Excel
Get the Results you Want!
YEAR 12
ADVANCED
English
Bianca Hewes & Jeff Sinclair
Free-to-download sample pages with answers
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
About the composer
Audience
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratfordupon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
age of fifty-two.
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
or knew of, in his plays.
Shakespeare was interested in the human condition
and this is reflected in the main themes of his plays. These
include the role of people in society, the search for
individual identity, the impact that materialism and wealth
have on morality and the tyranny of ambition. Other
familiar themes included unrequited love, mortality,
religion and jealousy.
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
its narrative.
Type of text
The Merchant of Venice is a play
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Social, cultural and historical contexts
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
the rise of capitalism and the middle classes through
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
Catholic to Protestant made for a destabilised society
and resulted in many bloody uprisings.
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
significant changes in the perception of the world and
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
God for life’s answers.
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Purpose
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
most defining characteristics and achievements.
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
of society.
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use of
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
audience by making references to contemporary events
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
modern audience through his treatment of significant
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
Reading the text
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
It is a romantic play in that there are couples who wish
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
happiness. This complication is resolved at the end and
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
along the way.
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
their best to imagine what a scene would look like
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Key concepts and definitions
Introduction to the text
Focusthe
oncomposer
the syllabus
About
Audience
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in StratfordDetails
the text
upon-Avon,ofEngland.
He was born into a middle-class
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
Plot summary
♦
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
Act
1, Scene
i—Antonio
is the first
to at
speak
career
as an actor
and playwright.
Hecharacter
died in 1616
the
and
the
audience
learns
of
his
melancholy.
It
is
from
age of fifty-two.
Salarino that we learn that Antonio is a merchant whose
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
future and wealth depends upon the sea. Bassanio is
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
introduced to the audience by Solanio as Antonio’s
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
‘most noble kinsman’ (line 57). Bassanio outlines his
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
predicament to Antonio: he has lived beyond his means
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
and has many debts to repay, most of which are to
or knew of, in his plays.
Antonio. Bassanio requests money to help him woo
Shakespeare
was interested
in his
themoney
human
condition
Portia but Antonio
reveals that
is tied
up in
and
this
is
reflected
in
the
main
themes
of
his
plays.
sea ventures and suggests Bassanio take a loanThese
with
include
role
people in society, the search for
Antonio the
acting
as of
guarantor.
individual identity, the impact that materialism and wealth
Act 1, Scene ii—in Belmont, Portia’s character is revealed
have on morality and the tyranny of ambition. Other
to be lively and likeable as she speaks with her waitingfamiliar themes included unrequited love, mortality,
woman Nerissa. Portia refers to her father’s will that states
religion and jealousy.
a suitor for her hand in marriage must correctly choose
from ‘three
chests of gold, silver and lead’ (line 25). The
Type
of text
scene ends with Portia fondly recalling the visit paid to
The Merchant of Venice is a play
her by Bassanio while her father was still alive.
Social,
cultural
andis historical
contexts
Act
1, Scene
iii—Shylock
introduced discussing
the
terms
of a loan
with during
Bassanio.
refuses to dine
Shakespeare
wrote
theShylock
late Elizabethan
era
with
Bassanioand
because
of Shylock’s
Jewish
religion. Tension
(1558–1603)
the early
Jacobean
era (1603–25).
These
between
and Shylock
is evident
when Antonio
eras wereAntonio
characterised
by turmoil
and growth
due to
makes
of telling Shylock
neither lend
nor through
borrow /
the risea point
of capitalism
and the‘Imiddle
classes
By taking nor
of giving
excess’ (linesof54–55).
A conflict
merchant
trading.
The reformation
the church
from
of
moralstoinProtestant
relation tomade
money
with both
men
Catholic
for ensues
a destabilised
society
quoting
frominthe
Biblebloody
to support
their own argument.
and resulted
many
uprisings.
The climax of this scene occurs when Shylock tells
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
Bassanio and Antonio that he will loan them the money
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
on one condition: if Antonio fails to repay his debt, he
significant changes in the perception of the world and
must give Shylock
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
… an
equal
pound
this time
was
on the
relatively ‘new’ scientific method
your fair
to be evidence
cut off andover
taken
which Of
focused
onflesh,
empirical
an appeal to
In
what
part
of
your
body
pleaseth
me.
God for life’s answers.
(lines 142–144)
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
Antonio
agrees
toone’s
theseclothes
terms with
the arrogance
that
appearance,
with
a determinant
of social
Shylock
anticipated.
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
were
despite
theirarrives
toxicity.
Act
2, extremely
Scene i—a popular
fifth suitor
for Portia
in Belmont.
As Morocco prepares to choose from the three caskets
he resigns his fate to the Goddess Fortune who will
determine his success.
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
Act
2, Scene
ii—Lancelot
‘the clown’
on itstage
is both
a comedy
and a romance.
As appears
it is a play
did
‘alone’
(stage
directions).
Lancelot
tells
the
audience
of
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
his
internal
battle
between
his
‘conscience’
(line
1)
and
its narrative.
the ‘fiend’ (line 8) over whether he should run away from
his
‘master’ (line 2) who we learn is a Jew. On coming
Purpose
across
half-blind wrote
fatherplays
Lancelot
decides to
to both
‘try
Williamhis
Shakespeare
that appealed
confusions
with
him’
(line
29)
by
informing
him
that
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
his
son (Lancelot
himself)
is dead. Lancelot
reveals
his
tragedies,
romances
and comedies.
His ability
to to
write
father
that
he
has
decided
to
run
away
and
work
for
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
Bassanio.
Bassanio
enters
the
scene
and
Lancelot
is
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
employed
as
Bassanio’s
servant.
Towards
the
end
of
the
most defining characteristics and achievements.
scene we see the entrance of Gratiano who immediately
Shakespeare
plays primarily
to his
entertain,
insists
that hewrote
accompany
Bassanio on
journeyyet
to
despite
the
popular
nature
of
his
plays
they
managethat
to
Belmont. Bassanio assents but on the proviso
reveal
a
deep
understanding
of
the
operation
of
the
human
Gratiano behave.
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
Act
2, Scene iii—the audience is introduced to Shylock’s
of society.
daughter, Jessica, who farewells Lancelot. From Jessica
Shakespeare
his audience
his useand
of
we
learn that engages
she is unhappy
in her through
father’s house
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
that she wishes to marry Lorenzo, a Christian, as her
and likeable
characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
means
of escape.
audience by making references to contemporary events
Act
SceneShakespeare’s
iv—in this scene
we witness
Gratiano,
and 2,
people.
plays continue
to appeal
to a
Solanio,
Salarino
and
Lorenza
discussing
their
plans for
modern audience through his treatment of significant
later
thatsuch
night
they will ambition
help Jessica
her
themes
as when
love, jealousy,
and escape
mortality.
father. A key element of this plan is that Jessica will not
only
run away
she will also take Shylock’s money
Reading
thebuttext
and
jewels.
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
Act
Scene
v—ago
thisand
scene
conversation
over2,400
years
as a interrupts
result somethe
elements
of the
between
Shylock
Lancelot,
Lancelot
presumably
plays may
seemand
obscure
and with
complex.
This
play was
having
informed Shylock
of period’
his decision
written just
in Shakespeare’s
‘middle
beforetoheleave
had
his
employ
in favour
of such
Bassanio.
Shylock
calls on
written
his great
tragedies
as Hamlet
and Macbeth.
Jessica
to look play
afterinhis
house
he is out
he
It is a romantic
that
therewhile
are couples
whoas
wish
senses
‘There is
ill a-brewing
towards
my
rest’
to be together
butsome
a complication
stands
in the
way
of (line
their
17).
The irony
here
is that Jessica
plans to steal
happiness.
This
complication
is resolved
at theShylock’s
end and
money
they allherself.
live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
means
there
will
mishaps
Act
2, Scene
vi—
thisbe
scene
opensand
withmisunderstandings
Gratiano, Salarino
along
the
way.
and Solanio waiting for the arrival of Lorenzo. Jessica
appears
‘above [in boy’s
(line 27),
chosen
All of Shakespeare’s
playsclothes]’
were written
to beher
performed
method
of disguise
shemust
stealsbeaway
her father’s
in the theatre
and as
this
keptfrom
in mind
when
home.
theyMerchant
leave Jessica
hurriesStudents
to take more
of her
readingAsThe
of Venice.
should
try
father’s
money
and jewellery.
end of
the scene
their best
to imagine
what aThe
scene
would
look sees
like
Gratiano
and
Bassanio
sail for
Belmont.
onstage. If
possible
youset
should
watch
a performance of
the 2,play,
whether
it is recorded
to gain
a better
Act
Scene
vii—Morocco
makes or
hislive,
choice
between
the
understanding
of character
relationships
and reveals
the way
three
caskets, choosing
the gold
casket which
a
the language
sounds
when
spokenofonstage.
skull
and a scroll
with
the news
his failure and the
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences • The Merchant of Venice
89
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
You need to know the following terms for this unit. The meanings are given in the glossary on page iv.
• Iambic pentameter
• Allusion
• Imagery
• Aside
• Prose
• Blank verse
• Dramatic irony
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
potent warning that ‘Gilded tombs do worms infold’
(line 69).
Act 2, Scene viii—Salarino and Solanio discuss events
that have occurred offstage. Shylock has learnt of his
daughter’s deception and is reported to have run
through the streets of Venice crying. Salarino also recounts
the emotional farewell between Bassanio and Antonio.
Act 2, Scene ix—Portia welcomes the Prince of Aragon.
After a lengthy speech about his own virtues and good
sense Aragon chooses the silver casket which yields a
portrait of ‘a blinking idiot’ (line 53) and a scroll which
outlines his foolishness in believing in his own
greatness.
Act 3, Scene i—Salarino and Solanio reveal Antonio
‘hath lost a ship’ (lines 14–15) in the English Channel.
Shylock makes his entrance and laments the loss of his
daughter. Shylock’s intention to take his pound of flesh
from Antonio is seen in his repetition of the line ‘let him
look to his bond’ (line 39). Shylock’s friend Tubal reveals
that Jessica has exchanged a precious ring for a monkey.
This pains Shylock as it was given to him by ‘Leah
when [he] was a bachelor’ (line 96).
Act 3, Scene ii—back in Belmont Bassanio is preparing
to choose between the three caskets. Bassanio, who is
well aware of the importance of a correct selection, decides
to choose straight away. Bassanio opens the lead casket
and reveals the portrait of Portia. Portia gives Bassanio
a ring that he swears he will wear until he is dead.
Salarino bears a letter from Antonio telling of his losses
at sea. Bassanio reveals to Portia the meaning of the
news and upon hearing of Antonio’s trouble Portia tells
him they shall marry immediately and then he shall
‘away to Venice’ (line 303) with enough gold to ‘pay the
petty debt twenty times over’ (line 306).
Act 3, Scene iii—in Venice, Shylock has Antonio under
lock and key. He ignores Antonio’s appeals to his better
nature, preferring to draw attention to times of Antonio’s
cruelty. Shylock continues to repeat his mantra ‘I will
have my bond’ (line 5), suggesting a kind of madness in
his actions.
Act 3, Scene iv—in the absence of her new husband
Portia devises a scheme for seeing him in Venice. She
leaves the ‘husbandry and manage of [her] house’ (line
25) in the hands of Lorenzo. Portia tells her servant
Balthazar to travel to Padua to get clothes and important
papers from her cousin, Doctor Bellario, and then to
hurry to Venice where she will meet him. Portia reveals
to Nerissa that she plans for the two of them to go to
Venice ‘accoutred like young men’ (line 63).
Act 3, Scene v—in Belmont the clown Lancelot and
Jessica discuss the future of her soul as she is the daughter
of a Jew. Jessica claims that she is saved because she has
married a Christian, Lorenzo.
90
Year 12 Advanced English
Act 4, Scene i—this dramatic scene, the longest of the
play, portrays the trial between Antonio and Shylock.
On Shylock’s entry the duke suggests that all of Venice
hopes to see Shylock show mercy. Shylock says he hates
Antonio and will follow through with his right to take
his bond, despite being offered six thousand ducats in
compensation by Bassanio. Portia arrives in the disguise
of a young doctor, Balthazar, who has been sent to help
Antonio in his trial. Portia presents an argument
explaining why Shylock must be merciful, appealing to
the nature of mercy which is ‘an attribute of God himself’
(line 191).
Portia informs Shylock that following the course of
justice in this case goes against the doctrine of mercy
and will refuse him any hope of salvation. This argument
falls on deaf ears. After reading the bond Portia agrees with
Shylock that he has the right to his pound of flesh and calls
upon scales to weigh the flesh and a surgeon to stop the
flow of blood from the wound. Portia then reveals a
loop-hole in the bond, which Shylock did not anticipate,
and which changes the course of the trial: ‘This bond
doth give thee here no jot of blood’ (line 302).
At this point Shylock asks for his money instead which
Portia refuses, pointing out that Shylock has broken the
law in threatening the life of a Venetian. The duke
pardons Shylock’s death sentence but takes his fortune
to be divided between Antonio and the state. Portia
leaves the final verdict with Antonio, who decides that
half of Shylock’s wealth shall go to Lorenzo, Jessica’s
husband, and that Shylock must convert to Christianity.
Shylock agrees and leaves the stage. Gratiano and
Bassanio give thanks to Portia and her clerk for their
help and in doing so offer a token of their thanks. Portia
asks for the ring that Bassanio is wearing and after
much protesting he has it given to her.
Act 4, Scene ii—Nerissa tells Portia of her plan to get
Gratiano to give her his ring too. Portia agrees in
anticipation of the confusion and distress it will cause
their husbands.
Act 5, Scene i—in Belmont, Lorenzo and Jessica, musing
on the beauty of the night, are interrupted by a messenger
with a report that Portia will be arriving ‘before the
break of day’ (line 29). This is shortly followed by the
arrival of Lorenzo who informs the pair that Bassanio is
also returning. The men arrive and Bassanio introduces
Antonio to Portia. At this moment Nerissa is seen to
chastise Gratiano for giving away her ring. After much
protesting by Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia and Nerissa
reveal their jest and their part in the trial in Venice. The
scene ends with gifts for Antonio, who receives news
that three of his ships have arrived safely on land, and
for Jessica and Lorenzo, who learn of their inheritance
upon Shylock’s death. As befits a romance the three
couples leave to go to bed at the end of the play.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Shylock—a Jewish moneylender in Venice. Shylock is
presented as an outsider because of his religion, his
profession and because of his greedy character. He is
persecuted by others, particularly Antonio who insults
and physically assaults Shylock. He is also the father of
Jessica, who ends up converting to Christianity and
marrying one of Antonio’s friends. Shylock spends most
of the play seeking revenge, specifically against Antonio.
About
composer
Portia
—anthe
heiress
who is both beautiful and intelligent.
She
falls in
love with Bassanio.
herself
to be
William
Shakespeare
was bornShe
in shows
1564 in
Stratfordwitty
and ruthless
in He
her was
dealings
at the
upon-Avon,
England.
born with
into aShylock
middle-class
end
of and
the play.
family
married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
children.
In
he travelled
toand
London
to pursue
a
Antonio—the 1590
successful
merchant
businessman
who
career
as
an
actor
and
playwright.
He
died
in
1616
at
the
dearly loves his friend Bassanio. He is a generous and
age
fifty-two.
loyaloffriend.
He is cruel to Shylock and shows himself to
be anti-Jewish.
Shakespeare
was influenced by the popular playwrights
of
his day,
Marlowe.
He was
Bassanio
—aparticularly
gentleman Christopher
of Venice, lover
of Portia
and
also influenced
by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
dear
friend to Antonio
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
Gratiano—a friend of Bassanio’s who accompanies him
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
to Belmont
or knew of, in his plays.
Jessica—Shylock’s daughter who elopes with Lorenzo
Shakespeare was interested in the human condition
Lorenzo
friend of
Bassanio
and Antonio
whoThese
is in
and
this—
isareflected
in the
main themes
of his plays.
love withthe
Jessica
include
role of people in society, the search for
Nerissa—Portia’s
and confidante
individual
identity,lady-in-waiting
the impact that materialism
and wealth
have
on
morality
and
the
tyranny
of
ambition.
Other
Gobbo—Bassanio’s comical servant
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
The Prince of Morocco—a Moorish prince who wants to
religion
and jealousy.
marry Portia
The
Prince
Arragon—a Spanish nobleman who wants
Type
of oftext
to
marry
Portia
The Merchant of Venice is a play
Salarino and Solanio—Venetian gentlemen and friends to
Social,
cultural
historical contexts
Antonio, Bassanio
andand
Lorenzo
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
Settings
♦
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
Venice
is acharacterised
cosmopolitanbycity
whereand
people
of diverse
eras
were
turmoil
growth
due to
cultures
mingle
to do business
and seek
pleasure.
This
the
rise of
capitalism
and the middle
classes
through
diversity brings
with
it tension
and conflict.
This isfrom
seen
merchant
trading.
The
reformation
of the church
in the relationship
between
Antonio
and
Catholic
to Protestant
made the
for Christian
a destabilised
society
the Jewish
of the
play’s Venetian action
and
resultedShylock.
in manyMost
bloody
uprisings.
takes place on the streets; two other key locations are
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
Shylock’s home and the courthouse.
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
Belmont
is changes
a peaceful,
beautiful
and wealthy
city and
that
significant
in the
perception
of the world
acts
as
a
contrast
to
the
bustling
and
diverse
Venice.
the place of humans within it. The focus of science atIt
is
here
thatwas
the heiress
lives‘new’
and toscientific
here that Bassanio
this
time
on the Portia
relatively
method
travels
in
order
to
seek
her
hand
in
marriage.
This istoa
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal
setting
with love.
God forassociated
life’s answers.
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Representation of individual and
collective human experiences
♦ Experiences of prejudice
The Elizabethan attitude to Jews was not a positive one.
This is clearly seen in the characterisation of Shylock as
mean, selfish and materialistic. Shakespeare having
Shylock’s life saved if he converts to Christianity, which
Shylock does, reveals the prejudice against Jews that
was
prevalent at the time. Shakespeare is not entirely
Audience
unsympathetic
towards
Shylockof
and
the experiences
The audience for
The Merchant
Venice
is diverse asof
it
the
Jewish
race
in
general
as
he
gives
voice
Shylock’s
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is atoplay
it did
suffering
at an
theaudience
hands ofmember
prejudiced
Christians;
is
not require
to be
literate tothis
enjoy
particularly
evident
in
Shylock’s
speech
in
Act
1,
Scene
its narrative.
iii: ‘You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, / And spit
upon
my Jewish gabardine’ (lines 103–104).
Purpose
Shylock
his unsavoury
sidethat
when
he refuses
to
William shows
Shakespeare
wrote plays
appealed
to both
dine
Bassanio
of Shylock’s
Jewishhistories,
religion.
the with
emotions
andbecause
the intellect.
He wrote
In
this, theromances
major complication
of theHis
play,
Shylock
tells
tragedies,
and comedies.
ability
to write
us
first aside:
forina the
diverse
audience, including royalty, nobility, the
merchant
commoners, is one of his
I hateclass
him and
for heilliterate
is a Christian;
most defining
and achievements.
But more,characteristics
for that in low simplicity
He lendswrote
out money
gratis,
and brings
Shakespeare
plays
primarily
to down
entertain, yet
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
(act 1, scene iii, lines 34–37)
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
relationships
betweenon
people
and the workings
Thetheimpact
of wealth
relationships
♦mind,
of society.
and happiness
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use of
This is a major theme and a reflection of the rising
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
merchant class in Elizabethan society. The impact of
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
prioritising wealth over friendship is established early
audience by making references to contemporary events
in the narrative in the initial dialogue between Bassanio
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
and Antonio in Act 1, Scene i. Here we witness Antonio’s
modern audience through his treatment of significant
disappointment at Bassanio’s assumption that Antonio
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
would refuse his request for a second loan:
Reading
the
textyou do me now more wrong
And out
of doubt
In making
a question that
of myShakespeare
uttermost
Students
must remember
was writing
Than
if you
had
made
of some
all I have.
over 400
years
ago
and
as awaste
result
elements of the
(lines 154–156)
plays may
seem obscure and complex. This play was
written
in
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
beforethrough
he had
Antonio’s frustrated and hurt
toneperiod’
is conveyed
written
his
great
tragedies
such
as
Hamlet
and
Macbeth.
his comparison of his emotional pain to the pain of
It is a romantic
play
in that there
couples
who
wish
losing
all of one’s
possessions.
Theare
first
and last
lines
of
to
be
together
but
a
complication
stands
in
the
way
of
their
this quote also effectively capture Antonio’s anger
happiness.
complication
is resolved
at the end
and
through
theThis
use of
monosyllabic
(single syllable)
words.
they
all
live
‘happily
ever
after’.
It
is
also
a
comedy
which
Antonio suggests that money should never come
means there
will
mishaps and
between
people
in be
a relationship
andmisunderstandings
that the loss of a
along
the
way.
person’s entire wealth is nothing compared to being
doubted
by the one you
love.
All of Shakespeare’s
plays
were written to be performed
in the
theatre
and as
this
be kept having
in mind
when
The
women
as well
themust
men conflate
material
reading Thewith
Merchant
of happiness
Venice. Students
try
possessions
personal
as seen should
in the first
their between
best to imagine
what
a scene
like
scene
Portia and
Nerissa
whenwould
Nerrisalook
suggests
onstage.
If possible
you should
watch
a performance
of
that
‘It is no
mean happiness
… to
be seated
in the mean’
the play,
whether
is recorded or live, to gain a better
(act
1, scene
ii, lineit 6).
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences • The Merchant of Venice
91
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
♦ Characters
Similarly a key element of Jessica’s plan is that she will
not only run away but she will also take Shylock’s
money and jewels:
She hath directed
How I shall take her from her father’s house,
What gold and jewels she is furnished with.
(act 2, scene iv, lines 29–31)
This element of her escape serves to reinforce the idea
that Shylock cares more about his money and material
possessions than he does about his relationships, even
that with his daughter. This is cleverly reinforced by the
use of the visual imagery of Jessica being ‘furnished’ in
the ‘gold and jewels’ of her father. Evidently money and
material possessions are more important to Jessica than
the love of her father.
Portia’s first two suitors reveal Shakespeare’s message
that relationships and love are more valuable than
wealth and material possessions. This is seen clearly in
the inscription on the caskets:
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
This first of gold, who this inscription bears,
‘Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men
desire.’
The second silver, which this promise carries,
‘Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he
deserves.’
This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt,
‘Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he
hath.’ (act 2, scene vii, lines 4–9)
Finally Morocco chooses the gold casket because, as he
points out, ‘all the world desires’ Portia (line 38) so it
must therefore hold the portrait of her that will guarantee
his success. He is wrong.
Antonio tells Shylock to lend the money to him, not as
a friend but as to his enemy. His justification for this
reveals his valuing of friendship over money in the question
‘... for when did friendship take / A breed for barren
metal of his friend?’ (act 1, scene iii, lines 126–127).
Antonio tells Shylock that true friends never take interest
from one another and as such Shylock is no friend of
Antonio’s. While Antonio can be said to be proving his
moral superiority over Shylock one must acknowledge
that Jews of this time did not expect interest from loans
made to fellow Jews. The practice of usury by Jews
helped to support the economy of Venice and much
of Europe, something the Christian characters in The
Merchant of Venice (and Shakespeare’s audience) chose
to ignore.
