The short story ‘The Bath’ Essay

?The short theme The Bath by Janet Frame tells of an middle-aged skirt who has been widowed and now lives alone. It tells of the sm both, meaningless tasks that now make up her existence. She grieves for baffled loved ones and frequents their sculpture. In this particular story, the mediocre activity of having a lavatory becomes a hugely difficult task for the woman as she struggles to puff extinct once finished. The main news reports portrayed in this story are loneliness, the plight of the elderly and helplessness.The theme of loneliness is shown by the graves. One of the exclusively things the hoary woman can do now is visit the graves of her loved ones as she has no other way to remember them and no people left in her life to provide company for her. She plants flowers on their graves showing tender care and talks to the graves as if they were living people. These actions make the reader feel sorry for the old lady, and the gild she cuts from the graves shows just how lonely she really is.This leads to the next theme, the plight of the elderly. Partway through the story it becomes apparent that the old woman cannot stir up herself out of the lavatory as a result of her weakened, elderly body. This proves to be incredibly thwarting for the old woman as this really is a very frank task but try as she might she simply cannot get out of the bath. As well as feeling sorry for the old woman the reader also begins to feel scared for her as she is all alone and cannot call for help.The author also uses symbolism to help get across the message of the old womans plight. The bath is set forth as being in a dilapidated affirm and this parallels the state of the womans frail body as she struggles to pull herself out of the bath. This in turn leads to the last and possibly most important theme helplessness. In the prior paragraphs I establish talked about all the things that have happened to the old woman but the one important factor that golf links them all together is that she is powerless to change any of it.Her body is flunk her and she cant help it, all her loved ones are defunct and she cant help it, and most of all, she is dying too, and she cant help it. Symbols of death are all around her. The cemetery, a decaying house, and the bath. be trapped in the bath makes it coffin-like, representing where she will eventually lie forever. The story of the old woman makes us fully aware of what growing old is really like. It is not graceful or fun, it is scary and lonely.