“Circe’s Torment”, “Siren” “Circe’s Torment” and “Siren” by Louise Gluck are two poems that were before there time. Women poets did not write about failed relationships or being in a “love triangle”. Gluck was one of the best contemporary poets and open a new world of topics for women poets to write about. In both poems, the narrators are in love with men who are currently married. Both narrators express their frustration with these men and talk about the love they have for them. These women have been in a romantic relationship with these men who are living a “double life”, but as you can tell both of these women get left high and dry and usually women are to blame for the man cheating. Why is this the case? Is it because these women have control over who they fall in love with? Or maybe because women should just know better? Both of these statements are ridiculous and because we live in a male-dominated society, the woman is always to blame. Maybe we need to take a deeper look into our culture and consider who is to truly blame for the cause of this. In “Circe’s Torment”, the narrator is mainly looking back at the relationship and embracing the love they had for each other. She is mainly focused on having this man in her life, unlike in "Siren" where you can see the emotional outrage she is experiencing. For example, the narrator states "You loved my body, as you found there, Passion we held above, All other gifts, in that single moments" ("Circe's Torment"). It was clear that these two had great chemistry and the relationship was full of passion. Unfortunately, the man picks his wife over the narrator and the narrator is fully committed to getting him back. The woman is questioning why her ex man left and is in a sense of desperation to get him back. She believes that their relationship was strong and no one could come in between them. Unfortunately, she is wrong in the end. In "Siren", as I stated earlier she is expressing more outrage than heartbreak (or maybe a combination of both). This woman tends to focus on herself, consistently using I or talking about what she has done for this man. For example, she states “I was a good waitress, I could carry eight drinks” (“Siren”). Making it seem like she had a good life before this man had come in it. She also talks about how his wife is a bad person and how she used to do all these things for him. Which led to me assuming that she was outraged. Unlike in "Circe's Torment", she tends to focus on other factors outside of the relationship, blaming these factors for her ex leaving. Her outrage could tend to make the reader think that she does not want to be with the man anymore after he did this to her. She is disgusted with him and does not want to see him again. I know what it is like to try to walk away from someone and they know what to do to pull you right back in. It sucks. But as a society, we must not victim blame and truly look into the true issue. We cannot just assume that a woman/man is a "homewrecker or is horny" because she/he was led on by someone else, who is not happy in their original situation. We must hold people accountable for their wrong actions and not blame the other party because it is the easier thing to do. We must change our ways.
5 Comments
Rachel Moorman
10/11/2019 07:22:45 pm
I really appreciate how you analyze the idea of victim blaming in these works. And I admire how you took on the work load of analyzing two poems. You really display the differences between the poems and I really respect how you included your personal experience. I made your analysis really relatable to those of us who can relate to you. Love is hard, and I think that is the point both you and the poets were trying to make. Well done.
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10/12/2019 12:58:47 pm
I agree with Rachel, that I really like your analysis of victim blaming in these two poems. I think you do a great job of taking a deeper look at these poems, and your analyses are fairly spot on in my eyes. Great post!
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10/12/2019 03:41:25 pm
What a powerful analysis! I agree that both parties loved a man and ended up burned by it in the end. In different ways, of course. And, I do think that women are blamed too often, when it should be both parties at fault, not just the woman or man.
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10/13/2019 06:17:23 am
This was a really good, eye opening analysis. I really agree with a lot of things you said. I think you did a good job analyzing the women and their reactions in the poems as well, by showing how different they are but still maintaining their connection.
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Jeremy C
10/13/2019 07:17:51 pm
Great post. Your analysis of each poem was really good. Too many people get caught up on blaming the victim and not realizing its the other person's wrong doing. I also enjoyed the way you blended a bit of your personal experience in this post. I think by doing so it made this post resonate even more. It was also nice that you ended this post with a call to action, it was very good overall.
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