Representation of human qualities
and emotions
The love between Antonio and Bassanio is used by
Shakespeare to represent the human qualities valued by
his Elizabethan audience: compassion, loyalty, courage
and honesty. Antonio is a wealthy mature merchant who
92
Year 12 Advanced English
has much time and love for the younger nobleman Bassanio.
This is shown when Antonio tells Bassanio ‘My purse,
my person, my extremest means / Lie all unlocked to your
occasions’ (act 1, scene i, lines 137–138). Here Shakespeare
employs a metaphor to demonstrate the depth of
Antonio’s love for Bassanio. While Bassanio is clearly
uncomfortable asking for money from his older friend
the audience becomes aware that this is not his first
request of this kind. Bassanio’s guilty tone illustrates
this point when he admits to Antonio ‘I owe you much,
and like a wilful youth / That which I owe is lost’ (act 1,
scene i, lines 145–146). Bassanio compares himself to a
selfish young man by using a simile, which is also an
example of dramatic irony as the audience is aware that
he is a selfish young man in having thrown away the
money lent to him by Antonio. The audience also
suspects that Antonio’s unhappy disposition shown at
the beginning of the play is as a result of his love for
Bassanio and his fear of losing him in the near future. A
metaphor is utilised to reveal this fear when Antonio
comments that ‘all my fortunes are at sea’ (act 1, scene ii,
line 176) as he refers to both his future with Bassanio and
his literal investment in cargo coming across the seas.
The relationship between Antonio and Bassanio is
evidenced through Shakespeare’s use of apostrophe in
the line ‘O my Antonio’ (act 1, scene i, line 172). The
apostrophe is a figure of speech used in poetry and
dramatic works to show that a person has broken off
from their original idea to appeal to a person or an
abstract idea (usually a god or nature). In this example
Bassanio uses the apostrophe ‘O’ to appeal to Antonio,
revealing his desperation and dependence on Antonio’s
reciprocal love to secure him a chance at his ‘golden
fleece’ (line 169).
The value of this relationship for Antonio is also
evidenced when he puts his desire to see Bassanio over
his desire to live (act 3, scene iii, line 36). Bassanio’s
own valuing of his friend Antonio is revealed in the trial
scene when Bassanio pledges ‘The Jew shall have my
flesh, blood, bones, and all, / Ere thou shalt lose for me
one drop of blood’ (act 4, scene i, lines 112–113).
Anomalies, paradoxes and
inconsistencies in human behaviour
and motivations
By representing Shylock as a human being who has
feelings as a parent and an individual Shakespeare is
breaking with conventional representations of Jews,
who are usually shown as one-dimensional villains in
Elizabethan plays. Shakespeare can be seen to be
deliberately complicating the audience’s response to the
character of Shylock, who could so easily be viewed as
the heartless villain of the narrative. By giving him
feelings, as when he is hurt by the insults but holds his
head high—‘borne it with a patient shrug’ (act 1, scene
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
A
character
with seemingly inconsistent motivations is
Type
of text
Shylock’s daughter Jessica. The audience is introduced
The Merchant of Venice is a play
to the character of Jessica in Act 2, Scene iii where she
bids
a teary
farewell toand
her servant
Lancelot.
She reveals
Social,
cultural
historical
contexts
to the audience that she is unhappy in her home because
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
she is ‘ashamed to be [her] father’s child!’ (line 16), her
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
father being Shylock.
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
Sympathy
created forand
Jessica
in her two-fold
sadness
the rise ofiscapitalism
the middle
classes through
as
she loses
her friend
Lancelot who
made
her house
merchant
trading.
The reformation
of the
church
from
metaphorically
lose ‘some
itsa taste
of tediousness’
Catholic to Protestant
madeoffor
destabilised
society
(lineresulted
3). The harsh
sounding
and
in many
bloody alliteration
uprisings. of the ‘t’ sound
in this image suggests Jessica is unhappy in her home.
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
This is reflected in her confession that she feels she is a
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
bad daughter because she desires to escape her father’s
significant changes in the perception of the world and
house and marry the Christian Lorenzo, expressed in
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
her exclamation ‘Alack, what heinous sin is it in me? / To
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
be ashamed to be my father’s child!’ (act 2, scene iii,
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
lines 15–16). Jessica’s confusion regarding her role and
God for life’s answers.
responsibilities as a daughter is a shared human
The Elizabethan
was distinctive
for its valuing
of
experience
and society
it illustrates
how individuals’
actions
appearance,
with
one’s
clothes
a
determinant
of
social
may seem inconsistent because of such contradictions.
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
88
Year 12 Advanced English
How language structures, forms and
features shape meaning
♦ Foreshadowing
Shakespeare frequently employs the technique of
foreshadowing. This simply means that an element of
the plot (a character, a conversation or a prop) alludes
to something that will happen in the later stages of the
play. This helps to create suspense for the audience as
they
anticipate what will happen further in the narrative.
Audience
Foreshadowing
is The
usedMerchant
by Shakespeare
in is
the
seemingly
The audience for
of Venice
diverse
as it
obvious
observation
made
by
Solanio
that
in nature
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play
it did
there
are two
of people—the
happy
and
not require
andifferent
audiencetypes
member
to be literate
to enjoy
the
sad:
its narrative.
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:
Purpose
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And
laugh like parrots
a bagpiper;
William
Shakespeare
wrote at
plays
that appealed to both
And other of such vinegar aspect,
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of a
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
smile
for a diverse
including
nobility, the
Though audience,
Nestor swear
the jest toroyalty,
be laughable.
merchant(act
class
and
illiterate
commoners,
is
one of his
1, scene ii, lines 51–56)
most defining characteristics and achievements.
This hints at the emergence of Shylock, who later in the
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
play is revealed to be an unhappy character despite his
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
apparent wealth. Another instance of foreshadowing in
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
the first scene is just as subtle. Gratiano warns Antonio
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
that if he continues adopting a sad mask people will
of society.
think he is wise and when he opens his mouth people
Shakespeare
engages
may
see him as
a fool:his audience through his use of
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
O my Antonio, I do know of these
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
That therefore only are reputed wise
audience
by making references to contemporary events
For saying nothing; when I am very sure
and people.
plays continue
to appeal
If theyShakespeare’s
should speak, would
almost damn
those to a
modern audience
through
his
treatment
of
significant
ears
themesWhich,
such as
love, them,
jealousy,
ambition
mortality.
hearing
would
call theirand
brothers
fools. (act 1, scene i, lines 95–100)
Reading the text
This warning can be seen as foreshadowing Antonio’s
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
foolishness in promising money to Bassanio. In turn,
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
Antonio risks his life as the money is not freely available.
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
If Antonio had kept quiet he would not have ended up
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
in such a foolish predicament.
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
Salarino
foreshadows
Antonio’s
It is a romantic
play inthe
thatwrecking
there areof
couples
who ships
wish
and
loss ofbut
hisa complication
merchandisestands
in Actin
2,the
Scene
He
to bethe
together
wayviii.
of their
tells
of hearing
about ‘A vessel
of our country
richly
happiness.
This complication
is resolved
at the end
and
fraught’
(line‘happily
31) thatever
‘miscarried’
(line
in the English
they all live
after’. It is
also30)
a comedy
which
Channel
and ‘wished
in silenceand
it were
not’ Antonio’s
means there
will be mishaps
misunderstandings
(line
along33).
the way.
Shakespeare
foreshadows
the written
impact tothat
Antonio’s
All of Shakespeare’s
plays were
be performed
love
of
Bassanio
will
have
as
early
as
Act
1,
Scene
when
in the theatre and this must be kept in mindi when
Antonio
shows
his
clear
affection
for
Bassanio
by
telling
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
him
has is open
This look
includes
theirthat
bestalltoheimagine
whattoa Bassanio.
scene would
like
My
purse,
my
person,
my
extremest
means
/
Lie all
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance
of
unlocked
to your occasions’
(actor1,live,
scene
i, lines
137–
the play, whether
it is recorded
to gain
a better
138).
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences • The Merchant of Venice
93
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
ii, line 107)—and a genuine motive for his evil plan,
Shylock becomes more than a villain: he is someone we
can better understand as having been ‘wronged’ himself
by a prejudiced society. It is always difficult to wish for
the destruction of a villain when they are given cause to
act against the one they plan to harm. Shakespeare also
cleverly links Shylock’s personal sufferings at the hands
of Antonio to the sufferings of all Jews at the hands of
Christians throughout the ages.
The
audience
gains insight into the character of the
About
the composer
usurer Shylock in his conversation with Bassanio at the
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratfordbeginning of Act 1, Scene iii. It is through his dialogue
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
that Shylock’s character is first revealed: his repetition
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
of Bassanio’s statements shows him weighing up his
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
words and, as he does so, most likely weighing up the
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
potential profit he can make from the loan.
age of fifty-two.
From the outset Shylock is linked with money, a connection
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
that continues throughout the play. The suggestion that
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
Shylock is more interested in money than morality is
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
evidenced in the confusion over his questioning about
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
whether Antonio is a ‘good man’ (line 11). The word
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
‘good’ in Shylock’s vocabulary is equal to ‘has money’,
or knew of, in his plays.
not ‘is moral’. It is in this first scene that the audience
Shakespeare
was
interested
in the human condition
also learns that
Shylock
is Jewish:
and this is reflected in the main themes of his plays. These
Yes, to smell the pork, to eat of the habitation
include the role of people in society, the search for
which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the
individual
the buy
impact
materialism
andtalk
wealth
devilidentity,
into. I will
withthat
you,
sell with you,
have on
morality
and
the
tyranny
of
ambition.
with you, walk with you, and so following; butOther
I
familiar
themes
love,
will
not eat included
with you, unrequited
drink with you,
normortality,
pray
religionwith
andyou.
jealousy.
(act 1, scene iii, lines 27–30)
♦ Contrast
Shakespeare utilises a clear contrast between the
behaviours and values of Antonio and Shylock to highlight
his idea that wealth should not be valued over relationships.
In his response to Jessica’s deception Shylock is
irrational, uncontrolled and outwardly emotional as he
runs through the streets screaming. He clearly values
his money as equal in importance to his own daughter
and is described as the ‘villain Jew’ (line 4) and the ‘dog
Jew’ (line 14). Antonio, on the other hand, is at risk of
losing his life because of the money he has loaned to a
friend yet in the face of this he is still concerned about
his friend’s happiness and not his own life. He clearly
does not value money more than his relationships. He
is also described as ‘good Antonio’ (line 25) and it is
said that ‘A kinder gentleman treads not the earth’ (line
36). This contrast cements the audience’s affection for
Antonio and their view of Shylock as the primary
antagonist of the narrative.
Shakespeare also employs visual contrast. An example
is seen at the opening of Act 2, Scene i where Morocco
and his followers appear on stage ‘all in white’ to create
a contrast between Portia and her colourful ‘train’ (stage
directions) of female attendants. This visual contrast is
used to show the audience the clear distinction between
Portia and her Venetian elegance and Morocco and his
Islamic simplicity. Once again faiths are being contrasted
in this play.
♦ Imagery
The imagery of the sea links the separate elements of
the play as even characters who would normally be at
odds delight in using this imagery. In Shylock’s first
scene he outlines the potential threats associated with
business related to the sea:
But ships are but board, sailors are but men;
there be land rats, and water rats, water thieves
and land thieves—I mean pirates—and then
there is
the peril of the waters, winds and rocks.
(act 1, scene iii, lines 18–21)
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Gratiano uses imagery of the sea in Act 2, Scene iv
when he is contemplating the nature of love:
How like a younger or a prodigal
The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!
(lines 15–17).
Bassanio uses imagery of the sea in his reflection on the
deceptive quality of beauty: ‘Thus ornament is but the
guiled shore / To a most dangerous sea’ (act 3, scene ii,
lines 97–98).
Imagery associated with fortune is evident in The
Merchant of Venice. As Morocco moves towards the three
caskets he suggests that fortune may lead one astray
94
Year 12 Advanced English
when gambling. He tells Portia that being led by the
goddess of Fortune may result in him missing ‘that
which one may unworthier attain’ (line 36). The goddess
of fortune, named Fortuna, was important to the Elizabethan
audience in that they believed she spun the great Wheel
of Fortune that determined the futures of all men,
including their success or failure. The imagery of fortune
is essential to a play that puts the life of one of its
protagonists in the metaphorical hands of the sea and
the life of another in the lottery of three caskets.
A second instance of this imagery is seen when Lancelot
claims to be able to read his fortune in the lines of his
palm in Act 2, Scene ii. Lancelot continues on to suggest
that ‘… if Fortune be a woman, / she’s a good wench for
this gear’ (act 2, scene ii, lines 138–139). Jessica refers
to fortune when she bids farewell to her father at the end
of Act 2, Scene v: ‘Farewell, and if my fortune be not
crossed, / I have a father, you a daughter, lost’ (lines
54–55).
♦ Language
Shakespeare writes in both prose and blank verse in his
plays and The Merchant of Venice is no exception. Prose
is typically used by Shakespeare for lower status
characters or when high status characters are discussing
more ‘common’ matters such as sex, whereas blank verse
and all its poetic beauty is used by characters of high
social status.
Portia’s character is revealed to be lively and likeable as
she speaks in prose with her waiting-woman Nerissa.
The use of prose is a revealing technique at this point as
it immediately creates a connection between Portia and
the mostly illiterate Elizabethans who made up a large
portion of Shakespeare’s audience.
From the outset the audience assumes Shylock’s lower
status as he speaks here in prose with Bassanio. This use
of prose may perhaps be due to the topic of conversation—
money—rather than a reflection of Shylock’s status.
The decision of which to assume is up to the individual
audience member.
A character’s ability to use figurative language and
speak using allusions defines their relationship with
others and their place within the social hierarchy of
Shakespeare’s plays. Shylock’s separation from his
fellow characters is evidenced through his inability to
use figurative language confidently. He does attempt it,
as in Scene v of Act 2: when directing Jessica to lock up
his house he says ‘But stop my house’s ear—’ (line 34),
this being Shylock’s attempt to personify his house by
giving it ears instead of windows. However, he quickly
clarifies what he means by this image in the second half
of the line: ‘I mean my casements—’ (line 34). Clearly
Shylock lacks the confidence to use figurative language
without clarifying it for his listener and this separates
him from the other main characters.
The cross-dressing motif lends itself to both physical
and verbal humour, both of which are sure to entertain
the audience. The first example of this motif is when
Jessica dresses as a page to escape her father. Jessica
appears ‘above [in boy’s clothes]’ (act 2, scene vi, line
27). Her chosen method of disguise as she steals away
from her father’s home is to be ‘transformed to a boy’
(line 40). The second instance is when Portia and her
maid Nerissa
as men in their roles as lawyer and
About
the dress
composer
clerk
respectively.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in StratfordThe cross-dressing
motif
is effective
in athe
trial scene
upon-Avon,
England.
He was
born into
middle-class
becauseand
the married
audienceAnne
is given
knowledge
that
the him
characters
family
Hathaway
who
bore
three
onstage doInnot
have.
gives added
meaning
to many
children.
1590
heThis
travelled
to London
to pursue
a
of the as
twoanwomen’s
It also He
helps
theinaudience
to
career
actor andlines.
playwright.
died
1616 at the
reflect
on the power of women to perform the roles of
age
of fifty-two.
men
as
effectively,
if not better,
reinforces
the theme
Shakespeare
was influenced
by and
the popular
playwrights
of
prejudice.
An
example
of
this
is
evident
when
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. Bassanio
He was
claims
he wouldbygive
up histexts
entire
world,
including
his
also
influenced
classical
from
Greece
and Rome.
new
wife,
to
save
Antonio
and
Portia
(pretending
to
be
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
the
lawyer
Balthazar)
responds
‘Your
wife
would
give
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
you
littleof,
thanks
that / If she were by to hear you
or knew
in his for
plays.
make the offer’ (act 4, scene ii, lines 284–285).
Shakespeare was interested in the human condition
and
this is reflected in the main themes of his plays. These
♦ Soliloquies
include
of people
society, the
search
Speechesthe
arerole
made
by key in
characters
in the
playfor
to
individual
identity,
the
impact
that
materialism
and
wealth
reveal to the audience their thoughts on individuals
and
have
on morality
the tyranny
of ambition.
Other
situations.
These areand
referred
to as soliloquies.
A significant
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
speech is given by Shylock in Act 3, Scene i as he
religion
jealousy.
explainsand
to the
men (and also the audience) how he has
Introduction to the text
been
treated
badly by Antonio in the past because of his
Type
of text
religion (Jewish) and his occupation (usury).
The Merchant of Venice is a play
Lancelot’s brief soliloquy in the opening of Act 2, Scene
ii
serves to
reinforce and
what historical
the audience contexts
has already
Social,
cultural
decided:
that
Jews
are
bad
people
and
should
notera
be
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan
dealt
with
in
any
matter.
Having
only
witnessed
one
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
Jew
so far, Shylock,
the audience
assumes
eras onstage
were characterised
by turmoil
and growth
duethat
to
Lancelot’s
master
must
be
the
same
Jew.
the rise of capitalism and the middle classes through
A soliloquy
revealsThe
Bassanio’s
views
on the
world
in
merchant
trading.
reformation
of the
church
from
Act 3, Scene
ii as he deliberates
over
caskets. Bassanio
Catholic
to Protestant
made for
a the
destabilised
society
reflects
on the
of appearances
and
resulted
in nature
many bloody
uprisings.and how they so
frequently
hide
falsities
beneath.
He gives
examples
The period in which Shakespeare lived
and wrote
was
ranging
from
law
and
religion
to
heroism
and
beauty,
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period
saw
and
finally changes
concludes
thatperception
he choosesofthe
casket
significant
in the
the lead
world
and
because
its
‘paleness
moves
[him]
more
than
eloquence’
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
(line
106).was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
this time
which
focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
♦ Structure
God for life’s answers.
Shakespeare structures this play around the fairytale
The
societyand
wasBassanio
distinctivebut
for its
valuingthe
of
love Elizabethan
story of Portia
parallels
appearance,
with
one’s
clothes
a
determinant
of
social
tumultuous nature of love with the harsh realities of a
status.
products—both
for menisand
women—
growingBeauty
merchant
class. This structure
reinforced
by
were
extremely
popular
despite
their
toxicity.
the obvious contrast between the romance and peace of
Belmont and the chaos and materialism of Venice.
88
Year 12 Advanced English
This is a play in five acts yet in this space Shakespeare
manages to interweave three distinct plot lines. The first
is the ‘pound of flesh’ plot which is resolved in the
court scene. The second is the plot relating to the three
caskets which is resolved with the marriage of Bassanio
and Portia. The third is Jessica’s escape from Shylock,
resolved with her marriage to Lorenzo. In each of these
strands of the narrative Shakespeare emphasises his
distinct ideas about love, wealth and prejudice.
The
use of the rhyming couplet at the end of each scene
Audience
is a distinctive feature of Shakespeare’s plays. The
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
couplet sums up the entire scene and draws the
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
audience’s attention to the key ideas that have been
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
addressed. These couplets also alert the audience that
its narrative.
the scene is ending and that the next entrance is the
start
of a new scene which could be in a different time
Purpose
or place. For example, Antonio concludes Act I, Scene i
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
with a rhyming couplet in his dialogue with Bassanio:
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
Go presently
inquire,
and so willHis
I, ability to write
tragedies,
romances
and comedies.
Where
money
is,
and
I
no
question
make
for a diverse audience, including royalty,
nobility, the
To have it of my trust or for my sake.
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
(lines 185–187)
most defining characteristics and achievements.
The
play’s ending
romance and
a comedy.yet
It
Shakespeare
wrotebefits
playsa primarily
to entertain,
ends
happily
with
gifts
for
Antonio,
who
receives
news
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
that
three
of his
ships haveofarrived
safely on
land,
and
reveal
a deep
understanding
the operation
of the
human
for
Jessica
and
Lorenzo,
who
learn
of
their
inheritance
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
upon
Shylock’s death.
of society.
Shakespeare
engagesmodes
his audience
through his
How
different
and media
useuse of
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
visual,
verbal and/or digital language
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
elements
audience by making references to contemporary events
people. Shakespeare’s
plays continue to appeal to a
form
♦andTextual
modern audience through his treatment of significant
The majority of Shakespeare’s plays were performed
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
onstage at the Globe Theatre and The Merchant of Venice
is
no exception.
majority of the 3000 or so paying
Reading
theThe
text
audience members were ‘groundlings’. Groundlings paid
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
a penny to watch a play and stood bunched together in
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
front of the stage, a bit like a modern-day mosh pit. This
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
element of the audience was normally loud, inebriated
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
and prone to interrupting the performance. To appeal to
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
his diverse audience Shakespeare combined satire, wit,
It is a romantic play in that there are couples who wish
physical humour, love scenes, intellectual debates and
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
sexual innuendo in his plays. It is his ability to appeal
happiness. This complication is resolved at the end and
to both royalty and commoner that makes Shakespeare’s
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
plays so impressive.
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
the way.
Stage
directions
♦along
All of Shakespeare’s
plays were written
be performed
Many,
if not all of Shakespeare’s
plays,to
lacked
detailed
in thedirections
theatre and
must be
kept in mind
stage
boththis
because
Shakespeare
was when
often
reading The
Merchant
of Venice.
Students
shouldwere
try
directing
the plays
himself
and because
the plays
their best
to imagine
would tolook
like
written
by hand
which what
made ait scene
too arduous
include
onstage.
If result
possible
watch
a performance
of
them.
The
is you
that should
many of
the directions
for the
the play,
whether
it isthey
recorded
or live,
to gain
a better
actors,
such
as what
should
be doing
with
their
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences • The Merchant of Venice
95
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
♦ Motifs
hands or where they should be standing on stage, are
‘embedded’ in the text. These are referred to as ‘embedded
stage directions’. An example of an embedded stage
direction is in the trial scene when Shylock is preparing
his knife’s blade on the bottom of his shoe: ‘Not for thy
sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew’ (act 4, scene i, line 123).
The tension between Antonio and Shylock in Act 1,
Scene iii is evident in both the language of each character,
with Antonio telling Shylock ‘I neither lend nor borrow /
By taking nor of giving excess’ (act 1, scene iii, lines 54–
55) but also in the stage directions which have Antonio
directing his questions to Bassanio and Shylock answering
them abruptly.
♦ Humour
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Shakespeare introduces clowns into his plays as a
release for the audience from the tensions within the main
action of the play. This technique is often referred to as
‘comic relief’. It has been argued that this view of the role
of the clown oversimplifies the clown’s purpose as
clowns often draw the audience’s attention to the hypocrisy
of a character’s actions or to the deeper truth at hand.
However, the clown in The Merchant of Venice is not a
fully-developed clown, taking the form of Lancelot
Gobbo. As this play is essentially a romantic comedy
the character of Lancelot is introduced at key moments
in the action to entertain the audience with his physical
and verbal humour. When he is first introduced he
speaks in prose, making an immediate connection with
the groundlings in the audience.
Act 2, Scene ii functions as a sort of comic relief for the
audience. Until this point the audience’s interest has been
sustained not by comedy or romance but by the rising
action of the predicaments of Portia, Bassanio and Antonio.
