Analyzing the Theme of Love and Grief in Anne Carson’s The Glass Essay

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Literary analysis
Analysing the Theme of Love and Grief as Depicted in Anne Carson’s The Glass Essay
Introduction
The poem, which almost qualifies as an epic story because of its length, is a unique
narration by Anne Carson detailing her life after a breakup. The author gels together attractive
narrative elements with incisive language to take the readers through the free flow of her story.
The poem involves the story of a woman who goes to stay with her aging mother and in the
process also visits the sick father in the hospital (Trachan 60). However, the most conspicuous
aspect is the narrator’s lamentation following his break up with her lover. The story therefore has
the daily struggles of life coined from the core theme of love. In this analysis, the theme of love
and its attachment to grief as exhibited by the narrator shall be explored.
To begin with, the narrator presents a complicated image of the aspect of love. She
confesses to lack of a proper definition of this experience. The narrator is at pains to explain why
love has to be attached to so much grief. It would be important to note that all her experiences
are chronicled around love. Despite the fact that she is hurting from a break up, there is eminent
love and attachment when she chooses to stay and take care of her aging mother and sick father.
Love brings attachments that are so strong and we tend to hurt so much when these attachments
are broken (Preminger 17). The narrator, with all her pains is left wondering whether love is
necessary. The marriage between love and grief is therefore clear and can be deduced from the
narrator’s lamentations. When the mother asks her to let go of her past and stop thinking so
much, she vehemently notes that she cannot. This reveals the level to which her love for the man
did not only bring such a string attachment but has also caused her unimaginable grief
considering the present circumstances.

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Love is also depicted as an aspect of imprisonment. The author uses various symbolic
elements such as ropes, cages and thorns to bring out the aspect of imprisonment in the story. For
instance, the speaker notes how the father is strapped down to the chair at the hospital and also
notes how blood and words become trapped in a glass. Each of these positions can be tracked to
the origin of the narrator’s state of mind. Her current perspective of the aspects of life can be
linked to the emotional breakdown caused by the break up. Because of her love for the father,
she is grieved by how helpless he is strapped in the chair. This can be symbolically connected to
the extent to which she was strapped in her former relationship which explains why the breakup
has caused her so much pain.
Perhaps the most outstanding feature in Anne’a poem is the way love has been
intertwined with grief. This forms the foundation on which all the other aspects of the story are
based. The speaker reveals, earlier in the poem, that she had been left by a man she has been with
for five years, an experience which has sent her into some kind of a depression. The level of her
pain can be confirmed by her description of it when she says “I felt like the sky had been torn off
my life” She further claims that she has nowhere to go (Black 15).
Based on the narrator’s perspective, it can be deduced that experiences that revolve
around love tend to cause grief. However, the heavy feeling of hurt and grief also weakens bonds
and love. For instance, the author’s relationship with her father is greatly diminished as a result
of the pains and grief that both of them are going through at the moment. While she is smarting
up from a breakup, the father is struggling with a condition at the hospital. This punctures the
communication between them, an aspect which can be confirmed by the narrator’s inability to
ascertain whether the father is dead or alive. The complications in her relationship with the father