Poem: On an Unknown Edge

Night lifted upwards like a stage curtain
Stars clank together
Trains rattle by
I wonder 'Who am I?'
Then I remember
Walking along a gravel path
And see a great apparition before my eyes
That blows away in the wind
With the slamming shut
Of a Skoda's door
Nothing but grass ahead
Not even dreams
Even nightmares escape with
The apologetic light of dawn
Heel snaps
I fancy a ginger snap
But I left my purse at his.
Dog scowls
I wince
I have not been back since
But I probably should see my mum today
Remembering a bill I have to pay
Debts washed away
With vodka and gin
Flatmate asks 'Where have you been?'
Remnants of red nail varnish vanish
Phone buzzes like a bumblebee
Maybe somebody still loves me

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers

Mametz Wood by Owen Sheers

For years afterwards the farmers found them -

the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades

as they tended the land back into itself.

A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade,

the relic of a finger, the blown

and broken bird's egg of a skull,

all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in white

across this field where they were told to walk, not run,

towards the wood and its nesting machine guns.

And even now the earth stands sentinel,

reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened

like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin.

This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave,

a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm,

their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre

in boots that outlasted them,

their socketed heads tilted back at an angle

and their jaws, those that have them, dropped open.

As if the notes they had sung

have only now, with this unearthing,

slipped from their absent tongues.

Themes:

Childishness/innocence

Comradeship

Earth hurt/broken

Wasted Youth

Fragility

Memory

Marina: Themes

Marina is the daughter of Pericles from both classical literature and one of Shakespeare's plays. 

•The poem is about the moment a father sees his long lost daughter – hence the equivocation

-'What images return' Memories, doesn't recognise Marina, sees some similarities

-'What is this face' Daughter or speaker has changed, grown up/old, Can't quite remember - has been so long the memories are no longer clear
-'grace' Father's love - sees beauty in her/reminiscent of Christian ideas about God being a father and his grace, her presence is welcome
-'new ships' young, life moving on
-'Small laughter' like a child, present and past mingling
-'I made this' Speaker's child, Pericles guilt as it is his fault
-'half-conscious' he begins to realize
-Repition of 'what' Pericles discovers who Marina is

•The poem is about confusion
-Repetition eg 'Those who...'
-'What is this' uncertainty, unable to see/feel clearly
-'less clear and clearer' 'less strong and stronger' can't decide how to feel
-'I have forgotten and remember' Uncertainty of memory, perhaps wanting to forget, memories become blurred and unclear
-'Seas' can switch between calm and violence
-Contrasting statements about death 'dog' and a 'hummingbird', 'contentment' and 'suffer'
-Marina's voice bringing back old memories
-Confusion about who Marina is

•The poem is about a state of ecstasy
-'the hope'
-'lips parted' pure feeling, no words needed
-'woodthrush calling' hope, freedom, beauty, cutting through the confusion, Marina relating her tale
-Calming imagery in first stanza 'seas' 'shores' 'grey rocks' 'water lapping'
-All the senses - a moment of awakening
-'O my daughter' Pericles finds Marina again
-'stars' she is beautiful
-'dissolved' everything falls into place/away, he can see clearly

•The poem is about a voyager returning home
-'The garboard strake leaks, the seams need caulking' been away so long the boat is breaking
-'what shores' lost on the sea, been away so long can no longer remember
-'woodthrush calling through the fog' guiding home
-'islands towards my timbers' ship is speaker's home/self now
-'Scent of pine' nearing land

•The poem is about psychological issues
-'rigging weak and the canvas rotten' problems on the inside, no longer works/falling apart
-'half-conscious'
-'granite islands' immovable problems
-'the ecstasy of animals' unthinking/unfeeling, not burdened by soul/conscience
-Memory mixes with present
-Pericles's guilt and despair

•The poem is about the uselessness of everyday activities
-'The garboard srake leaks, the seams need caulking' mundane, repairing what has already been made
-'meaning death' futility, inescapable
-All of it nothing compared to 'my daughter'

Definitions:
'Garboard Strake'

'seams... caulking'

Sex in Arcadia

• Underlying theme of the whole play
• Flirtation between Lady Croom and Septimus
• Mrs Chater is the typical whore female character - doesn't get any time on stage so we only hear what others say about her - she can't defend or explain herself
• Brice invited the Chaters to Sidley Park and organizes the botanical mission to be able to have sex with Mrs Chater
• Only person Mrs Chater won't have sex with is Mr Chater
• Letters are predominately about lust and romance
• Adult comedy
• 'Bring a book' Lady Croom invites Septimus to her room - link between literature and sex
• Lady Croom is wooed by Septimus through letters
• Shows Lady Croom's hypocriticalness - scorns Mrs Chater then does exactly the same, even with the same men
• Sex is not openly out - not crude

Society of Fragments in Eliot and Yeats

“Eliot presents us with a society of fragments” In light of this Statement, compare the ways Eliot and Yeats present broken or fragmented worlds. In your response you must include detailed reference to The Wasteland or at least two of Eliot’s shorter poems.

