In this part of the poem, we learn that the farther is not over the death of his son's mother, which happened two years ago, and that he still caters for her by keeping her slippers 'warming by the gas, put hot water bottles her side of the bed and still went to renew her transport pass'. Upon reading this, I cannot help but feel sorry the the farther and this is because it is indicated that he will never fully lose the pain that he feels. What makes this even more upsetting is that he feels as if he is doing something wrong by this and has to hide it by clearing away 'her things' and has to 'look alone' as if he is hiding evidence from a crime scene.
Also, the son is telling us that this is what his farther now does. Again, this is also quite upsetting because the farther has become so obsessed with the mother's possessions that he no longer pays much attention to his son, who has become neglected. The farther thinks that the mother will one day return, thinking that he would 'hear her key scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief'. The son believes that 'life ends with death, and that is all'. This gives us an insight to why they were arguing in 'Long Distance I' - the son knows that the mother will not come back and he has tried to tell his farther this, but this has only angered him, leaving a 'disconnected number' for his son to call.
Monday 27 September 2010
Reflections on 'Hamlet' Act I
The first indication of tragedy occurs when the ghost, later revealed to be the murdered farther of Hamlet and the former King, appears for the first time, in front of Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo (line 40). After the Ghost appears and re-appears several times they conclude that it will not speak to them ('dumb to us' line 172) and that it will only speak to Hamlet, so they decided to tell him of their sightings. This indicates that there is something significant about Hamlet, even before he is introduced to the reader.
The main themes that are introduced in this act are betrayal and vengeance. It is revealed that Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and the former King's brother, murdered Hamlet's farther and took over as the King of Denmark ('A serpent stung me' line 35, scene 5), marrying Hamlet's mother, which he describes as 'incestuous' . However, he tells Hamlet to kill Claudius so the royal bed of Denmark will not be 'a couch for luxury and damned incest' (line 82, act 5) and constantly tells Hamlet to 'Swear' that he will do it (beginning from line 149, act 5).
After reading his first soliloquy, we think that Hamlet is simply upset by the loss of his farther and his mother's decision to re-marry his uncle, Claudius, so quickly. He says that because of this, there is nothing in his life worth living for and he considers suicide ('flesh would melt' line 129). However, despite his anger, he says that he must 'Hold my tongue' (line 159) and keep his feelings quiet. this could because he loves his mother, the Queen, and doesn't want to hurt her, or because he must remain loyal to the crown - he cannot criticize the King or he could face a punishment. We know that he is angry and upset, but we also get the sense that he is a possibly a smart character too - 'I doubt some foul play' (line 257). This indicates that he knows that his father's death didn't just 'happen' and that he knows there is something more to it underneath.
The main themes that are introduced in this act are betrayal and vengeance. It is revealed that Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and the former King's brother, murdered Hamlet's farther and took over as the King of Denmark ('A serpent stung me' line 35, scene 5), marrying Hamlet's mother, which he describes as 'incestuous' . However, he tells Hamlet to kill Claudius so the royal bed of Denmark will not be 'a couch for luxury and damned incest' (line 82, act 5) and constantly tells Hamlet to 'Swear' that he will do it (beginning from line 149, act 5).
After reading his first soliloquy, we think that Hamlet is simply upset by the loss of his farther and his mother's decision to re-marry his uncle, Claudius, so quickly. He says that because of this, there is nothing in his life worth living for and he considers suicide ('flesh would melt' line 129). However, despite his anger, he says that he must 'Hold my tongue' (line 159) and keep his feelings quiet. this could because he loves his mother, the Queen, and doesn't want to hurt her, or because he must remain loyal to the crown - he cannot criticize the King or he could face a punishment. We know that he is angry and upset, but we also get the sense that he is a possibly a smart character too - 'I doubt some foul play' (line 257). This indicates that he knows that his father's death didn't just 'happen' and that he knows there is something more to it underneath.
Sunday 26 September 2010
'Maude Clare' by Christina Rossetti
How is the story told?
The story is being told in the 3rd person - it is possibly how one of the spectators at the wedding is viewing the events taking place. The spectator lets us know that there are a collection of key characters and the writer lets us know this as well by using quotation marks e.g. "Son Thomas," and following this with 'his lady mother said...'. This creates the effect that someone is observing the other characters and listening to what they have to say.
Themes explored within the poem
The key theme that I picked up one was love in its past and present form. Maude Claire indicates that she and Thomas used to be together by saying "Here's my half of the golden chain you wore about your neck..." along with other details of past memories that they had together. This is an indication of the past. The present is indicated in the first four paragraphs,as well as the last five. The opening four suggest that he is going to marry Nell, his current partner, but the third line of the fourth paragraph introduces us to Maude Claire, who then expresses views of there past romance.
We return to the present for the last five paragraphs. It is made clear earlier on that Maude Claire and Thomas still love each other, but the line "Take my share of a fickle heart.." suggest that she wants Nell to take him, which would remove the past.
Poetic and Literary devices
The story is being told in the 3rd person - it is possibly how one of the spectators at the wedding is viewing the events taking place. The spectator lets us know that there are a collection of key characters and the writer lets us know this as well by using quotation marks e.g. "Son Thomas," and following this with 'his lady mother said...'. This creates the effect that someone is observing the other characters and listening to what they have to say.
Themes explored within the poem
The key theme that I picked up one was love in its past and present form. Maude Claire indicates that she and Thomas used to be together by saying "Here's my half of the golden chain you wore about your neck..." along with other details of past memories that they had together. This is an indication of the past. The present is indicated in the first four paragraphs,as well as the last five. The opening four suggest that he is going to marry Nell, his current partner, but the third line of the fourth paragraph introduces us to Maude Claire, who then expresses views of there past romance.
We return to the present for the last five paragraphs. It is made clear earlier on that Maude Claire and Thomas still love each other, but the line "Take my share of a fickle heart.." suggest that she wants Nell to take him, which would remove the past.
Poetic and Literary devices
- Quotation marks, throughout
- Repetition - "I have brought my gift, my lord, have brought my gift"
- Rhyming couplets, throughout
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Fairy story narrative analysis - 'Rap-unzel'
For this project, we decided to take the fairytale of 'Rapunzel' and structure it as if it was a Rap song, hence the title 'Rap-unzel' pronouncing the letter A as if you were saying the word 'Rap'.
Characterisation and Setting
Compared to the original, the 'damsel in distress' and 'hero' figures are still essentially present, but their characteristics are very different. Instead of being the handsome figure that you might expect, the 'hero' is an overweight door-to-door salesman, and the 'princess' is an ordinary girl, living in a tower block, who attracts him by using her music, created on her turntables. It is more or less presenting the character as if they lived in the 21st century. Also, to emphasize this atmosphere, we decided to use a dated tower block in a large city suburb to show where the action took place, instead of using a single tower in a woodland setting.
Structure and Narrative
Our version of the story was told entirely from the perspective of the 'hero'. He tells the story as if it is a song he has written, in the popular music genre of rap. To further express this, we made sure that every couple of sentences, the closing words of each line would rhyme. We also structured it so that there is a begging, middle (the journey) and end, much like many other simple stories.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Comments on 'The Kite Runner' chapter 1
Setting
A number of settings are mentioned within the open pages. For the first one, an exact city or country isn't mentioned, but based on the text 'Crumbling mud wall' we would presume that the character is in a less-developed city in a less-developed country. This is very clever as the writer has left us, the readers, to create the setting from our imaginations, using only a few words as guidelines. We are also given a season, Winter, and this is further expressed when the 'frozen creek' is mentioned. Our existing thoughts of a less-developed country are also confirmed, when the writer mentions the character receives a call from Pakistan.
We are next given a new season, Summer, and this is further expressed by words such as 'early-afternoon sun'. the city of San Fransisco, a developed city in a developed country, is also mentioned. By doing this, the writer has created a huge contrast between the two settings.
Narrative Devices
When the protagonist mentions the things Hassan and Rahim Khan had said to him, rather than using speech marks, the quotations are in italics ('For you, a thousand times over' and 'There is a way to be good again'). This indicates that these words could have more significance compared to any others in the chapter. The locations are also described with specific details, such as 'park bench near a willow tree' and 'northern edge of Golden Gate Park'.
The writer also creates an omniscient feeling, by describing the two kites in the sky as 'a pair of eyes looking down on San Fransisco'.
