Under Milk Wood Essay Example
This assignment will specifically focus on the theme of love in relation to the following sets of characters: Mr Dai Bread, Mrs Dai Bread 0ne, Mrs Dai Bread two, Mr and Mrs Pugh, and Mr and Mrs Cherry Owen. Love is everywhere in under milk wood ‘it exists in this magical dingle’. The passages of the play are littered with references to different types of love. Such as the love of a mother towards her child ‘my bonny new baby’ the love of a wife ‘its Dai Dai bread’ the love of a husband ‘give me a kiss’ the love of lovers ‘Mrs Price loves you with all her heart’. Even the pigeons are full of love ‘you can hear the lovesick wood pigeons’. It is apparent that the reverend Eli Jenkins is very attached to under milk wood as he sings his own verses in the morning after praising his beloved village finishes with ‘and never, never leave the town’.
The love between the Pugh’s is nothing but a pretence, this is highlighted in the choice of words Mrs. Pugh uses ‘some persons where bought up in pigsties’. Mrs Pugh is a very cold, domineering and nagging wife; nothing Mr Pugh does is ever good enough and appreciation is non-existent ‘here’s your nice tea, dear’ which Mrs. Pugh returns, ’too much sugar’. The comma before dear highlights Mr Pugh’s irritation and disdain for his wife and escapes from it by fantasising in the different ways in which he could kill her ‘here’s your arsenic , dear’ and ‘poisons her with his eyes’. However he always keeps a polite exterior ‘I beg your pardon, my dear’.
The Pugh’s live in a school house which is symbolic of their relationship: Mr. Pugh as the pupil; Mrs. Pugh as the teacher, ‘persons with manners do not read at the table’. The use of the alliteration blind-drawn dark dining room is that it puts emphasis on the depressing loveless nature of the relationship between the Pugh’s. The references to death further reinforce the dead state of their marriage, ‘dining room in a vault’ and ‘shroud’. Mr and Mrs. Pugh’s do not communicate with
The love between the Pugh’s is nothing but a pretence, this is highlighted in the choice of words Mrs. Pugh uses ‘some persons where bought up in pigsties’. Mrs Pugh is a very cold, domineering and nagging wife; nothing Mr Pugh does is ever good enough and appreciation is non-existent ‘here’s your nice tea, dear’ which Mrs. Pugh returns, ’too much sugar’. The comma before dear highlights Mr Pugh’s irritation and disdain for his wife and escapes from it by fantasising in the different ways in which he could kill her ‘here’s your arsenic , dear’ and ‘poisons her with his eyes’. However he always keeps a polite exterior ‘I beg your pardon, my dear’.
The Pugh’s live in a school house which is symbolic of their relationship: Mr. Pugh as the pupil; Mrs. Pugh as the teacher, ‘persons with manners do not read at the table’. The use of the alliteration blind-drawn dark dining room is that it puts emphasis on the depressing loveless nature of the relationship between the Pugh’s. The references to death further reinforce the dead state of their marriage, ‘dining room in a vault’ and ‘shroud’. Mr and Mrs. Pugh’s do not communicate with