Introduction:

Eliot’s poetry is often very fragmentary, and in none more so than ‘The Wasteland’, in which the reader has to piece together seemingly random things to discover that even the answers are fragmented, as Eliot presents a world breaking apart from lack of spirituality. Yeats however, focuses more on how a single human’s world can be broken apart by love.

Nature as Broken

‘The Wasteland’ is full with brokenness and emptiness, with Eliot presenting nature as dead and lifeless to reflect society’s sterility. The title of ‘The Wasteland’ immediately introduces the reader to the idea of a broken and dying world, with the first four lines of ‘The Burial of the dead’ filled with words connoting decay like ‘dull’, ‘dead’ and ‘cruellest’. Eliot juxtaposes these words with growth imagery like ‘roots’ and ‘rain’, creating a stark contrast between life and the present deadness. In these lines it seems to be a universal voice speaking, protecting against ‘April... breeding lilacs out of the dead land’, representing the extent to which society is broken, as it does not want the new life that ‘April’ brings. The hanging participles Eliot uses extends this, with lines ending with words like ‘stirring’, suggesting that even the poem’s structure is protesting against movement and change. Both in the ‘Burial of the Dead’ and ‘What the Thunder Said’ Yeats constantly repeats and varies the refrain ‘ no water’ and ‘rock’, almost like a mantra, connoting the sterility of the environment and how it has become entrenched in its way, unable to envisage the healing that ‘water’, or spirituality, would bring. It could also suggest that it was the world’s choice to become broken, as it became ever increasingly fixated on life without spirituality, and without true natural life. Either way Eliot’s portrayal of nature seems indicative of a world content in its brokenness.

Sybilline Nature of Poem

The sibylline nature of the poem is utilised by Eliot to challenge the reader about the part they play in society’s brokenness. Sybil’s speech in the epigraph of ‘The Wasteland’ illustrates just how broken society is, as Sybil ‘want[s] to die’ as it is the only escape from the horrific nature of the world. The fact that Sybil is unable to die reflects the way that society is trapped in its sterile way, and could also represent the inability of the Knights of Camelot to ask the right questions to restore the Wasteland in the legend of King Arthur, which Eliot drew upon when writing ‘The Wasteland’. The sybilline structure of the poem could reflect the way that the knights had to gather up fragments in order to ask the right question, just as the reader must do to glean any meaning from the poem. The scatteredness and disjointedness of ‘The Burial of the Dead’, jumping from the ‘Hyacinth girl’ to ‘Madam Sosostris’ could reflect the way that society is broken, or perhaps the gaps between people, as the two different voices do not run smoothly into one another, but switch from melancholy to brusque. In true sybilline form, it is women like the ‘Hyacinth girl’ and ‘Madam Sosostris’ who illustrate the fragmentary reality of the world, and perhaps Sybil throws up these fragments to show the extent to which brokenness prevails in society, affecting both these radically different women. The ‘Hyacinth Girl’ in particular is made to sound as much of a victim as Sybil, through Eliot’s name for her, which connotes her lost innocence and purity, another victim of the decline of society, and yet not even Madame Sosotris, ‘famous clairvoyant’ can shed any light on this, or indeed notice it. Eliot may be trying to show the extent to which society is broken, and the lack of answers in the poem could reflect the lack of them in the world.

Lust as Destructive:

