The Gun - Vicki Feaver

Question 1

What does Vicki Feaver say about her own experience with guns irl?

Answer 1

“I lived in Brixton in central London for twenty years and though I sometimes heard gunshots I never actually saw a gun. But now living in Lanarkshire, Scotland, right in the middle of the country I see lots of guns. Almost all the men seem to have a shotgun. And then my own husband got a shotgun and brought it into the house, and at first I felt very afraid of it and then gradually my whole attitude changed as I describe in this poem.”

Question 2

note: poem includes elements of the Gothic Domestic

Answer 2

• genre focuses a lot on the ploght and entrapment of women in domestic settings and their repression
  o ties into the poem’s later depiction of the woman as joining in on the excitement and thrill of the gun only when cooking (distinctly feminine role traditionally) and how the juxtaposition of the violent and creative aspects in the list of cooking-related actions mirrors the fact that women’s violence can only come out in restricted forms

Question 3

What collection is ‘The Gun’ from and when was it published?

Answer 3

‘The Book of Blood’ (2006)

Question 4

What is significant about the structure of ‘The Gun’?

Answer 4

• enjambment emphasises violence of certain words (eg. “shot/clean”, “trampled/fur”)
  o contributes to establishing the immense power afforded by the gun to stop life as pleased, control, but also lends a sense of awed shock or horror due to letting the violent word sink into the mind
  o enjambment also creates a choppy, uneasy rhythm, with line endings at unexpected points; cutting life short though has little reason
• no rhyme scheme
  o volatility of the gun and thus the volatility of humans allured by the promise of power
• frequent caesura
  o short bursts, violence, concentrated explosions of words
• as the poem progresses, the sentences are shorter
  o could perhaps signal a return to a more primitive state of mind due to the hunting
  o could also signal the increased firing of the gun -> more bursts, more shots -> speaker has given into the allure of power and has begun to use it more and more indiscriminately; perhaps also creates nervous, excited energy linked to this?
  o warns against the abuse of power

Question 5

Why did Feaver write ‘The Gun’?

Answer 5

• intoxication of power
• whether violence is natural or unnatural/nature of violence
• primitive/older human natures
• human power of creation
• domestic gender roles and femininity in relation to violence

Question 6

Analyse the symbolism of the gun

Answer 6

• weapon
  o affinity for causing harm, and affords the power for stopping life itself
  o however, it is ultimately just a tool; it depends on the USE by a human to actually cause the harm and has none of its own morals or feelings (shown in the line describing it as like “something dead/itself.”)
  o despite this, those that abuse this power afforded by the gun often blame the gun itself for the harm it causes -> shirk responsibility in order to abuse power More; the conflict between desire for power and moral compass -> will obfuscate and shift blame in order to convince self that it is fine actually and then keep revelling in the power that they take and abuse
  o thus, symbolises the allure of power and the temptation to people using it

Question 7

“Bringing a gun into a house/changes it.”

Answer 7

• rhythmic disparity between the two lines
  o lends a LOT of emphasis and punch to the second line - full extent of the change, the disruption, jarring
  o the power of the gun (either literally or as a metaphor for power/the allure of power) in completely reshaping past rhythms and how people live
  o the enjambment cutting in suddenly also gestures to the volatility of the gun and creates unease/disruption again
• “house” vs “gun”
  o “house” => family, rest, domesticity, peace, safety; humans first built own houses/dwellings for shelter from the danger and volatility of Outside -> houses also are a place where one has complete control over surroundings and can shape everything to suit comfort
  o “gun” => violence, danger, unpredictability, threat; opposes everything the house stands for (in theory)
  o the stark juxtaposition between the two jars reader -> creates immediate sense of dread and unease/queasiness which foreshadows the escalation and absorption of violence into the home in a perverse and truly uncomfortable manner to the average reader - also gives the feeling of an intrusion into this otherwise peaceful location where one’s guard can be down; forces into a corner and to be on edge all the time -> prey? not truly applicable to the speaker as she begins to enjoy the power and violence of the gun, but yk
• “Bringing”
  o it is not the “gun” itself that “changes” things, but instead the ACT of bringing the gun into the house
  o places burden on the humans and their actions rather than on the gun and reinforces its role as simply a tool which people can choose either to use or not to use, as well as the frequency of use
  o lies totally on people’s shoulders not to be tempted into the abuse of power by the mere proximity of a way to facilitate it

