us in suspense, because she will never reveal to us "the things he said" and "the promises he made". The repeating formula "let me" reveals to us Rapunzel's feelings and is establishing the tone of the poem. The first lines help us to hear our heroine's voice tone, and to understand her suffering. Looking more at the first stanza, we can see many associations and connections between some words and the religious motif of prayer. The words "freezing and burning" are the extremes that help us to hear the echo of "Hell" (Rhetoric 102K class discussion, January 23 2001). In the same way the word promises in the Bible is synonymous with the word covenant (or Testament). In the fifth li...

... middle of paper ...

...ed by love, now has become the knowing one: " I knew...I knew...I might have known."

Looking at the last line of the sonnet we understand its purpose. Here, we see the image of many symbolic Rapunzels. The heroine is looking at the past and at the future, and realizes that her life is just one small piece, compared to the Eternal concept, or a concept of All. She realizes that the earthly life is not eternal and she is just a suffering traveler like many others.

Hay’s "Rapunzel" begins as a true worshiper, and finds her plight to be too disconcerting to communicate even to her Creator. So, she devolves into her own imaginings with groans so deep that only her soul can commune at this level. Prayer turns to song, song turns to fantasy, and in her heart, fantasy reveals tragic reality. Her only true hope is found in first heart cry: "Oh, God..."

Show More
Related

  • Dissecting the US & Global Healthcare Systems: A Policy Perspective

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the U.S., employers are required by law to offer health insurance to employees. Taking heed of the perspective of both individuals (employee and employee), let us discuss the recent implications of this policy. Could this policy be considered effective?

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Intense And Covert Ideas Of Love

    1444 Words  | 3 Pages

    The speaker has a depressed and refuted soul, which explains the tone of the sonnet and gives the overall mood of the passage. “This man 's art and that man’s scope” (Sonnet 29, line 6) which he enjoys “…contented least…” (Sonnet 29,line 7), however these thoughts he despises, because they appear to be out of his reach. The speaking is comparing himself to a bird singing at the gates of heaven escaping the dreadful earth in line eleven. However still presenting contrast with the ending couplet “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, that then I scorn to change my state with kings.” where the audience is introduced to what motivates the speaker to be positive. His sweet love as described is spoken highly of, while negating all of the unhappy ideas represented in the previous quatrains. Contrast is vivid through Sonnet 29, because of the last two couplets that concludes the author’s feelings and explains what encourages

    Read More

  • Sonnet 138

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first quatrain In this sonnet the speaker starts to reveal more about the relationship between him and the Dark Lady, and also his fear of growing old. He starts the sonnet by saying “When my love swears she is made of truth/ I do believe her, though I know she lies” (1-2). In these first two lines the speaker contradicts himself right away by saying that he believes her, but knows she is not telling the truth. He is very aware of the delusion he is in, but he is willing to let it pass. He is willing to let it pass because of the mutual dishonesty that exists in the relationship. In the next two lines, he talks about youth, and age. He is talking about the Dark Lady considering him a younger ma...

    Read More

  • A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Rapunzel

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The familiar story of Rapunzel, as told by the brothers Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, takes on new meaning with a psychoanalytic interpretation. It is a complex tale about desire, achievement, and loss. The trio of husband, wife, and witch function as the ego, id, and superego respectively to govern behavior regarding a beautiful object of desire, especially when a prince discovers this object.

    Read More

  • hi

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    “These poems not only contain the main theme of love but also many other themes as well. The theme of reminiscence is present in Alice Walkers “Poem At Thirty Nine” as she says, “How I miss my father”. The poem La Belle Dame sans merci also contains many hidden themes like that of desertion when the fairy doesn’t appear at the knight’s arm (on the side of the hill). We can tell that the woman is a fairy because she lives in an “elfin grot” and she also speaks a different language that the knight cannot comprehend. Many added themes are found in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” like honor and loyalty.

    Read More

  • Mirrors by Sylvia Plath

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author applies sight and personification to accentuate the mirror’s roles. The declaimer of the poem says “I am silver and exact [and] whatever I see I swallow” (1, 20). The purpose of these devices is to convey the position of the mirror in the poem. As an inanimate object, the mirror is incapable of consuming anything but the appearances of entities. Furthermore, the glass’ role accentuates an inner mirror, the human mirror which does not forget instances of misery and contentment. According to Freedman, the mimicking image emulated by the mirror elicits “… a look for oneself inside” as observed from the life of the elderly woman in the sonnet (153). Moreover, as the woman looks into the lake, she commemorates her appealing and attractive and pleasant figure as a young girl. As time passes, the inevitability of old age knocks on the door of the woman, readily waiting to change the sterling rapturous lady perceived by many. One’s appearance can change; it is up to an individual to embrace it or reject it.

    Read More

  • Shakespearian Sonnets

    2183 Words  | 5 Pages

    When looking at “Sonnets XXIX” and “Sonnet XXX”, both similarities and differences rise to the surface. As both Sonnets are written by William Shakespeare they share a common bond. “Sonnet XXX” also follows right after “Sonnet XXIX” which helps keep the consistency as they were written around the same times. Both of the Sonnets are written to the young man who he praises and looks up to. Shakespeare does not feel as if he can live up to the young man and all that he has which makes him feel upset about himself. The speaker talks about crying throughout the Sonnets allowing the readers to see his true feelings. Finally through repetition and the use of alliterations, it is easy to follow the Sonnets to understand what the speaker is feeling. It is all tied together with a concise rhyming couplet which shows his understanding and accepting of what is happening. Throughout the Sonnets, Shakespeare allows the readers to view the inferiority and insecurities of the speaker, prove his point by using crying and sound devices enhances the writing by using literary devices while bringing them together with a strong rhyming couplet.

