The Role Of Change In Gwen Harwood's In The Park

The inevitable process of change produces positive as well as negative consequences to individuals within a society. The change can be a maturation process which allows individuals to change their attitudes, perspectives and behaviour. Within Shakespeare’s comedic play As You Like It, change has been a continuous positive force that affects the characters moral growth and development of relationships. Dissimilarly, Gwen Harwood’s haunting poem In The Park reflects upon the transition into motherhood and the negative toll the change can take on an individual.
In As You Like It, moral development of a character occurs due to the inevitable changes of relationship dynamics between family, effecting their behaviour towards one another. This is
Alternatively they feel loneliness and isolation as a result of shifting role and responsibilities. Within Gwen Harwood’s In the Park , the protagonist who is a mother of 3 children is portrayed to be feeling isolated as it is symbolically announced ‘she sits in the park’. A park is juxtaposed as it is widely known to be a place of socialisation for children to laugh and play, in contrast, a mother is sitting with "clothes out of date" , symbolising the world of drudgery and reflecting on the complex consequences that motherhood has brought her. Using hyperbole; ‘eaten me alive’, the poet creates a graphical image illustrating the cannibalistic image of motherhood, portraying that her life is not about herself anymore, it is about being the martyr of her children. This challenges the reader on the role of women being changed as a result of their loneliness and isolation formed as a consequence of ‘nursing’ her
The poet demonstrates the reality of motherhood through metaphorical representation. This is evident through ‘someone she loved once passes by- too late’. This is a metaphorical representation of her past and it has changed from being lively in love to developing depressing thoughts within the park. As her ex-lover passes by, it is evident through metaphor 'From his neat head unquestionably rises a small balloon', this visually portrays that it is very clear that he left her, after seeing her being no longer young and fashionable, instead, contrastingly captured in the complex consequences as a result of motherhood. In her final statement to her ex-lover "its so nice to hear their chatter, watch them grow and thrive", it is proved that she continuously rehearsed this saying to tell herself falsehoods to remind herself that life is not monotonous and torturous instead their is some hope in motherhood that the change experienced can be