Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What is the effect of the dialogue form? Why express such ideas in the form of a conversation between two people rather than something else?
- Why do you think Hardy uses the word "maid"? What does this make us think of? Would it be different if he had said, "ruined woman" or "ruined girl"?
- Hardy stopped writing novels because he got sick of the criticism of his take on Victorian sex and morals, but apparently he does the same thing in his poetry. Is it different to talk about such issues in a poem instead of a novel? What is different about the two forms?
- What do you make of the all the dialect words ("spudding," "barton," "megrims")? What effect do they have? Are they confusing, neat, a pain, cool? Why?
- What's the deal with 'Melia anyway? She seems sort of personality-less, don't you think? Is this because she's ruined? Or is she just boring?