All three poems have something to do with some type of love or desire. However, the poems display stereotypical feminine demeanors. For example, they make women look passive, like objects for men, helpless, and weak. Also each poem requires the reader to do outside research on greek mythology if they want to uncover the author's true incentive and hidden meanings to each story.
In Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song" the greek mythology of a "siren" is the woman who is a monster and it's her song which she uses to attract the men who find it irresistible and then she attacks, kills, and eats them. The men who get past the sirens are the one's who are considered a hero and are cherished. In a literal sense I think Atwood is implying that she has gone through bad relationships and bad guys and is waiting for her true love. This poem is stereotypical and makes women seem passive by saying women will always be waiting for the man to come around and it's like a little girl's fantasy, waiting for "prince charming".
In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” it's a stereotypical man's mind. He is hungry for love all the time. His heart constantly wanders through girls so he can live life to the fullest before he dies. In college it's stereotyped that college guys are players and always want another girl to be with to live college life to the fullest before they settle later in life. This is how the poem makes women look like objects because they are only used for men's entertainment and pleasure.
William Butler Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan” also makes women look helpless and weak with the words the author uses to describe Zeus raping Leda. This type of "love" is terrifying and makes the women look weak and the man having total control as he forces himself upon Leda (or a woman).
3 comments:
i like your interpretation of the "Siren Song." I didn't see your idea that she has gone through bad relationships and is waiting for her true love. I saw it being stereotypical about guys falling so easily for the beautiful song that has an evil behind it.
What I found interesting about your interpretation was that you said that the woman is a monster and she attacks, kills, and eats them. I'm not exactly sure if the women eat the men, but we do know that something bad happens to them.
I didn't realize the sirens actually ate the people they killed. I missed that part of the story.
Post a Comment