This sibylline nature also links to the destructive force that is lust in ‘The Wasteland’, as Sibyl is in her predicament thanks to lust, just as in the ‘Second Coming’ the world’s lost innocence is the reason for its decline.  Yeats points to the fact of ‘the ceremony of innocence is drowned’ as consequence of a fragmented world, and the word ‘drowned’ connotes death, suggesting that there is no way of getting the world back to the way it was. The title of the poem suggests that his is a result of spiritual intervention, or rather lack of. The fact that Yeats remarks ‘The centre cannot hold’ perhaps connotes the myth of Christianity and religon breaking under strain, or perhaps that a loss of spirituality has lead to ‘mere anarchy’, and society can’t ‘hold’ back its steady breaking apart. Eliot also explores the way the growth of sin has lead to a decline in spirituality, and therefore society in ‘The Fire Sermon’. The ‘typist’ and the ‘carbuncular’ man’s relationship seems to act as a metonym for society’s succumbing to lust, and the way he semi-rapes her could be intended to reflect the way that purity has been driven out, or the breaking up of morals. Eliot paints a disgusting picture of the man as ‘bold’ and full of ‘vanity’, perhaps connoting the way that society, instead of looking for a greater power or even meaning in life, has become consumed in itself and its best interests, foregoing morals for the temporary pleasures of the flesh. Both Poets reflect on society’s transition from ‘innocence’ to a broken wreck of itself, lacking in principles and spirituality.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe that both Eliot and Yeats reflect on the broken nature of a fragmented society, both exploring what a world without faith is like. Eliot however, digs deeper, questioning the reader in their own role in society’s fragmentation, and pointing to the brokenness of nature to illustrate what he sees as society’s decline.

Opening Sequence Conventions in Coming-of Age Drama

Plus some Examples from 'Turning Pages'

Essay: Uncertainty and Doubt in Eliot and Yeat's poetry

What Connections Have You Found Between The Ways that Eliot and Yeats Write about Uncertainty or Doubt? In You Response you must include detailed critical discussion of at least two of Eliot’s poems.

Doubt is a common theme in many of Eliot’s poems especially in conjunction to love. Likewise in Yeats his poems are filled with doubts of truth whether of emotion, personality or decisions.

Unconscious Doubt

In both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ Eliot explores the way that the inner mind or subconscious casts doubt over a person’s decisions. Prufrock is constantly changing his mind about whether to profess his love or not, and is held back by his mind supplying him with constant doubts like ‘how his arms and legs are thin’, and ‘how his hair is growing thin’. The repitition of the word ‘thin’ could perhaps symbolise the way that he feels he is not enough for her, or that he feels himself ‘thinning’ as he ages and becoming less of a man or less brave. Also both of his worries are about his physical appearance, not about whether she could love him for himself, illustrating how the mind is holding him back from taking a leap of faith. Likewise in ‘Journey of The Magi’ Eliot portrays their supposedly spiritual and mystical journey as it most likely was; doubt riddled and anxious, as the Magi have ‘voices singing in their ears’. This could represent others who are unable to trust to hope vocalising their doubt or that the Magi’s minds were in a state of confusion and indecision, despite the great spiritual rewards they hoped they would gain. In both of these poems, Eliot locates the source of doubt as within a person, and the way that indecision and doubt can create a state of paralysis, with Prufrock unable to make up his mind and tell the truth to the women he loves, crippling him emotionally. The Magi however, complete their journey, but are changed forever, with Eliot creating a numb and lost voice for them. In this way, Eliot does not make it obvious what to do with internal doubt; whether to hide of fight against it, but he shows it as a hindrance and a barrier against an individual’s freedom of decisions.

Barrier to Another Person

Both Eliot and Yeats respectively explore the way that you can never be certain what a person is thinking and feeling in their poems ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’. Interestingly, both poets link the theme of concealment and doubt of a person’s true nature with love. In ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ he is constantly putting off his moment of declaration out of fear of what her response will be, living in fear of her saying ‘That is not what I meant at all’. The ‘at all’ connotes the finality of the statement, and part of his reluctance to act rises from the uncertainty over what her reply will be, as either way it will change their relationship forever. The fact that Prufrock asks of himself ‘how should I presume’ could represent his feelings of unworthiness, or perhaps that he doubts whether he could win her affections or even that he would be able to tell the things in his heart to a younger and more attractive woman. This all indicates his complete uncertainty as to her feelings, and her concealment of her feelings had lead Prufrock into a state of agony, with his mind in turmoil, turning  over the same situation without any indication on her part of how he should act. Similarly in ‘The Mask’ one of the characters is trying to dissuade the other from altering the status quo of their relationship, saying ‘you make so bold/to find if hearts be... cold’. Just like in Prufrock, Yeats’s character is suggesting that it is impudence to try to explore a more romantic side to a relationship, with the word ‘bold’ echoing ‘presume’ in Prufrock. Perhaps both Yeats and Eliot are trying to suggest that relationships filled with doubt and miscommunication are doomed to bring pain, and it is only when these doubts are removed that a relationship can blossom.