Lancelot is introduced as ‘the clown’ and appears on stage
‘alone’. The humour of the initial half of this scene is
continued as Lancelot and Old Gobbo continually interrupt
one another as they both attempt to speak with Bassanio
about Lancelot’s potential employment. Bassanio’s obvious
frustration with the two men is seen in his own interruption
of ‘One speak for both’ (act 2, scene ii, line 116).
96
Year 12 Advanced English
♦ Dramatic techniques
Dramatic irony is employed to create suspense and
tension for the audience. Dramatic irony is created in
the scene where Shylock asks Jessica to ‘Look to [his]
house’ (line 16) for he is afraid he will be robbed. The
audience is well aware that Jessica plans to rob Shylock
herself and this has two possible effects on the audience:
they may laugh at Shylock’s ignorance or they may feel
tense at the possibility that Jessica will be caught. Shylock
calls on Jessica to do this as he senses ‘There is some ill
a-brewing towards my rest’ (act 2, scene v, line 17). The
irony here is clearly evident to the audience as they are
aware of Jessica’s plan to steal Shylock’s money herself.
Dramatic irony is also at play in Act 4, Scene i with the
entrance of the messenger who bears letters from
Bellario, the doctor from Padua. The audience is aware
that the ‘lawyer’s clerk’ (stage direction) who arrives is
actually Nerissa disguised as a boy and this creates
humour and tension in the audience.
Asides are used in The Merchant of Venice as a method
of conveying to the audience a character’s feeling towards
another character or an event that has just taken place
onstage. It is useful to think of an aside as being like a
voice-over used in films to reveal a character’s thoughts
to the viewer. The power of this technique is revealed
most potently in the first aside of the play as Shylock
reveals why he hates Antonio and his plan to avenge
the ‘ancient grudge’ (line 39) he bears him. Shylock’s
obvious hatred here is reminiscent of other great
Shakespearian villains who frequently use asides to
reveal their malicious plans to the audience, specifically
the cunning Iago of Othello. Through the use of an aside
Shakespeare has granted the audience access into the
mind of Shylock:
I hate him for he is a Christian;
But more, for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
(act 1, scene iii, lines 34–37)
Y
A
W
O
L
L
A
D
S
R
M HE HOURS
and T
Introduction to the texts
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
About the composer
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) is considered to be one of
the most important modernist writers of the 20th
century. She published several novels and essays and
was an influential thinker throughout her adult life. She
wrote that her formative years were spent in a ‘very
communicative, literate, letter-writing, visiting, articulate,
late nineteenth-century world’. She suffered several
mental breakdowns that finally led her to take her own
life by filling her coat pockets with stones and walking
into the River Ouse.
Woolf was a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group,
a set of English intellectuals, artists, writers and philosophers
who gathered and worked in London during the first
half of the 20th century. Virginia and her husband,
Leonard Woolf, established the Hogarth Press in 1917.
She is often seen as an early feminist, writing of the
possibility of a gender neutral ‘freedom of the mind’. She
also ‘identified herself with the cause of homosexuality’.
Type of text
Mrs Dalloway is a novel.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Social, cultural and historical contexts
Mrs Dalloway was published in 1925, during the period
between World Wars I and II. It is set in London on one
June day in 1923, with ‘flashbacks’ in the memories of
characters from earlier times spent at a country house
named Bourton. This period in Britain was an era of
great industrial and technological development when
innovations such as the automobile, the aeroplane and
the cinema were generating excitement. New developments
in mechanisation impacted on the ‘Great War’ of
1914–18, the horrors of which reverberated throughout
society. It was also a turning point for the British Empire,
with the beginnings of resistance and independence
movements in British colonies such as India building
momentum.
The war had cost many thousands of British and colonial
lives and left many more wounded and/or psychologically
disturbed with shell shock. Britain was also in financial
decline marked by high unemployment. The cumulative
effect of this upheaval was that many beliefs and social
164
Year 12 Advanced English
institutions that had seemed natural in the past were
called into question. The senseless wartime suffering of
so many engendered a general disillusionment with
both the righteousness of the class system and the
existence of God among large sections of British society.
The philosophical movement of Modernism had been
developing since the late 19th century but the general
abhorrence, anger and bewilderment felt as a result of
World War I accelerated its influence on the cultural
trends of British society. Modernist literature such as
the works of Virginia Woolf was motivated by a
reappraisal of the social order and worldview of the
19th century which had led to the Great War.
Audience
The first English readers of Mrs Dalloway would have
been familiar with the London setting and the various
English types represented by the characters. Many
aspects of the narrative would have also been recognised
as contemporary and relevant to English life and thought.
The present-day audience for Mrs Dalloway would
include those studying Modernist literature and ideas.
The poetic aspects of the novel appeal most effectively
to educated readers concerned with ways of expressing
the psychological nature of human perception.
Purpose
It can be inferred that Woolf’s purpose in writing was
partly to explore new ways of representing the world as
she knew it. In her diary of the time she wrote that her
essential purpose was to ‘examine for a moment an
ordinary mind on an ordinary day’. She stated that she
wanted to incorporate in the novel, which at that time she
was calling The Hours, ‘life and death, sanity and insanity’
as well as to ‘criticise the social system, and to show it
at work at its most intense’. Woolf wanted to depict ‘the
world seen by the sane and the insane side by side’.
Reading the text
Students will need to let go of any expectation that, as
a novel, Mrs Dalloway will follow a conventional
narrative arc with a plot based upon the resolution of
an originally established conflict. Instead, this text allows
the reader to become immersed in the minute and subtle
details of the relationships and psychological processes
of individual characters.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Interior monologue—the words articulating an
individual’s thoughts that are not spoken aloud
Modernism—the artistic and philosophical movement
that resulted from shifts in social structures during the
first half of the 20th century. It challenged the established
conventions of earlier beliefs and was inspired by
thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and
Karl Marx. Artists of all kinds sought to make a radical
About
the
break with
thecomposer
past and experimented with new forms
William
Shakespeare
was born in 1564 in Stratfordof expression
and creativity.
upon-Avon,
England.
He
was born into Stress
a middle-class
Shell shock—a form of Post-Traumatic
Disorder
family
and
married
Anne
Hathaway
who
bore
three
(PTSD) resulting from the experience ofhim
military
children.
In
1590
he
travelled
to
London
to
pursue
combat, particularly in the trenches of World War I a
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
You need to know the following terms for this unit. The
age of fifty-two.
meanings are given in the glossary on page iv.
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
• Dissonance
• Omniscient narration
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
•also
Resonance
• Stream
of consciousness
influenced by classical
texts from
Greece and Rome.
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
The Hours
by Stephen
Daldry
behaviours,
attitudes
and dialogue
of people he knew,
or knew of, in his plays.
About
the composers
Shakespeare was interested in the human condition
Stephen
Daldry,
CBE,
born in
1960 in
England.
and
this is
reflected
inwas
the main
themes
ofDorset,
his plays.
These
He has directed
produced
plays and
include
the role and
of people
in several
society,films,
the search
for
television dramas,
for which
has
received aand
number
of
individual
identity, the
impacthe
that
materialism
wealth
awards.
was nominated
for a BestofDirector
Academy
have
on He
morality
and the tyranny
ambition.
Other
Award forthemes
The Hours.
Though
he married
a woman
he
familiar
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
describesand
himself
as a gay man because people ‘don’t
religion
jealousy.
like the confusion’.
Type
of text
David Hare
is an English playwright, screenwriter, and
theatre
and film
has received many awards
The
Merchant
of director.
Venice isHe
a play
for his work, including an Academy Award nomination
Social,
cultural
and historical
for Best Adapted
Screenplay
for The Hours.contexts
Shakespeare
wrote
during
late Elizabethan
era
It should be noted that there the
are scores
of other people
(1558–1603)
and
the
early
Jacobean
era
(1603–25).
These
involved in the creation of a film who all contribute to
eras
were effect.
characterised
and
due to
its overall
Notablebyinturmoil
this case
aregrowth
the composer
the
rise
of
capitalism
and
the
middle
classes
through
of the musical soundtrack, Phillip Glass; the director of
merchant
trading.
TheMcGarvey;
reformationthe
of film
the church
photography,
Seamus
editor, from
Peter
Catholic
to
Protestant
made
for
a
destabilised
society
Boyle; art director Nick Palmer; set director Phillippa
and
in many
bloodyAnn
uprisings.
Hart;resulted
and costume
designer
Roth.
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
Type
of text
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
The
Hours is
a feature
significant
changes
in film.
the perception of the world and
the
place
of
humans
within
it. The focus of
science at
Social,
cultural and historical
contexts
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
The
film
version
The Hours
was released
in appeal
2002 and
which
focused
onofempirical
evidence
over an
to
is
an
adaptation
of
the
1998
Pulitzer
Prize-winning
God for life’s answers.
novel by the American writer Michael Cunningham.
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
The
decade leading
up to
the turn
of the 20thofcentury
appearance,
with one’s
clothes
a determinant
social
was
one
of
great
social
change
based
around
digital
status. Beauty products—both for men
and the
women—
revolution
that popular
saw social
media
were extremely
despite
their begin
toxicity.to capture
people’s imagination. At this time the ‘third wave of
feminism’ focused on the abolition of gender-role
stereotypes as part of a new interpretation of gender and
sexuality. Binary concepts such as ‘male and female’
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
began to be viewed as artificial constructs in the sense
that gender identity and sexuality are shaped by society.
The perception of a gender continuum generated more
liberal attitudes towards homosexuality and bisexuality
but this new acceptance was complicated by the fact that
around this time the epidemic of HIV/AIDS was spreading
throughout the United States, causing particular
devastation among gay men.
The cultural movement of postmodernism was at its
height
during the 1990s and challenged the concept that
Audience
an individual ‘self’ could be viewed as an autonomous
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
unified subject. Particular elements of postmodern film
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
relevant to The Hours are stories that unfold out of
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
chronological order and the fragmentation of time.
its narrative.
Audience
Purpose
The Hours was
released internationally to a general
William Shakespeare
wrotepublic.
plays Its
thatdramatic
appealed
to both
audience
of the film-going
style
and
the
emotions
and
the
intellect.
He
wrote
histories,
abstract themes are directed towards a mature, educated
tragedies, romances
His ability
to write
audience.
However, and
givencomedies.
that it features
three
very
for
a
diverse
audience,
including
royalty,
nobility,
the
high-profile and popular Hollywood stars, Meryl Streep,
merchant
class
and
illiterate
commoners,
is
one
of
his
Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, it attracted adult
most
defining
characteristics
and
achievements.
viewers across all demographics and was a box-office
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
success.
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
Purpose
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
Virginia
was between
the inspiration
Michael
mind, the Woolf
relationships
people and for
the workings
Cunningham,
who
wrote
the
novel
on
which
the
film of
of society.
The
Hours
is
based.
He
greatly
admires
the
way
she
wrote
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use
of
in
that
novel
‘an
epic
story
about
an
ordinary
day
in
the
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
life
an ordinary
person’,
and the to
way
conveys so
andof
likeable
characters.
He appealed
hisit16th-century
convincingly
a
‘dark
and
hopeless’
state
of
mind
well
audience by making references to contemporary as
events
as
‘the
joy
of
being
alive’.
At
the
same
time
he
felt
that
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal tohea
had
‘to write
about through
the lives his
of the
women and
men who
modern
audience
treatment
of significant
were
living,
or
not
living,
through
the
[AIDS]
epidemic’
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
that ‘was raging through America’ at the time.
Reading
text
The
directorthe
of the
film adaptation of Cunningham’s
novel,
Stephen
sought
be faithful was
to the
spirit
Students
must Daldry,
remember
that ‘to
Shakespeare
writing
and
of the
necessarily
overintent’
400 years
agonovel
and asthough
a result‘not
some
elements to
of the
detail’.
He has
that the
effortplay
to work
plays may
seemsaid
obscure
andaudience’s
complex. This
was
out
howinthe
three women‘middle
are connected
is compelling
written
Shakespeare’s
period’ before
he had
so
that ‘when
the
connection
there
a huge
written
his great
tragedies
suchisasmade
Hamlet
and is
Macbeth.
dramatic
rush toplay
theinstory’.
Ultimately
the purpose
for
It is a romantic
that there
are couples
who wish
the
film versionstands
of The
Hours
to
to becreators
togetherof
butthe
a complication
in the
way was
of their
express
the This
ideascomplication
and narrative
happiness.
is innovation
resolved at of
thethe
endnovel
and
in
anall
entertaining
and
satisfying
way.
they
live ‘happily
ever
after’. It is
also a comedy which
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
Reading
the text
along the way.
The film can be viewed superficially as an entertaining
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed
story about the lives of three distinct women. It can be
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
appreciated without having read Mrs Dalloway but
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
some knowledge of Virginia Woolf’s novel will enhance
their best to imagine what a scene would look like
the experience and provide an extra dimension of
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
meaning to the film. While it is an adaptation of Michael
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
Cunningham’s novel of the same name and is related to
understanding of character relationships and the way
it, it should be regarded as a different text and interpreted
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
as such.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
165
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Key concepts and definitions
Key concepts and definitions
Cross-cut—an aspect of editing that features quick shifts
between two or more shots moving back and forth
between different subjects or locations in order to
juxtapose them meaningfully
Film editing—the way a selection of shots is sequenced
to create a narrative and draw the viewer’s attention to
significant aspects of the characters and actions
You need to know the following terms for this unit. The
meanings are given in the glossary on page iv.
• Close-up
• Diegetic sound
• Dissonance
• Long shots
• Mise en scène
• Montage
• Postmodernism
• Resonance
Focus on the syllabus
Details of the texts
Mrs Dalloway
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
♦ Plot summary
The events of the novel take place over a period of one
day, from the morning of a June day in 1923 to late that
night. Throughout the day the central character, Clarissa
Dalloway, prepares for a party she is holding that evening,
all the while reminiscing about past events at her father’s
country house, Bourton, encountering other characters
and musing over her life and feelings. This narrative
thread is intertwined with a separate storyline about a
veteran of World War I, Septimus Warren Smith, who is
suffering from shell shock. Septimus commits suicide
by jumping from a high window.
The narrative does not progress in an uninterrupted
chronological sequence as many events take place in the
memories of characters as flashbacks. However, it can
be divided into broad sections according to the actions
of characters within the framework of the day as
outlined below.
1 Clarissa walks through the streets of London to buy
flowers for her party. She remembers the boyfriend of
her youth, Peter Walsh and encounters an old friend,
Hugh Whitbread. She observes a car which is rumoured
to be carrying a dignitary.
2 Septimus and Lucrezia Smith are sitting in Regent’s
Park. Septimus is experiencing delusional thoughts and
recalls the events of the war when his close friend Evans
was killed.
3 Back at home Clarissa thinks regretfully of the passing
of her youth and reminisces over her feelings of love for
the friend of her youth, Sally Seton, who had kissed her
on the mouth.
4 At eleven am Peter Walsh arrives unexpectedly. They
converse and he bursts into tears and Clarissa comforts
him with a kiss. Clarissa’s seventeen-year-old daughter
enters the room and Peter exits.
5 Big Ben is striking eleven-thirty as Peter emerges from
Clarissa’s house. His inner monologue concerns his
feelings for Clarissa, his attitudes about English society
166
Year 12 Advanced English
and the British Empire in India, and his own position as
being in need of employment and money.
6 Peter sits for some time in Regent’s Park observing the
activities of others around him. He dozes off to sleep
and dreams. When he starts awake he continues to
recall events surrounding Clarissa years earlier. He
remembers his pain when he realised his relationship
with her was over and that she would marry Richard.
7 Lucrezia Smith is walking in Regent’s Park and notices
Peter. Her husband is hallucinating and her attempts to
make sense of what he is saying appear to Peter as a
lover’s quarrel.
8 Peter continues to consider the society he has been
distanced from during the years he has been in India.
His thoughts range chaotically from one emotion to
another.
9 Rezia and Septimus walk towards the office of
psychiatrist Sir William Bradshaw. She thinks of her
husband’s earlier life.
10 As Big Ben strikes twelve o’clock the Smiths enter Sir
William’s rooms. Rezia agrees that Septimus should go
to a rest home.
11 By one-thirty pm Hugh Whitbread and Richard
Dalloway arrive at Lady Bruton’s house for lunch.
Richard buys roses and presents them to Clarissa as
they converse about the events of the day.
12 Lying on her couch, Clarissa ruminates on her
feelings. Her daughter Elizabeth enters, with her friend
Miss Doris Kilman listening outside the door. The latter
bitterly contemplates her past life and attitudes toward
Clarissa, Richard and her Christian religion. The two
younger women leave. Doris goes to pray in Westminster
Abbey while Elizabeth, feeling free, catches a bus and
then walks to St Paul’s Cathedral.
13 The Smiths are at home in their apartment. While
Rezia agonises over her husband’s insane behavior his
mind is occupied with delusions. On hearing Dr Holmes
arriving Septimus leaps to his death.
14 Peter Walsh hears the siren of the ambulance rushing
to Septimus Smith. He has dinner before walking to
Clarissa’s house at Westminster.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
♦ Characters
About
the composer
Clarissa Dalloway
is an affluent fifty-two-year-old woman
who livesShakespeare
in London was
and is
married
to ainMember
of
William
born
in 1564
StratfordParliament. She
has a He
seventeen-year-old
and
upon-Avon,
England.
was born into a daughter
middle-class
is a socialite
who throws
many parties.
Clarissa
is an
family
and married
Anne Hathaway
who bore
him three
atheist. She
love
with Sally
Seton when
she was
children.
In was
1590inhe
travelled
to London
to pursue
a
eighteen.
She
broods
over her fears
andinfeelings
but
career
as an
actor
and playwright.
He died
1616 at the
also of
experiences
age
fifty-two. times of joy at being alive.
Septimus
Warren
—a World
War
I veteran,
he is a
Shakespeare
wasSmith
influenced
by the
popular
playwrights
sensitive
man,
aged
about
thirty,
who
is
in
the
throes
of
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
aalso
nervous
breakdown.
He
is
from
a
working-class
influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
background
he talent
loved literature
and wrote
Shakespeareand,
hadalthough
a special
for recording
the
poetry,
had
to
work
as
a
clerk
before
the
war.
heart
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people heAtknew,
he
remains
a poet.
Woolf created this character as a
or knew
of, in
his plays.
parallel to Clarissa. Despite the differences in their social
Shakespeare was interested in the human condition
status and experiences both characters are cynical about
and this is reflected in the main themes of his plays. These
English society and attitudes.
include the role of people in society, the search for
Peter Walsh
was Clarissa’s
thirty-five
years
individual
identity,
the impact boyfriend
that materialism
and wealth
before
themorality
day depicted
thetyranny
novel. He
been working
have on
and in
the
of has
ambition.
Other
in
India for
someincluded
years. Heunrequited
is a socialist.
Hemortality,
has been
familiar
themes
love,
previously
married
but
now
plans
to
marry
a
younger
religion and jealousy.
woman called Daisy. He needs to find employment and,
in
termsof
of text
the class-bound London society, is seen as a
Type
failure.
He
is
his feelings for Clarissa.
The Merchantconfused
of Veniceabout
is a play
Sally Seton was a friend of Clarissa when they were
Social,
cultural
and historical
young. Sally
was free-spirited,
impulsive andcontexts
independent
and was attracted
to socialist
as well
as feminism.
Shakespeare
wrote
during ideals
the late
Elizabethan
era
Sally represents
her one era
experience
of feeling
(1558–1603)
andfor
theClarissa
early Jacobean
(1603–25).
These
a love
of ‘purity
[and] integrity’
(p.and
37).growth
Sally is
now
eras
were
characterised
by turmoil
due
to
more
conservative
andand
the mother
of five
grown
sons.
the rise
of capitalism
the middle
classes
through
Richard
Dalloway
Clarissa’s
husband
a Member
of
merchant
trading.is The
reformation
of and
the church
from
Parliament.
He is conservative
is kind, courteous
Catholic to Protestant
made forand
a destabilised
society
and restrained.
resulted in many bloody uprisings.
Hugh
Whitbread
is a Shakespeare
self-satisfied lived
long-term
friendwas
of
The period
in which
and wrote
Clarissa’s.
Hethe
always
observes
the protocols
of saw
his
referred to as
English
Renaissance.
This period
privileged
but in
is the
considered
somewhat
pompous
significant class
changes
perception
of the world
and
and
slow-witted.
the place
of humans within it. The focus of science at
this time
on is
the
relatively history
‘new’ scientific
Miss
Doriswas
Kilman
Elizabeth’s
tutor. Shemethod
is both
which focused
empirical
evidence
overstudent.
an appeal
to
envious
of and on
infatuated
with
her young
Miss
God for is
life’s
answers.
Kilman
joyless
(as her name implies) and has very
low
her misery
she has turned
religion.
The self-esteem.
Elizabethan In
society
was distinctive
for itsto
valuing
of
Woolf’s
depiction
of
her
as
an
unsympathetic
character
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
must
read asproducts—both
representing thefor
perceived
emptiness
of
status.beBeauty
men and
women—
religion.
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
Elizabeth Dalloway—Richard and Clarissa’s seventeenyear-old daughter, Elizabeth has lived a privileged life.
She wants a career and as such represents a new
generation of English women.
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Sir William Bradshaw—a wealthy, highly regarded
psychiatrist who diagnoses Septimus Smith. He is arrogant
and intimidating for both Septimus and Rezia.
Dr Holmes is Septimus Smith’s GP who believes there is
nothing wrong with Septimus except that he is an
unmanly coward.
Lucrezia Smith is the wife of Septimus. She is desperate
to help him recover and really wants to have a normal
married life with him, including starting a family.
Audience
Lady
Millicent Bruton—a wealthy older woman of sixtytwo
years, sheforisThe
an Merchant
aristocratic
member
of London
The audience
of Venice
is diverse
as it
society
and
occupied
by
frequent
social
events.
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
♦notSettings
its narrative.
The main setting of the text is one day in London though
there
are also flashbacks to events set in a country
Purpose
house in Surrey.
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
forms,
andwrote
structures
♦theLanguage
emotions and
the features
intellect. He
histories,
tragedies,structure
romances
andnarrative
comedies.ofHis
ability
to write
Narrative
—the
Mrs
Dalloway
is
for a diverse
audience,
including
nobility,
woven
from two
complex
threads royalty,
of storyline
that the
are
merchant
illiterate There
commoners,
is oneduality
of his
distinct
butclass
alsoand
interlinked.
is a double
most defining
characteristics
through
the contrast
betweenand
theachievements.
alternative ways in
which
people wrote
experience
as well
as throughyet
a
Shakespeare
plays time,
primarily
to entertain,
divergence
between
the
lives
of
Clarissa
Dalloway
and
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
Septimus
Smith
over the course
one day.
Thehuman
small
reveal a deep
understanding
of the of
operation
of the
events
that
take
place
for
the
characters
culminate
in
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
the
party
that
has
been
foreshadowed
at
the
opening
of
of society.
the novel. The striking of Big Ben regulates the
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use of
chronological sequence of these events. The two
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
significant settings—the city of London and Bourton—
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
correspond to the present and the past. The scenes set
audience by making references to contemporary events
at Bourton all appear in the stream-of-consciousness
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
memories of characters. Characters are conveyed as
modern audience
through social
his treatment
ofasignificant
inhabiting
both an objective
world and
subjective
themes
such
as
love,
jealousy,
ambition
and
mortality.
inner state of mind.
