MB UNIUD

In the first part I'll deal about the content, in the second part I'll compare the sound aspect, in the third part I'll analyze the language and to conclude, in the last part, I'll talk about the themes of the two ballads.

Both the two ballads are about the death of sons from mothers' point of view. Lord Randal's mother is especially worried for the future of the family because Randal is her first son. The ballad starts with the climatic episode where the son is dying. he had been poisoned by his love while hunting. In "The Wife of Usher's Well" the three sons had left their home to go to work on sea. In a week they were die. After that is represented the suffering of the mother: she has got hallucinations. Those consist of seeing her sons. From these short summaries of the contents, the intelligent reader can understand that the two families represent two different social classes: aristocracy and bourgeoisie. The reader can also understand that the mothers are facing two different problems: Randal's mother is thinking about the economic future of the family, while "The Wife of Usher's Well" doesn't except the death of her three sons, she has got an high pain so that she imagines the resurrection of her sons.

From the point of view of the sound aspect the two ballads best represent the typical features of medieval ballads: the use of alliterations, repetitions, incremental repetitions and refrains. For example the use of sounds like "U", "B", "W" recreates the suffering of the mothers. Especially in "lord Randal" the composer uses a refrain to stick Lord Randal's health conditions into the reader's mind. In both the ballads is frequent the use of incremental repetitions.

The language used by the two different composers is essentially the same, but the intelligent reader can understand that the mothers, that belong to two different social classes, don't speak in the same way: Lord Randal's mother uses an higher language compared to "The Wife" because she belongs to aristocracy. Both the two composers use very simple verb tenses: present and past simple, present and past perfect and imperative. This verb tens is used only by Lord Randal so therefore the reader can understand that the son has a patronizing attitude towards his mother: he gives orders and expects his mother to obey.

The ballads deal about different themes. "Lord Randal" deals about the themes of the (sometimes difficult) relationship between a mother and a son and the problems that the people had to face (for example the death of a first son). This last theme renders the idea of the cultural background. In "The Wife of Usher's Well" there are two different topics compared to the first ballad: the suffering of a mother, the pain she feels and the supernatural event: she is so desperate that she believes she can see the three sons coming back from the tomb. Both the ballads speak about a tragic death that brings out lot of problems for both the families.