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Analysis

    404 Words  | 1 Pages

    The author uses symbolism as well in this story to support the theme. Firstly, the author uses a closed door as a symbol of separator. The closed door separated her from her sister and her friend. She is free from the surroundings. Although she "wept at once" (69) after her husband's unfortunate, things are changing now. "The open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair" (69) reveals that Louise's true feeling. In the following paragraph, Chopin uses "blue sky" (69) as a sign of hope; twittering "sparrows" (69) as a sign of happiness. The reader can confirm that her husband's death is only a temporary hurdle and she recovers quickly from the grief. Now she looks hopefully to the future, future of independent and well deserved freedom.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Rapunzel

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though Rapunzel’s lengthy confinement in one room, her home, is convincing evidence of the female’s domestic belonging, it does not adequately demonstrate the connectedness of the woman to the domestic. The ambitious young Prince faces an insurmountable task when he plans to elope with Rapunzel; he must, temporarily, displace the woman from her domestic home. After the Prince decisively wins Rapunzel’s affection, Rapunzel delineates her escape plan: “ 'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse’” (The Brothers Grimm). First, Rapunzel states she will “go away with [the Prince]” and he will “take [her] on [his] horse,” two statements which reveal both Rapunzel’s dependence upon the Prince and her lack of independence. Though Rapunzel agrees to leave her domestic realm, she does so only to elope in the safe, steady hands of the Prince, venturing from one sphere of domesticity, with her mother, to another sphere of domesticity with a man. Rapunzel also promises to “weave a ladder with [silk].” Weaving, a deep-rooted, traditional female activity arises in Rapunzel because it is both feminine and perfectly accessible within a domestic setting. The woman’s skills, in any patriarchal work, are not

    Read More

  • My Last Duchess Jealousy Analysis

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the appearance of jealousy, the Duke tries to hide his actual inner struggle of insecurity. The Duke may have that feeling, possibly because of his appearance and how the Duchess usurpers him in that category. This results, in the Duke poisoning the Duchess, because the Duke comes to the conclusion that possibly someday she would grow tired of him and have an affair. So not only did he murder her but in doing so he made sure she could only be with him, thus sealing her fate. For this reason, the Duke clearly thinks of himself as a self-justifier who is attempting to cover up his feelings and actions by getting rid of her. The quote references his insecurity which therefore is a fuel for his jealousy. Michael G. Miller states in his essay, “Browning’s My Last Duchess”, “His subtle and unconscious slander of his last victim exposes at the bottom an instinctive self-justifier or at least a man

    Read More

  • Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Written at the close of Spring,” Smith’s second sonnet, she focuses on the wonderful ability nature has in rejuvenating itself each year. Smith personifies Spring in the way it “nurs’d in dew” its flowers as though it was nursing its own children (“Close of Spring” 2). While it creates life, Spring is not human, because it has this ability to come back after its season has passed. Human beings grow old and die; we lose our “fairy colours” through the abrasive nature of life (“Close of Spring” 12). Smith is mournful that humans cannot be like the flowers of Spring and regain the colors of our lives after each year.

    Read More

  • Sonnet 29 Tone

    456 Words  | 1 Pages

    The first quatrain of the sonnet serves to emphasize the exclusion that the speaker experiences which makes him abhor his fate. Complaining that he “all alone beweep [his] outcast state”, the speaker uses alliteration

    Read More

  • Sonnet 18 Analysis

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    This sonnet uses a lot of personification. This is when you give an non-living object human traits and qualities. For example in line 5: "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines", we say that the heaven's eye shines, but does heaven really have an eye and does it shine? No. Next example is in line 6: "And often is his gold complexion dimmed". The sun is that 'gold' thing, but does it really have a complexion? Again, no. One last example is in line 9, which maybe is not an example of personification in our sense, but it could be in the poet's sense! "But thy eternal summer shall not fade"; to the poet, summer is not eternal, but the beauty and life of his beloved is.

    Read More

  • Essay On Social Work

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    My goal is to work in a mental health setting as soon as I graduate with my BSW. I would like to see if I should get my masters in social work or get my doctorate in psychology. Either way, I feel like I will be doing a great thing. As a professional, I want to help many people with their problems. I will encourage their opinions and ideas as well as help them form plans to better their

    Read More

  • Interpreting Aging and Legacy in Shakespeare's Sonnet 3

    373 Words  | 1 Pages

    Shakespeare begins this sonnet by telling him he should realize, because of his aging, that it is time to produce a child, for is he does not, he cheats the world, mother earth, who then becomes an unblessed mother. The "mother" also refers to the mother of the would be child--she then being unblessed from the lack of a child. 5-6: 'What part of her, physicall or emotionally, keeps you from friuting her womb through procreation [an act that comes with marriage]?' 7-8: '(If not that reason), are you so narcissistic that you will bring the end of your family to the tomb?'

    Read More

More about The Formalistic Approach to Hay's Rapunzel

Open Document