“We Are Two”: The Address to

Dorothy in “Tintern Abbey”

Article by Heidi Thomson

Presentation by Darcy Miozza

General Interpretation

 Most critics read “Tintern Abbey” as if it’s

about one character, closely identified with
Wordsworth himself, but there is always a
lack of emphasis on “a silent auditor” and
many critics do not elaborate on the address
to Dorothy.
Thesis

 “Tintern Abbey” is a poem about the

necessity of a shared experience with a
beloved person.
 Specifically the address to Dorothy and
Dorothy’s overall part in “Tintern Abbey”
affirms the necessity between Wordsworth
and his sister to substantiate the myth of
mystery.
Thomson says

 The poem is the autobiography of an

individual who goes through a number of life
crisis's which are then channeled into a
resolution.
 She argues that “the certainty of a shared
experience far outweighs a merely
remembered or projected experience.”
 Also that the speaker articulates the
indispensible need for a familiar community.
Quintilians Use of Apostrophe

 112: reflexive examination, emphasis on “all

my moral being”
 113: until now the reader thinks Wordsworth
has been addressing the public.
 After line 113, he addresses his sister as his
dearest and closest friend. “For thou art with
me here, upon the banks of this fair river.”
Dorothy

 “The address to a living, conscious Dorothy

goes beyond a projection.”
 “not so much the future and the ‘one life and
humanized imagination,’ but rather the
shared present moment that is crucial.”
 “The immortalizing of the moment of nature
which Dorothy and William share as siblings
cannot be lost.”
Dorothy

 The importance of personal association

suggests that Dorothy not only holds the key
to the past but also to the present and future.
 The speaker sees Dorothy as a younger
version of himself.
Extended Vision

 Desire for a sense of family can be found in, “We

stood together”
 “Dorothy embodies a circumscribed version of
extended vision”
 “a hope for a future that goes beyond known
bounds.”
 Dorothy shares an “intimacy with the speaker”
 Her mind is an “infinite dwelling place,” that can
accommodate “all sweet sounds and harmonies.”
Meaning that her mind can accommodate extended
vision.
Lasting Community

 Dorothy is part of a “lasting community,”

which constitutes the “We Are Two,” against
the “evil tongues,” “rash judgment,” or the
“dreary intercourse of daily life.”
Kinship

 “And in thy voice I catch

The language of my former heart, and read
my former pleasures in the shooting lights
of thy wild eyes. Oh! Yet a while
may I behold in the what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister!” (116-20)

 Implication Dorothy is younger establishes kinship.

Thomson says the speaker recognizes himself in
her, “They are different but with a shared kinship.”
Kinship

 This sense of shared kinship helps the

speaker make his prayer in the knowledge
that they will be protected by each other.
 This protection also “guarantees the
individual’s freedom in the poem.”
Final Thought

 Thomson says the blank verse with

meditative tranquility may have obscured the
final section of the poem
 But in the end, “I hear a speaker who turns to
his sister and prefers to say, not ‘I am One,’
but ‘We Are Two.’”