You should write a compare and contrast piece on EITHER Drummer Hodge and The Soldier OR on the extracts from Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations. So you should compare and contrast either the two poems or the two extracts from Bronte and Dickens.
‘Drummer Hodge’ ‘The Soldier’ Contrast
Both poems are about war, but portray it in opposite ways.
Hardy’s poem exposes the harsh reality of war, while Brooke’s is idealistic, patriotic, even
jingoistic.
Hardy is anti-war, while Brooke sees (potential) sacrifice in war as being for a greater cause
and worthy.
Hardy is trying to raise awareness of the horrors and waste of war, while Brook is drawing
upon the ideology of the recruitment posters, fighting for one’s country.
Hodge is naïve and innocent; the soldier is (more) mature and self-aware.
The third person narration makes Hodge’s fate impersonal, as does the name ‘Hodge’, and
the name Hodge is intended to represent the typical soldier. The Soldier is singular, thus
important.
Hodge’s is forever separated from his home, a direct contrast is made between his Wessex
home and the strange land of south Arfica.
Hodge is fresh from his home, he knows nothing about where he is going or why, or even
the reason for the foreign stars (the southern hemisphere). There is discord or
disconnection between his home and the strange land, underlined by the strange eyed
constellations at the end, Hodge is forever separated from his own land.
The Soldier is aware he is going to be sent abroad; he will forever be part of the foreign field
if he dies and it will be enriched by his English body, and will be a part of England. Hodge
may grow to a southern tree, but the point is he won’t grow up in England alive; the
opposition between his Northern brain and the southern tree is still evident, even if he does
become part of nature.
Everything in Hardy emphasises discord between this naïve and innocent young man
plucked from his home and the foreign environment. This is why Hardy uses local diction,
not reassuringly English words, to emphasise his eternal alienation from home.
Everything in Brooke reminds readers what they should fight for: the idealistic beauty of
England, all the references to nature, and how righteous this is: it is almost like a religious
quest that will purge participants of their sins as they fight on the side of good to purge the
world of evil. England is worth fighting for, it is our mother that made us aware, we are her
sons.
Hardy’s poem does not have a religious dimension; nature is vast and indifferent to human
beings. Thus, the general sense of the ‘heavens’ as constellations, and foreign ones at that.
Hodge may grow to a foreign tree, but it is no comfort. Rather it is factual.
Assuming that critics indeed are correct in saying that Brooke’s poem is an intentional
response to the disturbing implications of Brooke, then Brooke’s ‘foreign field’ that is
‘Forever England’ rewrites or replaces Hodge’s foreign mound. His English heaven at the
replaces Hardy’s eternal strange-eyed constellations, that forever separate Hodge from his
home. One is forever disconnected from home, the other is forever part of England.
Alliteration and imagery reinforces each poet’s point.
They Throw in Hardy shows the hurried and rough way his body is buried; in Brooke,
laughter learned of friends uses alliteration to connect the soldier back to the mouth land in
the event he falls in battle. Hardy’s imagery of throwing is harsh. Brooke’s use of nature
imagery is about the beauty of the mother country: a sacrifice in giving back is worthy. For
Hardy, nature is indifferent, for Brooke, nature and God are English or at least aligned with
England.
Wuthering Heights (extract)
The extract begins with the narrator, Lockwood, dreaming he is awakened by a storm
outside and the fir bough (large tree branch) hitting the window. He decides to stop it. He
puts his hand out of the broken window to grab the branch. However, his hand is grabbed
by an icy cold hand. Lockwood is terrified! The ghost demands to be let in. Terror makes
Lockwood cruel, and he rubs the ghost’s wrist against the broken glass until it bleeds. He
then tells the ghost to let him go if it wants to be let in; it does. Lockwood then attempts to
cover the hole in the window with books, but the books fall as the ghost scratches.
Lockwood cries out in terror.
His cry arouses Heathcliff, who is carrying a candle and who is as white as the wall behind
him. Lockwood tells Heathcliff he has had a nightmare. Heathcliff demands to know who
showed him up to the room, and Lockwood tells him it was Zillah. Lockwood says the place
is swarming with ghosts and goblins. Heathcliff tells him he might as well spend the rest of
the night in that room, since he is there now, but not to repeat the horrible scream.
Lockwood then calls Cathy a ‘minx’, and a wicked little soul, before realising his mistake as
he recalls the association of Cathy’s name with Heathcliff. At the mention of his old love,
Heathcliff is overcome with rage and grief. Heathcliff suppresses a tear, before telling
Lockwood that Lockwood has sent sleep to the devil with him. Since Lockwood says he
cannot sleep either, Heathcliff gives him the candle, and says go where you please, except
the yard, because Juno (the dog) mounts sentinel there (keeps watch). As Lockwood leaves
the room, he hears Heathcliff cry out for Cathy, ‘do come!’.
When he says he is descending cautiously to the lower regions, Lockwood is going
downstairs. Joseph says nothing and Grimalkin is the cat. Lockwood is going to say good
morning to Hareton Earnshaw, but Earnshaw is directing curses at every object, as he looks
for a spade to clear the snow outside.
Lockwood witnesses Heathcliff verbally abuse his daughter in law, young Catherine. He calls
her idle and says put your trash away. She says she will because he can make her. She is
already acquainted with the weight of his hand, implying he has hit her before.
As Lockwood is about to leave Wuthering Heights for Thrushcross Grange, his landlord
shouts him and offers to accompany him across the moor. Lockwood is sure he would have
lost his way otherwise, since the whole hill back is one billowy white ocean. Once at
Thrushcross, Heathcliff bids him farewell at the gate.
Everyone rushes to welcome Lockwood, they had assumed he was dead, and were
wondering how to search for his remains.