In the poem sister maude, there are a few different relationships shown but mostly are family; mum, dad, sister and boyfriend – this would be looking at the narrators point of view. Although the narrator does not mention their mum and dad often although how she mentions them would support what kind of relationship they have with the narrator. Throughout the whole poem there are constant mentions of the sister and boyfriend relationships.
The first relationship mentioned is between the narrator and their mother, “Who told my mother of my shame” this implies that the narrator likes to live up to their mothers expectations and does not want to disappoint her and tell her about the negative stuff; such as the shame they are referring to. This can be seen as an important relationship as the same the narrator is referring to must be serious for them not to tell their mother themselves, but someone else did and they are question on who did as they did not want their mother to find out.
The next relationship mentioned is between the narrator and their father, “Who told my father of my dear” this could relate to the two sisters themselves; as there are an angel and devil to the sisters and to the parents. Reasons to this would that shame and dear are opposites, with the relationship shown of sister maude and the narrator themselves it is something they could relate to; as the narrator to be the innocent one and sister maude as the evil one.
The most mentioned relationship within the poem would be sister Maude, from the moment she is introduced it is obvious that their relationship is not bright; “Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude” this suggests that she would of done something like this before, something negative that makes the narrator upset. The next line then gives more ideas of to why the sister relationship the two may not be too healthy, “who lurked to spy and peer” this conveys feeling of slyness about the sister Maude giving her a cold personality.
The most strongest relationship to possibly cause all the hatred towards sister Maude would be the narrator and their possibly dead lover, “cold he lies as cold as stone” although this is not clear whether it was a murder, suicide or natural cause but if the narrator seems to have negative light towards the sister Maude therefore she could have been involved in it some how or either it is her fault entirely.
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