Question 8

“You lay it on the kitchen table,/stretched out like something dead/itself:”

Answer 8

• plosives/consonance
  o used when discussing the gun and the violence that comes with it -> punchy, bouncy feel which emphasises its volatility and the gravity of the power it gives the wielder over life
  o potential for harm etc. embedded in gun’s nature
• “You lay”
  o feels gentle and tender -> almost like laying a loved one down to rest; makes gun at home in the house and immediately lets it take up space and get comfortable -> gun like an intruder for the speaker
  o however also connotes the next section of the line (death) as like a dead body
  o “You” -> makes speaker’s husband implicated in the placement of the gun and it feeling at home; NOT THE GUN’S FAULT
• “kitchen table”
  o where dinner is served and eaten -> food -> sustenance; foreshadows the gun’s acceptance by the speaker perhaps and the fact thrive and live off of the violence and power given by gun -> could also foreshadow the amount of animals killed that end up at the kitchen table due to the allure of the gun’s poweru
  o the sustenance aspect could also be comment on how weaponry fuels and sustains energy and violence -> enables to spiral out of control?
• “stretched out”
  o on one hand, taking up space, claiming the home and being completely comfortable juxtaposed with the uneasiness of the speaker and readers -> gives gun reins over situation seemingly and exacerbates the power of the gun
  o however, when read from the dead thing…
• “dead/itself”
  o foreshadows the future hunts that will be made using the gun and places the gun here in the place of the hunted animals; portrays the husband first and foremost as a hunter, with the agency and conscious decision go and buy shotgun and bring it into house -> burden of responsibility on PEOPLE not the gun
  o also, bringing gun as an already dead thing -> inviting death into the household; foreshadows later imagery of inviting the “King of Death” to feast; ominous, unsettling
• colon caesura
  o stops flow (potential for death bc of gun’s violence and volatility and power as a weapon) but also facilitates continuation (hunting? -> food; use as an actual tool rather than a method of abusing the power it promises; importance of intention and control/regulation over desire for power)

Question 9

“long metal barrel/casting a grey shadow/on the green-checked cloth.”

Answer 9

• “grey shadow”
  o “shadow” -> typically associated with a looming threat, dread, terrible foreshadowing that something bad will happen -> the shadow over the vitality and lovely domesticity of the cloth lends to the overwhelming unease in this first section of the poem and builds tension
  o also, cements gun as a new and intrusive, always present part of the couple’s life -> always shadowed and followed by the gun and the power in some way -> temptation to use, the unease created, the growing desire for death with increasing use of the gun
  o “grey” => devoid of life, desaturated; mirrors gun’s lifelessness and its bringing death and unease to house
  o however, grey not dark -> is a lighter dark; phrase morally grey -> the gun is merely a tool in itself - how it is used determines whether it is a good or bad thing to have in the house and until then it is uncertain
• “green-checked cloth”
  o sets vignette of domesticity -> domestic gothic
  o green (vitality, life nature) vs grey creates contrast between the two
  o alternatively could be symbolic of the relationship between the gun and nature; nature provides basis for hunting food etc. and gun used by hunters in to get food
  o “checked” -> picnic blanket? adds to the peacefuk domesticity and lack of violence conflated w/nature as becomes clear later on; also white (light) and green (darker shade) -> softer implication of the duality and proximity of life and death from the beginning?
• lots of harsher consonant sounds here
  o lends to violence and volatility of gun
  o impact will make on their lives

Question 10

“At first it’s just practice:”

Answer 10

• “At first”/”just”
  o platitudes to make smth sound smaller than it is -> human mental gymnastics to justify the violence before succumb; implication that have control over this overwhelming allure of power, but addiction too powerful in the end
• “practice”
  o sinister -> training to be able to more efficiently and effectively kill; harnessing most power and violence from gun requires practice -> desire for FULL violence available; intoxication, greed

Question 11

Time markers: “At first” -> “Then” -> “Soon”

Answer 11

emphasises the pace and speed of this intoxication by the power and violence of the gun; danger of succumbing to such potent power and allowing self to become trapped in this spiral of violence and greed for power which people so often become trapped in

