People have read hundreds of stories about the “damsel in distress”. Whether it is in “Cinderella” or “Sleeping Beauty”, it seems like society views women as weak and are always in the need of men to save them from their problems. However, Margaret Atwood takes a different spin on the trope in her poem Siren Song. Through the allusion to greek mythology, Atwood makes readers think twice about the strength of women, which can be seen through the analysis of the communicative situation, structure and language of the poem.
To begin, the communicative situation of the poem sets up the framework of the poem. The poem is narrated by a siren, a hybrid of a woman and a bird. Sirens are notable in greek mythology, where they are described to have lured sailors to their deaths with their bewitching songs. In the poem, the scene takes place on an island in the middle of the ocean, where three sirens are leading men to their deaths. Throughout the poem, one particular siren directly speaks to the reader.
Moving onto the structure, in the first three stanzas, the siren is describing the siren song. She starts off in the first …show more content…
She will tell the reader the secret siren song, if he/she get, “… [her] out of this bird suit.” In the following two stanzas, the siren describes her dislike of being on the island, the other two sirens, which she describes as “feathery manics,” and singing. She calls these three points, “fatal and valuable.” It can be inferred that her asking to be freed from her “bird suit” is a mention of her dislike of being half-woman and half-bird. Her dislike of her hybridism is a call to men to make her feel like a woman — only a woman. Moreover, in these stanzas, it is highlighted that she is tired of her life as a siren. These stanzas display the siren as a “damsel in distress”. This is done to make the reader feel that it is their duty to help them, like other men think when they see a
To begin, the communicative situation of the poem sets up the framework of the poem. The poem is narrated by a siren, a hybrid of a woman and a bird. Sirens are notable in greek mythology, where they are described to have lured sailors to their deaths with their bewitching songs. In the poem, the scene takes place on an island in the middle of the ocean, where three sirens are leading men to their deaths. Throughout the poem, one particular siren directly speaks to the reader.
Moving onto the structure, in the first three stanzas, the siren is describing the siren song. She starts off in the first …show more content…
She will tell the reader the secret siren song, if he/she get, “… [her] out of this bird suit.” In the following two stanzas, the siren describes her dislike of being on the island, the other two sirens, which she describes as “feathery manics,” and singing. She calls these three points, “fatal and valuable.” It can be inferred that her asking to be freed from her “bird suit” is a mention of her dislike of being half-woman and half-bird. Her dislike of her hybridism is a call to men to make her feel like a woman — only a woman. Moreover, in these stanzas, it is highlighted that she is tired of her life as a siren. These stanzas display the siren as a “damsel in distress”. This is done to make the reader feel that it is their duty to help them, like other men think when they see a