Ted Hughes's "The Other" depicts the dangers of envy, entitlement, and comparison. The speaker describes a relationship between someone who had "nothing" (referred to as "you" throughout) and a woman who had "too much." This woman's happiness and success simply made "you" all the more aware of how much you lacked, and you thus felt entitled to take "some" of everything this woman had. Seemingly never satisfied, you kept taking until the woman was left with nothing at all—leaving you with "too much." "The Other" was published in Hughes's 1990 collection Capriccio, which was inspired by his relationship with Assia Wevill. Critics take "The Other" to be about Wevill and Hughes's first wife, the famous poet Sylvia Plath, who died by suicide a few months after Hughes left her for Wevill. After Plath's death, Wevill moved into the home Plath and Hughes had bought together and helped raise Plath's children. She was haunted by Plath's memory and took her own life, in a similar manner, in 1969.

• Read the full text of “The Other”

• “The Other” Summary

• “The Other” Themes

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    The Destructive Nature of Envy and Entitlement

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-29

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Other”

  • Lines 1-4

    She had too ...
    ... just a little.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-7

    Still she had ...
    ... for nature's sake.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-13

    Because her great ...
    ... into a basket.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-16

    Somebody, on behalf ...
    ... steadied the nerves.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-22

    Everything she had ...
    ... She had nothing.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-26

    Too late you ...
    ... much too much.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 27-29

                                                                Only you ...
    ... just a little.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Other” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “She had too much,” “smile,” “you took some.”
    • Line 2: “she had you had”
    • Line 3: “Absolutely nothing,” “you took some.”
    • Line 4: “At first, just a little.”
    • Line 5: “she had so much”
    • Line 6: “nature”
    • Line 7: “nature's”
    • Line 8: “luck,” “unlucky”
    • Line 20: “absolutely”
    • Line 21: “Nothing”
    • Line 22: “nothing”
    • Line 25: “you ,” “had,” “had,” “had”
    • Line 26: “You had much too much”
    • Line 28: “smile,” “she took some.”
    • Line 29: “At first, just a little.”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “had / Absolutely”
    • Lines 5-6: “feel / Your”
    • Lines 8-9: “unlucky / You”
    • Lines 9-10: “meant / Now”
    • Lines 11-12: “ambition / Claimed”
    • Lines 12-13: “up / Like”
    • Lines 18-19: “collected / As”
    • Lines 19-20: “compensation / For”
    • Lines 20-21: “absolutely / Nothing”
    • Lines 21-22: “was / Trapped”
    • Lines 25-26: “had / You”
    • Lines 27-28: “you / Saw”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-13: “Still her ambition / Claimed the natural right to screw you up / Like a crossed-out page, tossed into a basket.”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-7: “Still she had so much she made you feel / Your vacuum, which nature abhorred, / So you took your fill, for nature's sake.”
    • Lines 14-15: “Somebody, on behalf of the gods, / Had to correct that hubris.”
    • Lines 23-29: “Too late you saw what had happened. / It made no difference that she was dead. / Now that you had all she had ever had / You had much too much. /                                                             Only you / Saw her smile, as she took some. / At first, just a little.”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “so,” “smile,” “some”
    • Line 3: “so,” “some”
    • Line 5: “Still,” “so”
    • Line 7: “So,” “sake”
    • Line 10: “some”
    • Line 11: “seemed,” “Still”
    • Line 12: “screw”
    • Line 14: “Somebody”
    • Line 15: “Had,” “hubris”
    • Line 16: “hatred,” “steadied”
    • Line 18: “collected”
    • Line 19: “compensation”
    • Line 20: “lost,” “left”
    • Line 24: “difference,” “dead”
    • Line 28: “Saw,” “smile,” “some”

• “The Other” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Vacuum
  • Abhorred
  • Took your fill
  • Redressed
  • Hubris
  • (Location in poem: Lines 5-6: “Still she had so much she made you feel / Your vacuum”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Other”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Other” Speaker

• “The Other” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Other”

• More “The Other” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Ted Hughes Society's Review of Capriccio — A thoughtful examination of what makes Capriccio, the collection in which "The Other" was published, one of Hughes's most intriguing books.

    • Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes, and Sylvia Plath — An in-depth look at Wevill's background and her relationship to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. 

    • Fact vs. Fiction — This Guardian article, titled "Written out of history," examines the contradictions between the events surrounding Hughes's relationship with Wevill and the way Hughes later portrayed these events in his work.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A Poetry Foundation biography of Hughes.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes

    • A Memory

    • Anniversary

    • A Picture of Otto

    • Bayonet Charge

    • Cat and Mouse

    • Football at Slack

    • Fulbright Scholars

    • Full Moon and Little Frieda

    • Hawk Roosting

    • Relic

    • Roe-Deer

    • Snowdrop

    • Telegraph Wires

    • The Harvest Moon

    • The Horses

    • The Jaguar

    • The Shot

    • The Thought Fox

    • Wind

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