Ridicule

Eliot explores the way in which ridicule exacerbates self doubt, as in both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of j. Alfred Prufrock’ the main characters experience mockery from various sources. In ‘Journey of the Magi’ the contrast between the luxury and splendour of their ‘summer palaces’ and the ’villages dirty’ make even the reader doubt their quest, with Eliot using heightened poetic word order to emphasize this contrast. All the people they encounter on their journey are ‘hostile’ or ‘unfriendly’, ‘singing in their ears’ of the Magi’s foolishness as they pass. The fact that other people are ‘hostile’ to the Magi sticks with hem, and they remember that everyone thought what they were doing ‘was all folly’. That the Magi can remember so clearly what was said to them as they reminisce over their journey conveys a sense of self-conciousness and that they themselves were inclined to believe the nay-sayers. Prufrock however, is both worried by his own self-dislike and other people’s opinions of him. He repeatedly frets over what ‘they will say’, perhaps worried of their criticism dissuading his love’s opinion or that ‘they’ will not think him good enough. In both of the poems then, other’s ridicule and poor opinion increases doubt, and perhaps Eliot is trying to convey the need to be independent of others people’s opinions to make decisions, yet also contrasting this with the practical impossibility of doing so.

The Inner Self

Eliot and Yeats both explore dangers of peeling back uncertainty as there is yet more uncertainty to what you may find within. In both ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’ someone is trying to delve underneath the polite veneer of the outer self that is presented to society in order to discover the beauty and truth concealed underneath. In ‘The Mask’ one character wants to look underneath the mask, but the other is adamantly against it, as it would seem to mark the change in their relationship to love from ‘fire’ which connotes passion and lust. This is similar to Prufrock who wants to lead his love ‘to an overwhelming question’ that would transform their relationship from friendship to love. Both of the poems seem to represent the current state of the relationships within them by using physical descriptions, as ‘The Mask’ is ‘burning gold with emerald eyes’ and Prufrock’s love has ‘arms that are braceleted and white and bare’. In both the reader is allowed to see the attraction of the outer self, with Yeat’s sounding like a goddess and Eliot’s sounding like an elegant and refined angelic figure. Furthermore, the characters in both the poems are also obviously infatuated, with the repetition of the word ‘and’ making Prufrock sound like he’s gushing. The poets seem to suggest that love drives or makes someone dissatisfied with only knowing the outer self, or at least desirous to know whether the feelings are reciprocated. Prufrock’s thought of ‘To wonder: Do I dare’ seem to echo in ‘The Mask’ where ‘I must enquire’ ‘lest you are my enemy’. This representation of the pursuit of truth seems to be restrained in some way, as both seem to be held back by politeness, with the word ‘enquire’ lending the quest a feeling of reason. Neither, however, comes to any fruition, as neither receives an answer or is able to go beneath the outer self and discover what is there. Perhaps this is to indicate that doubt can never truly be erased, and never completely gotten over, and that all emotion is bound to uncertainty as long as other people remain a mystery to us.

In conclusion, I think that both Eliot and Yeats explore the restriction doubt places upon the individual, and Eliot takes it further, showing how we imprison ourselves through our uncertainty.

Poem: Dead

Dead
In
Side
Rip out my raw heart
Slice it open with stainless steel
Blood dripping down your chin
Pitter Pattering onto your jeans
I wouldn't feel a thing

Shakespeare's Pericles

Characters: 

• Antiochus, King of Antioch
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• Helicanus, a lord of Tyre
• Escanes, a lord of Tyre
• Simonides, King of Pentapolis
• Cleon, Governor of Tarsus
• Lysismachus, Governor of Mytilene
• Cerimon, a lord of Ephesus
• Thaliard, a lord of Antioch
• Philemon, Cerimon's servant
• Leonine, Dionyza's servant
• A Pander
• Boult, the Pander's servant
• Marshal
• Daughter of Antiochus
• Dionyza, wife of Cleon
• Thaisa, daughter of Simonides
• Marina, daughter of Pericles
• Lychorida, Marina's nurse
• A Bawd
• Lords, Ladies, Knights, and Gentlemen
• Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen
• Messengers
• Diana
• Gower, as Chorus

Synopsis:

King Antiochus of, not surprisingly, Antioch, creates a rule that in order to marry his daughter a suitour must answer his riddle or die. Pericles works out the answer to the riddle which reveals that Antiochus and his daughter are having an incestious affair, so Pericles heads back to Tyre, as he figures that if Antiochus finds out that he knows he will kill him, having already giving him 40 days before his death sentence.

Antiochus sends an assassin after him, and Pericles decides to take Helicanus' advice and go travelling until it all blows over. He goes to Tarsus which is ruled over by Cleon ad Dionyza, where he saves them from the terrible famine that has been ravging their country by bringing them corn.