The
conceptthe
of unity
Reading
textbetween individuals within the
social
milieu
is
embedded
theShakespeare
structure of the
Students must rememberin
that
wasnarrative
writing
through
events
such
as
the
sky-writing
aeroplane,
the
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
car, the striking of Big Ben and the siren of the ambulance
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
rushing to Septimus. These are seen, heard and noted
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
by diverse people.
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
Narrative
perspective
thisthere
text Woolf
breakswho
withwish
the
It is a romantic
play—
ininthat
are couples
unified
narrative
of stands
more traditional
realist
to be together
but atechniques
complication
in the way of
their
novels
and This
conveys
the diverse
perspectives
of end
various
happiness.
complication
is resolved
at the
and
characters
their
monologues.
The narrative
they all livethrough
‘happily
everinner
after’.
It is also a comedy
which
is
focused
on will
characters
and their
world rather
means
there
be mishaps
and inner
misunderstandings
than
motivated by a conventional plot, making
alongbeing
the way.
events significant only in so far as characters are
All of Shakespeare’s
wereWoolf
written
to betoperformed
psychologically
movedplays
by them.
sought
represent
in
the
theatre
and
this
must
be
kept
in mind when
the complexity and fluidity of human experience
and
reading
The and
Merchant
of Venice.
should are
try
how
beliefs
impressions
of Students
external reality
their
best
to
imagine
what
a
scene
would
look
like
developed in a person’s private consciousness. The
onstage. If
possible
youevents
shouldand
watch
a performance
of
position
from
which
objects
are viewed
the
play,
whether
it
is
recorded
or
live,
to
gain
a
better
shifts continuously within the narrative.
understanding of character relationships and the way
The movement between the different perspectives is
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
unmarked by punctuation or shifts in use of pronouns.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
167
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
15 The party: the inner monologues and conversations
of Clarissa, Richard, Ellie, Sally, Peter and other characters
present at the party are intermingled in a fragmentary
way. Lady Bradshaw tells Clarissa that ‘A young man …
had killed himself’ (p. 204) and the connection is made
between the two narrative threads of the novel: the
lives of Clarissa and Septimus. The novel ends with the
end of the party.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
The first-person pronoun appears rarely: sometimes the
gender-neutral indefinite ‘one’ is used but this is a thirdperson pronoun. The omniscient narrator generally presents
even the interior monologues in the third person and
there are only occasional fragments of dialogue.
Figurative language—Mrs Dalloway is rich with imagery,
literary metaphor, similes, personification and symbols
which are used to convey abstract concepts such as the
psychological states, emotions and consciousness of
characters. For example, in describing how Clarissa
experiences the reverberating sound of Big Ben, Woolf
uses the image of ‘leaden circles [dissolving] in air’ (pp.
4, 52 and 103), which may be interpreted as the way
she feels about the passing of chronological time. As
Peter Walsh walks along the street ‘a cloud crosses the
sun’ and ‘silence falls on London’ (p. 53) as time is
envisioned through the metaphor of a flag blowing in a
breeze: ‘Time flaps on a mast’ (p. 54). It is as though
Peter is no longer aware of the movement of time; for
him time has paused, so to speak.
Many aspects of Mrs Dalloway can be read as symbolic,
including the numerous references to flowers. The
opening sentence—‘Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy
the flowers herself’ (p. 1)—foreshadows the prominence
of flowers and several characters are associated with
particular types of flower, signifying aspects of their
relationship to abstract concepts or other characters.
Another notable symbolic motif is the pocketknife Peter
Walsh constantly carries in his pocket.
The text abounds with similes; for example, Septimus
was ‘like a drowned sailor on a rock’ (p. 102), describing
his sense of alienation and weakness while Clarissa
feels ‘like a Queen whose guards have fallen asleep and
left her unprotected’ (p. 48) when Peter arrives without
warning. Brooding over her sense of herself as ageing
she feels she is ‘like a nun withdrawing’ (p. 31). There
are many instances of this kind of comparison, making
the visual images very vivid.
Repetition—several passages use repetition of phrases
or words that develop a lyrical rhythm and emphasise
significant ideas. Often these repetitions convey the
way an idea is continuously reiterated in a character’s
interior monologue and they highlight the particular
preoccupations or feelings of the character. In one
example, Clarissa experiences a pleasant feeling when
Richard brings her roses:
But how lovely, she said, taking his flowers …
How lovely they looked! … Clarissa thought the
roses absolutely lovely; … There were the roses
… She cared much more for her roses than for
the Armenians … but she loved her roses … the
only flowers she could bear to see cut … There
were his roses … then these roses … (p. 134)
She consistently returns to the roses as the representation
of her husband’s love for her and finally concludes that
‘It was enough’ (p. 134).
168
Year 12 Advanced English
Poetic syntax—there are many passages in Mrs Dalloway
where coherence of meaning is achieved poetically rather
than by rigid adherence to grammatical regulations.
This poetic syntactic style conveys subtle and abstract
ideas and feelings in an impressionistic way. It also
replicates the way individual consciousness does not
conform to fixed patterns or conventions of standardised
rules of expression. One example of many can be found
in the extremely long sentence on page 13, which begins
with ‘It rasped her through …’ and continues on to ‘…
this hatred!’. Though it lacks orthodox punctuation it
leaves a vivid impression in the reader’s mind.
As well as demonstrating the unconventional punctuation
in parts of Mrs Dalloway this passage contains several
of the figurative language features discussed above,
including repetitive words and phrases, imagery,
metaphor and similes.
The Hours
♦ Plot summary
Apart from the framing story of a dramatisation of the
suicide of Virginia Woolf in 1941, the plot of The Hours
depicts a significant day in the life of each of three diverse
characters, all women. There is a fictionalised version
of the writer Virginia Woolf on a day in Surrey in 1923
when she is writing what was to become Mrs Dalloway;
one day in the life of a housewife in Los Angeles in
1951; and an extraordinary day in the life of a book
editor in New York City in 2001.
Virginia Woolf’s story is largely based on historical facts
about the writer’s life. It takes place on a summer day
in 1923. Virginia has been ill, suffering from headaches
and hearing voices, and has twice tried to kill herself.
The Woolfs have moved out of London for the tranquility
of a small-town environment and have settled in Hogarth
House, where Virginia works at her writing and Leonard
in their publishing business. Virginia has come to a
decision about what the first sentence of the novel will
be: ‘Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself’.
She goes out for a walk and mumbles to herself, ‘She’ll
kill herself over something that doesn’t seem to matter’.
Virginia decides that her servant Nelly should go to
London on an unnecessary errand. Nelly is furious but
Virginia retorts that nothing could be ‘more exhilarating
than a trip to London’. They are expecting a visit from
Virginia’s sister Vanessa with her three children, but the
visitors arrive early, much to Leonard’s annoyance. The
children find a dead bird and Virginia and her niece,
Angelica, hold a solemn funeral, covering the corpse
with yellow rose petals. Lying beside the dead bird,
Virginia contemplates the subject of death for some
time. When farewelling her visitors, Virginia kisses
Vanessa passionately on the mouth and the intensity of
this kiss disturbs Vanessa. The family leave and Virginia
is left sad and abandoned.
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Clarissa Vaughan’s story takes place in New York City in
2001. Sally, Clarissa’s partner, returns home after staying
out all night. Clarissa doesn’t stir until she wakens to
the alarm clock. It is the day of a party, to be held in her
apartment, to celebrate the awarding of a poetry prize
to her friend Richard Brown. As she looks through some
manuscripts she calls to the sleeping Sally that she ‘will
buy the flowers [her]self’.
Clarissa walks first to the flower store and then to
Richard’s
small, cluttered apartment that is on an upper
Audience
floor of a rundown industrial building. Richard is obviously
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
unwell and in fact has AIDS. He walks with the aid of a
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
stick but spends most of the time in an old armchair,
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
surrounded by papers and medication bottles. Clarissa
its narrative.
asks him about his ‘visitors’, the auditory hallucinations
that
are his constant companions. She puts the flowers
Purpose
in vases and the rubbish into garbage bags. She worries
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
over whether he has eaten breakfast and taken all his
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
medications. She tells him the party is to start at five
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
pm but he is reluctant to attend. He reminisces with her
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
about their youthful love and before she leaves insists
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
on her kissing him, tenderly, on the mouth.
most defining characteristics and achievements.
Back at their stylish apartment Sally helps Clarissa in
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
her preparations for the party. Clarissa is flustered when
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
Richard’s ex-lover, Louis Waters, appears. They have not
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
seen each other for years and they discuss Richard and
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
their past relationships. As they reminisce she breaks
of society.
down in tears and he tries to console her. He leaves just
Shakespeare
engages
his audience
his useher
of
before
Clarissa’s
daughter
enters. through
Julia realises
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
mother’s mood is disturbed and Clarissa confides that
and does
likeable
characters.
appealed
to his
16th-century
she
sometimes
feelHethat
her busy
social
world is
audience
by
making
references
to
contemporary
events
meaningless and trivial.
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
Clarissa returns to Richard’s flat but finds him in a
modern audience through his treatment of significant
deranged state, tearing down window coverings and
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
shelves. She tries to calm him but he tells her his life
has
no meaning.
Reading
the Sitting
text on the windowsill, he tells her
he loves her before tipping his body over the edge.
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
Clarissa can only watch on in horror.
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
Later
Sally, Clarissa
and Julia
plays that
may evening
seem obscure
and complex.
Thissadly
playclear
was
away
theinfood
set out for the
abandoned
Richard’s
written
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’party.
before
he had
mother
arrives
we realise
is theand
much-aged
written his
greatand
tragedies
such asshe
Hamlet
Macbeth.
Laura
and
thatinRichard
wasare
thecouples
little boy,
Richie,
It is a Brown
romantic
play
that there
who
wish
who
lived but
through
the daystands
when
to be together
a complication
in thehis
waymother
of their
contemplated
suicide.
happiness. This
complication is resolved at the end and
Laura
to Clarissa
that Itshe
abandoned
they allexplains
live ‘happily
ever after’.
is also
a comedyRichard
which
and
his there
baby will
sisterbewhen
she left
soon after the
means
mishaps
andDan,
misunderstandings
birth
herway.
second child. Although she realised it was a
alongofthe
terrible
thing
to do toplays
her children,
she was
unhappy
All of Shakespeare’s
were written
to besoperformed
that
she
had
no
option.
Clarissa
is
appalled
but
also
in the theatre and this must be kept in mindmoved.
when
Later
Sally
comforts
Clarissa,
who goes
to bed
reading
Thegently
Merchant
of Venice.
Students
should
try
reconciled
life, valuing
its benefits
joys.
their best to
to her
imagine
what aallscene
wouldand
look
like
If possible you should watch a performance of
Characters
♦onstage.
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
The characters in Virginia Woolf’s story are discussed
understanding of character relationships and the way
below.
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
169
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Virginia leaves the house and Leonard frantically chases
after her to the railway station, where he finds her
waiting for a train to London. They argue, with her
telling him that he can never understand her distress
and that she finds life in the small-town unendurable.
He sadly accedes to her pleas to return to London and
they go home for dinner. That evening they sit together
and discuss the novel she is writing.
Laura Brown’s story opens on a warm morning in Los
Angeles
1951
on her husband Dan’s birthday. The
About inthe
composer
Browns live in a cookie-cutter suburb in a palm-tree
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratfordlined street of identical family homes. Laura wakes to
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
find Dan has made breakfast for their son, Richie, before
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
leaving for work. Through the morning her mood is low
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
as she and Richie make a cake for Dan ‘So he knows
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
[they] love him’. She is preoccupied, causing the little
age of fifty-two.
boy to question why she finds this supposedly simple
Shakespeare
wasThe
influenced
bycake
the popular
playwrights
task so difficult.
resulting
is lopsided
and less
of
hisperfect.
day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
than
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
Laura’s friend Kitty arrives, smartly dressed and madeShakespeare had a special talent for recording the
up. She is also surprised that Laura has found the cake
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
baking such a chore. She notices that Laura has been
or knew of, in his plays.
reading a book: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which
Shakespeare
the‘maybe
humanbecause
condition
Laura says is was
aboutinterested
a woman in
who
she
and
this
is
reflected
in
the
main
themes
of
his
plays.
is confident’ everyone thinks ‘is fine … but she These
isn’t’.
include
the role
people
in Laura
society,because
the search
for
Kitty declares
thatof she
envies
she has
individual
identity,
the
impact
that
materialism
and
wealth
been unable to conceive a child and doesn’t ‘think you
have
on yourself
moralitya and
the until
tyranny
Other
can call
woman
youofareambition.
a mother’.
She
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
tells Laura that she has a growth in her uterus and
religiondown
and jealousy.
breaks
in tears. Laura comforts her and, taking
her face in her hands, kisses her passionately on the
Type of text
mouth in an erotically charged kiss. Kitty says ‘You’re
The
Merchant
Veniceher
is a composure
play
sweet’
as she of
regains
but denies that
anything unusual has occurred.
Social, cultural and historical contexts
Laura is annoyed and dismissive of Richie, who is
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
bewildered and sad. She tosses the birthday cake into
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
the bin and, reaching a decision, fills her handbag with
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
bottles of pills. She makes a new cake, which is a replica
the rise of capitalism and the middle classes through
of the idealised cake in the recipe book. Later she and
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
Richie leave the perfect cake on the bench and go out in
Catholic to Protestant made for a destabilised society
the car.
and resulted in many bloody uprisings.
Richie knows something is wrong and screams and
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
struggles as she leaves him at the babysitter’s. Laura
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
drives recklessly to a hotel where she lies on the bed
significant changes in the perception of the world and
with the bottles of pills spread beside her. She begins to
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
read Mrs Dalloway and eventually falls asleep and dreams
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
the hotel is filling with water. She wakes with a start
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
and, embracing her pregnant belly, weeps at the
God for life’s answers.
realisation that she cannot take her own life while she
The
Elizabethan
society was distinctive for its valuing of
is carrying
a baby.
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
She returns to collect Richie and on the drive home they
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
each tell the other ‘I love you’. Richie is smiling now
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
and the story finishes later that evening with a scene of
family unity and contentment when Dan, his wife and
son are seated at the dining table laden with party food.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Virginia Woolf is based on the historical figure who wrote
Mrs Dalloway. At the time of the film’s setting she is
aged forty and in a state of turmoil and desolation. The
process of creating Mrs Dalloway is foremost in her
mind, even when she is interacting with others. She has
experienced an intermittent depressive illness and is
very tense and smokes a lot. Being distant from the society
of her London circle, she feels she is missing out on life
and resents feeling forced onto the margins of society.
She is dismissive of the doctor’s orders to eat and sleep
well as well as her husband’s appeals to heed them.
Leonard Woolf is almost entirely preoccupied with caring
for his wife’s health. To him it is essential that they stay
in the serenity of Richmond so he can carry out his
publishing work and supervise Virginia’s care. His
struggle to keep her alive causes him great anxiety.
Vanessa Bell is an affluent, busy middle-class wife and
mother of three children who lives in central London.
She is very concerned about her younger sister’s mental
illness and wishes to help her but is also dismayed by
Virginia’s intense behaviour, which seems to verge on
insanity at times.
Angelica Bell is Virginia’s young niece. She is quiet,
subdued and observant of the adults around her. Angelica
responds to Virginia with empathy, understanding that
her aunt is experiencing complex emotions.
Nelly Boxall—the housekeeper in the Woolf household,
she is a practical working-class woman who has little
respect for Virginia’s status as a writer.
Lottie Hope is the junior maid who has no status in the
Woolf household. There is a jocular working relationship
between her and Nelly.
Julian and Quentin Bell—Vanessa’s sons, they are in their
early teens and very boisterous and physical. They have
little interest in their melancholy aunt.
The characters in Laura’s story are discussed below.
Laura Brown is a woman in her mid-twenties who is
pregnant with her second child. As a girl she had been
a ‘strange and fragile-looking’ loner. She is shy and
loves to read novels but finds little satisfaction in her
role as housewife, a ‘job’ she feels ill equipped for.
Despite her husband’s kindness, Laura is desperately
unhappy. The confines of the little house, supposedly
the American dream home, feel like a prison to her.
Laura is attracted by Kitty’s energy and social ease, and
even drawn to her erotically, but feels excluded from
her world. In her depression she can see no escape and
wishes to die. However, this is countered by the life
force of her son and a sense of responsibility towards
her unborn child.
Dan Brown had been a serviceman in World War II.
What kept him going was the thought of living with
Laura and a family in a peaceful suburb. He is a good
breadwinner and is kind and loving towards his wife
170
Year 12 Advanced English
and son. Unaware of the terrible struggle his wife
experiences in playing her part in his dream he feels the
life they have is ‘just perfect … what [he’s] always wanted’.
Richie Brown is aged about six. He is a quiet, wellbehaved child who observes the adults around him
with curiosity and some bewilderment. Although he is
powerless to influence her actions, Richie is aware that
his mother is going through a momentous crisis and he
often feels alone and isolated.
Kitty is an eager participant in the American dream and
plays the role of housewife to perfection. She is happy
to clean and cook and always presents herself as
fashionably dressed and made-up. She shows a cheerful
face to the world, denying there is any problem even
when she is inwardly terrified. Kitty’s tragedy is that
she is unable to have a child which, in her eyes, renders
her invalid as a woman.
The characters in Clarissa’s story are discussed below.
Clarissa is an educated, financially secure woman in her
early fifties who is a literary editor. She has a busy life,
working and socialising with a wide circle of friends.
However, Clarissa sometimes feels that her life is trivial
and lacks meaning. She continues to care for Richard,
who has AIDS and who she loved when they were
young. She is patient and loving towards him as these
times give her life meaning.
Richard Brown is a poet and novelist who has won a
major literary award. Richard is in his early fifties and
had lived in a gay relationship with Louis. He is now
suffering from AIDS and lives an isolated existence,
confined alone in a small loft apartment. His life has
been reduced to medications and doctors’ advice and
he feels he has been a failure as a writer. He loves Clarissa
and understands that her focus on him has become the
core of her existence but feels this as an onerous
responsibility. He is a sensitive man who is haunted by
his abandonment by his mother and unable to endure
his sense of desolation.
Old Laura Brown is in her seventies and lives in Toronto
where she worked for many years as a librarian. She is
a withdrawn, unassuming woman whose life has been
blighted by her decision to abandon her marriage and
children. She carries the guilt of her past choice as an
unforgivable burden.
Louis Waters is a man in his fifties who had been
Richard’s lover. The relationship was intense and when
Louis finally ended it he felt liberated. He has been
working as a drama teacher, a job that is uninspiring to
him, and he feels he has been something of a failure. He
has ambivalent feelings toward Clarissa as they were
once rivals for Richard’s affections.
Sally Lester is Clarissa’s partner. She senses that their
relationship has stalled. She supports Clarissa but feels
her efforts are not appreciated. She is gratified when
Richard’s death seems to draw them closer together.
Introduction to the text
♦ Settings
About
composer
The film isthe
set in
three main locations: Surrey in England,
the suburbs
of Los Angeles
and New
York in
City.
William
Shakespeare
was born
in 1564
Stratfordupon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
Language forms, features and
♦
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
structures
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
The
three
storylines
The Hours relate
to in
each
other
in
career
as an
actor andofplaywright.
He died
1616
at the
meaningful
ways.
Each
of
the
stories
is
complete
in
age of fifty-two.
itself and can stand alone but they are intertwined in
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
complex ways that convey multifarious ideas when
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
viewed as a piece. They are encapsulated within an
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
account of a framing event: the suicide of Virginia Woolf,
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
which introduces the narrative in a montage during the
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
film’s credit sequence. The scene of Virginia entering
or knew of, in his plays.
the river and disappearing beneath the water closes the
Shakespeare
was interested
the human
condition
film. The narrative
is madein coherent
through
this
and
this
is
reflected
in
the
main
themes
of
his
plays.
These
‘bookending’ device.
include the role of people in society, the search for
The three women’s stories connect to each other both
individual identity, the impact that materialism and wealth
structurally and thematically. The core thematic connection
have on morality and the tyranny of ambition. Other
is that each of the women relate in some way to the
familiar themes included unrequited love, mortality,
novel Mrs Dalloway and thus to the ideas of that text.
religion and jealousy.
Virginia is writing it, Laura is reading it and Clarissa is
virtually
Type ofliving
textit out. Other cohesive ties that bind the
stories to each other include that each main protagonist
The Merchant of Venice is a play
has a life-changing visit, each participates in a meaningful
kiss,
and each
contemplates
the possibilitycontexts
of a person
Social,
cultural
and historical
taking their own life, among others.
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
Structurally the
stories
are bound
together through
(1558–1603)
andthree
the early
Jacobean
era (1603–25).
These
the director’s
use of cinematic
techniques.
of
eras
were characterised
by turmoil
and growthSome
due to
theserise
areofoutlined
below.
the
capitalism
and the middle classes through
Editing is used
to connect
shots and sequences
fromfrom
one
merchant
trading.
The reformation
of the church
woman’s tostory
to shots
andfor
sequences
from society
that of
Catholic
Protestant
made
a destabilised
another
of thein
women.
The juxtaposition
and
resulted
many bloody
uprisings. of the sequences
or
shots
allows
the
viewer
to
infer
the
The period in which Shakespeare meaning
lived andthrough
wrote was
way
they
relate
to
each
other.
For
example,
in
an
early
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
sequence
the film
Clarissa
is discussing
Richard’s
significant of
changes
in the
perception
of the world
and
novel
with
Barbara
the
florist
who
says
‘It’s
you
in the
the place of humans within it. The focus of science
at
novel
isn’twas
it?’.on
Clarissa
responds‘new’
‘Yeah,
sort of, in
a way
this time
the relatively
scientific
method
…
He uses
things
that actually
happened
andappeal
then he
which
focused
on empirical
evidence
over an
to
changes
things.
Not
in
a
bad
way
…
he
makes
them
his
God for life’s answers.
own’. There is then a close-up of Virginia’s writing
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
hand; cut to a close-up of Virginia’s face, deep in thought;
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
then cut to a long-shot of Clarissa walking through the
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
New York streets carrying a large bunch of flowers. This
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
shot is accompanied by a voice-over of Virginia saying
‘A woman’s whole life in a single day’. The cross-cutting
between Clarissa and Virginia’s stories along with the
dialogue and voice-over convey the idea that Clarissa
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Vaughan is in some way a 21st-century equivalent to
Virginia Woolf’s character of Mrs Dalloway.
The parallels between Virginia, Laura and Clarissa are
not immediately evident but develop as the narrative
progresses. During the opening sequence that shows
their morning actions on the particular day to be
covered, the relationship between them is at first
obscure. However, although the text on the screen tells
us that these events are taking place in three different
places
in three different decades we are alerted to the
Audience
fact a significant bond will be revealed later. This is
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
confirmed when each woman delivers the line of
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
dialogue ‘Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
herself’ or, in Clarissa’s case, ‘I think I will buy the
its narrative.
flowers myself’.