Question 12

“tins/dangling on orange string/from trees”

Answer 12

• “from trees”
  o the use of nature for human purposes of enjoyment without regard for the comfort or respect of nature etc. -> asserts human power over nature and how the gun facilitates this
• “dangling”
  o precarious, gives tension
  o also feels like a lure for a donkey (coupled with “orange” colour of string) -> can see and feel power afforded by gun So clearly and this only drives and motivates to perpetuate more violence in hopes of chasing the deliciousness of this power
  o also equates food with the power and violence again -> unease at something Needed to live and be comfortable being piwer and violence -> becoming a pervasive power in home life; desperation for power and all-consuming nature

Question 13

“Then a rabbit shot/clean through the head.”

Answer 13

• “Then”
  o moves very quickly from “just practice” to first kill, and moves fluidly -> spiral draws people in and the chase for power intoxicates more and more without even realising it until are turned into a physical manifestation of the gun itself
• “rabbit”
  o innocent, fast, usually symbolic of new life (spring) and luck
  o killing a “rabbit” first feels exceedingly shocking and makes huge impact
  o enjambment and the consonance and phonetic finality of “shot” enhances the rhythmic impact of this, making more jarring and disturbing-> also makes sound like an actual gunshot
• “clean through”
  o death is anything but clean - it is messy and bloody -> idealisation of death and the feeling of pride and freshness that accompanies the violence and power of the gun when used -> start of intoxication in full swing

Question 14

“Soon the fridge fills with creatures/that have run and flown.”

Answer 14

• “soon” -> quick escalation and spiral of intoxication of power
• “fridge fills”
  o fricatives -> emphasis on how full the fridge is and how often husband has used the gun
  o “fills” emphasises intoxication -> is killing kuch beyond what needs to take and this abuse of power results in the needless deaths of so many creatures just for the human thrill of power over death and the feeljng of control
• “creatures”
  o not animals, or birds or specifics -> creatures in general
  o indiscriminate and vast nature of the killing -> So much
  o also shows the disregard for nature in preference of human whims and desires for control/power as makes the creatures all a monolith and disregards the individual importance of their lives
• “have run and flown”
  o focus on their past, quick movement -> all this life stopped (the full-stop emphasises) just because of the intoxication of power
  o quick movement also gives tense, furtive, terrified feeling, almost as if the animals are running from their death at the hands of the husband and the gun -> exacerbates how disturbing this abuse of power is in contrast to the exhilaration felt

Question 15

“Your hands reek of gun oil/and entrails.”

Answer 15

• possible literary allusion to LM -> took much pride in kikling Duncan initially and lived off of the power and esteem that her new position as queen gave her, revelling in the power, but eventually the extreme violence caught up to her and overwhelming guilt crushed her -> warning as to the dangers of chasing power and the irreversibility of abusing that power and taking lives
• “hands reek”
  o though it is the gun that is the weapon and the method of killing (detached, tool), the focus is on the husband’s hands, directly focusing the blame and decision to take those lives on the humans who use the power of the gun for their own means -> CANNOT SHIRK RESPONSIBILITY

Question 16

“You trample/fur and feathers.”

Answer 16

• enjambment gives emphasis to violence of the word “trample”
  o jarring and unsettling
  o also cuts the line at unexpected point rhythmically -> increased volatility and short fuse of husband
• “trample”
  o husband’s violence has extended past the simple use of the gun and is spiralling into more and more intense forms
  o needlessly violent -> deriving joy from EXCESSIVE violence and the feeling of being able to trample life underfoot ->

Question 17

“There’s a spring/in your step: your eyes gleam/like when sex was fresh.”

