Casabianca by Felicia Hemans

Felicia Hemans's “Casabianca” provides a series of vivid imagery. The flames spreading and eventually consuming the ship is, no doubt, the most dominant and recurring image in the poem. However, amidst all the flame, chaos, and destruction that dominate this poem, I believe that the image of the young boy calling out to his father and refusing to leave the burning deck without his father's consent is the most prominent. His loyalty and obedience towards his father and his father's commands are unyielding and persistent, causing his relentless nature to stand out along with the flames.

As I was reading the poem for the very first time, I kept thinking Why isn't the boy leaving the ship? A person must be mentally challenged to not budge when harm is coming his or her way. After rereading the poem several more times, I came to conclude that the author of this poem was not talking about the foolishness of a “courageous” boy, but comparing a child's trust, loyalty, and obedience towards his parents to our society.

Hemans hints that in the midst of danger, a parent is always a child's safety net. For example, in the poem, the young boy is continuously seeking for some kind of response and consent from his unresponsive father instead of taking cover from the danger that is taunting at him. Although obedience is a good quality, there is such thing as being too obedient. This poem ties in with the present day society. Obedience allows for a civilized society to exist, however, when people begin to blindly follow the orders of the government, corruption and disaster ensue in the world. A few examples of this include the Holocaust, the Rape of Nanking, and the Rwanda Genocide, where soldiers and officers were blindly convinced to rape and exterminate the civilians as a duty for their country. This not only caused atrocities in other countries, but sometimes in their own as well. “Casabianca” speaks about the morals of society and Hemans is trying to bring to attention the disaster that will result from the ignorance of the people. She is suggesting that people start standing up for themselves and their beliefs and start acting more independent—thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for their own actions.