Types
of shots—the shifts between various shot types
Purpose
convey
in particular
ways.that
The
close-up
shot
William ideas
Shakespeare
wrote plays
appealed
to both
(particularly
of
expressions
on
each
actor’s
face)
in
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
combination
with
dialogue
enables
us
to
infer
aspects
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
of
inner world
of theincluding
characters’
emotions
and,the
in
forthe
a diverse
audience,
royalty,
nobility,
some
cases,
thoughts.
A
powerful
example
of
this
is
the
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
scene
inside thecharacteristics
car when Laura
decided not to take
most defining
andhas
achievements.
her life and is driving home with Richie. Laura’s face is
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
shown in close-up as she says ‘I wasn’t gone long, was
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
I? There was a moment when I thought I might be longer.
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
I changed my mind’. She looks both troubled and
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
contrite as she tries to explain to her son, and herself,
of society.
how close they had come to losing each other. The
Shakespeare
engagesface
hisallows
audience
of
close-up
on Richie’s
us tothrough
see howhis
he use
is still
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
worried and also bewildered.
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
Long-shots allow viewers to understand both the
audience by making references to contemporary events
context of the action and the context of the character,
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
both literally and psychologically. The long-shots of the
modern audience through his treatment of significant
building where Richard lives, along with the interior of
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
his apartment, places him in an ugly, dark industrial
part
of the same
where, in another district, Clarissa
Reading
thecity
text
is surrounded by affluence and light. This contrast
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
between their physical environments contributes to our
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
understanding of how their inner worlds contrast as
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
well. Clarissa clings to valuing the positive socially
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
connected vitality of life whereas Richard is in a
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
psychologically wretched place that is drawing him
It is a romantic play in that there are couples who wish
towards death.
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
Transitions
the complication
shifts between
stories are
sometimes
happiness.—
This
is resolved
at the
end and
made
bylive
means
of dialogue
or music.
Ana comedy
examplewhich
is the
they all
‘happily
ever after’.
It is also
sequence
following
death
when Clarissa
means there
will be Richard’s
mishaps and
misunderstandings
stands
in the
corridor at the morgue. Sally watches her
along the
way.
through the glass door as a voice-over of Leonard asks
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed
‘Why does someone have to die?’. This begins as a voice
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
heard over the shot of Sally but finishes as Leonard’s
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
voice while he faces Virginia in the 1923 scenario. This
their best to imagine what a scene would look like
transition makes the connection between the death of
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
Richard and the death of a character in Virginia’s novel.
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
There
are several
instancesrelationships
during theand
filmthewhen
understanding
of character
way
transitions
are
effected
through
music.
One
is the
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
171
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Julia Vaughan is Clarissa’s twenty-one-year-old daughter.
Julia has never known her father and, while she
appreciates and understands her mother, finds her
rather demanding and neurotic though she is sensitive
to her mother’s suffering when Richard dies. She acts as
a surrogate granddaughter to Laura, knowing that had
Clarissa’s life taken another path that is exactly what
she might be: Laura’s grandchild.
transition from the scene in Virginia’s story after the
departure of her sister and the children. Leonard silently
watches his wife with an expression of deep concern
that registers her distress. The musical theme begins
faintly during this scene, rising in volume over a cut to
a long-shot of Clarissa in her apartment, her body
language expressing a similarly low mood following the
departure of Louis Waters.
The transition in Clarissa’s narrative from one psychological
place to another is imaginatively rendered by the image of
her ascending in the small lift that takes her up to Richard’s
space. We view Clarissa from above, tightly enclosed in a
small square of light surrounded by the deep blackness of
the lift well, an image that symbolically conveys the way
she is confined by her bond to Richard.
Music—the musical soundtrack of a film often contributes
to the emotional aspect of scenes by playing subconsciously
on the feelings of the viewer. This does occur at times
in The Hours but at some moments of intense emotion
there is silence or only diegetic sounds. The film’s
director, Stephen Daldry, has suggested that the Phillip
Glass musical soundtrack acts like another language,
contributing meaning in the film. He says:
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Glass’s music is of the story but also has its own
presence … It doesn’t just support the emotion
… it gives it scale, scope and indeed is another
subconscious language that makes up a stream
of consciousness that allows you to connect in an
entirely different way with the image.
Mise en scène—this complex element of a film, like
music, works on a subconscious level to develop in the
viewer a deeper understanding of intangible concepts.
Taking into account everything seen within the frame,
small details can contribute to how the viewer interprets
the psychological truth of a scene. An example is the
scene in Virginia’s story that follows the departure of
Vanessa and her children. There is a long-shot of
Virginia standing in the entrance hall in front of a large
table covered in books. This detail conveys how the
books, and all they imply, are always in Virginia’s
background but the open front door is like an invitation
for her to leave them behind and ‘escape’, with Leonard
in the position of custodian watching on to ensure she
does not flee. She is framed as a solitary figure,
appearing to be small and vulnerable in relation to her
oppressive surroundings. Virginia’s stance, gestures,
facial expression and costuming all contribute to an
image of misery and hopelessness.
Textual Conversations
♦ Resonances and dissonances between
and within texts
Virginia Woolf and her novel Mrs Dalloway resonate
throughout The Hours, from its very title through the
nature of its composition, character equivalences, and
major concerns and ideas.
172
Year 12 Advanced English
The explicit connections and references to the novel that
the film makes, such as the dramatisation of Virginia
Woolf in the process of writing Mrs Dalloway and the
borrowing of character names, are supported by many
other more implicit resonances. Along with preparations
for parties in both novel and film there are spontaneous
visits from significant friends and highly charged kisses.
Peter Walsh’s surprise visit on the day of her party
opens one of Woolf’s ‘beautiful caves’ of the past for the
character of Clarissa, within which she moves fluently
between past and present, memory and contemporary
existence. In a similar way Louis Waters’s visit to
Clarissa Vaughan interrupts her busy activity and
evokes her ruminations over the past with Richard.
Likewise Clarissa’s arrival earlier than the promised
three-thirty disturbs Richard in his manic preparations
to end the pain of the future hours he can no longer
endure. An echo of these early visits is dramatised in
the disruptive nature of Vanessa’s arrival at Hogarth
House at two-thirty rather than four pm on the day that
Virginia writes the opening passage of Mrs Dalloway.
The visit that Laura receives from Kitty consolidates for
her how unhappy she is in her confinement and marks
the turning point for her attempts to escape her situation.
Her hesitation in responding to Kitty’s ring on the doorbell
suggests the agoraphobic aspect of what was known in
the 1950s as ‘housewife syndrome’, a term used to
identify the ‘guilt, depression and sense of hopelessness’
experienced by many women. Laura seems at first to be
in contrast to the confident Kitty but Kitty’s façade
crumbles when she confides that she does not feel like
a ‘real’ woman as she is unable to conceive a child.
The resonance with Clarissa Dalloway is evident when
Laura summarises her interpretation of Mrs Dalloway
as being ‘about this woman who’s incredibly confident
… and maybe because she’s confident everyone thinks
she’s fine. But she isn’t’. This suggests multiple ideas.
As well as accentuating a similarity between Kitty and
Clarissa Dalloway, and further between the two Clarissas
(Dalloway and Vaughan), our attention is drawn to how
Laura is valiantly trying to mask her profound misery.
From this point on Laura determines to extricate herself
by leaving her family; similarly Vanessa’s visit has been
the catalyst for Virginia to escape to London.
A pivotal equivalence between characters in Mrs
Dalloway and The Hours is that between Septimus
Smith and Richard Brown. Both of the surnames, Smith
and Brown, are synonymous in Anglo cultures with the
‘man on the street’, a version of ‘everyman’ who
represents the general population. Despite the different
times and places they inhabit, each of these so-named
characters are victims of a devastating historical event—
World War I and AIDS—and thus might be seen as
representing large numbers of faceless sufferers whose
stories have not been told.
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
as reflections of each other, one ultimately choosing to
die and the other choosing to live. Although they never
meet, their independent stories progress simultaneously
through the same day in the same city. The reader is
presented with similar places and events but through
different perspectives, each expressing the consciousness
of a unique individual who has been shaped by different
social circumstances. Woolf noted that ‘there must be
some sort of fusion … all must converge upon the party at
the end’. Accordingly the stories of Clarissa and Septimus
Audience
intersect during the party when Clarissa is informed of
The audience
for The
of her
Venice
is secret
diverseurges
as it
Septimus’s
suicide
andMerchant
considers
own
is
both
a
comedy
and
a
romance.
As
it
is
a
play
it
did
towards death: ‘She felt somehow very like him—the
not
require
an
audience
member
to
be
literate
to
enjoy
young man who had killed himself’ (p. 204). Like Laura
its The
narrative.
in
Hours, Clarissa decides that while ‘death was
defiance … this life [was] to be lived to the end’. This
Purpose
sentiment is also shared by Clarissa Dalloway and Clarissa
William Shakespeare
wrote
plays that
appealed
to both
Vaughan,
who responds
assertively
when
Richard
tells
the
emotions
and
the
intellect.
He
wrote
histories,
her he only stays alive to satisfy her by saying ‘That is
tragedies,
and
comedies.
ability to write
what
we doromances
… we stay
alive
for eachHis
other!’.
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
Both Mrs Dalloway and The Hours depict partnerships
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
that are marked by one partner being consumed by a need
most defining characteristics and achievements.
to prevent the other from taking their life. In the novel
Shakespeare
wrote by
plays
primarily
to entertain,
yet
Rezia
is tormented
Septimus’s
psychotic
behaviour
despite
the popular
of In
his The
playsHours
they manage
to
and
threats
to kill nature
himself.
Leonard’s
reveal a deep understanding
of the
operation
of the
preoccupation
is to ensure that
Virginia
follows
the human
advice
mind,
the relationships
people
and the
workings
of
the doctor
so she willbetween
not attempt
suicide
again.
Just
of society.
as
Septimus loathes and fears the doctors, Virginia is
Shakespeareoppressed
engages his
audience
through
use on
of
unbearably
by the
constraints
theyhis
place
wit, She
allusion,
impressive
emotive
language
her.
considers
them to imagery,
be ‘a bunch
of contemptible
and likeableand
characters.
HeLeonard’s
appealed to
his 16th-century
Victorians’
sabotages
attempts
to make
audience
making
references to contemporary events
her
followby
their
orders.
and people.
Shakespeare’s
plays continue
to appealdeaf
to a
The
advice of
Richard’s doctors
falls on similarly
modern
audience
through
his
treatment
of
significant
ears. Clarissa’s concern that he should eat breakfast
themes the
such
as love,
ambition
and mortality.
echoes
same
wishjealousy,
expressed
by Leonard
regarding
Virginia. In response to Richard’s stated wish to die,
Reading the text
Clarissa reminds him that the doctors have told him he
Students
remember
writing
need
not must
die, that
he canthat
‘liveShakespeare
like this forwas
years’.
He
over
400
years
ago
and
as
a
result
some
elements
of the
counters with ‘But I still have to face the hours, don’t
I!’,
plays may that,
seemasobscure
and
complex.
play was
suggesting
for both
Virginia
and This
Septimus,
life
written
in
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’
before
he had
has become intolerable. Both Virginia and Richard
written that
his great
tragedies
Hamlet and
believe
by taking
theirsuch
livesasLeonard
and Macbeth.
Clarissa,
It
is
a
romantic
play
in
that
there
are
couples
wish
respectively, will be liberated from the burdenwho
of trying
to
be
together
but
a
complication
stands
in
the
way
of
their
to keep them alive. In The Hours Virginia claims that
in
happiness.
This
complication
is
resolved
at
the
end
her novel ‘someone has to die in order that the rest ofand
us
they allvalue
live ‘happily
ever
It is also aincomedy
which
should
life more’
butafter’.
the character
Mrs Dalloway
means
there
will
be
mishaps
and
misunderstandings
for whom this is realised is Clarissa Dalloway rather
along Rezia
the way.
than
Smith. When she learns of Septimus’s
All of Shakespeare’s
plays were
to be have
performed
suicide
she acknowledges
thatwritten
she might
been
in the into
theatre
and this
mustbut
behad
keptescaped
in mind
drawn
a similar
despair
andwhen
was
reading
The ‘this
Merchant
of be
Venice.
should
try
able
to see
life, to
lived Students
to the end
[as an]
their best to imagine
a scene
would
lookthree
like
immeasurable
delight’ what
(p. 203).
Each
of the
onstage. Ifwithin
possible
should
watch
a performance
of
storylines
Theyou
Hours
closes
with central
characters
the play,towhether
it is recorded
or live,
to gain a to
better
retiring
bed reconciled
(at least
temporarily)
the
understanding
charactertumultuous
relationships
and the way
conflicts
of theirofrespective
days.
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
173
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
The novel tells us that ‘London has swallowed up many
millions of young men called Smith’ (p. 92). Being
poets, both Smith and Brown have insight into and
sensitivity towards human experience. They inhabit a
world of reverence towards literature and abstract ideas.
Both are estranged from their mothers and are suffering
mental illnesses marked by auditory hallucinations and
depression, culminating in their suicides. Septimus’s
experience as a soldier in the war has led to his
condition, which first manifests itself as an inability to
About
the composer
feel and later as psychosis. While Richard’s illness
William
Shakespeare
born in
1564 in to
Stratfordcompromises
his statewas
of mind
it appears
be the
upon-Avon,
England.
He
was
born
into
a
middle-class
trauma of being abandoned by his mother that is largely
family
and married
Anne Hathaway
whosocial
bore world.
him three
responsible
for his alienation
from the
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
It is no coincidence that Laura also carries the surname
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
‘Brown’; this is emphasised when Dan calls to her
age of fifty-two.
‘Come to bed Laura Brown’. Although in her case it is a
Shakespeare
was on
influenced
the popular
playwrights
name
conferred
her by by
marriage,
her malaise
has
of his similarities
day, particularly
Christopher
Marlowe.
He was
some
with that
of Septimus
and Richard,
also influenced
byall
classical
texts
from
Greece andthe
Rome.
especially
in that
three of
them
demonstrate
loss
Shakespeare
a special
talent
for recording
the
of
all pleasurehad
in life,
as made
evident
through their
behaviours,
and be
dialogue
of as
people
he knew,
wish
to die.attitudes
It can also
viewed
typical
of the
or knew of,
his plays.
suffering
of in
countless
women due to social attitudes in
Shakespeare
was interested
in the
human
America
following
World War
II. All
threecondition
survive
and this isevents
reflected
in the main
themes
of his
plays. These
historical
physically
but are
deeply
psychologically
include the
roleisofunlike
people
society,
the
search
for
damaged.
Laura
theinother
two in
that
she does
individual
identity,
theThere
impact
materialism
and
live
on into
old age.
is,that
however,
a sense
inwealth
which
have on
morality
andher
thelife
tyranny
Other
Laura
does
relinquish
as sheof
is ambition.
left at the end
of
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
the
film living
a sort
of half-life,
estranged
frommortality,
intimate
religion and
jealousy. and essentially unforgiven by
human
connections
society for her abandonment of her children.
Type of text
Within The Hours the characters of Laura and Virginia
The Merchant
of Venice
a play They both struggle to
share
several aspects
in is
common.
express an independent identity and each of them harbours
Social, cultural and historical contexts
a tumultuous inner world which is repressed by the
Shakespeareof wrote
during
the late ofElizabethan
era
constraints
the social
expectations
women in their
(1558–1603)
and
the
early
Jacobean
era
(1603–25).
These
times. Neither is content to remain confined to the
eras weresphere
characterised
by‘suffocating
turmoil andanesthetic
growth due
to
domestic
under the
of the
the
rise
of
capitalism
and
the
middle
classes
through
suburbs’ and both are unable to make independent
merchant
trading.
The
reformation
of thecry
church
from
decisions about
their
own
lives. Virginia’s
to Leonard
Catholic
to
Protestant
made
for
a
destabilised
society
of ‘My life has been taken from me—I’m living a life I
and resulted
uprisings.
have
no wishin
tomany
live’ isbloody
equally
applicable to Laura.
The
period
in
which
Shakespeare
livedwomen
and wrote
was
The film implicitly brings these two
together
referred
to
as
the
English
Renaissance.
This
period
saw
further through their respective writing and reading of
significant
changes
in the perception
the world
and
Mrs
Dalloway.
This connection
is madeofexplicit
through
the
place
of
humans
within
it.
The
focus
of
science
at
film technique in the sequence of cross-cuts between
this
time
was
on
the
relatively
‘new’
scientific
method
the scene of Laura in the hotel room preparing to take
which
empirical
over and
an appeal
her
lifefocused
and the on
scene
(distantevidence
both in time
place) to
in
God
for
life’s
answers.
which Virginia has tea with her sister and the children.
The Elizabethan
society
distinctive
for its
valuing
This
interweaving
of thewas
stories
of Virginia
and
Laura of
in
appearance,
with
one’s
clothes
a
determinant
of
social
The Hours is an echo of a similar relationship between
status.
Beauty of
products—both
for men
and women—
the
characters
Clarissa Dalloway
and Septimus
Smith
were
extremely
popular
despite
their
toxicity.
in Mrs Dalloway. In her diary Virginia Woolf stated that
she planned ‘a study of … the world seen by the sane
and the insane side by side’, with these two characters
The process of character development from a range of
subjective perspectives is less explicitly evident in The
Hours. Unlike the novel, the film generally cannot provide
direct authorial access to characters’ interior monologues
except through voice-overs or flashbacks. In this film
voice-over is used to convey some of Virginia Woolf’s
thoughts but only as she expressed them in her suicide
note and the novel. The only use of flashback is when
adult Richard remembers his childhood experience.
Although old Laura appears sad and vulnerable, as we
learn of her abandonment of her children and knowing
the catastrophic consequence of it on Richard, we are
likely to view her less sympathetically. Julia’s reference
to her as a ‘monster’ is in ironic contrast to the image of
the fragile and desolate figure we see onscreen and her
comforting embrace encourages us to consider how
Laura’s isolated life in the intervening years represent
an act of atonement. Clarissa’s mixed feelings in
response to Laura’s explanation for her actions is
conveyed through facial expressions which, along with
the lighting, framing and sparse dialogue of the scene,
contribute to an interpretation of Laura as a complex
character with both positive and negative aspects. In
the novel Clarissa Dalloway’s interior monologue tells
us ‘she would not say of any one in the world now that
they were this or were that’ (p. 8), alluding to a concept
of plurality of identity that is embodied by Laura along
with other characters in both the novel and the film.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
♦ Issues, values, assumptions and
perspectives
Woolf thought of her novel as The Hours throughout its
creation but changed the title to Mrs Dalloway before
publication. Accordingly, two of the major concerns of
both texts are the role and perception of time in human
experience, and the role and position of women in society.
The contrast between the forward momentum of a
precise chronological time (as represented by the
chimes of Big Ben) and the fluid perception of time
within an individual’s consciousness is embedded in
the structure of both Mrs Dalloway and The Hours. The
narrative arc of Woolf’s novel begins and ends with the
party on the day that the narrative depicts. This impels
the narrative forward toward a future event in the minds
of the characters. References to the impending party
punctuate the story along with the intermittent striking
of the hour by Big Ben: ‘Still the last tremors of the great
booming voice shook the air round him; the half-hour;
still early; only half-past eleven still’. This apprehension
of the future coexists simultaneously with recognition
of the past through the characters’ memories. A similar
contemporaneity of time within individual consciousness
unfolds in The Hours.
Throughout Clarissa Vaughan’s story, from her first
utterance of ‘Sally, I think I’ll buy the flowers myself’,
she is working toward the party she is to host that
174
Year 12 Advanced English
evening for Richard and simultaneously remembering
her past with him. Her daughter Julia makes this duality
explicit in her line ‘They’re all here, the ghosts. All the
ghosts are assembling for the party’. Clarissa Dalloway’s
party is populated by ‘ghosts’ as well; people such as
Sally Seton and Peter Walsh who have featured in
Clarissa’s memory throughout the day. On the day of
Clarissa’s party Richard is inhabited by the ghost of the
trauma of abandonment, made evident in the scene
where he holds the black-and-white image of his mother
as a bride. The flashback to little Richie, imprisoned
and screaming behind Mrs Latch’s window, is connected
in Richard’s distraught mind to the grimy window of his
flat through which he looks, anticipating the fall he has
decided to take. Thus past and future are coexist in the
present for Richard as well.
Both texts reflect the views and attitudes of their
societies in relation to gender. In several of her writings,
including Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf explored and
propounded a theory known as ‘androgyny of the mind’.
She wrote in A Room of One’s Own that ‘in each of us
two powers preside, one male, one female’ and ‘the
mind is always altering its focus and bringing the world
into different perspectives’. This concept is personified
through the characters of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus
Smith in their presentation as two aspects of a unified
figure. Each of these characters experience homosexual
impulses. In the context of the patriarchal culture of
post–World War I England, the poetic sensitivity of
Septimus conveys an element of femininity and there
are homoerotic overtones in his fixation on Evans.
Ironically it is in the context of the trenches that he is
said to have developed manliness.
Clarissa Dalloway lives out the socially expected role of
her class and gender by marrying Richard while
treasuring in her memory the youthful experience of
being in love with Sally Seton. In retrospect she marvels
at ‘the most exquisite moment of her whole life’ when
Sally ‘kissed her on the lips’ (p. 38). Clarissa ‘could not
resist sometimes yielding to the charm of a woman …
[and] … did undoubtedly then feel what men felt’ (p.
34). She is said to have only dimly perceived this and
‘resented it, had a scruple … sent by Nature’ (p. 34).
From a 21st-century perspective the reader can interpret
the notion of fixed gender as emerging from the
traditional social values of the era rather than ‘Nature’
and it is directly challenged in the character relationships
of The Hours. In the 2002 film the central relationship is
that between Clarissa and Richard, who love each other
profoundly and yet live out their social lives in samesex relationships. The assumption of the 1950’s setting
of Laura’s story has in common with the 1923 setting of
Mrs Dalloway that heterosexual partnering is natural
and homoerotic love is aberrant. Thus Kitty’s response
to Laura’s kiss is denial that it had even happened:
‘What? Mind what?’.
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
steps away from the patriarchal paradigm for women
altogether and has a female partner and a child conceived
through IVF is a function of how social values relating
to gender roles and expectations have shifted over the
years between 1923 and 2001.
In both Mrs Dalloway and The Hours the locations of
narrative events convey symbolic significance. London
is so relevant to Mrs Dalloway that there is a map of
central London in the mid-twenties at the beginning of
the
book. Clarissa’s first action, following her
Audience
announcement that ‘… she would buy the flowers
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
herself’ (p. 1) is to plunge into the street outside her
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
Westminster house. London in the middle of the 1920s
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
represented the heart of the British Empire and a
its narrative.
pinnacle of fashionable culture. The streets through
which
Clarissa walks are bustling, conveying the sense
Purpose
of liveliness appropriate to peacetime. This ‘divine
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
vitality’ (p. 7) causes her to conflate London with life.
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
By the 2001 timeframe of Clarissa Vaughan’s story New
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
York City had eclipsed London as a centre of sophisticated
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
society and culture, and her confident position within
merchant class and illiterate commoners, is one of his
its social milieu corresponds to Mrs Dalloway’s.
most defining characteristics and achievements.
