the other

the text of the poem is on page 305 of your books

some introductory thoughts on what the poem is about

This is a difficult and enigmatic poem from late in Hughes's career. Many readers have assumed that the poem might have close links with Hughes's troubled private life: namely the tensions between Hughes's first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath, and the woman for whom he left Plath, Assia Wevill, who brought up his children, following Plath's death in early 1963. Tragically, Assia Wevill died in 1969: she took her own life, as did Plath.

If we leave aside the inevitable fascination generated by Hughes's personal life as a creative writer, we can understand this poem as presenting a situation between three people: the speaker of the poem, 'she', and 'you', the recipient of the poem, who is required by the poem to listen.

The speaker in the poem explores the tensions and dynamic between 'you' and 'she', and the deliberate abstraction of these unnamed figures means that the poem can be seen to represent and explore general tensions between rival people, rather than giving a picture of the complex and troubled realities of Ted Hughes's private life.

The dynamic between 'you' and 'she' is characterised from the start of the poem by tension. 'You' is jealous of 'she', and so 'you' starts to take from 'she'. The simple vocabulary (notice the monosyllables of the first line) suggests primal human tensions between the two characters. The speaker, similarly anonymous, speaks out the tale, and in doing so, passes judgement on 'you'.

'She' appears to have been astonishingly well-endowed (with something not specified, possibly intellectual talent). This made 'you' 'feel / Your vacuum' - a sense of nothingness in the face of someone else ('she') with so much more. Somehow, the natural order of things ('nature') 'abhorred' the vacuum which characterised 'you', and 'you' therefore 'took your fill' of something from 'she', 'for nature's sake'.

The situation is strange, with a mutual re-setting of the balance between the two characters as 'you' takes from 'she': 'Because her great luck made you feel unlucky / You had redressed the balance' - this 'seemed only fair'.

Things are strained between the two: 'she' 'claimed the natural right to screw you up / Like a crossed-out page'. At one level the phrase 'screw you up' in everyday slang means to damage profoundly someone's emotions or mind; but the image is in fact one of a piece of paper being screwed up and thrown away. This is a very suggestive image, given the fact that Hughes, Plath and Wevill were all writers.

The excessive actions of 'she' 'had' to be corrected, says the speaker: 'somebody, on behalf of the gods / Had to correct that hubris'. Hughes's use of the word 'hubris' (an ancient Greek word meaning over-confidence or arrogance which invites inevitable disaster) connects with the world of 'the gods' of ancient civilisations, rather than any single God of more modern religion, thus suggestion the ancient genre of tragedy, and the troubling involvement of the gods in human life.

The idea of balancing out, of redressing unfairness and inequality features as the poem progresses. As 'you' gets even with 'she', 'she' is 'left absolutely / Nothing'. Shockingly, the speaker asserts that 'Even her life was / Trapped in the heap you took. She had nothing'.

'You' is slow to learn what she has done: 'Too late you saw what had happened. / It made no difference that she was dead'. In a horrifying way, 'you' ends up with 'much too much', having taken from 'she'.

But the poem ends with 'she' appearing to take revenge on 'you' - 'she' starts taking back from 'you', 'at first, just a little'. The inference is that 'she' will take back more, thus hurting 'you'.

The claustrophobic relationship between the three characters in the poem is something troubling. What you make of this poem is up to you, but it is probably helpful not to become involved in too much speculation about the details of Hughes's very troubled relationships with Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill. It's best to try to understand this poem as an abstract tale of three people, two of whom are involved in a struggle with each other, watched over and judged by the speaker.

If we take an abstract view of the situation presented in the poem, and if we take the poem's speaker to be a man, then the 'judgement' passed by the speaker on the two other characters 'she' and 'you' becomes disturbing if we take 'she' and 'you' to be women. Why does the speaker talk with such 'authority'? Is this a traditionally 'male' way of behaving? Can such censure be justified, or is this poem showing us something more subtle that a man passing harsh judgement on two women whom he knows?

some questions to consider

Hughes repeatedly refers to 'she' and 'you' in this poem, but doesn't name or describe these two characters. How do you picture both 'she' and 'you'? Pick out and reflect on which words and phrases are the most important in establishing the two characters.

This is a poem in free verse - why do you think Hughes selected this form, and what are the main effects of this choice?

'Your vacuum' - what do you think this phrase reveals about the way the speaker views 'you'?

What do you imagine 'everything' and 'it' might be at the start of the third section?

Does the poem infer that the two characters who are being addressed are in some sort of cycle? If so, what do you imagine might happen next?

Hughes's private life was the source of much discussion and gave rise to polarised views during and after his lifetime - it would be fair to say that he was a controversial figure. Since his death in 1998, culture has moved on, and traditional masculine attitudes towards women have been scrutinised yet more critically. Whilst I suggest it's unhelpful to equate the speaker of this poem with the real person Ted Hughes, you could explore your reaction to the speaker in this poem - what sort of masculinity features here, and what impression of the speaker is created?

more lovely poems in English on the topic of complex personal relationships and associated topics

Sonnet 144 * by William Shakespeare

photo

Monumental obelisk at Stoodley Pike, near Todmorden, West Yorkshire - photo by James Harding.

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