On his way back to Tyre he gets shipwrecked at Pentapolis where he hears that the winner of a jousting tournament will get Simonedes' daughter's hand so enters and wins, despite having the rustiest armour.  He marries Simonedes' daughter Thaisa, but hears that Antiochus and his daughter where smited by fire from heaven, so decides to return to Tyre with Thaisa and Lychorida, a nurse. Meanwhile in Tyre, the people want to crown Helicanus as King but he insists they wait for Pericles to return.

On board the ship they encounter a terrible storm and Thaisa dies in childbirth. To placate the storm the crew throw Thaisa overboard in a chest, but when she washes up in Ephesus a kindly doctor, Cerimon, discovers that she is, in fact, alive.

Pericles lands in Tarsus again, giving his daughter Marina over to Cleon and Dionyza's care because he thinks she will not survive the journey.

Time passes: Pericles becomes King of Tyre, Thaisa becomes a priestess of Diana, but because Marina takes all the attention away from Dionyza's daughter she tires to kill her but Marina is snatched by pirates and sold as a prostitute.

She is sold top Pander and Bawd's brothel, but manages to convince the many men who come to buy her virginity that her honour is sacred, and they leave wanting to change their ways. She eventually gets a job in a respectable house teaching girls.

Meanwhile Pericles goes to search for his daughter, but Cleon and Dionyza tell him that she is dead and show him the monument they built in her honour to hide their guiltiness. Pericles, distraught, sails to Myteline.

There Lysimachus brings Marina to him, as he thinks she can make Pericles talk after his three months of silence. Marina tells him that her own sufferings must match his, relating her story as Pericles listens in amazement, seeing the similarities in his daughter and Marina's tale. They are reunited at last, and when Pericles falls asleep exhausted he is told to visit the temple of Diana is Ephesus. When he wakes he promises Marina to Lysimachus and they all set off for Ephesus.

Pericles tells his story in the temple, Thaisa faints and the family is reunited. 

Gatsby as Trimalchio

"It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night - and, as obscurely as it began, his career as Trimalchio was over."

Trimalchio is the vulgar social upstart of immense wealth in Petronius's Satyrion, particapating in banquets of unimaginable luxury and a master of sexual and gastronomic revels.

Fitzgerald's working titles for the novels included 'Trmalchio' and 'Trimalchio in West Egg', but Gatsby is only called it once in the novel.

Similarities:

• Gatsby used to be a bit of a player before he fell in love with Daisy
• Both obsessed with time
• Fear  of transience - too little time left
• Trimalchio has a 'green ball' while Gatsby has Daisy's 'green light'
• Trimalchio served eggs at his banquet while Gatsby lives in 'West egg'

Differences:

• Gatsby doesn't participate in his own parties

Eliot vs Yeats's portrayal of the past

How do Yeats and Eliot present the past?

Both Eliot’s and Yeat’s poems explore the way that memory shapes us and yet, when under scrutiny, it is unreliable, easily changed and barely a remnant of what once was.      

             

Eliot explores the way in which the past is the foundation of our characters in Rhapsody on a Windy Night. The moon, despite being old and having ‘lost her memory’ still acts like a young girl in her prime, and seems unable to escape from her younger self. Eliot portrays her as a beautiful society girl, who ‘winks’ and smiles’ flirtatiously at non-existent lovers while she ‘smoothes the hair’, with the care she takes over her appearance connoting that she was once very pretty. The moon is thousands of years old, and the reader realises this through Eliot’s descriptions of her as ‘feeble’ and as having ‘smallpox while the moon is unaware that she is such a pathetic figure. The moon may represent the way that mankind clings onto the past, and its obsession with staying young, or the way that the past can be detrimental, tricking us into living in a falsehood but defining our presonaltites. Its long lasting effects are shown in the way that the moon ‘twists a paper rose that smells of dust and eau de cologne’, as it is almost like a nervous tic or a vehicle on which to take out her distress. The way the past mingles with the present is shown in the way that the perfume of her youth mixes together with the smell of dust of her present decay. The narrator experiences the same pain as the moon does from remembering his past, as he describes it as the ‘last twist of the knife’ indicating that the past stays with you but at a high cost. Eliot could perhaps be suggesting that while memory defines us, it does not always have a positive effect, and that we must continue living in the present if we are to escape the pain of the past.

