"Shantung" Analysis

In the poem “Shantung”, Denise Riley uses symbolism and casual language to show the repression and insincerity of high-class society, especially for women, and the true feelings behind the lavish mask of wealth.

            Shantung is a type of silk cloth; using this as the title adds to the feeling of luxury that’s created through the speaker’s language. However, Riley’s poem muses over the troubles that are caused and covered up by extravagant lifestyles. The first-person perspective, along with casual, yet elevated language, help to reflect the personality of the speaker. The use of phrases such as “come on everybody. Especially you girls” (Riley) and “My friends! Some answers” (Riley) set a friendly, open tone, and makes the reader feel more personally connected to the speaker. This gives insight towards the speaker’s background as well; she’s probably wealthy, because she has time to speak and gossip with her friends, rather than having to work to earn a living.

            However, the friendly, generally joyful tone is often contradicted by the dark topics that the woman speaks about. She says ‘How much mascara washes away each day/ and internationally, making the blue one black” (Riley). The mascara is used to symbolize the fakeness of high-class society, which, when washed away, leaves something darker than it was before. Riley’s stating that being rich corrupts people. This statement is further backed up when the speaker, after addressing her friends, suddenly says “Each day I think of something about dying/ Does everybody? Do they think that, I mean,” (Riley). The sudden mention of a gloomy topic shows that, while the speaker is surrounded by luxuries like wristwatches and silk and makeup, inside she’s becoming depressed, but the riches cover up her depression so no one sees.

            In Angela Carter’s “Nights at the Circus”, Fevvers also begins to question the sincerity of her lavish lifestyles, and as she does so, her change is symbolically reflected by her altered physical appearance. "Every day, the tropic bird looked more and more like the London sparrow as which it had started out in life, as if a spell were unraveling" (Carter 271). In the poem, it also states "mascara washes away" (Riley), like the color of Fevvers' hair and wings. "Making the blue one black" also reflects the depression and uncertainty that Fevvers shows as a result of her transformation. As the colors get darker in the poem, the colors of Fevvers' wings and hair change, and her confidence and feeling of self-certainty lessen. This feeling of being unsure is also seen in both the poem and the novel through the symbolic use of time. In the poem, it says "unstrap my wristwatch. Lay it face down" (Riley), showing that the speaker is trying to eliminate the feeling of time passing. Time is also stopped in Nights at the Circus, when Walser first interviews Fevvers and the clock strikes midnight several times. Fevvers also eventually loses her Father Time clock. "Something's going on. Something we wot not of, my dear. Remember we have lost our clock; remember Father Time has many children and I think it was his bastard offspring inherited this region" (Carter 272). The women in these pieces have somehow lost their ability to perceive time (thus losing their own self-confidence) and, as a result, must escape from the rich lifestyle they once knew in order to become the woman they truly want to be and re-gain that ability to move forward in time.