Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes the crow was white in colour in a mythological way but the crow thought the sun was even whiter than it is, so it decided to attack the sun and defeat the sun and become the whitish creature of the world.

Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes summary:

Table of Contents

• THEME
• ABOUT THE POEM
• SUMMARY
• CONCLUSION
•  

THEME

In Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes, we can see many symbols and themes like

• Falsity
• Egoism
• Intolerance

We can also say or describe the theme in a single word which is “HUBRIS” which in Greek mythology refers to ‘excessive arrogance and pride in a person which can lead to his/her downfall’ (we also get a ‘HUBRIS’ in the crow).

ABOUT THE POEM

• Here in the poem, a mythological crow had been used as a symbol to demonstrate the EGOISM, FALSITY and PRIDE of the crow
• In that mythological period, crows used to be white (here white word had been used to indicate the purity and innocence of the crows of that time that is, the positive nature of the crow)
• But the Crow in the poem thought the sun was much whiter, brighter and shiny than him
• as he falls prey to his own ego and pride and decided to introduce a fight between him and the sun and become the whitest creature in the world
• But being represented as the symbol of pride and arrogance the Crow soon realises after a whole useless fight that he was a fool to fight with the sun as it is out of everyone’s reach
• And turned black for forever as he can’t accept the truth and become a liar as he said everyone after returning from the fight that “Up in The Sky White Is Black and Black Is White” so he is the clear winner but everyone knows the truth already
• We can also say that CROW’S FALL is a FABLE, that is animal character ended with the moral teaching

SUMMARY

• As we all know from the above discussion that the crow was white in colour in a mythological way but the crow thought the sun was even whiter than it is, so it decided to attack the sun and defeat it and become the whitish creature of the world
• The crow collected its full strength and with full concentration and focus got ready for the fight and was sparkling (indicates hope) with it
• Then the Crow picked up its claw and moved towards the sun with all its flying strength and power
• The Crow aimed to attack the centre of the sun and destroy the sun into pieces (a humorous element is present here as in reality, it is never possible)
• The Crow imagined that he had defeated the sun and felt like the happiest person in the world (but the reality was different)
• After seeing the battle, the trees grow suddenly old as the trees or nature was shocked to see the foolish fight that the crow was doing with the sun and it was just the reaction of the nature and within no time crow lost it all
• And the sun was even brighter than ever before, as the Crow turn charred black for forever
• But just to hide the defeat, the Crow after coming back managed to say all that, up there in the sky the person who wins the battle becomes black and the person who loses the battle becomes white, so the Crow was black and the Sun was white.
• But the sad reality is that everyone knew the truth already as it is an impossible thing to do in reality

CONCLUSION

• A person full of pride and arrogance can never win a race, as we have in the poem ” CROW’S FALL” the Crow felt jealous of the brightness of the sun and announced a fight between them but the sad reality was that the crow itself knew that it is an unreal thing to do but its pride and arrogance made him do it and due to which the Crow was denoted as a selfish and foolish creature
• We should never and ever give our pride and arrogance so much power that it overrules our mind and life and make our life devastating
• We also found an illusion of “SATAN” from the “PARADISE LOST” here:

        As we can indicate, the Crow as SATAN and the Sun as GOD as the Sun uses its heat/brightness to defeat the Crow and GOD had use the thunder to defeat Satan