Mariana Extension task PDF

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Mariana

Extension work 1. Look at the epigram below the title – ‘Mariana in the moated grange. Measure for Measure’. Why do you think Tennyson included this? Tennyson’s ‘Mariana’ seems to be written about Mariana in Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for measure’. In Shakespeare’s play, Mariana is rejected by Angelo and pines over him alone in her home. Tennyson doesn’t mention any background to his poem other than the epigram. Most people would have been familiar with the play and could have connected the characters. Both Mariana’s believe they have a dull life and are dejected.

2. What does the narrator tell us about the ‘he’ of the story? We are not told anything about the ‘he’ of the story and have to infer what we can from Mariana’s refrain. She says her ‘life is dreary’, ‘the night is dreary’, ‘the day is dreary’, her ‘life is dreary’, ‘night is dreary’, ‘life is dreary’ and finally ‘I am dreary’ all of these are followed by ‘he cometh not’ … ‘I am aweary’ … ‘I would that I were dead’. Mariana is tired of waiting and thinks that the man she loves will not come because she has a dull, boring life and is so herself.

3. Reader positioning and narrative gaps. What doesn’t the narrator tell the reader (and what effect does this restricted knowledge have on the reader)? We do not find out the real reason why Mariana’s love doesn’t turn up or who he is. This makes the reader try to look for hidden information and use their imagination to come up with an answer.

4. What auditory imagery appears in the poem? Why might Tennyson include this? Tennyson uses phrases such as ‘shrill winds’, ‘gusty shadows sway’ and ‘wild winds bound within their cell’ in the 5th stanza. This imagery makes the reader imagine the wind screeching, blowing and moving the shadow of the poplar tree. It also reflects how distraught Mariana feels inside over her fiancé not turning up. In the 6th stanza he uses ‘doors upon their hinges creak’d’, ‘the blue fly sung’ and ‘the mouse behind the mouldering wainscot shriek’d’. This imagery shows how alone Mariana feels in the house. There are no people just the sound of animals and the creaking doors. He uses ‘the slow clock ticking’ and ‘the sound which to the wooing wind aloof’ in the final stanza. This emphasizes how slowly the time is passing for Mariana as she waits. The reader can imagine the

only sounds in the room are the clock and the rustling of the wind in the poplar tree again making the reader realise how alone she feels. By including this imagery, Tennyson fully immerses the reader in the story allowing them to hear what is happening and imagine they are there.

5. ‘Unlifted was the creaking latch’. Why might Tennyson have constructed this sentence this way? By constructing the sentence this way the words ‘unlifted’ and ‘creaking’ are highlighted. You realise the she has not been visited for a while because the latch creaks, if she had the latch wouldn’t creak.

6. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Paris inscribed his promise to love the nymph Oenone onto a poplar tree but then deserted her for Helen. What suggests Tennyson is drawing on this intertextual reference or classical allusion?

7. ‘Old voices’ ‘old faces’ Are these old friends visiting Mariana or haunting memories? Justify your answer. I think that the ‘old faces’, ‘voices’ and ‘footsteps’ are people visiting her but she doesn’t notice them through her misery. They ‘glimmer’d thro’ the doors’ at her and try to talk to her from outside ‘call’d her from without’. She could be speaking to them when she says ‘my life is dreary…I would that I were dead’.

8. What creature could be seen to be mocking Mariana’s misery in stanza 6? Find a quote. ‘The blue fly sung in the pane’ while Mariana is miserable and in pain the fly is singing

9. The start and end of the poem uses alternate rhyming couplets ( ABAB….EFEF) but the middle has a couplet within a couplet ( CDDC) which is an enclosed rhyme. Why might Tennyson have chosen that?...