Expensive nature Essay Example for Free

Expensive nature Essay We can see that the maiden was not happy with the way in which her life changed when she uses the rhetorical question why did a great Lord find me out, To fill my heart with care? She is basically asking, Why did her life have to change when she was so happy and why did the lord have to fill her heart with care and worry whereas before she was blissful unaware of any problems surrounding her. She feels shame in the fact that she enjoyed her relationship with the lord woes me for joy thereof as in her time what she was engaging in would have been considered disgraceful. She feels used by the Lord and describes how if her hadnt come into her life she wouldnt be an unclean thing or if they had got married she could have been a dove and enjoyed a good life with him. The poet then starts to write of the cottage maidens feelings towards her cousin Kate. She describes the way the Lord grew tired of the cottage maiden and then decided to start a relationship with Kate and we get the inclination that the cottage maiden has feeling of jealousy but also anger towards this. She feels the Lord wanted Kate because she was good and pure she was a virgin and the fact that she wouldnt give in to the Lord made him want her even more. This makes the cottage maiden angry with herself for giving in to him and she goes on to describe how he bound Kate with his Ring and the neighbours just called her an outcast thing. This implies that she believes if she hadnt had sex with The lord maybe he would have married her instead of Kate. Now the cottage maiden is stuck in her old life, and is unhappy because now she has had a taste for higher things she is not contented with what she had before anymore. She sits and howls in dust while Kate is now enjoying what the cottage maiden used to have but to a higher extent You sit in gold and sing. In the next few stanzas the cottage becomes bitter towards her cousin and implies that She really loved him whereas her cousin Kate was bought by the lord, she says that if their situations had been switched she wouldnt have taken the Lord if he had been with her. The Maiden seems angrier with her cousin than she is with Lord but she feels betrayed by both of them. Although in the last stanza the maidens tone changes she begins to gloat. She realises that she has the one thing that her cousin Kate would like but cannot have, a baby. She knows her cousin worries about this but seems unsympathetic as she goes on to say how she will not being giving her son up and she is protective over him cling closer, closer yet. She knows that the lord would give lands for one but she seems to be saying tough to both of them and maybe thinks Kate is getting the punishment she deserves from god, seens as in those days a baby was seen as a gift from god. The cottage maiden loves her son more than anything else in her life and shows this by saying my shame, my pride she thinks she should be ashamed of him but she is not she still loves him dearly. In the seduction and Cousin Kate the male characters are portrayed very negatively.  Eileen McAuley describes a youth that met the young girl at the party. After the party he takes her to the docks in Liverpool, which have relevance to the way in which he perceives the young girl. The docks are typically associated with prostitutes, which suggests he doesnt think anymore of her than a cheap prostitute. This also comes to our attention when in the last line of the second stanza he muttered little slag. This lets us no without a doubt that he had no respect for her or had no intention of becoming involved in any kind of relationship with her past that night. He comes across as quite cheap from the way the author writes, leather jacket creaking madly Expensive leather is extremely quiet and soft, the fact that his jacket was creaking implies it was not of an expensive nature. He also spits in the river, trying to impress her but really just showing his vulgarity. He had obviously planned the night, which makes him seem quite seedy and perverted, he seems to be in control of the night, he sat down, he led her, and hed bought her more drinks. He seems to be the source of intoxicated state as he had been buying her drinks all night and he handed her the vodka at the river. The fact that he thinks he need to get her drunk before she will have any contact with him shows that maybe he doesnt really think that highly of himself anyway. The conversation between the couple is very one dimensional and shows the boy to be quite selfish as he only talks about subjects which concern or interest him and shows no interest in any subject relating or relevant to the young girl. The way the author describes how he spends his free time also gives us an insight into what type of boy the young girl is involved with. He says he spends most afternoons down by the river whilst he should be in school so the fact that hes a truant makes him seem less academic and clever and more juvenile. He also explains how he goes there alone so we get the inclination that maybe he doesnt have that many friends either or he could be antisocial. He says blatantly in from of the girl that he goes there with his dads magazines making him sound seedy and sweet paint thinner indicating that he abuses solvents. All in all he doesnt make himself sound to attractive to this young intelligent girl who is looking for the perfect partner to lose her virginit y to. He is very unromantic when it comes to seducing the young girl; in fact he is anything but seducing her hes just trying to grope her. The author writes about how he contrived to kiss her which again goes back to the way he had planned the night in advance but also shows us that he didnt have any interest in the girl he just wanted to use her for sex.  In Cousin Kate we do not find out about the Lord in such great detail but we get the inclination that he used his position and his money to trick the cottage maiden into a relationship when the author uses the phrase he lured me to his palace home. The word lured implying seediness and trickery. The author creates the Lord as a very fickle man who treats his women like clothing, wore them as eye candy until they were dirty and boring only to throw them away and change them for a better model. He became bored with the cottage maiden after she had had sex with him and decided to pursue her cousin Kate. He comes across as quite persistent to get his own way as he does not give up on Kate and he ends up marrying her, so he can finally get his own way which shows that he will go to extremes to get what he wants. He obviously feels that love is based upon possessions and not emotions as he tries to buy Kate with his lands and money not with his personality, this make him seem shallow. The setting for both poems is important, the seduction being set in the city and cousin Kate in the country has great relevance.  I touched upon the setting for the seduction earlier; the docks being associated with prostitution implies that the boy felt the girl was of that standard. Also the setting is not glamorous it is quite seedy and putrid. The way the author says towards the frightening scum on the water reflects on the dangerous situation that she has got herself involved in but also the word scum actually mirrors the boys character. The author also goes on to describe the Mersey, green as a septic wound and I think this simile on the setting also reflects in the situation as a whole, infectious and unrewarding. Also the setting for the second part of the poem is a bedroom, isolated from the rest of the world, showing the young girls emotions, her longing to be cut of from the rest of her surroundings. The setting is a contrast from the first part of the poem, whereas the city is bustling, busy and noisy, her room is secluded, quiet and lonely. The change in scenery reflects the change of tone and emotion. The choice of setting for Cousin Kate is quite straightforward; the countryside is perceived as a quite place full of nature and animals, unlike a city. A city is a more typical setting for a situation like the cottage maidens so the fact that it takes place in the countryside is even more ludicrous. Both authors use the settings to create effect but the effect they have on us is the complete opposite of each other. In the seduction the reader is supposed to relate the situation to the setting but in Cousin Kate it is used for shock effect and to make the situation seem more extreme as the countryside isnt the typical place youd expect her relations to be taking place.