The poem, To a Louse by Robert Burns, is about a man seeing a louse, or a bug, in a woman's hair. He is slightly confused about why a bug would be in this particular woman's hair because he says that she is "fine a Lady!". He does not seem to understand why such a "creature" is crawling though this woman's hair in church. The point of the poem is to show the difference between "the way we see ourselves and the way others see us." The woman that came to church that day probably did not know that there was a bug in her bonnet and she was styled with class and then the man sitting in the church who saw the bug was shocked to see a bug crawling though her hair. What does that bug mean? Does it mean that she appears to be a high class lady with high quality hygine, but truely she is only of low class and it is easy for the bug to be crawling on her?
If others saw the bug they would probably be wondering the same question. You cannot judge someone on appearance and assume that they have high standards and an easy living. You do not truely know someone soley by the way he or she dresses and presents him or herself. Maybe the woman does have a hard life and it is not uncommon for a bug to be on her. Or maybe it is all just a misunderstanding and the bug feel on her from inside the church. Either way, the man seemed to be very upset at the fact that this woman had a bug crawling on her and he did not like the way he saw that woman.
Work Cited
Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. "To a Louse." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 889-90. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment