Comparing Concerns and Methods in Paper 3 Texts

Representations of conflict between the Individual and Society

in Literature

Tales of Two Cities

• ‘This is Venice.’

• ‘There is no city like New Orleans.’

Preliminary ExaminationLiterature Paper 3 (Open Book)

• Section A: Unseen Prose Or Poetry Prose Or Drama Poetry Or Drama

• Section B: Comparison of any two set Texts (Either / Or)

• Section C: Single Set Text Essay Questions (Either / Or)

Note: 1) Bring in intelligently marked up copies of texts; 2) Making rational choices; monitoring time;

Section BComparison of Texts Question

• Either / Or choice of questions

• Both will provide enough ‘openness’ / scope, to allow students to comparatively and comprehensively draw from any two of the set texts for Paper 3;

NOTE: Make clear which two texts you are using for this Section;

Agenda • Literature and a Sentimental Education • Illuminations • Demystifying the Individual and Society • Presentation and Comparison of Characters, and their motives

and feelings through Language; In the context of the playworld of each play;

Iago and Blanche—anything in common?• Iago and Blanche both have the ability to

manipulatively use language as a tool of power • Note their set speeches;

Private Self and Public PersonaKey Concept: Society • Drama: the play worlds of the text; Time and Settings;• The prevailing Worldview / Values / Ideology / Ideological Framework of

the ‘World’ of each play; • Sociolect: Manner and style of speech characteristic of the social world

of each play in terms of time and setting; Key Concept: The Individual• Views and Values; ways of seeing their world;• Idiolect; speech patterns and speech style of the principal individual

characters; and what is discernible and distinctive about their Identity and Personality pertaining to Ethnicity, Gender, Class, Education, Lifestyle; Relationships; and Dramatic Role / Function;

Conflict and Tension related to Role, Plot Development and Structure

• Conflict within a key character re- views and values; virtuous or virtueless; victor or victim (through speech style; and actions motivated by personal, social, philosophical, religious factors?)

• Conflict with other characters; Relationships; (through speech style, and actions); also Role / Function

• Conflict with external forces (social, cultural, natural, and / or supernatural beliefs, practices, conventions, norms, traditions)

• Real or Imagined Conflict• Sources of Conflict within the plot; and hence also

its Development; Consequences; Change; Resolution

In Drama

Presentation of Characters and their Relationships through

Words and Actions

What they say, the way they say it, and what they do, and the way they do it;

Characters exist from what is spoken;Characters: the language they speak

• Diction: With all characters, need to note and comment on characteristic choice of words, word register, and patterns of speech;

• What is happening between the words - matters as much as what is spoken;

• Including deliberate pauses and silences;• Actors’ concentration must be focused on the feelings and

motives around the words;• Within the character there is consideration of feeling or ambiguity

of thought expressed in the choice and category of word itself, patterns of sound, and the emotive rhythm of the speech;

Diction in Othello (see p281)

• There are words in Othello which are chosen with great frequency and in ways which give them increasing critical significance as the plot develops:

• Honest; honesty; honour; honourable; good; true; truly;

• Dishonest; villain; villainy; knave; slave; devil; gross;• Consider how they reflect on the character using them

and what they reveal about that character’s attitude to the character spoken about;

• Notice unintended irony in their use;

Diction in Othello p281Concerns and Methods

• Notice also how often characters refer or appeal to ‘heaven’; or ‘hell’,

• And are concerned about the ‘soul’

• The characteristic frequency of such choices of words makes it clear to the audience how much this play is concerned with human values and also divine values;

Diction and Features of LanguageDistinctive language patterns

Venice the Playworld of ‘Othello’

Presentation of characters of class and distinction• The Duke; Senators,

Othello, and other High Society characters

• Formal, heightened poetic, eloquent speech

Low class characters?• Iago and Emilia

Belle Reve of the Old South as against the poor quarter of New Orleans

Presentation of characters of class and distinction• The Dubois sisters• Learned prose; formal,

grammatically correct, fully formed sentences and formal word register, and aptly chosen, colourful imagery

Low class characters• Stanley Kowalski and his poker

playing friends Mitch, Steve, Pablo

Poetic Language and Verse Drama

• Poetic language – commonly associated with educated speech, and speech patterns, and so has class overtones;

• Poetic language made up of two verbal elements: the formal and the colloquial; mixes both;

• Built on patterned diction and imagery; rhythmic structure, and compression of language; Thus understanding coming as much through the logic of poetic imagery

The supposed ‘Bad Boys’ both bestial predators, comparatively considered of our two Paper 3 Drama texts;

• Iago [Othello the Moor of Venice] Military man / soldier in the Venetian army;• Stanley Kowalski [A Streetcar Named Desire]• Ex-military; a Master Sergeant in the Engineers’ Corps, and now, a factory parts salesman;

Iago dropping seeds of suspicion in Othello’s Consciousness [Act 3.3]

Good name in man and woman dear my lord ,Is the immediate jewel of their souls.Who steals my purse, steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.

