The Woman I Am In My Dreams - Maxine Tynes

Literary Theory

Feminist Theory

• the ways in which literature reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women
• woman is the other

Performative Approach Theory

• every individual is the main “actor” on the performing stage of their lives.
• individuals build a strong barrier between the front and backstage

Characters

Biographical Theory

• analysis of a writer's biography to show the relationship between the author's life and their works of literature.

Leola

• wife a Boy, a rich business man
• devotion to Boy leads to her being treated as an object

Liesl

• appears ugly but shows beauty through her heart & motives

Ophelia

• caught between obedience to Polonius & love for Hamlet leads to her downfall
• looked upon males by their appearance not their attitudes

Narrator in the poem:

• Uses an appearance act as a Front Stage to others because society judges others based on appearance, look, and style

Dunstan Ramsay:

• Front Stage: a shrewd teacher and businessman at his work, Colbourne College
• Back Stage: he is full of guilt due to the snow ball incident

Hamlet:

• Front Stage: respects his duties for Claudius and as a prince
• Back Stage: full of rage against Claudius and grieves the murder of his father and his mother’s rushed marriage

MAXINE TYNES IN RELATION TO HER POEM

• In her poem The Woman I Am In My Dreams she writes about her physical challenges.
• wrote about social issues such as the racism experienced by earlier generations of black women.
• Expressing her desires to be that perfect woman in her dreams to avoid being a target of discrimination.

Robertson Davies

• Robertson Davies incorporates himself in Fifth Business by depicting Dunstan Ramsay as an outcast
• He depicts Dunstan Ramsay as a successful bachelor schoolmaster, a life that Robertson Davies wished he had lived.
• Lastly, Davies was unfit for military service. He portrays Dunstan as a war veteran, who was acknowledged with the Victoria Cross.

Literary Devices

Extended Metaphor

• comparison between two things not using like or as

The woman is comparing herself to her dream self.

• lines 2-8
• lines 10-15
• lines 17-23
• lines 25-32

Paradox

• the use of ideas that contradict one another

"the woman I am in my dreams

I wake up and carry part of her

with me everywhere."

Imagery

• author uses words and phrases to create “mental images” for the reader

Descriptive imagery is used throughout the entire poem.

• lines 10-12
• lines 18-23

Mood

• a stance the author adopts in shaping a specific emotional perspective towards the subject of the literary work

Sympathy

Personification

• giving human characteristics & traits to inanimate objects

Maxine Tynes gives legs human traits to show the difference between the women and her dream self.

• lines 25-32

Hyperbole

• phrases that are exaggerated and overemphasize to produce a more noticeable effect

Exaggerates statements by saying:

• line 26
• lines 29-32

Amplification

• The writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understandability.

Repetition

• The return of a phrase that adds special meaning to a piece of literature.

"The woman I am in my dreams” to show the realization that everyone can be the ideal woman.

Indentations 4-7: helps to tie all of the narrators aspects of her actual self and her dream self.

Indentation

It emphasizes the narrators thoughts.

• indentation 1: lack of confidence and a low self esteem
• indentation 2-3: shift their thoughts to catch a glimpse of this ideal woman in the dream