Cousin Kate: Voice and point of view

Today we ditched Goblin Market and started on Cousin Kate, paying particular attention to the voice, point of view and character in the poem.

The main voice of the poem is that of the narrator, Kate's cousin, as she writes to Cousin Kate in restrospect, looking back over and retelling some events of their lives with some reflections throw in here and there.

The majoirty of the poem is written from the narrator's point of view, however we get an insight into society's perspective as the "neighbours" think Kate "good and pure" but the narrator "an outcast thing" with the use of the word "thing" suggesting that she was not even worthy of a name. This shows the injustice of society on the topics of women, their virtue, the glorification of their virginity and of the importance of marriage; Kate and the narrator had lived the exact same experience with the "luring" "lord" however the narrator is viewed as being a whore (can you say that in an exam? :S) and was rejected by society whereas Kate was perceived as being virtuous, solely because the latter was married to the man and the former was not. In addition, the narrator's relationship is described as "shameful" which again shows the cultural importance of marriage.