Characterisation
The protagonist makes themself out to have a very negative past. They mentions that something changed them in the Winter of 1975, when he/she was only 12 years of age, which indicates that the person was not always as they are now. However, what happened exactly is not mentioned. We know that the protagonist is defiantly troubled by something (the quote 'For you, a thousand times over') but we also get the impression that what they have done can be fixed ('There is a way to be good again' said to him by his friend Rahim Khan). We also get the impression that what happened in 1975 must have been very serious, as they mention that it 'changed everything'.
Questions the chapter leaves us considering
- What happened in the Winter of 1975?
- Why is the protagonist so negative about the past?
- Why did the protagonist move away from their original home? Why did they choose San Fransisco?
- Who are Hassan, Baba, Ali, and Kabul? What happened to them? What did they do to the protagonist?
A number of settings are mentioned within the open pages. For the first one, an exact city or country isn't mentioned, but based on the text 'Crumbling mud wall' we would presume that the character is in a less-developed city in a less-developed country. This is very clever as the writer has left us, the readers, to create the setting from our imaginations, using only a few words as guidelines. We are also given a season, Winter, and this is further expressed when the 'frozen creek' is mentioned. Our existing thoughts of a less-developed country are also confirmed, when the writer mentions the character receives a call from Pakistan.
We are next given a new season, Summer, and this is further expressed by words such as 'early-afternoon sun'. the city of San Fransisco, a developed city in a developed country, is also mentioned. By doing this, the writer has created a huge contrast between the two settings.
Narrative Devices
When the protagonist mentions the things Hassan and Rahim Khan had said to him, rather than using speech marks, the quotations are in italics ('For you, a thousand times over' and 'There is a way to be good again'). This indicates that these words could have more significance compared to any others in the chapter. The locations are also described with specific details, such as 'park bench near a willow tree' and 'northern edge of Golden Gate Park'.
The writer also creates an omniscient feeling, by describing the two kites in the sky as 'a pair of eyes looking down on San Fransisco'.
Characterisation
The protagonist makes themself out to have a very negative past. They mentions that something changed them in the Winter of 1975, when he/she was only 12 years of age, which indicates that the person was not always as they are now. However, what happened exactly is not mentioned. We know that the protagonist is defiantly troubled by something (the quote 'For you, a thousand times over') but we also get the impression that what they have done can be fixed ('There is a way to be good again' said to him by his friend Rahim Khan). We also get the impression that what happened in 1975 must have been very serious, as they mention that it 'changed everything'.
Questions the chapter leaves us considering
- What happened in the Winter of 1975?
- Why is the protagonist so negative about the past?
- Why did the protagonist move away from their original home? Why did they choose San Fransisco?
- Who are Hassan, Baba, Ali, and Kabul? What happened to them? What did they do to the protagonist?
Tuesday 14 September 2010
What's so good about 'Hamlet'?
Based on the following quotations, I think that 'Hamlet' is one of the most dramatic plays in the English language because of how mysterious the character of Hamlet is. We can never be completely sure of weather his actions leave him feeling guilty or pleased, and if he really says everything that he means to say. As an audience, we would be left wondering weather there was more to the character of Hamlet than what we just saw. There is a heavy, meaningful and important subtext to the character, but we can never be certain of what it is.
'Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of Hamlet’s, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot resolve with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, shares in Claudius’s guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he spurns her, in Act III; whether Ophelia’s death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers reliable knowledge, or seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare makes it clear that the stakes riding on some of these questions are enormous - the actions of these characters bring disaster upon an entire kingdom. At the play’s end it is not even clear whether justice has been achieved.'
Taken from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/context.html
' There is always more to him than the other characters in the play can figure out; even the most careful and clever readers come away with the sense that they don’t know everything there is to know about this character. Hamlet actually tells other characters that there is more to him than meets the eye - notably, his mother, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - but his fascination involves much more than this. When he speaks, he sounds as if there’s something important he’s not saying, maybe something even he is not aware of. The ability to write soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one of Shakespeare’s most impressive achievements.'
Extract from an analysis of the character Hamlet, taken from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/canalysis.html
'There is something altogether indefinable and mysterious in the poet's delineation of this character--something wild and irregular in the circumstances with which the character is associated. We see that Hamlet is propelled rather than propelling. But why is this turn given to the delineation? We cannot exactly tell. Doubtless much of the very charm of the play is its mysteriousness. It awakes not only thoughts of the grand and the beautiful, but of the incomprehensible. Its obscurity constitutes a portion of its sublimity. This is the stage in which most minds are content to rest, and perhaps better so, with regard to the comprehension of Hamlet.'
