In "My Ex-Husband" by Gabriel Spera, a woman goes on a date with a man and shows him a picture of his ex-husband. In this poem, she starts off describing him as a charming, passionate, and stylish man.Then she reveals he is self-centered and flirtatious without caring who knew him.
The woman talking to her date seems to be still in love with her ex-husband by the way she describes him at first. Her tone in lines 10-11 and 14-18 gives a sense of warmth and importance to him. Shortly after that she says he is a ladies man knowing all the romantic spots in town (line 18-19). She states that he is full of himself because he is easily impressed by himself (line 24-25)and so it seems he blatantly flirts with women (line 28-29). Ironically she says who would put up with "shit" like his but she was with him at some point dealing with him (line 31-32).
Toward the end of the poem she suddenly changes the topic (line 46) pushing aside the topic of her ex-husband as if she didn't care. Seems as if she tries to put her past in the past as she suddenly changes topic with her date. Her tone in line 46 can be in a melancholic tone, trying to not give much importance to her ex-husband yet her time with her date was all about her ex-husband.
I agree with your " trying to not give much importance to her ex-husband yet her time with her date was all about her ex-husband" I felt like through out this poem she tried to talk him down. Almost trying to talk herself out of still caring for him. Maybe her new man is just a way of trying to do that
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ReplyDeleteThe speaker contradicts herself when she starts off with describing her ex-husband as charming and then "talking him down". This says more about the speaker than it does about her ex-husband. She's in so much denial about her ex-husband that she begins to have so much denial about herself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what your describing when you said that it seemed that she was still in love with her ex-husband, because of the way she was describing him in such depth, and the fact that the whole date she was talking about her ex-husband and not paying much attention to the date.
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