Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev

"Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev" Love, fear, jealousy, courage and death all have a major role in Adrienne Rich's "Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev." Adrienne Rich takes us inside Shatayev's head and depicts her joys and feeling of triumph along with her lingering undertones of jealousy. The use of the journals helps to relate the comradery and love within the team but also serves to paint a picture of an ungrateful Shatayev. Throughout this poem there are …

…lives for it. She resolves any doubts that she is not content as to where her life has taken her in the last line when she says, " We will not live to settle for less We have dreamed of this all our lives." Not only does she show that she is content with her end, she is happy with it and would have been displeased with any other choice than persisting or to die trying.