E349S May 1: A Pig's Death and A Man's Spiritual Death

And these little piggies jumped and died.

Sylvie and Bruno features the poem, "The Pig-Tale," which tells the story of a sorrow-stricken, plump pig "that sat alone" because "he could not jump"[1].  Only once the Frog teaches the Pig to jump does the enormous character "[rush], full whack/ Against the ruined Pump" and die due to the "fatal jump"[2]. The poem features an act of death, and given Carroll's role as a children's author, he has no restrictions with discussion death. The pig foolishly ignores the rules of nature because he is too large to jump, and thus, he dies. His death ties back to Alice in Wonderland and the theme of childhood naivety. Children live in a sheltered reality, with no adherence to the laws and rules of man.

Children live in a world without rules.

In essence, because children have innocence and naivety, their world is far more dangerous than meets the eye due to their irresponsibility and lack of understanding of the rules that construct the real world. His novel, Alice in Wonderland, also features references to death during her fall down the rabbit-hole, whereupon Alice thinks "after such a fall like this, [she] shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs" [3]. Carroll tends to treat death as a humorous topic, as seen in both Alice and Sylvie and Bruno.

Hopkins felt isolated after his familial loss and religious exile.

Whilst Carroll discusses the death in a humorous method throughout his children's literature, Hopkins poem "To seem the stranger" focuses on alienation and Hopkins' "depression and inner anguish"[4] he faces during a darker period in his spiritual and personal life. The title itself strikes an image of isolation as he is the stranger depicted in the poem;  "to seem the stranger lies [Hopkins'] lot, [his] life"[5].Because of the "social stigma he felt as a Roman Catholic," Hopkins moved to Ireland after "his family disowned him" because many in England "took a similarly negative and suspicious view of Catholics"[6]. Not only does Carroll face religious persecution and doubt in his religious devotion, but in "To seem the stranger," "Stragirius's problem "is exacerbated by the fact that he is exiled from his family"and a sense of "exile, estrangement, and impotence"[7] is expressed throughout his work in Ireland. This same sense of isolation is paralleled in Hopkins' personal life from the church and his family. The poem evokes darker imagery and tones focusing on his trials and tribulations in Ireland just as Carroll speaks of darker topics such as death in his children's literature. 

Loss of family.

Works Cited

1. Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 503.

2.Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 504-505.

3. Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2000), 13.

4. SparkNotes, "Hopkins Poetry: "Carrion Comfort"." Accessed May 13, 2012. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section7.rhtml.

5. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Major Works Including all the Poems and Selected Prose (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 166.

6. Meglio, Leila. The Victorian Web, "Stranger Among Strangers: Hopkins' Isolation from Society and God." Last modified April 19, 2011. Accessed May 12, 2012. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hopkins/meglio.html.

7. Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 439.