1
Q
“Of course I was drugged and so heavily I did not regain consciousness until the next morning.”
A
- Discourse marker : normalises the situation creating a sense of passivity
- Power imbalance of the speaker - inferiority and insubordination
- Epigraph : used to give a scope to the speaker and look at issues regarding SA in society
2
Q
“I had been ruined”
A
- Euphemistic and definitive : shows the powerless nature of the victim and its irreversible consequences
- Previously would have been shamed and outcast for it highlighting the unfairness
- Brutalises the situation emphasising its harshness
3
Q
“Cried like a child to be killed or sent back to my aunt”
A
- Simile : degrading and infantilising. Presents the speaker as naive and childish despite it being such a horrific and destructive act done creating a sense of irony.
- Speakers perspective : sense of self-blame
- Emphasises the brutal reality of the situation as life ruining and devastating
4
Q
“I can taste the grief”
A
- Visceral imagery / metaphor : sense of permanence and dismay to the horrific actions committed
- Humanises the experience
- Traumatic experience that has stained the individual
- Presents an empathetic speaker through the shift in perspective
5
Q
“The brisk brief worry of wheels”
A
- Plosive alliteration : emphasises the traumatic event highlighting the woman’s pain and suffering
- Ordinary events become fearful, motif of anxiousness
- Emphasises the trauma changes perspective
6
Q
“And light, unanswerable tall and wide, forbids the scar to heal, and drives shame out of hiding”
A
- Personification : humanises the experience through fear and threat
- Light imagery : subversion of something that typically symbolises hope however this is undermined
- Syndetic listing / tripartite : brutalises the harsh reality, elongation emphasises the irreversible pain and suffering from the victim
- Predatory imagery provoked furthering the victims status
7
Q
“And light, unanswerable tall and wide, forbids the scar to heal, and drives shame out of hiding”
A
- Personification : humanises the experience through fear and threat
- Light imagery : subversion of something that typically symbolises hope however this is undermined
- Syndetic listing / tripartite : brutalises the harsh reality, elongation emphasises the irreversible pain and suffering from the victim
- Predatory imagery provoked furthering the victims status
8
Q
“All the unhurried day your mind lay open like a drawer of knives”
A
- Enjambment : through the elongation and continuation her position is harshened
- Simile : shows that her mind is filled with violence and destruction
- Vulnerability of the victim, in constant reminder of the traumatic experience
- Suicidal reading : emphasises the extent of the experience, hypocritical society
9
Q
“Bridal London bows the other way”
A
- Personification : complete rejection of the victim emphasises the hypocritical misogynistic society
- Undermined as she has ‘lost her purity’ and no longer seen as innocent
- Ironic as it has been taken from her and the man is not punished
- Mocking tone : used to undermine society’s views due to them bowing to the abuser
- Marriage is prioritised over abuse, if not married first seen as inferior
10
Q
“Where desire takes charge, readings will grow erratic?”
A
- Rhetorical question : trying to make sense of the situation and rationalise the rapists actions
- Presents sexual desire as uncontrollable, primitive and promotes animalistic imagery
- An attempt to console
11
Q
“You were the less deceived, out on that bed, than he was”
A
- Intertextuality to Hamlet
- Emphasises a sense of vulnerability
- Refers to the collection as a whole, Larkin was going to name the poem the Less Deceived
- Caesura creates a separation between the victim and the rapist emphasising him as a villainous figure who’s desires were empty and hollow
- Gives the victim a platform and holds the abuser accountable
12
Q
“To burst into fulfilments desolate attic.”
A
- Juxtaposition : place of memory and storage of loved possessions
- Emphasises the victims memories as painful and dangerous Highlighting the everlasting effects
- Lacks satisfaction and joy furthered by the endstop emphasises the permanent position of the victim
13
Q
CONTEXT
A
- London labour and London Poor, work of a Victorian Journalism by Henry Mehew in 1840s, looked into the position of poorer classes
- Initially wanted the title to be the Less Deceived
- Societal expectations in Victorian England
- Radicalism within the poem potentially links to him rejecting poet Laurette in Hull
- Hermit of Hull
14
Q
STRUCTURE
A
- Voice : epigraph at beginning upholds the victim, giving them a voice
- Shift in voice emphasises an empathetic speaker
The Less Deceived - Larkin
flashcards
Decks in class (8)
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