Felicite is nether a saint or a simple minded servant instead she is simply a very lonely human being. In contrast to Mme. Aubain when someone in Felicite’s life dies she seems to hold onto them for the rest of her life never really letting go. Mme. Aubain goes through loss to but she seems able to get over it going on with the rest of her life and continuing to make new connections with other people. Felicite on the other hand makes a few connections with people in her early life and then loses one by one all of them only making a new friend with the parrot Loulou late in life. Until she dies alone and has Loulou meet her in the afterlife she also then knows who loved her too.
The women depicted in the poems are shown to be different depending on the poem. In To The Reader women are shown to be the only real people in the world who are dealing with animals. They try to turn the animals into people but seem unable to succeed yet continue to try for they care about the animals. While in A Carcass women are described as carrion that are desired while ate the same time are repulsive. As if the reader is a buzzard that realizes that it is a buzzard and is eating rotten meat but unable to stop for its the greatest thing they have ever eaten.
Chandra and Chidam differ from Sita and Rama in that their behavior in keeping the story going is switched. In the Ramayana Sita only reacts to the decisions of other characters while Rama both reacts and acts. In the Rabindranath Tagore Chidam is the one who reacts to the choices of other characters while Chandra acts. Chandra does this by making up her mind in the very beginning of the story forcing everyone else to react around that choice even though it kills her. While Chidam makes all of his choices around the actions of others as he changes his mind over and over again. First to save his brother then to save his wife. Never really making any difference.
The poem When You Are Old reminds me of the type of thinking people engage in when they are old and looking back on their life. Thinking about both what they missed out in life and the regrets that they have. Shown in the line “Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled’.
Really detailed responses, nice work!
I like how you point out the different ways that Felicite and Mme. Aubain get over their losses. I think in some ways Felicite inability to let go of the ones she lost shows how loving she was. Mme Aubain chooses to forget about the pain of loosing her family, while Felicite bears that pain and remembers them.