In the Park

A detailed Summary of In the Park

How is change of the persona / individual at the centre of 'In The Park' communicated in the narrative and through the language?

'In the Park' uses a sonnet format which is economical while allowing for a great impact by allowing it to be succinct. Having said that the poem as a whole has been written from the point of view of an observer, and therefore sounds very detached, almost as though the poem is a commentary of a play. This has been done to allow the responder to feel objective about the woman, and all the characters in the play. This shows that the composer is able to feel objective about themselves, and allows the responder to feel less like they are being shown a fabrication of someone's life, they become convinced they are given insight into a real woman's existence. This is the essence of the poem.

The first line is designed specifically to set the scene, without any detail, but with a clear overall picture of what is really important. 'She sits in the park', begins with wider scope of the overall scene, 'Her clothes are out of date', zooms in on what will be the only object of concern for the responder, the woman and her feelings. The fact her clothes are out of date, but she is

'They stand a while in flickering light', although we know they are having a conversation, as observers we are finding the flickering light more interesting than the actual conversation. It also helps to paint the scene, the flickering light being metaphorical for her fading life force. 'rehearsing / the children's names and birthdays', rehearsing, which is possibly the composer admitting it has been written as a play, implies mundane and mechanical. To this man, who has seen not seen her probably in over a decade, has no real use of her children's birthdays, and it serves to signify just how monotonous and lacking in significance her life has become. Her false joy is juxtaposed against the previous stanza, bicker has become chatter, whine has become thrive, and most likely as a result of her falsehood casual nod quickly turns into departing smile. She starts 'nursing' the youngest one, a desperate attempt to reconnect with her motherhood, she 'sits staring at her feet'. 'sits' reveals to us we are seeing her from an observers point of view because people aren't aware of the fact they are sitting, it would simply be 'while staring at her feet'. Again, we can empathise with her more easily, because we are being given an objective, observer view. The last line is the final realisation of her position. '"They have eaten me alive"', the children have taken her spirit, taken away her freedom. She has completely changed from her position of denial combined with false acceptance, to one of self-obsessed, bitterness towards the world, however this time with an active role. Although she is still in the same situation, it is important she has now accepted she is not happy with what she has, so she may begin looking after her own interests instead of just those of the children.

Now that the scene is set we begin to gain insight into the life of this woman, while simultaneously the scene continues t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Joel Heenan, flickering light, staring feet', responder feel, 'in park', feel objective,

Approximate Word count = 1282
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English