Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
1
The Convergence of the Twain By Thomas Hardy
2
Stanza 1 Personification of Titanic’s wreckage
Contrast between ‘human vanity’ and its left overs on the seabed Emphasis on the ‘aloneness’ N.B. enjambed lines Rhyme: a, a, a.
3
Stanza 2 Description engine rooms & their transformation
Allusion to altars for sacrifice (pyres) What sacrifice? Human? Technological? Financial? Water – fire image through salamander description Extended metaphor: compartments of engine with tidal currents TO a lyre being played
4
Stanza 3 More contrastive language; beauty of mirrors contrasted with utterly appalling sea creature
5
Stanza 4 Alliteration! jewels & joy; bleared & black & blind; lie & lightless Magnificence vs. uselessness of jewelry Emphasis on obscurity of sea bottom
6
Stanza 5 Alliteration hard ‘g’ sound Personification fish
Whose question is this? Shouldn’t it be ours? Question of necessity Why was this ship ever built? VANITY? PRIDE? SELF-ABSORPTION? FUTILITY? Fishes’ question becomes rhetorical
7
Stanza 1-5 Lines 1-15: Description of wreckage on sea floor
Civilized world contrasted with marine / natural world Human craftsmanship contrasted with naturalness of deep sea world
8
Stanza 6-7 Beginning of answer to fishes’ question
Importance connector ‘while’ Enjambment of two stanzas; symbolizes continuity of nature’s force Hardy as atheist What stirs everything? FATE? If there is a God A very vengeful one?
9
Stanza 8 Suspense created by double ‘growing’ imagery
Sort of competition? Who is smarter / more beautiful?
10
Stanza 9-11 Enjambed stanzas; no stopping possible now – nature’s forces as opposed to man’s Final ‘consummation’ ; sexual connotation; state of perfection BUT for who? Battle between man’s machinery & nature Idea of predestination Reminder of human beings’ fallibility Strong sense of condemnation / disdain by author
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.