Answer 17

• “spring”
  o walks with more bounce -> lively, animal, thoroughly enjoying the freedom and control given by the gun
  o also in terms of a literal spring -> ‘spring-loaded’; volatile, unpredictable; like the gun (husband again presented as merging visually with the gun -> corruption of excessive power and the amount it weighs on the mind
• plosives (“spring in your step”)
  o bounciness, vitality -> emphasises the change in the speaker’s husband in becoming much more animal like and animated because of the influence and intoxication of the power represented by the gun
  o also contrasts the earlier soft fricatives of “fur and feathers” -> violence of the gun and the power it gives and also the impact it has on the lives of the innocent and softer creatures
  o revelling in this newfound power almost carelessly, driven on by the intoxication; leads to question the logical soundness of doing so and how good this acc is?
• “gleam”
  o has elongated vowel which underlines sensual or erotic undertones by drawing attention to the line and making things feel more fluid, more intense
  o shine -> light -> revelation; speaker’s husband has been shown the feeling of such potent power and now can’t get enough
  o also a similarity to metal -> assimilates the human with the gun and makes it almost as if is becoming the gun -> people think have power kn abusing it, but really the feeling of power intoxicates them and drives them far beyond what they would typically do -> also intertwines violence with human nature as simultaneously describes return to a more primitive state in other lines
• sibilance (“sex was fresh”)
  o relishing -> elongates the words and makes sound like really enjoying
  o however perhaps a little bit of a sinister tone created? predatory? (snakes)
• “sex” vs the gun
  o “sex” -> life/death, heated and intoxicating in its intensity (almost like power), intertwining of male and female (from het. pov), primitive almost -> no intellectualism required -> emphasis is on movement and the role that movement and spontaneity plays in enjoyment and creation etc.?
• “fresh”
  o craves novelty and adrenaline -> primitive -> gun gives this
  o implies that the relationship between the speaker and husband is now not fresh and has lost its original vitality and intoxication -> the gun and the allure of power and uncertainty has reignited this spark
  o fresh -> meat -> raw meat gives primitive image -> lust for raw meat
  o places food and violence and sex all in one semantic field and space, perhaps very uncomfortably as conflates these with violence of a life-threatening degree; violence now pervades all aspects of life and the intoxication of power has reached its height -> inescapable

Question 18

“A gun brings a house alive.”

Answer 18

juxtaposition between violence/death associated with a “gun” and the feeling of being “alive”
o could perhaps mean “alive” in less of a joyful, explicitly positive way and in more of an adrenaline fuelled way, living in the moment and returning to a state of being in which more primitive -> also feeling of being on edge, jumpy, animal-like
o could also mean “alive” in the sense of a ‘live gun’ -> always loaded, unpredictable; provides a delicious variation and link between thrill and threat in an otherwise slow domestic life characterised by idealistic joy and rest etc. (“green-checked cloth” -> picnics -> quite cutesie and fun and peaceful co-existence with nature) -> this is how the “gun… changes it [a house]”
- “gun brings”
o though is a weapon and needs use to be able to cause anything at all, the sheer presence of that allure of power and the magnetism between people and the gun is enough to completely change the dynamics -> comment on how people can seem to hardly control themselves around power and always get consumed by its heady, intoxicating scent

Question 19

“I join in the cooking:/and slicing, stirring and tasting-“

Answer 19

• “I join”
  o the introduction of the speaker into the poem -> in a domestic capacity
  o if view speaker as a woman (likely due to the ppenly biographical aspect), jndirectly implicates the speaker in the gun’s violence but in the ‘feminine’ capacity of creation and bringing new life to things -> women as creators and men as destroyers; could be a comment on the ying/yang of men and women in society and gender roles and the importance of women in regulating violence and giving purpose -> in the rest of Feaver’s work, creative powers of women and their repression is common theme, so could be comment on how this more primitive model of gender roles plays out vs modern where women are completely cut out of the idea of violence and the capacity to be directly related to violence and using violence as a foundation for creation
  o the power and violence of hunting and using guns only becomes unnatural when it is excessive and excludes women from the relation with violence
  o however, important to note that the woman is not the initial creator nor does she have complete creative control over the food as she is “joining” rather than the hunting and cooking being two separate tasks -> intertwine -> inextricable nature of life and death
  o “join” -> woman has taken finally the decision to accept the power and allure of the gun in its violence and succumbed to it -> leads to this pagan worship of the king of death almost
• continuous -> “cooking: and slicing, stirring and tasting-“
  o emphasises the size of this “feast” for the King of Death and the excess of death caused by the allure of the power
  o also perhaps suggests the irreversibility of the succumbing to the allure of such volatile and dangerous power -> stay in this cycle of preparing thw amount of animals killed continuously and can’t really stop
  o the listing also created nervous excitement and feeling of rushing and bustling to prepare the feast for the King of Death without even stopping to do anything else -> increases grandeur and importance/worship/reverance of the King of Death; also may demonstrate how power often consumes the mind and drives all actions once succumb to temptation and begin to “fire the gun” indiscriminately
  o this list also places more violent actions “jointing and slicing” with more stereotypically domestic ones and ones associated with senses -> life “stirring and tasting” -> the intertwining of violence and creation and life all in one -> links perhaps to the closeness of “sex” and death/violence in the poem