Eliot explores the way that memory can provoke emotions not only in Rhapsody on a Windy Night but also in The Journey of The Magi and The Burial of The Dead.  All three poems explore the pain that reminiscing gives them, although the past is full of beauty. Marie in ‘The Burial of the Dead’ seems to recall her youth as full of light and beauty as the ‘summer surprised’ them with ‘showers of rain’ and ‘sunlight’. This contrasts with what would seem to be Marie’s present, as her tone abruptly changing from nostalgic and content to dispassionate and clipped, perhaps showing how her circumstances have changed. There are 10 lines full of joyous remembrances of a happy past, then a single line stating that now she just reads ‘much of the night, and (goes) south in the winter’. The fact that now she stays up in the dark and hides from real life, as well as the connotations of bird migration when she ‘goes south in the winter’ suggests that she is enjoys the freedom that her happy memories give her, and perhaps she is ‘migrating’ or returning again and again to her past because she feels ‘free’ and happy. In ‘The Journey of The Magi’ and ‘Rhapsody on a Windy night’ the past has the opposite effect, hurting and numbing people. The memories the narrator explores in ‘Rhapsody on a Windy night’ are no where near as pleasant as Marie’s, with Eliot filling them full of grime, ‘cats... devour(ing) a morsel of rancid butter’ and an ‘eye’ like a ‘crooked pin’. In this Eliot explore the different effect of the past on people, but to both of them the past, while provoking long gone emotions, is also painful, keeping them living in their minds instead of the world.

Eliot and Yeats both investigate the way that long lost love still intrudes upon the present. In Yeat’s poem ‘To a Young Girl’ he looks at the way that the love he felt is still with him and that though ‘young girls’ think they are in love and indeed are the right age and probably of the right sensibility, he still loves ‘more than another’ or at least can still recall this love as though it had never gone. Unlike him the woman he loves ‘has forgot’, meaning that now he is alone in his love, and the fact that she has ‘forgot’ might make it all the more poignant for him. The contrast  in the two old lovers feelings probably indicate their difference in feelings at the time of their love, as she ‘broke his heart’ but in was only ‘her blood’ that was ‘astir’. Her lust compared to his love is probably the reason that he remembers, and the differences in how people remember the past is another way in which it shapes their present. Perhaps Yeats is suggesting that the deeper the feelings the deeper the memory, but in Eliot’s Rhapsody on a Windy Night  we get no such comparison, as his memory tortures him and drives him awawy from others as he walks the streets at ‘Twelve o’clock’. ‘The Woman’ described in the poem could be a stranger, a prostitute, or perhaps a dead figure from his past. Whoever she is the name of ‘the woman’ makes her seem impersonal and a little frightening, and she could be a metonym for all his relationships with women. The way in which these figures of the past plague him though could perhaps indicate a deep emotional attachment, and because she ‘hestitates towards’ him there is an implication that there may be a relationship between them. In both the poems the narrators reflections of women are not particularly pleasant or reassuring, again reiterating the dangers of memory.

Eliot explores the way in which memories of the past decay and alter, until they become like a ‘dead geranium’. The fact that the ‘geranium’ can still be recognised is significant though as it suggests that, while memories retain their ‘skeleton’ they are just bare remnants of the beauty and life that they actually contained whilst being lived out. Eliot continues with his use of a nature lexis, describing memory as a ‘twisted branch upon the beach/Eaten smooth, and polished’, which suggests that memory is a natural thing, and therefore decays naturally. The way the branch has been ‘eaten smooth’ by the sea is also a natural process, but it is also sad as the branch has lost part of itself and has become a ‘smoother’ and lesser version of itself. This reflects the suggestion in the poem that memory is unreliable as it no longer has its full form, and just as the branch has lost its rough bark so do memory lose the things that displease or embarrass us, become ‘smooth’ and easier to remember. The ‘beach’ suggests that the branch is constantly washed with the tide coming in, its outer surface eroding gradually until it is barely recognisable to what it once was, much in the way that humans look back into the past, altering their memories each time. The ‘branch’ becoming ‘smooth’ could also represent the way that humans easily forget the past, as what used to be is gradually broken down and lost. Either way, Eliot looks at the way we lose sight of and try to change the past, and while it is natural to forget things if we are not careful we may lose them forever.

In conclusion I think that Eliot present memory as a dangerous and potentially destructive thing, with Yeats backing him on ideas of memory creating pain.

Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird

Examples of Racism

Character	Example of racist attitudes
The Sheriff	When he arrested Boo Radley (suspected of stabbing his father in the leg with a pair of scissors) he "hadn't the heart to put him in the jail alongside Negroes".
Mrs Dubose	She tells the children: "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!"
Aunt Alexandra	She doesn't like to talk about important matters "in front of Calpurnia and them".
Scout's cousin Francis	He claims that Atticus is "ruining the family" by taking on the Robinson case.
Mr Cunningham	He's part of a mob of men who would have lynched Tom Robinson, had Atticus not been on guard outside the jail.

