Compare the ways in which the poets present isolated characters in ‘The Hunchback in the Park’ and ‘Horse Whisperer’

Both poets, Dylan Thomas and Andrew Forster, present isolated characters in The Hunchback in the Park and Horse Whisperer respectively. However, whilst there are many similarities in the way that these characters have been expressed, there are key differences which set the poems apart. For example, the horse whisperer himself was driven ‘from villages and farms’ whereas Dylan Thomas presents the ‘hunchback’ as a character that has an element of freedom when it comes to where he lives. An example of this freedom is that the hunchback ‘slept at night in a dog kennel/ but nobody chained him up.’ This shows that whilst the
The latter adds a sense of rhythm to the poem, suggesting that the hunchback’s life is constantly repeating as he spends every day in the same place, doing the same things. This is contrasted with the free verse poem by Andrew Forster, which does not involve a character whose life is fixed; in fact it is quite the opposite. Despite these key differences, the tone of both poems is dreary, with an added sense of despondency. This is reflected in Horse Whisperer, when the narrator says ‘I was the life-blood/ no longer’ and in The Hunchback in the Park when he imagines a tree as having ‘a woman figure without fault’. Both characters have lost hope as a result of what has happened to them. In addition, the abrupt punctuation in the Horse Whisperer adds a sense of negativity and dreariness, such as when he or she ‘was scorned as demon and witch.’
A theme of loneliness is explored in both poems. In Horse Whisper, this becomes overt when the character expresses that she misses the horses, going in to detail about their ‘glistening veins’ and ‘steady tread’. As the horses appear to have been the whisperer’s only friends, these quotes show the loneliness of the character. The loneliness of the hunchback is perhaps more apparent to the reader. Exemplifying this is that he is described as ‘Alone between nurses and swans’. Even whilst surrounded by nature, the hunchback feels lonely, most likely due to his