Iago, that supersubtle Venetian• The reasoning is clearly presented;• The rhetoric is manipulatively subtle; • ‘Filches’ and ‘trash’: connotative implications of

underhandedness, and lowdown life and activity. • Sets the emotional position and charge of these lines;• Reveals as much about Iago’s inner life;

where he lives;• As of his manipulation of Othello• We are receiving information through choice and sound

of words, and its strong rhythmic drive

Listening for Meaning

• The pleasures to be derived from hearing the music of the words;

• Often through the interplay of sounds, assonance and alliteration

• Achieving a meaning beyond that of its merely grammatical sense;

Distinctive language patternsemphasizing qualities of character and mind

• Iago adjusts his choice of language to what he thinks are the tastes and sensibilities of those he wants to impress and manipulate;

• When speaking to Roderigo, Iago assumes bombastic, patterned, balanced language, abounding in Latinisms characteristic of Roderigo himself; (Machiavellian subterfuge)

• ‘It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration’ 1.3. 345-346;

Iago the Chameleon Figure

• When speaking to Othello and Montano, Iago uses blank verse rather than prose, and high sounding metaphors; ’Tis evermore the prologue of his sleep’ 2.3.122

• All this is part of Iago’s supersubtle masquerade to manipulate and mindbend others to his will;

• His normal language is characterized by prosaic brevity, underlining his pragmatic, businesslike, and coldly rational view of life;

• Iago: [Love] ‘It is merely a lust of the blood’ [1.3]

Iago’s manipulative and masterfully rhetorical Prose 1.3 p43

’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. So that if we plant nettles, or sow lettuce…; either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry; why the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the beam of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts;

Stanley not so subtle yet shrewd New Orleanian

Stanley’s machismo; his need to dominate• Diction: Characteristically drawn from his day-to-day interests of

card playing and betting; the popular culture of films and songs p20; slang p80

• Syntax – short and simple; his violent actions;• Aural Techniques such as use of Emotive Sounds: • Stanley associated with the powerful sound of a train, a

locomotive engine – modern, brutally impressive, machine-like muscle; in Scene 4 p40, his invasion of the Dubois sisters’ conspiracy is covered by the sound of an approaching train; so is his pretended withdrawal before his victorious reclamation of Stella; p41

From Scene 6Non-verbal audial techniques

• Such sounds are symbolically significant when Blanche is telling Mitch of her marriage to Allen Grey

• The most harrowing memory is signaled by the roaring sound of an oncoming locomotive

• A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She claps her hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlight of the locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past. p56

The Night Café (Le Café de nuit)by Vincent Van Gogh

The painting – (as a visual technique for the Poker Scene 3) • Depicts the interior of an all night café with a half-curtained

doorway;• Five customers - three drunkards and two derelicts slouched

at tables along the walls and a waiter in a light coat to one side of the billiard table near the centre of the room;

• Wildly contrasting vivid colours - The ceiling is green, the upper walls red; the glowing gas ceiling lamps and floor largely yellow

[The kitchen suggests that sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colours of childhood’s spectrum;]

Stanley: other facets of his Character

• Appreciates rough humour; so with Iago• Stanley sizes women up at a glance;• Iago good at sizing up all sorts of characters;

Stanley: Be comfortable is my motto. p14Iago: I am not what I am. Bitingly sarcastic• And diamonds! A crown for the empress! p18

• Iago - the invisible enemy• Othello only at the end of the play comes to

know the opposition• Stanley, far less subtle, Blanche early on becomes

aware; In Scene 6, she declares: ‘He hates me.’ • I don’t want no ifs or butsEnd of Scene 4• Stanley: Hiyuh, Blanche. [He grins at her.]

Dramatic Presentation of Othello as: Lover and Soldier

• Bears no real resemblance to the stereotype of Moors, conventionally associated with cruelty, witchcraft, and lust; the stage-Moor: a wicked demi-devil; Satan in human form;

• The beauty and power of his poetic language characterizes and defines Othello the lover, and Othello, the soldier;

• Characterized by a rich musicality, and unique solidity and precision of picturesque phrase, image, and rhythmic movement;

• And use of grand single words: ‘Propontic’

[2.1.178-188] p69Blank-Verse Dignity and Joy of Othello

It gives / me won/der great / as my / con/tentTo see / you here / before me. O my / soul’s joy!If after every tempest come such calms,May the winds blow till they have wakened deathAnd let the labouring bark climb hills of seasOlympus-high, and duck again as lowAs hell’s from heaven. If it were now to die,’Twere now to be most happy; for I fearMy soul hath her content so absoluteThat not another comfort like to thisSucceeds in unknown fate.

