A Wife In London By Thomas Hardy Analysis

“A Wife in London” delves into the heart-wrenching topic of acceptance and the devastating necessity to overcome the effects of losing a loved one in war. The poem begins with a woman who receives the dreary news of her husband’s death in the “far South lands” (Hardy 10). The next day, a postman hands a letter to her from her dead husband, bringing back the rush of emotions of shock and despair. The illustration of war builds on the perspective of the man and his losses, sorrows, and sadness. Hardy’s portrayal of a woman’s onsetting despair questions the idea of a man as the sole sufferer in warfare. Delineating the woman’s encounter with her dreary news as sudden and unexpected, the poem showcases the intense sentiments of pain, trauma, and …show more content…
Hardy relies on readers to evoke and truly experience the emotions felt by the wife in the poem. The woman, as expected, faces emotional shock as she reads the letter. Hardy personifies the letter through “it dazes to understand,” mystifying the syntax of the sentence to create listeners to experience that element of shock and void of true emotion (Hardy 8). The woman disengages from the world and its reality, where reality is unforgiving and harsh. The most difficult moment comes when her husband’s letter the next day. The emotional turmoil of reading the living words of a dead human being extracts the emotional complexity of the wife. The heart-wrenching confrontation of life and death renders the shock which the woman faces, illustrating the complexity of emotions and the drastic changes she endures. Hardy effectively establishes pathos, allowing the audience to understand the sorrow that the woman