GCSE (9-1): Literature: Poetry: AQA Love and Relationships: The Farmer's Bride: Structure

characterisation definition

an author's process and techniques for developing characters

characterisation of the 'bride' in the first stanza

a smiling, attractive, competent young girl, 'Too young maybe'

characterisation of the farmer

the hopeless romantic; insensitive toward the young, frightened girl and ignorant of a woman's needs and humanity - 'Too young maybe - but more's to do'

how the farmer chooses his 'bride'

He chooses her as he would his cattle, seeing no need to woo her: 'I chose a maid'

the farmer's view about marriage

The pairing of two people is not guided by more than the natural urge to procreate, the social roles of man and wife and the man's need for someone to keep house for him.

allusion

a reference to earlier pieces of literature or, sometimes, history

allusion to madness in 'The Farmer's Bride'

'We caught her, fetched her home at last / And turned the key upon her, fast.' - In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Bertha is imprisoned in a space in which the Victorian 'home' is effectively transformed into an asylum for women; a striking resemblance to 'The Farmer's Bride'

effect of allusion to madness in 'We caught her, fetched her home at last / And turned the key upon her, fast.'

suggests she is out of control and needed to be locked up; Victorians were preoccupied with madness and women were believed to be especially susceptible

irony

a contrast between expectation and reality

irony in 'The Farmer's Bride'

the farmer treats the young girl as if she is mad because he is unable to understand that she is simply frightened, afraid and not interested in him; Mew appears to ask us who is really the mad one?

effect of irony in 'The Farmer's Bride'

exposes how convention can be cruel when human feelings are not taken into account

dramatic irony definition

situations in which the audience knows more about the situations, the causes of conflicts, and their resolutions before the leading characters or actors

effect of dramatic irony in 'The Farmer's Bride'

perhaps acts as a criticism against Victorian marriage conventions

rhyming couplet definition

two lines that end with the same vowel and consonant sounds, eg, 'last / fast ... rime / time / be / we'

effect of rhyming couplets

expresses the increasingly headlong passion of the speaker but many of the rhyming couplets feature 7 or 8 syllables bringing them close to heroic couplets

heroic couplet definition

The heroic couplet is very rigid: it has a fixed rhyme scheme, a fixed line length, a fixed arrangement of feet and a fixed line integrity.

heroic couplet effect

associates the farmer with control and circumscription

definition.

restriction of something within limits