Question 20

“excited as if the King of Death/had arrived to feast, stalking”

Answer 20

• “excited”
  o sense of grandeur and grateful servitude - feels almost cult-like; the KING of death visiting them specifically -> have done special service to death, perhaps in how much they have killed, or the fact that have honoured death’s true bature as culminating in rebirth via creativity etc. - humans ultimately do not have complete control over death and power and instead seem to worship it
  o reinforces the sense of exhilaration that comes with returning to a more primal state and holding such brutal power over life and death through weaponry
• “feast”
  o have prepared more than enough food for the King of Death
  o again lends to culty or pagan sacrificial feeling, but also celebratory sense gained (“excited”) -> vitality and excitement and thrill of violence even though is a dark thing
  o also suggests the King of Death feeds off of human violence -> human violence and excess use of power in sustaining the immense power and presence of death (condemns overuse of power for murderous means?)
• “King of Death”
  o not Death itself but ruling over death -> the ruler of death is portrayed as a sort of mythological figure; it is not POSSIBLE for humans to control death, and is even unnatural (replace naturally themes king)
  o “King” -> ruler -> death and the allure of power rules the couple’s lives and demonstrates the extent to which power can be all-consuming in one’s life and brain
  o also gives Death a sense of regality and grace instead of making sound primal and animal like the speaker’s husband does when he becomes intertwined with death in his use of the gun -> restriction, has had time to grow and cultuvate self -> also communicates difference in status of power between humans and death -> death wields in refined, careful hand whilst humans’ abuse of power results in animal indiscriminate killing for pure joy and catharsis and release -> uncontrolled, volatile
• sibilance -> creates tone fhat makes line last longer -> relishing, emphasising the fact that this violence and power is ENJOYABLE to the speaker and her husband
• “stalking”
  o predatory piwer, primitive -> mirrors hunting and makes the king of death seem more creature than human despite the regality and power

Question 21

“black mouth/sprouting golden crocuses.”

Answer 21

• “black mouth”
  o “black” -> death, decay; could also signify the cavernous depth of death’s mouth -> hunger for violence and death never-ending and will continue to spiral and js take
  o mouth -> jaws and teeth can be seen as weapons too -> eat with mouth and also speak with mouth -> if speaking, could link to golden crocus line; from the moyth of dwath comes vitality and creation and new life in the humans and creation
• “sprouting”
  o abundance, gives death as the ‘soil’ for these flowers; could trace back to the ancient Greek version of the crocus myth in which Krokus (mortal companion of Hermes) killed during game of discus and turned into the crocus flower when his blood hit the earth -> ties into pagan mythology of this stanza and the sensationalisation and fascination that comes with such allure of power and death -> also links back to more primitive traditions
  o alsoalso, pagan shit places the couple outside of modern ideas of morality and ethics and regales to a very distant time -> just how far power distorts ideas of morality and ‘proper’ behaviour
  o alternatively, makes it feel as if the crocuses are suffocating the King of Death -> this tender little symbol of vitality can overpower even the King of Death -> importance of nature and life and warning against submitting too entirely to power and death rather than that of life
• “golden”
  o precious, wealth -> nature valuable
  o also forms stark contrast with the “black” mouth; life and death intertwined like a ying and yang despite their contrast and one often gives birth to the other
• “crocuses”
  o flowers in late winter and can survive light frosts
  o typically used to symbolise happiness and rebirth -> could be ironic, as it is the last word of the poem and thus signifies the close or “death” of the poem, and also death is irreversible, however could also be representative of the rebirth that comes through hunting related deaths -> forms food and sustenance for other life forms and lives on in them, creation of new dishes, the afterlife? -> could be comment on the nature of killing; must be controlled and for the right means, otherwise this rebirth will not happen and deaths are pointless