How does Armitage present the idea of mental frailty in Remains?
Armitage uses techniques such as making the character stutter speak, and the character switching between formal language and informal “pub like” language. He also repeats lines such as “probably armed, possibly not,” to show that the character can’t let go of the fact that the man he killed could have been unarmed.
Armitage starts the poem with “On another occasion”, which hints at the possibility of this being a continuation of another story, which further proves the idea of him being in a “pub like” situation. This is rather ironic as he is talking about such a traumatic event in a very casual way. This reflects the fact that normally, PTSD takes time to affect the person involved, and it could take weeks, months or even years. The fact that the soldier/police officer is struggling to remember the names of his colleagues shows that this is most likely years down the line. It could also show that he is uncertain about how to speak, and maybe the gravity of the situation doesn’t affect him while he is speaking informally, and is perhaps trying to hide it. The constant switch between formal and informal language symbolises his constant flashbacks and mental frailty. Every time he switches speaking style is another flashback, and also a new stanza. Perhaps the informal language actually is him telling a story to his friends down the pub, and the formal language (which most likely isn’t his own considering he wasn’t very high up in the army, this is shown by “we got sent out” on line 1 which shows he is taking orders from a superior. He also could have been in a lower class family, as well as a low status in the army, so his informal speaking might have been because of that) is him having a very vivid flashback, causing him to speak and act in a different way.
In stanza 3, line 11 “So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out,” the looter being ripped apart over time by the bullets represents his mental stability breaking down over time, he was not affected immediately after the event. The line “I see every round as it rips through his life” suggests that the event, or at least the flashbacks, were in slow motion. This provides some evidence to support that the man being slowly ripped apart before his eyes represents the passing of time, and how his PTSD is getting worse since the event.
The title “Remains” is ambiguous as it could mean the remains of the corpse of the looter, immediately after he was shot dead, the feeling the main character gets every time he walks past the spot where the looter died, which is referred to as the “blood shadow”, or the memory of what happened and the flashbacks. This leaves the reader guessing until they read the first line, when it becomes clear that it is all of them at once. There is a large amount of half-rhymes in the poem, such as “His blood shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol I walk right over it week after week.” This creates a feeling of dissatisfaction, which links with the disturbed feeling that the character experiences every time he thinks of the time that he shot the looter. At the end of the poem “but near to the knuckle, here and now, his bloody life in my bloody hands”. The word “bloody” is a double entendre, as it could be an expletive or it could be literal, describing the blood all over the corpse and his hands. It could also link to the phrase “caught red handed” where someone caught in the act of doing something, and he feels immense guilt for the murder and he feels personally responsible.
The beginning of the poem is an “in media res” which means that there is an abrupt start. “On another occasion, we get sent out”, this puts the reader straight into the action. This can feel confusing and disorienting, much like someone suffering from PTSD. It also simulates the soldier’s memory cutting in and out. I think Armitage made the word “blink” at the end of a line and a page to make the reader take a short break to imagine the soldier blinking then the world changing around him, which would be him having a flashback. This acts as a caesura and makes the reader sympathise with the soldier, and puts them in the soldier’s shoes, so they can experience the mental frailty that the soldier is experiencing.
Overall, Armitage presents the motion of mental frailty in a variety of ways, from changing the soldier’s speech pattern frequently, to abruptly starting the poem, putting in a caesura after “blink” and giving the poem a gritty, messy ending, where he sounds full of regret and guilt.