Pathedy of Manners

Pathedy of Manners

The speaker used to feel admiration for the woman she is describing, but now she only feels pity for her.

The first half of the poem describes the woman when she was younger and focuses on her characteristics and skills using selection of detail. The reader learns many seemingly random tidbits about the woman that show how she is an interesting and respectable person. She is brilliant; she is adored; people want to dance with her; she speaks as if she were wealthy; she earned a diploma; she travelled; and she “learned to tell real Wedgwood from a fraud” (12). Such details are unnecessary and insignificant. However, they do paint a vivid picture of an intelligent and cultured woman whom dedicated her life up to that point trying to broaden her horizons. She is someone who should be admired because she achieved a wide variety of things at the young age of twenty and is capable of much more amazing accomplishments. The selection of detail in the first half of the poem displays the speaker’s admiration for the woman because the woman is shown to be unique, interesting, and intelligent. 

The second half of the poem focuses on the woman’s life then and how it did not turn out as expected. In the first stanza after the shift, the word “Ideal” is repeated (15-16). After living such a fantastic life as one described earlier in the poem, it is expected that this woman’s life continues to be fantastic. However, the fifth stanza describes the woman at forty-three, and her life did not turn out the way anyone expected: she is alone and imagines “lost opportunity” that she missed. Words and phrases like “afraid” (21) and “shuns conviction” (23) are used to emphasize her uncertainty about her now life, and how this uncertainty leads to negative side effects. The poem ends with the woman walking “Alone in brilliant circles to the end” (28). This once vibrant woman who was full of life is now lonely and dull. The speaker no longer admires her, but instead, she pities her. She, like others, expected greatness from this woman, and when the woman lived a mediocre life, people, including herself, pitied her because they thought she could have done more with her life. The speaker’s diction of words such as alone, afraid, and lost show that the speaker pities the woman because the woman did not live up to her expectations.