Examples of Anti-Racist Attitudes

Character	Example of anti-racist attitudes
Atticus	He hates the town's racist attitude and refers to it as "Maycomb's usual disease".
Miss Maudie	She is proud of "those people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only."
Jem	He can't believe that the jury can convict an innocent man just because he is black. "It ain't right!" he says.
Scout	She sees the hypocrisy of her teacher who opposes Hitler but supports the Tom's conviction. "It's not right to persecute anybody, is it?"

Class prejudice

As well as prejudice about people's colour, there is prejudice about people's social standing. There are strict divisions along class lines in Maycomb society. For example, Aunt Alexandra calls Walter Cunningham ‘trash’ when Scout wants to invite him over for dinner, and even Scout shows that she has been brought up more respectably when she exclaims at Walter pouring syrup over his lunch.

Examples of Class Prejudice

Character	Examples of Class Prejudice
Aunt Alexandra	Aunt Alexandra is obsessed with the superiority of the Finch family, part of the local white aristocracy. She doesn't allow Scout to play with Walter Cunningham because...
The Cunninghams	The Cunninghams are lower class whites - poor farmers, badly hit by the Depression. However they are a better class of people than...
The Ewells	They are 'White Trash' - the lowest class of whites - uneducated and poor. But even they look down upon...
The Blacks	The black community is automatically seen as at the bottom of the class system, yet since the abolition of slavery, the boundaries between them and the Ewells is less clear. This is one reason why Mr Ewell is so racist, as well as the fact that they are the only people he can pride himself as being superior too.

Et In Arcadia ego!

Analysis of the Quote from Tom Stoppard's Play Arcadia

It is said and translated twice in the poem, and Stoppard was even going to call the play by the full quotation:

Lady Croom

• Here in Arcadia I am!
• Inaccurate translation of a famous quotation
• It is simplistic as well as inaccurate - It is just her looking at her garden and thinking that its nice
• An 'arcadia' is an idealized world landscape or pastoral idyll
• Rich people wanted their gardens to be both cultivated and natural at the time - classical gardening was the in style
• Arcadia was natural and yet unnatural - Nature as God intended
• Lady Croom acts as though she is divine - her opinion can never be contradicted - she can say waht God means
• Illustrates the arrogance of the upper classes

Septimus

• Even in Arcadia, there I am!
• The 'I's is death
• Even in the lavishness of Sidley Park/The joy of her ans Septimus' love, Thomasina dies
• Can't escape death
• Even in beautiful places, even when you are rich, you can never escape death
• When he says this the play is already taking a more serious turn -death is present
• Arcadia looks like a comedy of manners but has darker undertones

Memoirs In Mrs Dalloway...

What do they symbolise?

• Virginia Woolf wanted to explore people's 'beautiful caves' and this is just what memoirs do
• Shows Mrs Dalloway cares about people's thoughts and feelings, as well as revealing an interest in the inner self beyond someone's public persona
• She reads General Brown Maket who returned from Moscow a failure
• It is a way to escape the way you see the world and see how someone else sees it
• Mrs Dalloway only reads memoirs in bed so she can escape reality. It also indicates that she reads memoirs instead of making love to her husband, further emphasizing the idea that their relationship is not very passionate
• Mrs Dalloway also wants to remember things. Her best years were in her past (at Bourton) so why would she want to look to the future?

Essay: How do Eliot and Yeats present spirituality?

How do Eliot and Yeats present spirituality?

Introduction:

Spirituality is a reoccurring theme of both Eliot and Yeats, with Eliot exploring it in many of his poems especially ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Wasteland’ and Yeats in ‘The Second Coming’, both looking into spiritual dryness and the futility of religion.

Religious Expectations

In both the ‘journey of the Magi’ and ‘Second Coming’ the poets both explore the way that religion builds up expectations but never fulfils them. Eliot takes on the voice of the Magi and recalls their journey to Jesus’ birth which they only found ‘satisfactory’. This contrasts with the normal representation of Jesus’ birth as a miraculous event, and undermines in effect the entire religion. The word ‘satisfactory’ matches the neutral tone adopted throughout, and the Magi don’t seem particularly enthused by their experience, describing it as a ‘hard and bitter agony’. Instead of being the amazing divine revelation everyone thinks it was Eliot makes it sound painful and tortuous, perhaps because while Jesus was born the Magi were fully aware that he would die. This futility and lack of the joy and emotion associated with spirituality is also explored in ‘The Second Coming’, where Yeats asks ‘Surely some revelation is at hand’. The word ‘surely’ suggests desperation for some sort of spiritual experience, and is also suggestive of someone trying to reassure themselves that something will happen.  This lack of hope and spirituality is reflected in the way Yeats thinks that ‘the best lack all conviction’ suggesting that even the people who should know about these things like the ‘Magi’ have grown disbelieving or despondent, with the lack of spiritual rewards driving people away. Both poets might be saying that after the desperation for a spiritual revelation fades people are left spiritless empty and bereft.

