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| World War I trench map |
Rats' Alley is a symbol of decay and destruction. It is also typical of the nicknames given by soldiers to the trenches of the Western Front. It is tempting to interpret the silences, and random thoughts of death (
Those are pearls that were his eyes), of the male character as a manifestation of "shell-shock" or PTSD. The highly-strung female speaker also seems to suffer from an anxiety disorder.
The silent man and the nervous woman exemplify a recurring symbol in this part of the poem, that of Mars and Venus, of warrior men and the women they love or desire. In this
Game of Chess, it is generally the women who lose out: Cleopatra takes her own life after Antony's defeat; Dido dies after being deserted by Aeneas; Philomela is pursued by the armed Tereus; Lil's health is put at risk by the demands of her soldier husband; and in the final lines we are reminded of Ophelia, driven to suicide (another death by water) by the behaviour of Hamlet.
The silent man and the nervous woman exemplify a recurring symbol in this part of the poem, that of Mars and Venus, of warrior men and the women they love or desire. In this Game of Chess, it is generally the women who lose out: Cleopatra takes her own life after Antony's defeat; Dido dies after being deserted by Aeneas; Philomela is pursued by the armed Tereus; Lil's health is put at risk by the demands of her soldier husband; and in the final lines we are reminded of Ophelia, driven to suicide (another death by water) by the behaviour of Hamlet.
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