Dominance And Control In Remember By Christina Rossetti
1564 Words7 Pages
The various writers who have written these sonnets and poems have all incorporated the theme of dominance and control throughout their work. The poets use numerous, highly effective literary devices and techniques to convey the reoccurring theme of dominance and control in their poems. However, a number of the poets use much more subtle techniques to display the theme of dominance and control to the reader; occasionally using words and phrases with double meanings that can be interpreted in different ways depending on the reader. Dominance and control is a key theme in the sonnet Remember by Christina Rossetti. Rossetti’s sonnet is about the breakdown of a relationship; however it may be between her and her dad or her and a past romantic…show more content… In the sixth stanza of the poem, she is portrayed to be less dominant than the knight, in the quotation, ‘I set her on my pacing steed.’ The use of the personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘my’ reveal the knight to be the active individual in the relationship, taking control and placing her somewhere of his choice. Furthermore, the fact he calls it ‘my pacing steed’ indicates the fact she is entering his territory, which means he is evidently going to be the more powerful one. In comparison, the theme of dominance and control in Sonnet 116 is not presented from the perspective of a relationship, but a key factor in a relationship, love. Love is presented to be the feeling that overrides and directs everything with the quotation, ‘It is the star to every wandering bark’, causing the reader to envision a boat, ‘bark’, following a star to a ‘mark’, which in the context of the sonnet is a lighthouse. The words ‘mark’ and ‘bark’ rhyme, which displays a clear connection between the true meanings of what the words represent, and the message they are trying to convey. In this context, it means the lighthouse is more dominant as without it the boat would never reach its destination. The poem, Dictator, is about a woman describing her husband, at work and in their relationship. The title of the poem is ‘Dictator’, which instantly gives the impression to the reader of someone with a great deal of power and authority. In general, the word ‘Dictator’ carries negative connotations of control being used in an inappropriate and damaging