22 pages • 44 minutes read
B. Wordsworth
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Character Analysis
The Boy
The unnamed boy is the narrator and protagonist of “B. Wordsworth.” At the beginning of the story, he is an unremarkable young man who lives with his mother in a house on Miguel Street in Trinidad. The boy describes his mother and the way she helps the poor people in their community, but he never mentions his father, nor does he mention siblings or friends. The boy’s life is somewhat lonely; he lives in deference to his mother and never expresses sadness or regret about his absent father or his solitary life. He is a generic young man who is in danger of slipping into the mundane routine of modern life.
The meeting with Wordsworth changes the boy. The poet is a shock to his system, jolting him from the slow, dreary slide toward the drudgery and routine of adulthood. The boy learns to identify and appreciate the poetry of life. The bees function as the gateway to this new perspective. At first, the boy describes the bees as uninvited guests in his family home. After he sits and watches them with Wordsworth, however, he gains an appreciation for their intricate beauty. He begins to see the bees as an important part of the ecosystem he inhabits; he realizes that the insects have a unique and fascinating quality of their own. The poet shows him other ways to see the world. The boy’s narration changes. He describes the stars, the gardens, and the city as wondrous and interesting. The bond between the boy and Wordsworth is strong because the boy appreciates the refreshing way in which the poet reintroduces him to a world that seemed boring and familiar.
Wordsworth also breaks the boy’s heart by telling him that the story about his wife was a lie. The dying poet attempts to save the boy from a similar, unsatisfying life of failed poetry. But his attempt fails. The boy is forever changed by Wordsworth, retains his fascination with the world even after Wordsworth’s deathbed confession. His descriptions of the city and the street without Wordsworth are imbued with the poeticism that he learned from his friend. Eventually, the boy becomes the poem that Wordsworth could never write. The boy’s fascination with nature is Wordsworth’s legacy.
B. Wordsworth
Although B. Wordsworth is the title character of the story, he is not the protagonist. He enters the boy’s life and teaches him a new way to see the world. Wordsworth’s role in both the narrative and his society is to be slightly detached. He is an observer and a documenter. He watches the world, appreciates what he sees, and tries to condense this beauty into poetry. Wordsworth’s point of view and his profession are often at odds, however. He is so enthralled by the beauty of the world that he is unable to put it into words. His greatest poem remains unwritten because reality is too profound and nuanced to express in language. His professional ambition remains unrealized.
Wordsworth tells the boy a story about a poet who married a young woman, who then died before the couple could have children. While he does not say so explicitly, Wordsworth’s story implies that he is a widower who lost his wife at a young age. The overgrown garden at his home is a testament to his dead wife. He has allowed the memory of his wife to overrun him like the plants in the garden. Wordsworth is a detached observer of a society in which he does not play a major role; his connection to the world has been severed by his grief, and his existence has become a tragic attempt to recapture the vivacity and beauty of his youth. He is desperate to find beauty in the world and share it with others because he lost the most important person in his life.
By the time he is dying, Wordsworth knows that he has failed to finish his poem, and he fears that his influence will leave the boy unsatisfied and lonely like him. He tells the boy that the story about the wife was a joke. This revelation is an attempt by Wordsworth to undo his influence on the youngster. In this sense, his confession is a benevolent act as he is trying to save the boy from suffering a similar fate. However, Wordsworth does not realize that his poem has taken on another form. His influence on the boy is a poem in itself; he has shared his appreciation of the world and left behind a legacy of wonder and delight.
The Boy’s Mother
Though the story centers on the boy and Wordsworth, the boy’s mother plays an important role. She embodies a hardened cynicism, which contrasts with Wordsworth’s more innocent and artistic perspective on the world. He is jaded to the poetry of life, perhaps because she has lost her partner and been forced to raise her son by herself. She distrusts Wordsworth because of his accent, which is too refined for their neighborhood. Her treatment of the boy when he returns with fruit juice stains on his shirt shows that her concerns are practical rather than poetic. She beats him in a symbolic rebuke of Wordsworth’s life and worldview.
The boy’s mother is not a bad person, however. She may be cynical and jaded, but she dedicated herself to helping the poor and unprivileged members of society. The opening lines of the story describe the different people she feeds. The boy’s mother helps people who–for whatever reason–cannot help themselves. This altruistic behavior may seem far removed from Wordsworth’s artistic aspirations, but the fundamental emotion is the same. They both want to help people and share what they can with the world. Whereas Wordsworth believes the best thing he can offer is his poetry, the boy’s mother believes the best thing she can offer is warm meals. Her approach is more practical than Wordsworth’s, but they share an appreciation of society and empathy with the world they inhabit. In Wordsworth’s system of belief, the cooking the boy’s mother provides is poetry in its own right.
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