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Summary Giuseppe - theme page
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A* level arguments, language analysis and themes regarding Roderick Ford's 'Giuseppe' - from Poems of the Decade for A-level English Literature, Unit 3: Poetry.
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Topic:Giuseppe – Roderick Ford (Joseph in English – Biblical)
Key Points/Arguments
Themes Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques of
whole poem
Ford has ‘My Uncle Giuseppe told me’ – distances himself from atrocity and confessional tone Metaphor for
asperges, the ‘behind the aquarium’ – preposition, secrecy of historical account, explains darkest corners of humanity (literally) violence to women,
‘mermaid’ – humanises fish and creates ambiguity around morality war atrocities,
lack of voice ‘bougainvillea’ – thin, delicate flower, easily crushed biblical allegory
the mermaid ‘was butchered’ – zoomorphic Narrator frames
has could ‘dry and dusty ground’ – away from habitat, extra suffering, plosives magic realist
mirror his ‘a doctor, a fishmonger’ – treats humans and fish narrative from the
‘she, it’ – pronouns, dehumanised and hesitation shows stumbling point of view of his
experience as ‘she was simple, or so they’d said’ – admission from narrator has to be justified eponymous uncle
an outsider. ‘held one of her hands’ – comforting or forceful? The ‘captive
‘she was only a fish, fish can’t speak’ – repetition of fish shows collective responsibility of mermaid’ oxymoron
Mermaid has ‘but she screamed’ – atrocity uses the mermaid as a
‘like a woman in terrible fear’ – only simile, rely on facts in attempt to justify symbol of man’s
been used for ‘ripe golden roe’ – pregnancy, took two lives, child ready to be born barbarity towards
years as a ‘anyway an egg is not a child’ – attempt to justify women and a
symbol of ‘put her head and her hands’ – disposed of aspects that made her human to get rid of guilt while simultaneously acknowledging that she is metonym for victims
unrivalled and human in general
untouchable ‘box for burial’ – juxtaposes human ritual, emotionally detached instead of coffin
‘tried to take her wedding ring’ – references war (camps), also her humanity, it ‘stayed put’ only got respect in death Mermaid is a
beauty, using ‘the rest’ – euphemism for body ‘subverted archetypal
its song to ‘cooked and fed to the troops’ – atrocities of war femme fatale’ – Mark
seduce sailors ‘said a large fish had been found’ – altered info, nazis censored and destroyed info Roberts, punished for
to their deaths. ‘starvation forgives men many things’ – alliteration emphasises men’s unforgivable nature tempting men with
‘but he couldn’t look me in the eye’ – regret that’s seeps into next generation, men don’t learn their lesson, he was meant to be the aquarium her sexuality
keeper
‘for which I thank God’ – lack of emotion and figurative language in poem, created vignettes of suffering
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