Each of the settings within the film carry symbolic
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
meaning. The Woolf’s garden is in full summer bloom
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
and filled with light. This beautiful space connects in
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
our minds with the garden through which she passes
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
on her way to the river where her life ends. Combined
of society.
with the fast-flowing river, the garden symbolises the
Shakespeare
his audience
use of
vitality
of life,engages
thus creating
dramaticthrough
irony ashis
locations
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
associated with the death of both the bird and Virginia.
and likeable
characters.
appealed
16th-century
Leonard’s
place
in the He
garden
is astoahis
nurturer:
he is
audience
by
making
references
to
contemporary
shown in this setting on his knees with his handsevents
in the
and people.
plays
continue
appeal to a
soil,
keepingShakespeare’s
the garden alive.
This
elicits atocomparison
modern
audience
through
his
treatment
of
significant
with the way he cares for his wife.
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
The Browns’ modest suburban house, in a street of
identical
represents the ideal of postwar
Readinghouses,
the text
prosperity that constituted the ‘American dream’ in which
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
the ‘nuclear family’ could live out their days in peace
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
and happiness, with the man working outside the house
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
as the breadwinner and the woman playing her role of
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
caring for the children and keeping house. This location
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
symbolises peace, freedom and prosperity for Dan
It is a romantic play in that there are couples who wish
Brown (the father) but for Laura (the mother) it is a
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
prison where she is, in Virginia’s words, living ‘a life [she]
happiness. This complication is resolved at the end and
has no wish to live’; thus there is a certain equivalence
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
between what Hogarth House represents for Virginia
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
and what the Brown house represents for Laura.
along the way.
In the 1951 setting of The Hours the car represents
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed
freedom as owning a car provided a means of escape to
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
the open road of infinite possibilities. That both Laura
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
and Dan have a car emphasises the social changes evident
their best to imagine what a scene would look like
since the 1923 setting of Mrs Dalloway, in which a car
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
was an indication of the extreme privilege represented
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
by royalty. Paradoxically the car encloses a still space
understanding of character relationships and the way
that separates the individual from the social world.
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
175
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Woolf’s ideas about gender fluidity and the oppression
of women in patriarchal society prefigure the
contemporary understanding of gender as a social
construct and general acceptance of homosexuality and
same-sex relationships. Under the patriarchal system in
England in 1923 women occupied a subservient role to
men. Although the situation was different for workingclass women who had to labour both within the home
environment as well as the workforce, middle- and
upper-class women had little opportunity to engage in a
About
the composer
career. The worlds of politics or ideas were considered
William
Shakespeare
born in The
1564main
in Stratfordunsuitable
occupationswas
for women.
function
upon-Avon,
England.
He
was
born
into
a
of women in society was childbearing andmiddle-class
supervising
family
and married
Anne
Hathaway
who bore
him three
the household.
Women
who
were childless
or unmarried
children.
In
1590
he
travelled
to
London
to
pursue
like Doris Kilman were of a lower status. World
War aI
career
as
an
actor
and
playwright.
He
died
in
1616
at
and its cataclysmic consequences became a catalystthe
for
age
of change
fifty-two.
social
that saw universal women’s suffrage in
Shakespeare
wasand
influenced
by the
playwrights
Britain by 1928
the freedom
forpopular
some women
to be
of
his day,
particularly
Marlowe. He was
elected
to parliament
in Christopher
1918.
also
influenced
by important
classical texts
from changes,
Greece and
Rome.
Along
with these
political
the
rigid
Shakespeare
a special
talentbegan
for recording
the
mores aroundhad
women’s
liberation
to be relaxed.
behaviours,
attitudes
and
dialogue
of people
he knew,
Peter Walsh notices
how
women’s
behaviour
in the
streets
or
of, has
in his
plays.in the five years he has been
of knew
London
shifted
Shakespeare
was
in affectionate
the human with
condition
away when he
seesinterested
them being
their
and
this is reflected
theevening
main themes
of his
These
boyfriends.
Later ininthe
he notes
theplays.
interaction
include
peopleinin
search
for
between the
menrole
andof
women
thesociety,
street asthe
they
socialise
individual
identity,
impact
and
wealth
freely together.
He the
muses
overthat
thismaterialism
revolution in
attitudes
have
on morality
tyranny
of ambition.
Other
and contrasts
it toand
the the
prewar
convictions
held in
the
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love, mortality,
respectable
quarters
of England,
as represented
by Aunt
religion
jealousy.
Helena. and
Clarissa’s
feeling of joy during her morning
walk through London is all the more significant when it
Type
of text
is considered
that in 1923 it was a relatively new thing
The
of Venice
is a play woman to have the
for aMerchant
respectable
middle-class
freedom to walk independently in public. Her exhilaration
Social,
cultural
andsense
historical
contexts
is matched
by Elizabeth’s
of liberation
in riding
Shakespeare
wrote
during the late Elizabethan era
the bus later in
the afternoon.
(1558–1603)
and the
These
These references
inearly
Mrs Jacobean
Dallowayerato(1603–25).
the restrictions
eras
were
characterised
by
turmoil
and
growth
due
to
placed on women are echoed in The Hours through Laura
the
rise
of
capitalism
and
the
middle
classes
through
Brown’s experiences. Considering alternative identities
merchant
trading.
The her
reformation
thetaken
church
from
and the other
directions
life mightof
have
Clarissa
Catholic
to
Protestant
made
for
a
destabilised
society
Dalloway fantasises about how she would have liked to
and
resulted ininmany
bloody
be ‘interested
Politics
like uprisings.
a man’ (p. 11). However,
The
in which
Shakespeare
lived were
and wrote
was
her period
only socially
acceptable
options
to marry
referred
to as the
Renaissance.
period
either Richard
or English
Peter. Having
chosen This
Richard
shesaw
has
significant
changes
in the
of the
become ‘Mrs.
Dalloway;
notperception
even Clarissa
anyworld
more; and
this
the
place
humansDalloway’
within it. (p.
The11).
focus
science
at
being
Mrs.ofRichard
Justof as
Clarissa
this
was on the
relatively
‘new’status
scientific
method
Parrytime
is subsumed
under
her marital
and becomes
which
focused onLaura’s
empirical
evidence
overdesignated
an appeal by
to
‘Mrs Dalloway’,
original
identity
God
for life’sname’,
answers.
her ‘maiden
Laura McGrath, is repressed in her
married
personasociety
as Dan’s
wife, Laura
Brown.
The
Elizabethan
was distinctive
for its
valuingThe
of
difference
is
that
whereas
Clarissa
Dalloway
accedes
to
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
the
social
position
she
occupies,
Laura
Brown
resists
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
and breaks
the social
rules
forbidding
a woman to step
were
extremely
popular
despite
their toxicity.
out of her designated role as wife and mother and is
punished for it. That Clarissa Vaughan in The Hours,
who is in some ways equivalent to Clarissa Dalloway,
Within this enclosure Laura and little Richie enact the
drama of their emotional bind: she trying to steer her
life towards independence while he is powerless to
prevent her from leaving.
♦ How the influence of other texts shapes
meaning
References and allusions to many other literary works
abound in Mrs Dalloway and books are ever present in
the lives of each main character in The Hours, although
specific references are limited to the works of Virginia
Woolf. A key citation in the novel is from Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline: ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun / Nor the
furious winter’s rages’ (p. 10).
In that these lines evoke the cycles of nature they suggest
the inevitability of death. They appear first in the book
Clarissa sees in the window of a London bookshop and
again in her introspection when she learns she has not
been invited to the lunch Richard is going to:
‘Fear no more,’ said Clarissa. Fear no more the
heat of the sun; for the shock of Lady Bruton
asking Richard to lunch without her made the
moment in which she stood shiver. (p. 32)
During this sequence she is conscious of her ageing and
what that means for a woman in a patriarchal society.
Clarissa, fearing ‘time itself … the dwindling of life’ (p.
32), attaches Shakespeare’s words to her sense of
withdrawing into the colourless invisibility that she felt
was the fate of a woman beyond childbearing years.
Reflecting on her youthful feelings of love for Sally she
recalls thinking:
… if it were now to die ’twerenow to be most
happy. That was her feeling—Othello’s feeling,
and she felt it, she was convinced, as strongly as
Shakespeare meant Othello to feel it … (p. 38)
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Their shared appreciation of Shakespeare is another of
the implicit ways in which the novel connects Clarissa
to Septimus, whose obsession with Shakespeare is
enmeshed in his tortured imaginings and hallucinations.
While she was writing Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf
was reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, a novel that is set
over one day, 16 June 1904, in Dublin. Ulysses uses the
stream-of-consciousness technique to convey the nuances
of subjective individual experience, which is reflected
throughout the many references to and echoes of other
English works in Mrs Dalloway.
The main protagonist in each of the three storylines of
The Hours is associated with books. Virginia Woolf is a
writer and Leonard is a publisher. Laura Brown has a
small pile of books on the floor bedside her bed and her
reading of Mrs Dalloway features significantly in how
the viewer interprets her actions. She explicitly discusses
Mrs Dalloway, and her interpretation of it, with Kitty.
Clarissa Vaughan is a book editor and, like the Woolfs,
176
Year 12 Advanced English
has stacks of manuscripts on her desk. On her bookshelf
there are several Virginia Woolf works. She is also
nicknamed ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Richard, who is himself a
writer and whose apartment contains many books. The
emphasis on Mrs Dalloway is obvious but it is also
interwoven implicitly throughout the narrative and
consolidates the major ideas conveyed by the film.
♦ Language concepts: motif, allusion and
intertextuality
Three consistent motifs that the texts share are repeated
references to flowers, clocks and windows. The flower
motif is used to symbolise varying aspects of the
relationships and social contexts depicted in the texts.
The opening line of the novel—‘Mrs. Dalloway said she
would buy the flowers herself’—immediately associates
the protagonist with flowers and shows her desire for
agency in her own life. It juxtaposes with when she
receives the roses that Richard has bought for her. The
profusion of flowers in Mulberry’s florist shop has a
powerful effect on her mood. The passage on pages 13–
14 introduces an organic element into the city context
as ‘she breathed in the [shop’s] earthy garden sweet
smell’, suggesting a communion with the natural world.
The rhythm of the elongated sentence on page 14
suggests Clarissa’s rapturous fantasy of ‘girls in muslin
frocks’ on a summer evening, introducing a nostalgic,
even sentimental tone that appears randomly in her
introspections. Hugh Whitbread gives Lady Bruton a
bunch of pink carnations in keeping with the etiquette
of polite society but it is seen as an empty formality and
contrasts with Sally Seton’s ‘way with flowers’. Sally is
a Radical and speaks out in opposition to the
conservative ideas of the ruling class. Just as she does
not conform to the expectation of demure female
behaviour in polite society, she also ignores convention
in relation to flowers: ‘Sally went out, picked hollyhocks,
dahlias—all sorts of flowers that had never been seen
together—cut their heads off, and made them swim on
top of water in bowls.’ (p. 36). It is Sally’s rebellious
spirit that Clarissa loves most about her and flowers are
present when the ‘exquisite moment’ (p. 38) of their
kiss takes place.
The flower motif is emphasised throughout The Hours
from the credit sequence montage which depicts the
three women waking up and starting their day. The
bedroom of each of the women features floral patterns
in the furnishings. Both Virginia and Laura wear floral
patterned robes and Clarissa has a pot of orchids in her
bathroom. The association with flowers in this instance
suggests femininity. However, the vases of flowers that
are foregrounded in each setting have more specific
reference. The blue cornflowers in Virginia’s house are
picked from the summer garden. Throughout her story
Virginia is associated with the natural setting of the
garden, evincing her constant thoughts of death. The
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
chronological time. The presence of the clock on
Richie’s bedside table and on the bedside table of the
hotel room where Laura intends to take her life is a
poignant reminder that their lives are imbued with
impending death.
Windows are the means by which two of the deaths
occur in the texts—Septimus in Mrs Dalloway and
Richard in The Hours—but windows are symbolically
significant in other ways. Clarissa Dalloway watches
the
old lady in a neighbouring apartment twice. The
Audience
first time is in the afternoon when the woman climbs
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
the stairs to her bedroom; that she goes about her life
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
unaware, or uncaring, that she can be observed from an
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
outside perspective represents for Clarissa what she
its narrative.
thinks of as ‘privacy of the soul’ (p. 139), what might be
thought
of as the woman’s independent confidence in
Purpose
her own identity.
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
During
the period
before
she watches
thehistories,
woman
the emotions
and the
intellect.
He wrote
Clarissa
has
been
ruminating
on
her
own
ageing
and
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
her
feelings
about
the
younger
Doris
Kilman
and
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, her
the
own
daughter
It is as
though sheisis one
surveying
merchant
classElizabeth.
and illiterate
commoners,
of his
the
effects
of the
passing of time
her own corporeal
most
defining
characteristics
and on
achievements.
self in relation to the way every individual woman must
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
experience the same life cycle and it ‘made her want to
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
cry’ (p. 139). Her observation, through the same
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
window, of the woman going to bed alone later that
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
night as the party draws to a close emphasises her
of society.
acceptance of death and her awareness of how each
Shakespeare
engages his
audience
hissolitary
use of
individual
experiences
their
lives inthrough
a private
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
way as well as in the public social sphere. Her earlier
and likeable
characters.
to his
16th-century
‘horror
of death’
(p. 167)Heisappealed
transcended
and
she draws
audience
by
making
references
to
contemporary
the blind on what is essentially a vision of herevents
own
and people.
Shakespeare’s
plays continue
to appeal
to a
future.
The window
is the interface
between
the private
modern
audience
through
his
treatment
of
significant
and public world.
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
Septimus’s plunge from the window is like a desperate
bid
to escape
thetext
chaos of his interior private world.
Reading
the
When Rezia is given a sedative she feels that she is
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
‘opening long windows, stepping out into some garden’
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
(p. 164). Similarly to Septimus, Richard in The Hours is
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
haunted by his inner demons and voices. He associates
written in Shakespeare’s ‘middle period’ before he had
the window of his apartment with the window of Mrs
written his great tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
Latch’s house that imprisoned him when he was a little
It is a romantic play in that there are couples who wish
boy, preventing him from holding on to his mother. This
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
association is made explicit through the flashback that
happiness. This complication is resolved at the end and
occurs as he sits, holding the photo of his mother while
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
looking out on to the New York street where he is soon
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
to end his own life.
along the way.
The window is also the source of light that can
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed
metaphorically illuminate characters’ understanding
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
and knowledge of themselves. Richard tries but fails to
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
let the light of life into his world by tearing away the
their best to imagine what a scene would look like
window coverings and Virginia remains in the shadows
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
after Vanessa’s visit with just a vague awareness of the
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
garden outside the window.
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module A: Textual Conversations • Mrs Dalloway and The Hours
177
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
scene in which she lies beside the dead bird, surrounded
by flowers, implies her communion with the idea of her
own mortality. There is dramatic irony in the scene
showing Virginia passing through the vitality of the
garden as she makes her way to the river.
Symbolising the natural cycle of life and death, the
flowers in the vase in Clarissa Vaughan’s study are
dead. It is as she notices this that she makes the decision
to actively step out into the social world to ‘buy the
flowers
The florist shop is the setting for her
About[her]self’.
the composer
conversation with Barbara that, like Clarissa Dalloway’s
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratfordmusings on Miss Pym, conveys her social identity. The
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
flowers that Dan brings to Laura are emblematic of
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
unease; rather than being charmed by his gesture she is
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
disconcerted that though it is his birthday he is giving
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
to her rather than she giving to him, which makes her
age of fifty-two.
feel unworthy because she does not love him as he
Shakespeare
influenced
by the
popular
loves her. Inwas
retrospect
these
yellow
rosesplaywrights
are like a
of
his day,
particularly
Christopher
Marlowe.
was
funeral
offering
for the death
of his dream;
that He
is, their
also
influenced
by classical
texts
from roses
Greecethat
andVirginia
Rome.
life together.
They
parallel the
yellow
Shakespeare
had ofa the
special
puts on the grave
bird. talent for recording the
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
By contrast the abundance of flowers that Clarissa Vaughan
or knew of, in his plays.
is surrounded by throughout her story accentuates her
Shakespeare
was
interested
in the
condition
determined life
force.
Along with
thehuman
armful of
flowers
and
this
is
reflected
in
the
main
themes
of
his
plays.
These
she brings to Richard comes her insistence that
he
include
the
role
of
people
in
society,
the
search
for
should live as it is a human duty to defy death. In this
individual
identity,
the impact
that materialism
and wealth
she is similar
to Clarissa
Dalloway.
Sally Lester’s
efforts
have
on
morality
and
the
tyranny
of
ambition.
Other
to please Clarissa include bringing her a bunch
of
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
flowers that appear insignificant in relation to the
religion
and jealousy.
overabundance
of flowers already in the apartment; this
indicates how their relationship is overwhelmed by the
Type
of text
predominance of Richard in Clarissa’s affections.
The Merchant of Venice is a play
The motif of clocks is of core significance in Mrs
Dalloway cultural
but, while clocks
appear in Thecontexts
Hours, their
Social,
and historical
symbolic meaning is less central. The dominance of the
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
chimes of Big Ben throughout the day is a repeated
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
reminder of the control chronological time wields over
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
the lives of modern humanity. As Peter walks away
the rise of capitalism and the middle classes through
from his visit with Clarissa the ‘great booming voice’ (p.
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
53) of Big Ben strikes eleven-thirty and, after a moment
Catholic to Protestant made for a destabilised society
of silence, the clock on the parish church of St Margaret’s
and resulted in many bloody uprisings.
chimes eleven-thirty. The sound of this second clock is
The
period innature,
which as
Shakespeare
wrote was
to
of
a different
unlike Big lived
Ben itand
is ‘reluctant
referred
to
as
the
English
Renaissance.
This
period
saw
inflict its individuality’ (p. 54). It is a sound that ‘glides
significant
changes
in the
perception
of like
the world
and
into the recesses
of the
heart
and … [is]
something
the
place
of
humans
within
it.
The
focus
of
science
alive’ (p. 54). Peter associates it with the femininity at
of
this
time and
was remembering
on the relatively
method
Clarissa
her‘new’
recentscientific
illness he
feels
which
focused
on empirical
over
an appeal
to
that
‘the
final stroke
tolled forevidence
death that
surprised
in the
God
for
life’s
answers.
midst of life’ (p. 54).
The
society
was distinctive
for its
The Elizabethan
symbolism of
the clock
counting out
thevaluing
hours of
of
appearance,
with
one’s
clothes
a
determinant
of
social
life’s inevitable progression towards death is universal
status.
Beautyin products—both
men and
women—
and evident
the motif as it for
appears
in The
Hours.
were
extremely
popular
despite
their
toxicity.
Each of the three women waking to the day is aware of
the time from their beds. Of the three Clarissa is the
only one whose life is shaped, perhaps dominated, by
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
H
A EBYRWJAILC
HEMM
EM
T
AUMSTSEHNAKESPEARE
NELIA
Jane
Austen’s
Emma was first published in December
About
the composer
1815. Set in the fictional village of Highbury and
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratfordsurrounding locations, the novel’s main concerns are
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
the dangers of conceitedness and misunderstood
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
romantic attachments. It explores issues relating to
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
marriage, gender, age, and social status for women living
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
in genteel Georgian-Regency England. The action revolves
age of fifty-two.
around the relationships between the families who
Shakespeare
was
influenced
by the popular playwrights
reside in these
country
villages.
of his day, particularly Christopher Marlowe. He was
Emma has been adapted for several films, television
also influenced by classical texts from Greece and Rome.
programs and a variety of stage plays. It is also the
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
inspiration for several literary appropriations.
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
or knew of,
his plays.
About
thein composer
Shakespeare
was
interested
the human
condition
Jane Austen (1775–1817)
is aninEnglish
novelist
known
and
this
is
reflected
in
the
main
themes
of
his
plays.
primarily for composing novels which analyseThese
and
include
role of people society
in society,
the end
search
for
critique the
Georgian-Regency
at the
of the
individual
identity,
the
impact
that
materialism
and
wealth
18th century. She was born into a family of lower gentry
have
on morality
andher
the
tyranny
of ambition.
Other
in Hampshire,
where
father
was rector
of Steventon.
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
She had seven siblings: six brothers (five older, one
religion
younger)and
andjealousy.
an older sister, Cassandra.
A
prolific
Type
ofwriter,
text Austen also authored other celebrated
works, including Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and
The Merchant of Venice is a play
Prejudice (1813) and Mansfield Park (1814). She wrote
two
additional
novels, Northanger
Abbey andcontexts
Persuasion,
Social,
cultural
and historical
both published posthumously in 1818. She had begun
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died of an
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
unidentified disease before its completion.
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
Austen’s
explore
thethe
lives
of women,
of
the
rise ofnovels
capitalism
and
middle
classes many
through
whom were
dependant
marriage as
means
to attain
merchant
trading.
The on
reformation
of athe
church
from
a desirable
social position
security.
Her
Catholic
to Protestant
madeand
for financial
a destabilised
society
works
represent
a transition
Romanticism to 19thand
resulted
in many
bloodyfrom
uprisings.
century literary realism, with Austen being most recognised
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
for her acerbic social commentary.
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
significant
changes in the perception of the world and
Type of text
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
Emma is a prose-fiction novel.
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
which
focused
on empirical
evidence over contexts
an appeal to
Social,
cultural
and historical
God for life’s answers.
Jane Austen was born during a period of transition in
The Elizabethan
society
distinctive
for its valuing
of
England.
The 18th
andwas
early
19th centuries
saw the
appearance,
withIndustrial
one’s clothes
a determinant
of social
beginning of the
Revolution,
and the changing
status.
Beautybrought
products—both
for men
and women—
social order
about great
changes
in class
were
extremely
populartowards
despitewomen.
their toxicity.
structure
and attitudes
An increasingly
wealthy middle class resulted in an increase in literacy
rates, a greater demand for books and a general increase
in publication by women. This created a groundswell of
influence over the readers and authors who followed them.
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Jane
Austen is considered both a Georgian and Regency
Audience
author as she lived during the reigns of both King
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
George III (1714–1830) and his son, George IV (1811–
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
20). Emma was composed during the Regency period,
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
during which King George III, who was considered
its narrative.
unfit to rule, stepped down while his son George IV, the
Prince
of Wales, ruled in his place as regent. George IV
Purpose
was a dedicated patron of the arts and Austen dedicated
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
Emma to him at his strong suggestion.
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
Austen
wrote
duringand
thecomedies.
RomanticHis
period,
is
tragedies,
romances
abilitywhich
to write
defined
by
a
significant
emphasis
on
the
emotional
life
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
as
a sourceclass
of inspiration
and commoners,
repository of is
authenticity.
merchant
and illiterate
one of his
This
contrasts
with
the
Enlightenment’s
appeal to
most defining characteristics and achievements.
reason and intellect. It was also a time of uncertainty
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
and concern about the hopes and failures of the French
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
Revolution, which contributed to the creation of new
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
literary values surrounding the centrality of the
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
individual’s freedoms and passions. Despite Austen’s
of society.
novels being set during the turbulence of the Napoleonic
Shakespeare
engages
his of
audience
through
hisinuse
of
wars and during
a period
great social
unrest
rural
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
England, her characters appear entirely concerned with
and
likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
the parochial.
audience by making references to contemporary events
Audience
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
modern
audience
hisreaders
treatment
of significant
Austen had
manythrough
admiring
during
the 19th
themes
such
as
love,
jealousy,
ambition
and
century who appreciated her social realism.mortality.