Spiritual Doubt

Both poets also explore spiritual doubt, with Eliot portraying the Magi as uncertain and worried about their journey. The Magi say that while on their journey ‘there were times (they) regretted’ and heard ‘voices sing in (their) ears, saying / that this was all folly’. This is not only an experience common to many people seeking spiritual enlightenment it also reflects the fact that historically, the Magi were uncertain of what they would find in Bethlehem, only having the prophecies of Judaism (a religion unknown and unfollowed by them) to go on. Spiritual doubt is a universal theme, and the ‘voices’ that ‘sing’ to them could be their minds warning them that this is folly. It could also represent the disbelieving and negligent Israelites or even the devil trying to dissuade them from following the star and finding the baby Jesus. Likewise in the ‘Second Coming’ Yeats remarks that the ‘ceremony of innocence is drowned’ perhaps connotes that people have been disillusioned or that their doubts have got the better of hem, or that their doubts were proved to be right. Either way Yeats does not convey much hope, stating it as a fact, and creates a sense of the lost hope and disbelief of the post WW1 world. Yeats does not give any room for disagreement whereas Eliot leaves it much more open, letting the reader decide whether Jesus’ birth was really a miracle or not. This could perhaps suggest that the pursuit of spirituality requires resilience and intellectual questioning and strength, and Eliot could be suggesting in a modern world we have no patience to work hard for a true spiritual experience, or perhaps that it is right to have doubts but you must push through them to find the reward or in the Magi’s case the lack of one.

Sacrifices for Spirituality

Eliot explores the sacrifices that have to be made in the search for spirituality. In ‘Journey of the Magi’ Eliot uses the present participle when the Magi are recalling their arduous ‘journey’, (which is repeated to show how hard it was), to make the Magi sound tired, and their constant listing of things that happened illustrates how exasperated they became.  ‘And’ is also repeated at the beginning of the four lines of listing, reflecting the way the journey grew harder as well as making their journey seem like it was constantly full of problems. Their journey from hell is contrasted to the comfort of their ‘summer palaces’ and ‘terraces’ for  ‘villages dirty’, with Eliot using inversed word order to place emphasis on the negative word ‘dirty’ in order that the reader take that away as their prominent impression of the journey. In line 9 their old life is shown to be one of supreme luxury, with ‘silken girls bringing sherbet’, and the sibilance reflecting the smoothness of their home. The word ‘bringing’ implies that the servants where submissive and respectful, quite the opposite of the ‘camel men’ they take with them who instead spend their time ‘grumbling and cursing’. This juxtaposition of their luxurious lifestyle to the discomfort of their journey emphasizes the amount that the Magi gave up to seek the spiritual experience they hoped for, indicating how important it was to them and how much they were willing to give up for it. It could also be suggestive of the way in which Christians have to give up their lifestyle of excesses and sins to live a simpler life. Either way, Eliot could be saying that no spirituality can be found without seeking far and wide and ploughing through adversity.

Change

Eliot also explores the way that spiritual experiences change you, with the Magi returning from the journey different people. When the Magi ‘returned to their places’ they found that they were ‘no longer at ease’ there, perhaps suggesting that their spiritual experience has changed them, and they are no longer who they were when they set out. The word ‘ease’ also suggests that now they feel apart from those around them, who they now see as an ‘alien people’. Eliot seems to be indicating that they are now foreigners in their homeland, and that the spiritual experience has marked them out as different from their compatriots, or alternatively that the people who didn’t go with them that do not fit in to this new world which has just dawned. In fact, Eliot even says the Magi would ‘be glad of another death’ which could refer to themselves.  This may indicate that spiritual experiences leave you so hungry for more and normal life seeming so futile that the only option after that is death, or that they were so depressed by their new knowledge and isolation that they wanted to die, or even that they want to join God in heaven. That they consider their countrymen’s gods to be ‘their’s’ not their own connotes that the Magi had undergone a significant spiritual change, and they not no longer have their pagan beliefs. With this Eliot could be saying that a true spiritual experience leaves you completely changed, whether for better or worse.

Conclusion

In both ‘The Second Coming’ and ‘Journey of the Magi’ spirituality is presented as quite destructive and not as rewarding as expected, however life-changing it is.