Transcript The Hunchback in the Park

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The Hunchback in the Park
By Dylan Thomas
Homelessness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4kX9yt9CE
Dylan Thomas is the most famous Welsh poet of all
time, this poem is based on his own experience.
“We knew every inhabitant of that park; every regular
visitor; every nursemaid; every gardener; every old
man. We knew the hour when the alarming retired
policeman came in to look at the tulips and the hour
when the old lady arrived in the bath-chair with six
dogs, and a pale girl to read aloud to her. I think she
read the newspaper, but she always said she read the
Wizard. The face of the old man who sat summer and
winter on the bench looking over the reservoir. I can
see clearly now and I wrote a poem long after I’d left
the park and the sea-town called: ‘The Hunchback in
the Park’.”
Summary:
This is the sad story of a homeless man who is
different from others, both physically (he has a
deformity, hence "hunchback") and mentally. As
a result, he is isolated and spends all day in the
park. He is tormented by the local children and
also has to avoid the park keeper. The tramp's
life is lonely, miserable and full of fear.
What does the word
propped suggest?
No title or name ‘The Hunchback’ -’Solitary
mister’-lack of respect? De-humanises
him. The visitors to the park know the
hunchback and that he is always alone.
Labeled by his disability. How does the
length of the line support this?
The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark
alliteration of the ‘s’ sound emphasises the
sadness that it is the end of the day. The park’s
closure means he becomes homeless.
Surrounded by
natural world
Verbs list the three basic essentials for life. They’re shocking ones as the hunchback
only has the basics to sustain him. Also he sleeps in a ‘dog kennel.’ This shows that
the hunchback has a fairly hand to mouth existence and appears little more than an
animal; one step up from a dog.
Childish point of
view – contrast
between a free,
playful young boy
and the homeless
man
Eating bread from a newspaper
Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.
The children are selfishthey don’t care about
what the hunchback
needs.
ambiguous. It is almost as though the narrator is
suggesting that maybe the hunchback should have
been chained up as far as his young self believed
because he was not normal. Could also suggest that
nobody needed to chain him up because he was
already ‘chained’ by his poverty
He enjoys the beauty of the park. The natural beauty of the park is in contrast
to the degradation of his sleeping accommodation.
Similes link the tramp to the natural world so that he
seems part of it, suggests he has become part of his
environment.
Like the park birds he came early
Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound
suggests that the boys
wanted the
hunchback to hear
their taunts. - an act
of bravado on the part
of the boys.
The boys mocking shouts are written phonetically- how they sound-effect = realistic
interesting image. -‘out of sound’ instead of ‘out of sight.’ Could suggest that
they run far enough so the hunchback’s response is not audible or until the
sound of their feet or taunts can no longer be heard.
The boys copy the hunchback’s posture – acting cruelly about something that
he cannot alter and which is a disability.
Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.
Child-like, boyish or possibly
animalistic imagery – a word not
usually associated with a grown
man. Does this make the
hunchback seem more wild and
free or is it just the voice of the
boy (speaker) coming through?
Metaphor: the
tramp feels like
he is an animal
in the zoo –
watched,
gawked at for
entertainment
Childish description – innocence?
Animalistic imagery – up early with the birds, moves around like an animal, dodging the
park keeper etc. Has a basic life, simple food, ties into the isolation he feels – he is a
creature on the outskirts without human feelings? He is trapped but also free like an
animal in the way he exists in nature without ties – he’s free to roam and dream
He feels alone
And the old dog sleeper
even when he
Alone between nurses and swans
isn’t. Contrasts
with the boys
While the boys among willows
friendship.
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
Metaphorical To roar on the rockery stones
endlessness of the
And the groves were blue with sailors
boys’ imagination –
imaginary games.
Or suggests boys
are free and wild
The only person he has is in his dreams
Simile. Woman
is compared
with nature –
strong and tall.
Compares her
to nature like
the tramp.
Made all day until bell time
A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
That she might stand in the night
He imagines
After the locks and chains
that she will
Morose, sad tone – he imagines a woman without fault – she
stands with him, straight and perfect in contrast to the
hunchback
protect him.
Not clear if this woman is imaginary or real. She has qualities that the hunchabck would
admire.
‘Innocent’ contrasts with their
cruel mockery
The boys are ‘wild’ like
‘strawberries.’ Wild strawberries
are small and very bitter or very
sweet - the hunchback actually
relishes the human contact they
provide him with? Or they are red
the colour of danger?
All night in the unmade park
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
Had followed the hunchback
To his kennel in the dark.
Another comparison of the
hunchback to a dogdehumanises him.
the reader is left unsure, in the
‘dark,’ as to what we should take
from this poem
FORM: The poem contains several
characters; the boys, the narrator
who tells us about the hunchback
and the hunchback himself.
STRUCTURE: The poem is a series of
observations. The poem looks regular,
with seven clearly separate stanzas, all
of which have the same number of lines
(six).
However, the punctuation is irregular
and minimal: there are only three full
stops in the whole poem (at the end of
stanzas two, four and seven). The gaps
between the stanzas assist us in reading
the poem aloud.
The lack of organisation (because of an
absence of punctuation and irregular,
inconsistent rhyme) could reflect a lack
of stability in the life of the
"hunchback".
ANIMAL METAPHORS: Used to show how
uncivilised the hunchback is, and to suggest
how wild the boys are.
ATTITUDES AND FEELINGS:
LONELINESS: The hunchback is isolated
from society and lonely.
THOUGHTLESSNESS: The boys are cruel,
but the poem also says they are innocent,
maybe they are unaware of the
consequences of their actions?
VULNERABILITY: The vision of the woman
shows the hunchback needs to be
protacted.
IDENTITY,NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
Look through the following list of words. Which
would you use to describe the old man? Why?
Friendly
Isolated
familiar
DESPISED
neglected
lonely
irritable
helpless
self-pitying
imaginative
ugly
frightening
still
proud
sad
humble
poor
Links with other poems:
Not all doom and gloom…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lki_IeM6
bQ
Links with other poems:
Casehistory: Alison (head injury)
• Both deal with figures who are isolated in some way
(though for very different reasons).
• Disability is central to both poems.
• Both warn against judging by appearances. Alison is not
merely a set of notes (a "casehistory"); she has a past and
distinct present. The term "hunchback"reflects that he is
judged and known only by his appearance.
• Both central characters' lives are, for different reasons,
empty.
• A reader will certainly feel sympathy for both characters.