However,
as the more traditional Romantic novel was socially
Reading
the text
popular, Austen’s novels did not appeal to a wide
Students
must
Shakespeare
was writing
audience. Laterremember
Victorianthat
critics
and audiences
were
over
400
years
ago
and
as
a
result
some
elements
of the
drawn to the work of authors such as Charles Dickens
plays
may seem
complex.Austen’s
This play
was
and George
Eliotobscure
and in and
comparison
novels
written
in
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’
before
he
appeared provincial and associated with country, had
not
written
hisAlthough
great tragedies
suchworks
as Hamlet
Macbeth.
city, life.
Austen’s
wereand
republished
It
is awere
romantic
in that there
couples
they
not play
bestsellers,
with are
those
who who
did wish
read
to
be
together
but
a
complication
stands
in
the
way
of their
Austen viewing themselves as a discriminating
and
happiness.
This complication is resolved at the end and
cultured minority.
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
Purpose
means there will be mishaps and misunderstandings
along
Austentheisway.
an English writer who created distinctly
modern
characters through
her written
observations
of people
All
of Shakespeare’s
plays were
to be performed
going
This insocial
in
the about
theatretheir
andeveryday
this mustlives.
be kept
mindrealism
when
saw Austen’s
novels replete
with
ordinary
people,
reading
The Merchant
of Venice.
Students
should
try
placesbest
and to
events,
in strong
other novels
of
their
imagine
what contrast
a scenetowould
look like
the time.IfBy
so doing
waswatch
able to
mimic, satirise
onstage.
possible
youshe
should
a performance
of
and play,
therefore
expose
a wide
rangeoroflive,
human
experiences
the
whether
it is
recorded
to gain
a better
and it is this which
makes her
still relevantand
and the
popular
understanding
of character
relationships
way
withlanguage
modern sounds
audiences.
the
when spoken onstage.
Module B • Critical Study of Literature • Emma
241
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Introduction to the text
Reading the text
You are studying Emma in Advanced Module B of the
NSW Year 12 English syllabus. It will be necessary for you
to develop detailed, analytical and critical knowledge along
with an understanding and appreciation of the text.
You are to come to an understanding of the distinctive
qualities of the text and of notions of textual integrity
and significance. You will develop a close analysis of
the novel’s construction, content and language to develop
your own interpretation of the text. You should develop
the idea of context in terms of composition and reception.
You should also investigate and evaluate the perspectives
of others.
In order to make a successful study of literature it is
important to be a deep and attentive reader. This means
reading, then rereading and making an active engagement
with the book, as well as taking notes.
When studying a novel it is essential to think critically
about the five elements of narrative: plot, setting,
characterisation, theme and style. Taking notes on these
during your initial reading is essential. It is also
important to pay close attention to the narrative voice
used in the novel.
Key concepts and definitions
Epistolary convention—a literary technique that conveys
information through a series of documents. The usual
form is letters although diary entries, newspaper
clippings and other documents may be used.
Free indirect discourse—a style of third-person narration
which uses some characteristics of third person along with
the main characteristics of first-person direct speech
Focus on the syllabus
Details of the text
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
♦ Plot summary
Chapter 1—the novel begins by introducing the reader to
Emma Woodhouse, a girl endowed with ‘some of the
best blessings of existence’ (p. 7), including good looks,
intelligence, riches and a loving father. We learn that
Emma thinks ‘a little too well of herself’ (p. 7). Emma’s
mother died before Emma could remember her but her
governess, Miss Taylor, provided maternal love. After
Emma’s older sister, Isabella, married and moved to
London, Miss Taylor and Emma became very close. As
the novel begins Miss Taylor has just left Hartfield, the
estate of Emma and Mr Woodhouse, to marry a widower
named Mr Weston, and Emma is left without a companion.
Chapter 2—the village looks forward to a visit from
Frank Churchill. He is the son from Mr Weston’s first
marriage and he is visiting as his father is to be remarried
to Miss Taylor, Emma’s governess.
Chapter 3—the Woodhouses give a small dinner party.
Mrs Goddard brings one of her boarders, Harriet Smith.
Emma admires Harriet for her beauty and for her respect
of Emma and Hartfield. She decides to ‘improve’ the
naive girl by redirecting her acquaintance away from
the inferior Martin family.
Chapter 4—Emma encourages Harriet to compare the
manners of the farmer Mr Martin with those of Mr
Elton. Emma determines during the party at Hartfield to
encourage a match between Harriet and Mr Elton.
Chapter 5—Mr George Knightley and Mrs Weston
converse about Emma’s new friendship with Harriet.
Knightley believes that the friendship is dangerous;
however, Mrs Weston disagrees, believing that Emma’s
company will improve Harriet.
242
Year 12 Advanced English
Chapter 6—Emma continues to point out Mr Elton’s
finer qualities to Harriet and is convinced that he is
already in love with her friend. Mr Elton praises the
graces that Harriet has gained in Emma’s company and
he quickly supports Emma’s idea to paint a watercolour
portrait of Harriet.
Chapter 7—Harriet receives a letter from Mr Martin
proposing marriage and goes directly to Emma to seek
advice. Harriet becomes upset by Emma’s suggestion
that she refuse him but Emma cheers her up with
reminders of Mr Elton.
Chapter 8—Knightley reveals that Mr Martin has
consulted him about proposing to Harriet and Knightley
makes it clear that he supports the match. Emma
informs him that the proposal has already been made
and rejected, and she insists that Mr Martin is not
Harriet’s equal.
Chapter 9—Emma convinces Harriet that Mr Elton’s
riddle ‘courtship’ foretells a proposal and she copies the
riddle into Harriet’s book.
Chapter 10—Harriet expresses her surprise that Emma
has not married and Emma explains her resolution to
remain single. Emma attempts to leave Mr Elton and
Harriet together by falling behind, speaking with a child
and pretending to lace her boots. Elton continues to
show no interest in Harriet.
Chapter 11—Mr and Mrs John Knightley and their
children arrive at Hartfield and temporarily occupy all
of Emma’s attention.
Chapter 12—Mr Knightley comes to dinner at Hartfield
and though he and Emma still disagree about Harriet
they are reunited in their friendship.
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Chapter 23—Emma takes Harriet to visit the Martins.
Harriet has a friendly visit with Mr Martin’s mother and
sister but when the visit ends it is obvious that the
Martins realise they have been socially snubbed.
Though concerned, Emma still believes she is doing
what is best for Harriet. Mr and Mrs Weston announce
that Frank Churchill is to arrive.
Chapter 24—Frank Churchill and Mrs Weston visit
Hartfield the next day and Emma is pleased by Frank’s
kindness
toward his stepmother. He appears interested
Audience
in everything about Highbury.
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
Chapter
—Emma’s
opinion
of Frank
is both a25
comedy
and afavourable
romance. As
it is a play
it did
Churchill
is
lowered
when
he
makes
a
day
to
not require an audience member to be literate totrip
enjoy
London
just
to
have
his
hair
cut.
Mr
Knightley
also
its narrative.
thinks Frank is a bit foolish. When an invitation arrives
from
the Coles she decides to accept it despite disliking
Purpose
them
for Shakespeare
being ‘new money’.
William
wrote plays that appealed to both
Chapter
26—Emma
at the Coles’s
partyhistories,
after Mr
the emotions
and arrives
the intellect.
He wrote
Knightley.
At dinner it
is revealed
Fairfax
has
tragedies, romances
and
comedies.that
HisJane
ability
to write
received
the mysterious
gift of a pianoforte
and Emma
for a diverse
audience, including
royalty, nobility,
the
tells
Frank class
she suspects
it is a gift
from Mr Dixon.
merchant
and illiterate
commoners,
is one When
of his
Jane
she looks embarrassed
when asked
most arrives
defininglater
characteristics
and achievements.
about
the
pianoforte.
Emma
is
pleased
that
Frank asks
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain,
yet
her
and
not
Jane
for
a
dance.
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
Chapter
—at
the Coles’s of
party
Harriet hears
Mr
reveal a 27
deep
understanding
the operation
of thethat
human
Martin
hadrelationships
dined with the
Cox family
andand
there
is workings
a rumour
mind, the
between
people
the
that
a Cox daughter would like to marry Mr Martin.
of society.
Chapter
28—Mr
Knightley
by the
Bates’shis
to use
check
Shakespeare
engages
his stops
audience
through
of
on
healthimpressive
but refusesimagery,
to come emotive
in when language
he hears
wit,Jane’s
allusion,
that
Frank is characters.
there.
and likeable
He appealed to his 16th-century
audience
by
making
references
to contemporary
Chapter 29—Frank and Emma work
on planning events
a ball
and
people.
Shakespeare’s
plays
continue
and Frank secures from Emma a promise to
toappeal
dance to
thea
modern
audience
through
his
treatment
of
significant
first two dances with him.
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
Chapter 30—Emma is worried that Frank’s aunt, Mrs
Churchill,
Readingwill
therefuse
textFrank permission to stay on for
the ball, which is scheduled for a few days after his visit
Students must remember that Shakespeare was writing
is meant to end. Emma decides that she must be ‘a little
over 400 years ago and as a result some elements of the
in love’ (p. 244) with Frank.
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
Chapter
31—
Emma fantasises
about
herbefore
relationship
written in
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’
he had
with
Frank
but her
romantic
fantasy
always
with
written
his great
tragedies
such
as Hamlet
andends
Macbeth.
her
him.
Village
gossip
to Mr Elton,
who
It isrefusing
a romantic
play
in that
thereturns
are couples
who wish
will
arrive
with
his new
bride.
to besoon
together
butina Highbury
complication
stands
in the
way Harriet
of their
is
nervous about
Mr Elton’s return.
happiness.
This complication
is resolved at the end and
Chapter
—‘happily
Mr Eltonever
returns
his bride
and Emma
they all 32
live
after’.with
It is also
a comedy
which
decides
that she
and
should
the newlyweds
means there
will
beHarriet
mishaps
and visit
misunderstandings
early
order to show their support.
alongon
theinway.
Chapter
33—Emma reveals
her dislike
Elton.
All of Shakespeare’s
plays were
writtenoftoMrs
be performed
in
the
theatre
and
this
must
be
kept
in
mind
Chapter 34—fulfilling her social obligation, Emma when
plans
of Venice.
should
try
areading
dinner The
partyMerchant
for Mrs Elton.
HarrietStudents
asks to be
excused
their
best
to
imagine
what
a
scene
would
look
like
and this gives Emma the opportunity to invite Jane Fairfax.
onstage.35
If—
possible
you insists
should on
watch
a performance
Chapter
Mrs Elton
helping
Jane find ofa
the
play,
whether
it
is
recorded
or
live,
to
gain
better
governess position, though Jane explains that she awill
not
understanding
of
character
relationships
and
the
way
need one until after she sees the Campbells. It is revealed
the language
spoken
onstage.
that
Frank willsounds
be ablewhen
to visit
Highbury
more often.
Module B • Critical Study of Literature • Emma
243
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Chapter 13—the Woodhouses and Knightleys are invited
to the Westons’ for Christmas Eve dinner. Harriet and
Mr Elton are also included but Harriet comes down
with a sore throat and is forced to miss the event.
Chapter 14—Mrs Weston confides to Emma that she has
some anxiety about meeting her stepson and she fears
Mrs Churchill will prevent him from coming. She and
Emma converse about details regarding Enscombe, the
Churchill estate, and Emma wonders why a young man
should be
so composer
dependent upon the decisions of his
About
the
guardian.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in StratfordChapter
15—Mr
Elton joins
Emma
the adrawing
room
upon-Avon,
England.
He was
bornininto
middle-class
and
displeases
her
by
acting
more
concerned
with
her
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
health
than
with
Harriet’s.
In
the
confusion
created
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursueby
a
the
party
breaking
up,playwright.
Emma finds
career
as an
actor and
Heherself
died inalone
1616 in
at one
the
of
agethe
of carriages
fifty-two.with Mr Elton. He immediately declares
his love for her and proposes.
Shakespeare was influenced by the popular playwrights
Chapter
16—particularly
Emma realises
that bothMarlowe.
of the Knightley
of his day,
Christopher
He was
brothers
have
been
right
about
Elton
and
has
also influenced by classical texts from Greecethat
andshe
Rome.
been
wrong
all
along.
Emma
vows
to
give
up
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
matchmaking
but
she
cannot
stop
herself
from
searching
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
for
a newof,
match
Harriet.
or knew
in hisfor
plays.
Chapter 17—Mr
Mrs John
Knightley
return to
Shakespeare
wasand
interested
in the
human condition
London
Mr Elton
writesthemes
to Mr
Woodhouse
to
and
this isand
reflected
in the main
of his
plays. These
announce
he of
will
spendin
thesociety,
next few
in the
include
thethat
role
people
theweeks
search
for
town of Bath.
individual
identity, the impact that materialism and wealth
Chapter
—Frank and
Churchill
does notofmake
his expected
have
on18morality
the tyranny
ambition.
Other
visit, to the
disappointment
of Mrs Weston
in particular.
familiar
themes
included unrequited
love,
mortality,
Emma predicts
that Frank, when he does arrive in
religion
and jealousy.
Highbury, will be charming. Knightley believes that
Type
of be
text
Frank will
superficial and intolerable. This prejudice
of Knightley’s
against
surprises Emma.
The
Merchant of
VeniceFrank
is a play
Chapter 19—during a visit with Mrs and Miss Bates,
Social,
cultural and historical contexts
Emma and Harriet are forced to hear about Mr Elton
Shakespeare
wrote
thetolate
and his travels.
Emmaduring
has tried
timeElizabethan
her visit so asera
to
(1558–1603)
and
the
early
Jacobean
era
(1603–25).
These
avoid hearing about Miss Bates’s niece, Jane Fairfax,
eras
wereBates
characterised
by turmoil
and who
growth
due
to
but Miss
reads a letter
from Jane,
lives
with
the
rise
of
capitalism
and
the
middle
classes
through
her guardians Colonel and Mrs Campbell.
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
Chapter 20—Jane’s visit to Highbury represents her last
Catholic to Protestant made for a destabilised society
taste of freedom before becoming a governess. She
and resulted in many bloody uprisings.
arrives and Emma greets her with mixed feelings. Emma
The
periodthat
in which
wrote was
discovers
Jane Shakespeare
has known lived
Frankand
Churchill
in
referred
to
as
the
English
Renaissance.
This
period
saw
Weymouth but Jane is secretive about him.
significant changes in the perception of the world and
Chapter 21—Mr Elton is to marry a Miss Hawkins.
the place of humans within it. The focus of science at
Emma is caught off guard by this news and Mr
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
Knightley’s looks suggest he knows something of what
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
has occurred between them.
God for life’s answers.
Chapter 22—in Highbury there is conversation about
The Elizabethan society was distinctive for its valuing of
Miss Hawkins, Mr Elton’s fiancée. Mr Elton returns to
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
the village long enough to confirm the rumours that his
status. Beauty products—both for men and women—
bride-to-be is beautiful, accomplished and of some
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
fortune. Emma is relieved that his marriage will ease
the social awkwardness but she has some mean-spirited
thoughts about Miss Hawkins’s inferior social standing.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Chapter 36—Mr John Knightley wonders if his sons will
be in the way at Hartfield now that Emma has become
so social. Emma replies by stating that she is even more
domestic than Mr George Knightley, who seems pleased
and amused by this
Chapter 37—when Emma sees Frank again he is friendly
and animated but only stays for fifteen minutes. Frank’s
short visit convinces Emma that his feelings must have
changed.
Chapter 38—the day of the ball arrives. Emma is invited
by Mr Weston to come early and give her opinion on the
decorations and she hopes to speak with Frank. Knightley
admits that Harriet has more favourable qualities than
he originally thought and this pleases Emma.
Chapter 39—Frank appears suddenly with Harriet,
fainting, on his arm. Emma wonders whether this might
make Harriet and Frank interested in each other.
Chapter 40—Harriet informs Emma that her infatuation
with Mr Elton is over. Emma asks if Harriet has feelings
for someone of higher rank and Harriet says yes, although
no further details are given. Knightley suspects that there
is some secret understanding between Frank and Jane.
Chapter 41—Mr Knightley suspects that there is some
secret relationship between Frank and Jane. Emma is
amused and replies that she knows why Frank seems
indifferent to Jane. Knightley is annoyed by Emma’s
implication that she and Frank are confidantes.
Chapter 42—Emma enjoys walking through Knightley’s
house and grounds at Donwell Abbey. She overhears
Jane turning down a governess’s position that Mrs Elton
has found for her.
Chapter 43—the Box Hill trip is not successful. Mr and
Mrs Elton keep to themselves; Mr Knightley, Miss Bates
and Jane form a second private party; and Emma stays
with Harriet and Frank. Emma ridicules Miss Bates
during a game devised by Frank and, after being
reprimanded by Knightley who rebuffs her for her poor
manners and cruelty, she cries all the way home.
Chapter 44—Emma decides that the Box Hill party was
a disaster. Jane has just accepted the governess position
recommended by Mrs Elton and Emma expresses
surprise and genuine concern for the unhappiness Jane’s
departure must cause everyone. Emma is surprised to
learn that Frank left the previous evening for Richmond.
Chapter 45—Mrs Churchill has died and Emma thinks
this event may improve Harriet’s chances with Frank.
Meanwhile she attempts to provide assistance to Jane,
inviting her to Hartfield, but she feels hurt that Jane
seems to be particularly avoiding her.
Chapter 46—Frank reveals that he and Jane have been
secretly engaged. Emma is shocked and embarrassed by
the things she has said to Frank about Jane. She is also
worried about Harriet’s feelings.
244
Year 12 Advanced English
Chapter 47—Emma realises that she is in love with Mr
Knightley. She realises this after Harriet declares her
love for him and states that she would have never
looked towards someone like Knightley but for Emma’s
encouragement. Emma is worried that Knightley may
marry Harriet and she has made it all possible.
Chapter 48—Emma regrets that she was not a better
friend to Jane, as Knightley had suggested, and she
reflects on how lonely life will be without Knightley’s
visits to Hartfield.
Chapter 49—Knightley says he does not wish for Emma’s
friendship and declares his love. They are engaged to
marry. Knightley is surprised, as he was certain that
Emma was in love with Frank.
Chapter 50—Emma is excited as she and Mr Knightley
join her father for tea. She also worries about Harriet
and her father.
Chapter 51—Emma forgives Frank. Knightley and Emma
discuss her father and he agrees that Emma cannot leave
Hartfield and that Mr Woodhouse cannot be expected to
move to Donwell Abbey. He suggests that he move to
Hartfield and Emma is moved by his kindness and
sacrifice.
Chapter 52—Emma decides not to tell her father of her
engagement until Mrs Weston, who is pregnant, has
given birth.
Chapter 53—Mrs Weston has a baby girl. Mr John
Knightley congratulates Mr Knightley and Emma on
their engagement and surprises them by indicating that
he is not surprised by the news. Emma eventually tells
her father. Mr Woodhouse is surprised but he slowly
begins to support the match.
Chapter 54—Harriet is to marry Robert Martin. Emma
and Mr Knightley go to visit Randalls and find Frank
and Jane there. At first Emma’s meeting with Frank is
awkward but soon they are friends again.
Chapter 55—Harriet has got over her interest in Knightley.
Harriet and Mr Martin are the first of the newly engaged
couples to marry (in September) and Frank and Jane
will be the last (in November). Emma wants to be married
in October but it appears Mr Woodhouse will not support
this. When Mrs Weston’s chickens are stolen Mr
Woodhouse agrees that Mr Knightley should move in.
♦ Characters
Emma—Emma Woodhouse is the youngest of Mr
Woodhouse’s daughters. She resides with her father at
Hartfield. Mr Woodhouse is the second highest-ranking
man (behind Knightley) in the neighbourhood and
comes from an established and well-respected family.
Emma has a dowry of 30 000 pounds. Her sister Isabella
is married to Mr John Knightley, a lawyer in London
and the brother of Mr George Knightley.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Woodhouse. Although he often chides and disapproves
of Emma his regard for her becomes apparent: ‘There is
an anxiety, a curiosity in what one feels for Emma’
(p. 39), although it is this love that provides opportunities
for his rare errors of judgement. Knightley reveals his
jealousy of Frank and when he believes Emma has
become attached to Frank he acts rashly by leaving for
London. The reader is sympathetic towards Knightley
and rather than detracting from his personality his
faults make him appear more charming and natural.
Audience
Frank Churchill—Frank is the first child of Mr Weston,
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
known as Captain Weston, and his first wife, Mrs Weston
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
of the Churchill family. His uncle, Mr Churchill, had no
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
children and was interested in adopting Frank and
its narrative.
giving him a life of opportunity. Captain Weston let him
go
and Frank’s name was changed from Weston to
Purpose
Churchill. During his time with the Churchills his father
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
quit the army and began to become successful in trade.
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
Frank
is presented
very
attractive
amiable
in
tragedies,
romances as
and
comedies.
Hisand
ability
to write
speech,
manner
and
appearance.
Like
Emma
he
develops
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
over
the course
theilliterate
novel bycommoners,
transitioningis from
being
merchant
class of
and
one of
his
vain
and
superficial
to
revealing
experiences
of
genuine
most defining characteristics and achievements.
suffering.
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
Frank
intelligence
his real
despiteuses
the his
popular
nature to
of hide
his plays
theyfeelings
manageand
to
dissembles
by
forming
clever
compliments
to human
please
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the
those
him. Knightley
finds
himand
quite
mind,around
the relationships
between
people
theimmature
workings
and
disapproves
of
his
behaviour
although
this is a
of society.
result of his jealousy of Frank’s interest in Emma,
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use of
despite Frank’s real love being Jane Fairfax. Knightley
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
criticises Frank for not visiting his father sooner and
and likeable characters. He appealed to his 16th-century
reveals his opinion of his faults:
audience by making references to contemporary events
There Shakespeare’s
is one thing, Emma,
which a to
man
can to a
and people.
plays continue
appeal
always
do, if he
chuses,his
andtreatment
that is, his of
duty;
not
modern
audience
through
significant
by maneuvering and finessing, but by vigour and
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
resolution. (p. 138)
Reading
the
Jane
Fairfax—
an text
orphan who was brought up away
from
her maternal
aunt, Miss
Bates, and grandmother,
Students
must remember
that Shakespeare
was writing
Mrs
They
refer
to hersome
through
the letters
over Bates.
400 years
agooften
and as
a result
elements
of the
they
and relate
the details
of her accomplishments.
playsreceive
may seem
obscure
and complex.
This play was
They
read
of her letters
many times—forty
according
written
ineach
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’ before
he had
to
Emma,
to her irritation—and
although
Jane’s
written
hismuch
great tragedies
such as Hamlet
and Macbeth.
appearance
andplay
accomplishments
evident,
It is a romantic
in that there areare
couples
whoEmma
wish
initially
judges
to be boring.
Janeinisthereserved
but
to be together
buther
a complication
stands
way of their
slowly
reveals
personality
and emotion
until
it
happiness.
