Similarities Between the Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window and the Painter

Both poems involve the reader much more than the subjects of the poem (either the woman or the painter). The two personas in the poem represent ideas. The ideas themselves are abstract, meaning that their experiences are subject to the interpretation of the reader. Reading through the two poems, there are fleeting up and down moments from despair to hope and vice versa. As a result, the poems are almost living. They use a blank canvas for ideas which invite the reader to fill the spaces with whatever he or she desires. Another important factor to both poems is the use of deep emotions, sometimes personified in the lines, to create a bond with the reader. The two poems are vague in a way, the woman hanging from the 13th floor could be anybody that feels trapped by life, the painter could also be anybody overwhelmed by work or life in general.

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The rhetorical situation in the two poems is quite similar. There is an interaction between the personas and other people. For example, in The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window, there is mentioning of her family: "She is a woman of children, of the baby, Carlos, / and of Margaret, and of Jimmy who is the oldest." (lines 10-11). The woman is literally on the edge of death, yet she reminisces on her children, who of course need their mother. The rhetorical situation invokes a question: Why does she want to kill herself? It surely must be something very serious.

In The Painter, the persona is stuck by the seaside, waiting for inspiration "To rush up the sand, and, seizing a brush, / Plaster its portrait on the canvas." (lines 5-6). His neighbors try to encourage him and give him ideas: "Try using the brush / As a means to an end." There is a similarity in the way other people talk to the painter just like in The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window where some people are encouraging her to let go and kill herself, while others are encouraging her to save herself. Both personas are surrounded by noise. It is a familiar situation for anybody reading who has found themselves being told what to do at a time of crisis.

Both poems are very rich in imagery; they convey the raw and primal emotions going on with the speakers of the poem and the audience. The main feeling in the imagery is despair and the state of being overwhelmed. In The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window, the imagery used invokes the feeling of watching a play in the theatre. "She thinks of the 4 a.m. lonelinesses that have folded / her up like death, discordant, without logical and / beautiful conclusion." (lines 55-57). The imagery shows the deep loneliness she feels, even though we have seen earlier that she is surrounded by her family. From these lines, we get to know that she has suicidal tendencies and she has pondered over death in the late hours of the night before. The woman is simply tired of her existence; she has no life but suicide is going too far, and it is frustrating for the reader. If only she talked about her troubles earlier.

The Painter, the imagery makes the reader side with the critics. Here is a painter, who does not paint. Hence there is doubt whether he is a painter. A painter is normally an inspired person, who finds inspiration from anywhere but here is one supposed painter who cannot lift his brush: "Imagine a painter crucified by his subject! Too exhausted even to lift his brush" (lines 25-26). The sea is the subject that the painter wants to draw; he is "crucified" by the sea in that he cannot capture the sea on his canvas. The painter frustrates the reader as much as the people he lives with. Why does he not just paint?

The mood and tone in the two poems are somber. Reason for that is that the major themes are solemn: suicide or death in The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window and career failure and possibly murder in The Painter. Hence, the mood is understandably sad and somber. In The Painter, the persona's end is tragic: "They tossed him, the portrait, from the tallest of the buildings; And the sea devoured the canvas and the brush." The pronoun "him" is ambiguous, it could act as an emphasis for the self-portrait of the sea which means that the painter's career is officially dead; killed by public disapproval, for having a subject too deep and impossible like the sea. Syntax goes to portray the solemn mood and tone hence the use of words like "devoured" which serve to show a hopeless situation. The second scenario is that the painter himself is "tossed" into the sea which would amount to actual physical murder. However, as this is poetry, the murder being alluded to is metaphorical for the death of the painter's obsession with the sea and career in extension.

The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window is also solemn in mood and tone, for example: "Lonelinesses... have folded her up like death" (lines 55-57). The words "lonelinesses" (poetic justice in full effect) and "death" are syntax indicators to capture the mood and tone. The attitude that comes across is pessimistic for The Woman Hanging From the 13th Floor Window and The Painter. The same view is mirrored perhaps even more by the two personas' audiences. Pessimism is not a recipe for a good life; this seems to be a message left to the reader.

Finally, and most importantly, there is the use of symbolism in the two poems in the same fashion. It is not a coincidence that both poems are descriptive of the respective personas. As much as the imagery paint vivid subjective descriptions of the two individuals, symbolism ironically serves a more real, generic or non-specific role. The Woman Hanging From The 13th Floor Window is symbolic for everybody who has ever had suicidal thoughts and acted on them. She feels entrapped in her life: "She thinks she will be set free" (line 7). Death by suicide is her escape plan from life. She also represents the silent suffering that single mothers have: there is no mention of a husband or boyfriend, yet she has three children. Her train of thought is symbolic for the moments of indecision which is part of human nature and the tendency to make uninformed choices in such a manner. The woman is a martyr of sorts, according to her mostly; she thinks about many things including her race (ambiguous and subject to reader's interpretation), faded beauty, childhood dreams, and motherhood.

Conclusion

Similarly, The Painter is symbolic of a dream without a vision map to achieve it. Also, the painter could be suffering from a severe case of procrastination. The Painter shows us the danger of being undecided; it is better to take action now than wait. The sea is symbolic of a dream that when pursued so long gets lost in the waves and tides of life: "Finally all indications of a subject / Began to fade" (lines 32-33). The words are symbolic of the death of a dream.