Taken from http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/hamlet001.html
'Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created. From the moment we meet the crestfallen prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. Shrouded in his inky cloak, Hamlet is a man of radical contradictions -- he is reckless yet cautious, courteous yet uncivil, tender yet ferocious. He meets his father's death with consuming outrage and righteous indignation, yet shows no compunction when he himself is responsible for the deaths of the meddling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the pontificating lord chamberlain, Polonius. He uses the fragile and innocent Ophelia as an outlet for his disgust towards the queen, and cannot comprehend that his own vicious words have caused her insanity. Hamlet is full of faults. But how is it that even seemingly negative qualities such as indecisiveness, hastiness, hate, brutality, and obsession can enhance Hamlet's position as a tragic hero; a 'prince among men'?'
Taken from http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/hamletcharacter.html
'Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of Hamlet’s, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot resolve with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, shares in Claudius’s guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he spurns her, in Act III; whether Ophelia’s death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers reliable knowledge, or seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare makes it clear that the stakes riding on some of these questions are enormous - the actions of these characters bring disaster upon an entire kingdom. At the play’s end it is not even clear whether justice has been achieved.'
Taken from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/context.html
' There is always more to him than the other characters in the play can figure out; even the most careful and clever readers come away with the sense that they don’t know everything there is to know about this character. Hamlet actually tells other characters that there is more to him than meets the eye - notably, his mother, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - but his fascination involves much more than this. When he speaks, he sounds as if there’s something important he’s not saying, maybe something even he is not aware of. The ability to write soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one of Shakespeare’s most impressive achievements.'
Extract from an analysis of the character Hamlet, taken from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/canalysis.html
'There is something altogether indefinable and mysterious in the poet's delineation of this character--something wild and irregular in the circumstances with which the character is associated. We see that Hamlet is propelled rather than propelling. But why is this turn given to the delineation? We cannot exactly tell. Doubtless much of the very charm of the play is its mysteriousness. It awakes not only thoughts of the grand and the beautiful, but of the incomprehensible. Its obscurity constitutes a portion of its sublimity. This is the stage in which most minds are content to rest, and perhaps better so, with regard to the comprehension of Hamlet.'
Taken from http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/hamlet001.html
'Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created. From the moment we meet the crestfallen prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. Shrouded in his inky cloak, Hamlet is a man of radical contradictions -- he is reckless yet cautious, courteous yet uncivil, tender yet ferocious. He meets his father's death with consuming outrage and righteous indignation, yet shows no compunction when he himself is responsible for the deaths of the meddling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the pontificating lord chamberlain, Polonius. He uses the fragile and innocent Ophelia as an outlet for his disgust towards the queen, and cannot comprehend that his own vicious words have caused her insanity. Hamlet is full of faults. But how is it that even seemingly negative qualities such as indecisiveness, hastiness, hate, brutality, and obsession can enhance Hamlet's position as a tragic hero; a 'prince among men'?'
Taken from http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/hamletcharacter.html
Monday 13 September 2010
'How Late It Was, How Late' Opening
What is interesting about the opening of this novel?
The reason I found this opening so interesting was because I saw some relevance to my own life in the line 'the thoughts smothering ye; these thoughts; but ye want to remember and face up to things, just something keeps ye from doing it, why can ye no do it'. I have often found myself pondering similar thoughts because of troubled social situations in the past, or when someone has upset me.
Also, from the first few words 'Ye wake in a corner' I was left wondering weather the writer was talking about himself or someone else, which after reading, meant I was interested to know the answer and read on. The same applies to the closing line - 'Ye're no a good man, ye're just no a good man'. We are left wondering why this person, weather it is the writer or someone else, is not a 'good man'.
The reason I found this opening so interesting was because I saw some relevance to my own life in the line 'the thoughts smothering ye; these thoughts; but ye want to remember and face up to things, just something keeps ye from doing it, why can ye no do it'. I have often found myself pondering similar thoughts because of troubled social situations in the past, or when someone has upset me.
Also, from the first few words 'Ye wake in a corner' I was left wondering weather the writer was talking about himself or someone else, which after reading, meant I was interested to know the answer and read on. The same applies to the closing line - 'Ye're no a good man, ye're just no a good man'. We are left wondering why this person, weather it is the writer or someone else, is not a 'good man'.
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