Dual nature of vıolence and dıvıded self of man ın the poems of ted hughes

Abstract

Considering the period in which he lived, known as the ‘Violent 70s’, it is not surprising that Ted Hughes deals with the theme of violence in his poems. Unlike Hughes’ contemporaries, man and animal dichotomy in his ecologically conscious poems does not serve to set man apart from the rest of the creation, or to show his distinguishing features, but to criticizes the modern man that lost his bonds with nature and his own self. What he conveys through animal imagery is that once man had strong bonds with nature, just like animals, yet technology and urbanisation pull him away from his own nature. His distinctive ecopoems associates nature with violence in an unconventional manner. Unlike the conventional depictions of violence as merely a destructive deadly physical force, Hughes depicts it as the primal and indispensible energy of nature. ‘Hughesian’ violence essentially is an expression of energy that splits up with moral implications of mankind. While the Nature’s violence is represented as a life-giver, vital and powerful energy in a positive way, modern man in his early poems is the representative of negative violence. This paper argues that Hughes’ animal poems can be classified under the recently emerged subgenre, ecopoetry. Ecopoetry addresses contemporary problems and issues in ways that are ecocentric and respects the integrity of the other-than-human world, challenging the belief that humans are meant to have dominion over nature (Gray and Wirth, 2013). In this regard, Hughes’ poems remind man of his capacity and real place in nature through the animals and criticize the so-called civilised man challenging his superiority through depicting him weak and pacified in nature, due to his disengagement with his own nature. His poetry gives the message that once man stops ignoring his bonds with Nature and uses Culture to strengthen this bond, he will reunite his divided self and live harmoniously within the ecological system. Keywords: Ted Hughes, ecopoetry, ecocriticism, violence, culture, nature, man, duality