How are we supposed to hear the lines of this speech?

Iambic Pentameter; soft-strong rhythmic beat• When the beat breaks or jumps, indicates something dramatic

happening; either with the feeling or behaviour of a character or within the action of the play

• Provides the emotional pulse of the speech that assists in driving it forward;

• Note the sense of continuum through the line;• Combination of stress / weight, with length of syllable• Regular stress• Vowels open and long • Notice consonants that are continuants, so the lines flow • Sound contrasts

Significance of Short LinesQuantity of Lines

• When lines are fewer than five beats in a speech otherwise in regular iambic pentameter

• Always look for a Reason for the missing of a beat?• Maybe a thought needs time to settle between characters; or the

thought overwhelms the speaker for that moment• Iago: ‘I do not like the office’; ‘I could not sleep’;

‘One of this kind is Cassio’• Contain three or four beats; these short lines point to the fact Iago

is giving Othello time to absorb the implications of what he is saying;

• Later in this Scene, we hear Othello: ‘O, blood, blood, blood!’ Signaling overcharging emotions;

Mindful of change through being mindful of Plot Development

In Acts 3 and 4• The earlier articulate reasoned rhythms of Othello’s

speech breaks up into emotionally fragmented charged exclamations and crude outbursts under pressure from the intensity of his jealousy;

• Awareness of rhythm and rhythmic movement subtly enhances meaning;

• In Act 5 we hear echoes of his early heightened eloquent poetic language;

Othello in [4.1.35-44] p169Compare with his earlier speeches

Lie with her? Lie on her? We say lie on herwhen they belie her. Lie with her – Zounds,that’s fulsome. Handkerchief – confessions –handkerchief. To confess and be hanged for hislabour – first to be hanged, and then to confess. I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself insuch shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, earsand lips. Is’t possible? Confess – handkerchief! Odevil! [Falls in a trance]

How characters are differentiated through speech style

Stanley (Diction, Imagery, Syntax)

• [Bellowing] Hey, there! Stella, Baby!

• Naw! We gotta have odds!• You going to shack up here?• You’re damn tootin

I’m going to stay here.• Set down! I’ve got th’ dope

on your big sister, Stella.

Blanche (Diction, Imagery, Syntax)

• Why, the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep.

• Well, life is too full of evasions and ambiguities, I think. p20

• That I am absconding with something, attempting some kind of treachery on my sister. P21

• Our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for the epic fornications—to put it plainly. p22

Blanche in Scene 10, p78Compare to Scene 2 of Act 5

A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life—immeasurably! I have lost those things to offer, and this doesn’t take them away. Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession. But beauty of the mind, and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart—and I have all of those things—aren’t taken away, but grow! Increase with the years! How strange that I should be called a destitute woman! When I have all of these treasures locked in my heart. [A choked sob comes from her.] I think of myself as a very rich, very rich woman! But I have been foolish—casting my pearls to swine!

Mindfully aware of Plot Development

Beginnings and Endings, and Plot Structure;

Othello the Moor of Venice• The Temptation Scene Scene

3 of Act 3

A Streetcar Named Desire• The Poker Night

Scene 3

Dramatic Effects (Theatrical Effects)• The Audience – Response of the Audience to the action of the

play in performance on stage?• At the level of Thought and Emotions(Mind and Heart) – What

you are compelled to think and how you are made to feel? • Dramatic effects from moment to moment,

Scene to Scene;• Dramatic Effects cumulatively considered;• Changing Dramatic Effects;• For example, Blanche alternatingly engages and alienates the

sympathy of the audience• Overall Dramatic Effects at Curtain Down Time

Comparative Essay Question Section

Note:

• The Either / Or choice of examination questions in Section B will provide enough ‘openness’ (scope) to allow students to comparatively draw from any two of the set texts they have studied for Paper 3.

Typical Comparison Questions• Comparatively assess to what extent is the individual

presented as a product of the social environment in which s/he lives?

• In any two of the texts you have studied, how do women find their place in the societies they inhabit?

• Discuss how the protagonists of any two texts you have studied are manipulators or victims of their society.

• ‘No man is an island.’ Comparatively evaluate the presentation of the principal characters of any two texts in the light of this statement.