The river God

The river God

1. STORY

   • says he'll drown anyone who isn't careful
   • River God says he likes it when people go swimming
     • especially women
   • May be old but he's still powerful
   • A woman goes swimming and drowns when she's too close to the cliffs
   • Body is tangled in weeds on the river bed
   • River God calls her beautiful and wants to look after her
   • Doesn't want her to leave and says he will never forgive her if she does

2. FORM AND STRUCTURE

   • Enjambment makes it flow like water
   • Dramatic Monolouge
   • Uses regular rhyming couplets to give a songlike quality
   • At the beginning he is presented as kind and friendly
   • Becomes more threatening and possessive
     • emphasised by hidden warnings near the end and ominous final line
       • OMINOUS: giving the impression that something bad is going to happen

3. MY IDEAS

   • It uses a euphemism to describe how he drowned the woman but making it sound more innocent that he is
     • "So I brought her down here"
   • The poet creates an image of a harsh and powerful old God who is proud and arrogant much like OZYMANDIAS
   • He could be presented as a male character because they had lots of power over women in the time era of the poem and the poets life
     • could be suggesting how she feels men treat women
   • I think the poet is saying that in a heterosexual relationship that men generally have the most power and can be seen to be drowning the women in their ways of life
     • They can be seen to be taking away the woman's life without actually killing them
       • Much like the women in 'my last duchess' and 'les grands siegneurs'

4. LANGUAGE

   • contrasts
     • old smelly river contrasts with beautiful women
     • river God uses affectionate language which contrasts with harsh reality of women's death making it more shocking
   • euphemism
     • river God suggests the woman is sleeping rather than dead
     • Uses ambiguous language and images of love rather than death
       • suggests he's deluded into thinking she might love him in return
         • Like Deborah and God :p
   • Power and objectification
     • River God seems desperate to keep women on the river bed
     • Possessive over her and doesn't want her to leave
     • Calls her beautiful and focuses on her appearance showing he values it
     • Image of appearance also seems a bit sexual

5. FEELINGS AND ATTITUDES

   • Love
     • River God desires women
     • Obsessed by woman's beauty
     • Says he wants to care for her
   • Arrogance
     • He's powerful but careless
     • treats dying humans like toys
     • He considers human life to be quite insignificant
   • Selfishness
     • Possessive over the woman
     • doesn't want to share the woman