The Use Of Monologue In Atwood's 'The Siren'

The use of monologue in this poem shapes a paradoxical theme, which makes the siren’s motivation blurry. In the context, the poem uses the word “song” three times in the first lines of three stanzas. The beginning stanzas are monologues of the siren. In the context, the song appears to be irresistibly attractive to the men, that it makes men jump over the board even if they see where they are heading to is scattered with corpses. The footnote of the poem has clarified that this song is chanted by the siren, and it leads to the demise of the sailors. Hence, it is reasonable to presume that the siren produces songs to lure the sailors, and sailors will get killed afterward. However, the poem spends 5 out of 9 stanzas stating that the siren as

Again, the paradox appears here, that a trio features both fatality and value. Personally, I presume that the siren uses fatal and valuable feature of the song to insinuate the situation she is in, and her motivation is to receive salvation. Fatal and Valuable are themselves ambivalent, but they serve as symbols to reveal the true nature of the song as it is fatal to mortals and valuable to the siren. From the general perspective, sirens and men are different species. What sirens offer is the deadly song to the men, and what men perceive is the allure of the siren. The “fatal” side of the trio is the song produced by the three sirens on the island apparently causes the death of the men. But to the siren, the song is the thing she can only produce, and this only means of communication becomes the sole approach she calls for help for release, which is valuable to her. The paradox of deaths of mortals and the wish of salvation exists throughout the whole poem. Metaphorically, such paradox blurs the motivation of the siren, because the siren wants to get help from the sailors, and what baffles most is whether the siren gives sailors death out of true