Themes in Under Milk Wood

Time
Time is moving on through the play it is the day in one life in Milk Wood however the dreams and inner thoughts of the characters flit from past to present (Evans the death dreaming about upon waking fifty years ago and Captain Cat flitting from the past with his dead dears and the present) Mr Waldos dream also keeps shuffling between the past (Mr Waldo as a young boy) and the present and the past (as a married man) and the present as widower Waldo Scene 1 (the dreams) then closes with Lord Cut Glass imitating a clock tick tock tick tock which ends the scene nicely and emphasizes the theme of time Captain Cat also lives between the past and the present fully living as if both were his reality this defeating time in some ways Like a Cat he sees in the dark. Through the voyages of his tears he sails to see the dead People going to work, the shops opening Students going to school Babies and old men are cleaned and put into their prams This quote gives the idea of the circle of life and that nothing changes - the time follows the same pattern of everyday life as if it is out of time the hands of the clocks stayed still at half past eleven for fifty years This is a pub that doesnt care about the laws of when it can open and close and not/can sell alcohol always open the clock is stuck on opening hours also gives the feel that in the village time isnt really a worry time is always stuck They have always done the same thing time is always on repeat as they are not touched by the outside world timelessness Lord cut-glass who is seen as having an ostensible obsession with time. Thomas portrays the inevitable march of time as Lord Cut Glass is seen as living in a house and a life at siege, yet his eccentric character, as seen in Thomas use of unpredictable sentence patterning reinforced with exclamatory sentences in -mind there-Rover! emphasises the ironic nature of Glass behaviour as he is driven by time in a place where there is effectively no time. The constant progression of time as a major theme in Under Milk Wood is also apparent as it is said to death to all creatures born to die. This rather cynical view proposed by the Reverend Eli Jenkins highlights the ever-present presence of Gods kind judgement as Jenkins prays to let us see another day!

Llareggub as a chosen land

Idyllic and happy place with no judgement First Voice and Rev Eli Jenkins dont say anything judgemental but just take Llareggub as it is A god built gardena green leaved sermon on the innocence of men Refer to Mary Ann Sailors that says that Llareggub is like the chosen land Everyone knows each other in the town the time follows the same pattern of everyday life as if it is out of time There are many references to the garden of Eden in the play There is a sense of joyful naughtiness Love, sings the spring. The bedspring grass bounces under the birds bums and lambs picturesque scene, untouched by the outside world maybe Dylan Thomas looking back nostalgically However there is gossip and it is judgemental theres a nasty lot that live here come to think of it

The Exuberance of Life

A passage of time from birth, childhood, love and longing, marriage, old age and death all wonders of everyday life and all parts of lifes rich pattern Love and the way that the characters enjoy or endure it Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price both rejoice in their relationship which they can enjoy through dreams and letters this strange way of showing their love is celebrated by the play this is how they want their relationship to be Polly Garters love of bringing life

into the world and caring for babies- also her love of good, bad boys from local farms the first voice and author do not condemn her for her promiscuity but rejoice in the way that she lives her life the way she wants to Also Rev Eli rejoices in her songs praise the lord, we are a musical nation Many of the normal things that happen in life are celebrated through dreams and characters for example Captain Cats dream of his old shipmates asking about the tiddlers in the jam jar etc. they miss the beautifully simple things that happen in everyday life Shown through the songs and the energy of the child characters especially Polly Garters singing as she works lightens up the play Rev Eli Jenkins celebration of Milk Wood and all its characters in the White Book of Llareggub and also in his poems Praise the Lord! We are a musical nation Polly Garter isnt life a terrible thing, thank God! lots of bad and wicked (good bad boys) men who want to get her pregnant the first voice, Rev Eli Jenkins and Captain Cat are not judgemental of this and dont think it is bad Rev Eli Jenkins celebrates everyone and doesnt mind the fact that none is wholly bad or good in Under Milk Wood

The Cold Finality of Death

Captain Cat is tormented by the drowned sea fellows and of his dead lover Rosie Probert he longs to live again with them he can only contact them through dreams Rosie Probert says come on up boys, Im dead captain Cat says oh my dead dears death is final even in dreams they arent alive in dreams Polly Garter, even though she has many other lovers, sings of little Willy Wee who is dead, dead, dead she is nostalgic and melancholy when she sings about him both Polly Garter and Captain Cats dead lovers that are introduced to us provide the play with moments of pathos Mrs Ogmore Pritchard talks to her dead husbands in her dreams and their deaths are talked about with the gossip women this reminds the audience that they are dead, even though play a major part in the life of Mrs Ogmore Pritchard life Bessie Bighead who was kissed when she wasnt looking by Gomer Owen she is described to being in the dark until he kissed her now he is dead and she has never been kissed again when he died so did her hopes of being kissed alone until she dies decks his grave with daisies Mr Waldos wives haunt him in his dreams they have died so he is free to have an affair with Polly Garter

Men and Women

Love and Relationships

Secrets and Secret thoughts Loneliness, Isolation and Nostalgia

Death and dead characters

Community
There are many different characters and settings that are included in Under Milk Wood that bring the community together there are scenes set in homes, shops, the pub and the school The First Voice (in the first chapter) sets the scene of a community sleeping together on a spring moonless night in a small town Llareggub it says that everyone the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher are sleeping shows the variety of people that make up the community not leaving anyone out including babies, young girls etc. We are introduced into the lives of the Postman (Willy Nilly), the schoolmasters (Mr and Mrs Pugh) etc. When the town awakes, the listener/audience can see the ways in which the townspeople lives are crossed and how they interact with each other Mrs Organ Morgan chatting with the Pughs etc. indicates the way

that the community knows each other they are gossiping about Polly Garter, portraying how they are involved in the lives of others in the town building a strong community image Captain Cat knows the names of every child in the village just by listening to their voices the children also know his name look Captain Cat is crying all over his nose again reinforcing the idea that this community is tight-knit and small The postman going round to everyones houses and recounting the gossip from the other characters posts shows the closeness of the people in the town they know the ins and outs of everyones lives this shown also through the gossip women Rev Eli Jenkins sings about the people of Llareggub grouping them together as not wholly bad or good All over the town, babies and old men are cleaned and put into their broken prams and wheeled on to the sunlit cockled cobbles or out into the backyards under the dancing underclothes, and left. A baby cries. this represents the cyclical journey of peoples life in the town babies in prams and old men is prams getting looked after all over the town showing the routine of the town and how everyone does the same thing at the same time during the day

Significance of the first Voice

It opens the play lets begin at the beginning and introduces us to all of the characters, without passing judgement so that we can make our own decisions about characters The First voice sets the scene of Llareggub, using metaphors and alliteration so that we can see the scenes in front of us the alliteration makes the play flow in a poetic way so that it is pleasing for the listener to listen to. The narrator takes us on a tour, using vivid imagery, of the dreams, memories, songs and gossip etc. of the villagers during one complete day in Spring as we cant see the lives and settings, the First Voice, though vivid vocabulary, metaphors and alliteration gives us a picture in our minds of what is going on in the play By using imperatives like Look and Listen this draws in the attention of the listeners so that they can fully submerge themselves in the lives of the people we can see and hear the lives of the people