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Casehistory : Alison (head injury). Context. The Poet: U . A. Fanthorpe (1929−2009) was an English teacher for many years before changing her career to work in a neuropsychiatric ward of a hospital in Bristol.
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Context The Poet: U. A. Fanthorpe (1929−2009) was an English teacher for many years before changing her career to work in a neuropsychiatric ward of a hospital in Bristol. It was here that she also began to write the poetry for which she achieved huge critical acclaim. ‘Casehistory: Alison (head injury)’ is from Side Effects, her first poetry collection published in 1978, and is part of a pair – the other part being ‘Casehistory: Julie (encephalitis)’. The poem allows the reader to consider how fragile life is and gives a voice to those who suffer an unexpected accident – in this way there is a sense of a universal message as such an accident can happen to any of us.
Before you start, annotate the following… • Autocratic = an autocrat is someone who is a dictator and who rules by his own power. An autocratic knee means that before her head injury she could control her physical movements
Before you start, annotate the following… • A Degas dancer’s = Degas was a 19th century French painter whose paintings of ballet dancers show them as graceful and slim. The allusion in the poem suggests that Alison was like one of them before her head injury
Title The title is ironic seen as Alison cannot remember anything about her past The character in the poem Casehistory: Alison (head injury) The title makes it sound like the poem is her medical record, the way her injury is in brackets seems clinical and heartless – as if this is now part of her and it defines her. Fanthorpe gives her back her voice.
About About: The poem is about Alison, a woman who has suffered brain damage after an accident. Her memory has been badly affected. Alison looks at a photograph of her younger self and talks about the person in it as if she were someone else. Although her memory has been affected, her vocabulary and understanding are still impressive. However, the narrator is far removed from the woman in the photograph taken before the accident. The Alison of today has one advantage over the Alison of the past: today's brain-damaged woman knows what lies ahead for the woman in the photograph. Themes:loss, bitterness, the fragility of life, appearance Vs reality Tone: wistful, bitter and confused, downcast but fond of her former self and she admires her, pathos (a quality that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow)
The subheading The poem is set out as nine three line stanzas and closes with a single line – the many short sentences show Alison takes her time and speaks slowly. The three line stanzas could mimic the stuttered speech and thoughts of Alison now. (She looks at her photograph) The poem is a dramatic monologue and this tells the reader it is from a female perspective – we assume ‘she’ is Alison a character created by the poet who narrates the poem. She can’t remember the person she used to be
Stanza one Alison is talking about herself. The use of the third person demonstrates her sense of loss. I would like to have known My husband’s wife, my mother’s only daughter. A bright girl she was. These lines are puzzling and cryptic, she play with her sense of identity as if it is a struggle ‘was’ in the last line sounds awkward. This is so that we recognise that Alison is struggling to remember the past and her own identity.
Stanza Two In the present, Alison is a changed person. The words ‘enmeshed’ and ‘comforting’ suggests emotional and physical pain. Enmeshed in comforting Fat, I wonder at her delicate angles. Her autocratic knee The are examples of juxtaposition throughout the poem. Additionally, her mental dysfunction is shown through the way she refers to her former self in the third person – using ‘she’ and ‘her’ . The poet wants to show the difference between her past and present. In the past, it is clear in this stanza that she was dainty ‘delicate’ and that her joints did what she wanted. The mention of the ‘autocratic knee’ suggests that Alison had power over her movement.
Stanza Three Simile to compare the way she looks now to before – shows she was graceful this contrasts with the word ‘lugs’ which gives the impression she has to drag herself up the stairs now and is no longer in control of her body. The contrasting images are also an example of juxtaposition. Like a Degas dancer’s Adjusts to the observer with airy poise, That now lugs me upstairs The use of enjambment suggests grace and fluidity of the remembered movement. In contrast the use of enjambment in line 9 and 10 highlights the difference between then and now.
Stanza four Enjambment delays the word ‘hardly’ which emphasises a tone of bitterness but also represents her fragmented thought process Hardly. Her face, broken By nothing sharper than smiles, holds in its smiles What I have forgotten. A metaphor is used here to show that Alison feels broken now. The words ‘broken’ and ‘smiles’ are another example of juxtaposition which show how Alison has been affected by the accident The repetition of smiles suggests she is fascinated with the expression
Stanza five Alison talks about her father’s death. It seems to have happened before her own injury because she detects in the smile in the photograph a sense that she had ‘digested mourning’, or got used to the sadness she felt She knows my father’s dead, And grieves for it, and smiles. She has digested Mourning. Her smile shows it. The poet uses language of loss ‘grieves’, ‘mourning’, ‘dead’ to show that Alison grieves for the loss of her family members, her former self and the loss of her happiness. A metaphor is used to show the Alison in the photo has dealt with her father’s death. It suggests the present Alison can’t she is trapped in an endless cycle of grief. There is a sense of envy here.
Stanza six The word morning links with the homophone ‘mourning’ suggesting a connection, perhaps as she mourns from waking. I, who need reminding Every morning, shall never get over what I do not remember. She will never get over – or be healed from her accident – which she can’t remember – this adds to the pathos of her situation.
Stanza seven This could suggest that she has to live a heavily structured life now because she can no longer think for herself. Consistency matters. I should like to keep faith with her lack of faith, But forget her reasons. Faith is a word we associate with religion. This seems to suggest that Alison’s younger self did not believe in God. This is appropriate as this kind of injury is what forces us to question our belief in God.
Stanza Eight Proud of this younger self, I assert her achievements, her A levels, Her job with a future. The longer line often describes her past self, showing she feels that her past self is more interesting and worthy of notice. Her younger self had enormous potential – a future which has now been lost as she no longer has that sense of self.
Stanza Nine This stanza is ironic because the one thing the speaker does know is that her former self will have to live with a head injury. This oxymoron intensifies the pathos of her former self’s ignorance at what the future has in store for her. Poor clever girl! I know, For all my damaged brain, something she doesn’t: I am her future. She will remain trapped like this forever. There is a tone of acceptance here and regret.
Stanza Ten The last line stands isolated at the end of the poem like Alison is isolated from life by her brain damage. The line is strongly foregrounded and made more powerful by the knowledge of what Alison used to be. A bright girl she was. The are contrasts throughout the poem, her mental dysfunction is shown through the way she refers to her former self in the third person – using ‘she’ and ‘her’ . The differing tenses are confusing and give an insight into how Alison feels.
Links to other poems… • Dramatic monologues/ Change: ‘Medusa’ • Sense of personal identity: ‘The Clown Punk’ ‘Checking Out me History’ • Sense of isolation: ‘The Hunchback in the Park’ • Sense of loss: ‘Medusa’ ‘LGS’ ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’
