The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain is a very different take on the familiar tragic tale of the Titanic. Instead of the common view of sympathy for all those passengers that suffered the ultimate price for their ticket in the magnificent voyage, he takes a much more aversive view. Twain's view is that in fact, the ship decided her own fate when she was created ultimately in human vain. The poem states, "The immanent Will tht stirs and urges everything prepared a sinister mate." He is saying that the Titanic's fate, from the moment she was created, was destined to crash into the iceberg. To me, this essentially means that the ship had it coming, along with all of the passengers. This seems really harsh, especially considering the horrible occurance that was the sinking of the Titanic. However, he also makes a good point. The "vaingloriousness" mentioned in the poem was definitely present. The ship wa created as extravagant as possible, with the intention to only impress the world. In the end, this led to her downfall.