Blog 1

Casabianca by Felicia Dorthea Hemens

Symbols and Images: boy, burning deck, FIRE, father, death, ship, flag, wind, thunder, fragments, sea, heart

The first stanza of “Casabianca” describes a boy who seems like he is in a whole heap of trouble; everyone fled or is dead, and fire is surrounding him (literally speaking).

Fire in “Casabianca” could represent the overwhelming feeling of taking responsibility once the father died or left. The boy was so used to his father’s or anyone’s help that the “wreathing fires made way” (28) because he could not take it. However, this interpretation seems too “cowardly” because at the end, the boy died a noble death.

In the last line of the second stanza, it seems that this boy had pride although he was still a child. This could leave the impression that he may have acted a bit rash and that the “flames rolled on” (9) and took the best of him. This hypothesis seems a bit cowardly too.

Another hypothesis would be that the boy was in trouble and he desperately needed his father, but he was not there. The fires that surrounded him could represent the trouble that the boy had. He was deciding whether or not to stay with the ship, his pride, and die with it, or flee and survive.

In the last stanza, it seems the boy perished with the ship. From that, he made that decision by himself. He would rather be faithful to his pride or something equally special than flee like a coward. In stanzas four, five, and seven, in his final moments, the boy asked his father for advice on what he should do. He knew that his father was dead already, but as the son, he wanted to seek advice from him one more time.

p.s Hope to see you guys Thursday. Out today from food poisoning. :(