Thismore
complication
is resolved
at the end
and
becomes
evident
thatever
sheafter’.
is hiding
some
secret. which
they all live
‘happily
It is also
a comedy
means situation
there willis be
mishaps
and misunderstandings
Jane’s
direr
than Emma’s:
if she does not
along
the
way.
marry she must become a governess as she lacks any
money
of her own.plays
The were
revelation
Jane’s
secret
All of Shakespeare’s
writtenof
to be
performed
engagement
to Frank
Jane be
appear
substantial.
in the theatre
and makes
this must
keptmore
in mind
when
Her
sensitivity
towardsof propriety
and morality
reading
The Merchant
Venice. Students
should are
try
contrasted
Emma’swhat
controlling
which
their best with
to imagine
a scenepersonality,
would look
like
is
supported
by the safety
of Emma’s
and social
onstage.
If possible
you should
watch wealth
a performance
of
position.
advantages
Emma
her
the play, Despite
whetherher
it is
recorded or
live, cannot
to gain hide
a better
jealousy:
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module B • Critical Study of Literature • Emma
245
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Austen predicted that Emma would be ‘a character whom
no-one but me will much like’. In Chapter 1 Emma is
introduced through reference to her good fortune:
‘handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home
and happy disposition’ Emma ‘had lived nearly twentyone years in the world with very little to distress or vex
her’ (p. 8). However, the narrator warns that Emma
possesses ‘the power of having rather too much her own
way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself’
(p. 7). In Chapter 1 the repetition of the phrase ‘I do not
About
want’ (p.the
82) composer
reinforces Emma’s lifestyle and social
William
born infor1564
in Stratfordposition. Shakespeare
She looks to was
her father
guidance
and he
upon-Avon,
England.
He
was
born
into
a
middle-class
represents a reason for her reluctance to marry:
‘... never,
familycould
and married
Hathaway
who bore
him three
never
I expectAnne
to be so
truly beloved
and important;
children.
In
1590
he
travelled
to
London
to
so always first and always right in any man’s pursue
eyes as aI
career
as
an
actor
and
playwright.
He
died
in
1616
at the
am in my father’s’ (p. 82).
age
of
fifty-two.
Emma is a meddler who believes that her interference is
Shakespeare
was influenced
bymeddling
the popular
playwrights
well intentioned;
however, her
does
not result
of
day, particularly
Christopher in
Marlowe.
in his
positive
outcomes, particularly
relationHe
to was
her
also
influenced
classical
texts
fromEmma
Greece retains
and Rome.
friend
Harriet. by
Despite
her
faults
the
Shakespeare
had athrough
specialher
talent
for recording
the
readers’ sympathy
transition
from naivety
behaviours,
attitudes
and dialogue
of people
he station
knew,
to maturity. Emma
attempts
to improve
Harriet’s
or
of,her
in his
plays.
by knew
having
marry
a ‘gentleman’ (Mr Elton) when
Harriet’s social
position
indicates
shehuman
would condition
be better
Shakespeare
was
interested
in the
matched
a farmer.
She
encourages
Churchill
and
this isto
reflected
in the
main
themes ofFrank
his plays.
These
despite not
about
and, despite
claiming
include
thebeing
role serious
of people
inhim
society,
the search
for
to desire aidentity,
single life,
she eventually
acknowledges
that
individual
the impact
that materialism
and wealth
she ison
in love
with and
Mr Knightley.
have
morality
the tyranny of ambition. Other
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love, brother
mortality,
Mr Knightley—George Knightley
is the older
of
religion
and
jealousy.
John Knightley and knows the Woodhouse family of
Hartfield very well. He is a wealthy landowner whose
Type
of textAbbey, a mile away from the village of
seat is Donwell
The
Merchant
Venice isestate.
a play Throughout the novel
Highbury and ofHartfield
George Knightley acts as a guide for Emma and in
Social,
cultural and historical contexts
marrying him she signals that her values and attitudes
Shakespeare
wrote his.
during the late Elizabethan era
finally complement
(1558–1603) and the early Jacobean era (1603–25). These
From Chapter 1 Knightley begins to express his opinion
eras were characterised by turmoil and growth due to
on the behaviour of those around him, providing a
the rise of capitalism and the middle classes through
personal evaluation based on his own moral compass:
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
I think
[Harriet Smith]
the avery
worst sortsociety
of
Catholic
to Protestant
made for
destabilised
companion that Emma could possibly have. She
and resulted
in many bloody uprisings.
knows nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as
The period
in which
Shakespeare
lived and
knowing
everything.
She is a flatterer
in wrote
all her was
referred
to
as
the
English
Renaissance.
This
period
ways; and so much the worse, because undesigned. saw
significant
changes in
the perception
of the
Her ignorance
is hourly
flattery. How
can world
Emma and
imagine
she has within
anything
learn
herself,
while at
the place
of humans
it.toThe
focus
of science
Harriet
presenting
such a ‘new’
delightful
inferiority?
this time
wasison
the relatively
scientific
method
37) on empirical evidence over an appeal to
which (p.
focused
God
forothers
life’s answers.
Unlike
in Highbury who see little or no fault in
Emma,
Mr Knightley
recognises
that her
sense
The
Elizabethan
society
was distinctive
forelevated
its valuing
of
of self leads with
her to
believe
shea can
interpret of
people’s
appearance,
one’s
clothes
determinant
social
needs and
thenproducts—both
persuade them for
to do
herand
will.women—
Because
status.
Beauty
men
of thisextremely
he becomes
the one
person
in toxicity.
her life who does
were
popular
despite
their
not encourage her or compliment her for everything. He
is honest and kind and shows tact regarding Mr
Emma was sorry;—to have to pay civilities to a
person she did not like through three long
months!—to be always doing more than she
wished, and less than she ought! Why she did
not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question
to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was
because she saw in her the really accomplished
young woman, which she wanted to be thought
herself; and though the accusation had been
eagerly refuted at the time, there were moments
of self-examination in which her conscience
could not quite acquit her. (p. 156)
Mr Woodhouse—Emma’s father is presented as rather
weak and nervous. He is Emma’s most constant companion
and his attitudes towards relationships and marriage
are a significant influence on her. He never speaks of
marriage with anything but negative connotations. He
says of marriages that ‘They are silly things, and break
up one’s family circle grievously’ (p. 10). Mr Woodhouse
detests change and grows nervous at the thought of
marriage. His observations are filled with references to
‘Poor Isabella’ and ‘Poor Miss Taylor’, who are ‘poor’
simply through their error of marrying and invoking
change. Austen presents his character chiefly through
dialogue, which allows his eccentricities to reveal
themselves. He is introduced by her as ‘a nervous man,
easily depressed ... hating change of any kind’ (p. 9).
♦ Settings
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Emma is set in a very fixed environment with most of
the action taking place in the village of Highbury and a
small surrounding area. Many of the events of the novel
occur within domestic environments. The drawing,
dining or dancing rooms are the real settings that
complement the social situations of the text, those being
the details of the human relationships. The actual
physical geography is only described in a limited way.
Highbury—located in Surrey, Highbury is the fictional
village where the novel is set. It is in the countryside of
England, sixteen miles from London.
Hartfield—the Woodhouse family home and Emma’s
favoured location. It is on the edge of Highbury and is
the village’s principal house.
Randalls—a village neighbouring Highbury and the home
of the Westons
Interpreting the text: close analysis of
construction, content and language
♦ Themes
Social hierarchy—in Emma the social class structure is
rigid, with life governed by an acknowledged code of
behaviour within a controlled hierarchy of wealth and
social breeding. The novel is concerned with the role
that class and gender play in the everyday lives of the
‘middling classes’, which included those groups between
the upper-class nobility, including the royal family
through to barons, as well as the lower classes.
246
Year 12 Advanced English
It was possible to buy access into the landed gentry
with new money earned from business. Only sons could
legally inherit property, which left families with daughters
without the means to support themselves. Families could
improve their social standing when a daughter married
a man of property. ‘Breeding’, the official records of
birth and family, distinguished between families whose
wealth derived from land and inheritance and those
whose wealth was derived from trade. At this time trade
was considered to be vulgar and it relegated the nouveau
riche (new money) families to a lower social class.
Social hierarchy influences the interactions and
relationships of the characters within Emma. Those of
lower social standing rely upon the goodwill and approval
of those in a higher class. When violations of this order
occur they are often met with indignation by those of
the upper class, as seen by Emma taking offence at Mrs
Elton presuming to nickname Mr Knightley or the
revulsion she experiences when Mr Elton proposes to
her. Despite her wealth Mrs Elton is regarded as ‘new
money’ and therefore, by Highbury standards, as vulgar:
... the quarter of an hour quite convinced her
that Mrs. Elton was a vain woman, extremely
well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of
her own importance; that she meant to shine and
be very superior, but with manners which had
been formed in a bad school, pert and familiar;
that all her notions were drawn from one set of
people, and one style of living; that if not foolish
she was ignorant, and that her society would
certainly do Mr. Elton no good. (p. 253)
In contrast to Mrs Elton, the Coles, despite also being
‘new money’, are portrayed as displaying proper
attitudes since they are neither pretentious nor selfpromoting. Mrs Coles confesses humbly that no-one in
her family could play their new grand pianoforte.
Additionally the Coles are viewed favourably for sending
to London for a folding-screen ‘which they hoped might
keep Mr. Woodhouse from any draught of air and
therefore induce him the more readily to give them the
honour of his company’ (p. 195). In this way, ‘parvenus’
(people of humble origin who have gained wealth)
were tolerated if they were not too flashy or loud and
deferred respectfully to more established families.
Austen, through the satirical nature of her social
commentary, critiques these attitudes towards class and
gender by allowing them to be exposed and ridiculed.
Gender and marriage—love, courtship and marriage are
central themes in Emma. Within the small world of her
characters Austen explores the illusions of romance
with an eventual progression towards more realistic
relationships, with each match reinforcing the couple’s
social status. For a young woman of this period marriage
was the guaranteed path to independence and freedom,
with marriage to a wealthy man of good birth being the
most desirable. Regency society was patriarchal, with
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
in the world for having much of the public
and she had no intellectual superiority to
Typefavour;
of text
make atonement to herself or frighten those who
The Merchant
of Venice
is aoutward
play respect. She had
might hate
her into
never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her
Social,
cultural
and
historical
youth
had passed
without
distinction,contexts
and her
middle of
life was
devoted
to the
of a failing era
Shakespeare
wrote
during
the
latecare
Elizabethan
motherand
and
endeavour
a small
(1558–1603)
thethe
early
Jacobeantoeramake
(1603–25).
These
income
go as far as by
possible.
And
yetgrowth
she wasdue
a to
eras were
characterised
turmoil
and
happy woman, a woman whom no one named
the rise
of capitalism and the middle classes through
without goodwill. (p. 22)
merchant trading. The reformation of the church from
Despite all
indicationsmade
it is for
marriage
that ultimately
Catholic
to Protestant
a destabilised
society
provides
happiness
resolution
to the novel. It is
and
resulted
in manyand
bloody
uprisings.
only
after Emma
discovers
her true
forwas
Mr
The period
in which
Shakespeare
lived feelings
and wrote
Knightley
near
the
end
of
the
text
that
she
transforms
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
into
havingchanges
more recognisable
romantic
significant
in the perception
of characteristics,
the world and
with
her
previous
negative
view
of
love
attributed
to an
the place of humans within it. The focus
of science
at
innocent
misunderstanding:
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
in the
of her most
serious
andan
heartfelt
which High
focused
onrank
empirical
evidence
over
appeal to
was the reflection that all necessity of
God forfelicities,
life’s answers.
concealment from Mr. Knightley would soon be
The Elizabethan
society was distinctive for its valuing of
over. The disguise, equivocation, mystery, so
appearance,
with
clothes
a determinant
social
hateful to herone’s
to practise,
might
soon be over.of
She
status.could
Beauty
products—both
for
men
and
women—
now look forward to giving him that full
were extremely
popular
despite
theirher
toxicity.
and perfect
confidence
which
disposition
was most ready to welcome as a duty. (p. 445)
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Austen presents a hard critique of a society that offers
limited options to women. Social class restricts
characters’ freedom to act upon their personal will and
desire, as seen throughout the novel in relation to
marriage and matchmaking. Frank Churchill is forced to
conceal his engagement with Jane because of her social
status; as an orphan she is regarded as an unsuitable
social match. Harriet rejects Robert Martin because
Emma influences her to believe she can marry ‘better’;
however, these same attitudes influence Mr Elton’s low
Audience
view of Harriet. Despite having wealth and opportunity
The audience
for The only
Merchant
of Venicepaths:
is diverse
as it
Emma
is still afforded
two possible
marriage
is
both
a
comedy
and
a
romance.
As
it
is
a
play
it
did
or spinsterhood. There was almost no framework in
a
not
require
an
audience
member
to
be
literate
to
enjoy
romantic novel for the heroine to remain unmarried at
its narrative.
the
end. Within the conventions of the novel Austen
does offer a critique of the social norms by allowing her
Purpose
heroines to be paired with men who are both their
William
Shakespeare
wrote
plays thatequals.
appealed
to both
social
and,
importantly,
intellectual
This
was
the
emotions
and
the
intellect.
He
wrote
histories,
very unusual at the time.
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
for a diverse
audience,
including
royalty, nobility, the
Context
with
regard
to composition
merchant
class
and
illiterate
commoners,
is one of his
and reception
most
defining
characteristics
and
achievements.
Austen’s works were published anonymously and brought
Shakespeare
wrote
plays primarily
entertain, but
yet
her
little personal
celebrity.
They weretofashionable
despite
thereviewed.
popular nature
of George
his playsHenry
they Lewes,
manage an
to
not
often
In 1852
reveal a philosopher
deep understanding
of the
thetheatre,
human
English
and critic
of operation
literature of
and
mind,partner
the relationships
between
people
and the
workings
and
of the author
George
Eliot,
(born
Mary
of society.
Anne
Evans), wrote of Austen:
Shakespeare
engages
hisso audience
through his use of
… because
she has
faithfully (although
wit, allusion,
impressive
emotivepoint
language
unconsciously)
kept to imagery,
her own womanly
of view,
her works He
are appealed
durable. There
nothing
and likeable
characters.
to hisis16th-century
of the
in Jane Austen;
not a trace ofevents
audience
bydoctrinaire
making references
to contemporary
woman’s
mission; but plays
as the continue
most truthful,
and people.
Shakespeare’s
to appeal to a
charming,
humorous,
quickmodern
audience
throughpure-minded,
his treatment
of significant
unexaggerated of writers, female
themeswitted,
such and
as love,
jealousy, ambition and mortality.
literature has reason to be proud of her.
Reading
the texttheme continued later in the
This
complimentary
century
novelist Henry
James praising
Austen
Studentswith
mustthe
remember
that Shakespeare
was writing
and
comparing
herastoaShakespeare,
Cervantes
overeven
400 years
ago and
result some elements
ofand
the
Henry
Fielding
asobscure
among ‘the
painters
of life’.
plays may
seem
and fine
complex.
This
play This
was
criticism,
of the time,
has
been before
subsequently
written in typical
Shakespeare’s
‘middle
period’
he had
assessed
more
negatively
bysuch
a modern
feminist
perspective
written his
great
tragedies
as Hamlet
and
Macbeth.
that
sought play
to expose
women
and
It is has
a romantic
in thatattitudes
there aretoward
couples
who wish
women’s
writing
the 19th
century.
Lewes
has
to be together
but aduring
complication
stands
in the way
of their
been
criticised
finding that
women’s
voices
are
happiness.
This for
complication
is resolved
at the
end and
noticeable
admirable
only
focus
on
they all live and
‘happily
ever after’.
It iswhen
also athey
comedy
which
appropriate
females.
Hemisunderstandings
is seen as having
means theresubjects
will be for
mishaps
and
failed
Austen’s distinctive literary style
along to
theacknowledge
way.
which
relied
on
a
sophisticated
combination
of parody,
All of Shakespeare’s plays were written
to be performed
irony,
free
indirect
speech
and
a
degree
of
realism.
He
in the theatre and this must be kept in mind when
also
fails
to
acknowledge
the
difficulties
female
writers
reading The Merchant of Venice. Students should try
encountered
developing
literary
agency.
their best toinimagine
what
a scene
would look like
onstage. If possible you should watch a performance of
Structure
the play, whether it is recorded or live, to gain a better
Emma
is divided
into fifty-five
chapters,and
with
understanding
of character
relationships
the each
way
chapter
based
around
a
key
event.
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module B • Critical Study of Literature • Emma
247
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
the identity and status of women determined by the
father and then the husband. Austen understood the
financial anxieties of young women of modest means
who relied on relatives for their support and was
particularly sensitive to the predicaments experienced
by those middle-class women whose entire success
depended on a suitable marriage.
The character of Miss Bates demonstrates the
consequences for unmarried women. In addition to
providing
some
comic relief, Miss Bates provides the
About the
composer
impetus for Jane to become a governess. Austen’s
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratforddiction is one technique used to characterise Miss Bates.
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
Her choice of words, which on the surface appear
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
complimentary, reveal a patronising tone that exposes
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
her low opinion of unmarried and unremarkable women.
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
Miss Bates is a ‘contented’ old woman with a certain
age of fifty-two.
‘cheerfulness’ to her nature (p. 22). Miss Bates has good
Shakespeare
was
by thewoman.
popularHer
playwrights
intentions and
is influenced
a happy, joyful
goodwill
of
his day,
particularly
Christopher
Marlowe.
towards
others
makes her
popular even
though He
shewas
has
also
influenced
from
Greece
Rome.
no husband
andby
noclassical
physicaltexts
beauty.
Miss
Batesand
functions
Shakespeare
special talent
for who
recording
the
within the texthad
as anaindividual
character
represents
behaviours,
attitudes
dialogue
of people
he knew,
society’s values
and and
attitudes
towards
marriage
and
or
knew
of, in his
plays.
single
women.
Emma
ultimately pities Miss Bates in her
Shakespeare
was interested
human
condition
role as an unmarried
woman,inasthe
does
the reader,
and
and
this
is reflected
in thethat
mainshe
themes
offrom
his plays.
she is
quick
to highlight
differs
MissThese
Bates
include
role money
of people
society,greater
the search
because the
she has
and in
therefore
choice:for
individual
identity,
the
impact
that
materialism
and
wealth
Her daughter [Miss Bates] enjoyed a most
have on
morality
and
the
tyranny
of
ambition.
Other
uncommon degree of popularity for a woman
neither
young,
handsome,
rich, nor
married.
familiar
themes
included
unrequited
love,
mortality,
stood in the very worst predicament
religionMiss
andBates
jealousy.
There are parallel plots within the novel that show the
relationship between what Emma thinks is happening
and what is really happening; these converge and
diverge during certain sections of the text. Through this
complementary structure the reader becomes aware of
Emma’s errors of judgement, creating a dramatic irony
that heightens enjoyment of the novel.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Textual integrity and significance
Austen’s works critique the sentimental novels of the
second half of the 18th century and are part of the
transition from Romanticism to 19th-century literary
realism. Austen is considered one of the significant
figures of the late Romantic era. Her unique narrative
techniques enabled her to criticise society in a
sympathetic way as well as to explore her uniquely
female perspective.
The 18th century was an age of political, social, economic
and artistic change in Western Europe. The Romantic
era represented a new set of social, historical and
creative concepts and these flourished in works of artists,
poets and novelists. Romanticism encouraged women
and men to explore their interior emotions and to express
themselves through writing. Romanticism provided an
opportunity to explore a woman’s place in social
settings and acted as a precursor to the establishment of
women’s rights.
Austen portrays men as they appeared to women, with
Knightley and Frank Churchill presented through the
eyes of Emma. Austen presents a uniquely female point
of view in her writing. Her male characters never appear
alone; they are always in the company of women,
engaged in such activities as women can participate in
such as balls, dinners and walks. Although this limits
exploration of the masculine experience, Austen’s
perspective is celebrated for its rarity.
Part of Austen’s fame also rests on the historical and
literary significance of being the first woman to write
great comic novels. Austen’s humour comes from her
use of understatement and modesty, which allows her
to analyse and expose society’s codes and ethics relating
to the lives of women and their relationships. In this
way her protagonists transcend the trivialities of their
lives while her more foolish characters are exposed and
their behaviour ridiculed.
Aesthetic and imaginative aspects of
the text
Jane Austen was well educated and well read for a
woman of her period. She enjoyed works of fiction and
among her literary influences were Fanny Burney and
Maria Edgeworth, who also wrote about society with
humour; Ann Radcliffe, an early Gothic romantic
novelist; Samuel Richardson, an epistolary novelist
(novels written in the form of letters); and Henry
Fielding, the author of the famous satire Tom Jones.
248
Year 12 Advanced English
Stylistic features from her favourite writers can be seen
in her own narrative style and conventions.
Despite writing within a very narrow range Austen
managed to develop themes of wider significance. In
her time novels were increasing in popularity as a form
of entertainment for the middle class. Austen was one
of the first to advance social realism in literature
whereby the characters and plots represented plausible
examples of real life. Her reputation as a ‘pure’ novelist
can be attributed to her artistic sophistication and her
writing is a source of great aesthetic pleasure.
Literary techniques
♦ Language forms and features
Narrative technique—Austen uses a shifting point of
view in her novels that reveals her experimentation
with different narrative techniques. At times, situations
are depicted from the composer’s omniscient perspective
and at others from the restricted perspective of one
character. When Austen has Emma use indefinite
pronouns, such as ‘everybody’ or ‘nobody’, she manages
to convey to us both Emma’s and her own opinion
about social values and attitudes through her authorial
intrusion. This self-effacement, or inconspicuousness,
allows Austen to control and direct the reader’s attention
unobtrusively, with the reader never feeling overly
manipulated.
The novel is narrated using free indirect discourse
which means that although the omniscient (all-seeing)
narrator speaks in the third person, she often relates
things from Emma’s perspective and describes things in
the type of language the reader can imagine Emma
using. This free indirect style is a combination of firstperson and third-person perspectives, with a thirdperson narrator (the author) as well as a character (Emma)
who also ‘narrates’ through her thoughts. This style of
narration allows the reader to both sympathise with as
well as judge Emma’s actions and motivations, resulting
in a complex characterisation:
The hair was curled, and the maid sent away,
and Emma sat down to think and be miserable.
It was a wretched business, indeed! Such an
overthrow of everything she had been wishing
for! Such a development of everything most
unwelcome! (p. 127)
Epistolary conventions—information about characters
and events is also revealed through letters and
correspondence. This feature of including letters to
convey information in a novel is derived from the
epistolary novel convention. Letters serve as a means of
communication between the letter writers and the
reader, and the technique allows us to see directly into
a character’s thoughts. This conveys a more reliable
version of the truth of a situation by revealing a
character’s genuine motivation and thought processes,
as well as giving the author licence to endow her
characters with distinct personal voices.
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
O
T
N
A
THE MEBYRWILCLH
IAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction to the text
Weston] ‘Do not mimic her. You divert me against
my conscience.’ (p. 210)
88
Year 12 Advanced English
Dialogue reveals a character’s feelings of frustration,
anger and happiness, with each treated differently by
Austen and often through varying patterns of sentence
structures. The relationship between Emma and Mr
Knightley develops largely through conversation. This
relationship unfolds through the significance of their
speech and sophistication of dialogue, and through
Austen’s acute understanding of speech habits and their
social implications.
Throughout
Audiencethe novel Mr Knightley and Emma have
several disagreements and their relationship is defined
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
by verbal debates and bantering, with Emma’s changing
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
opinions representative of the intensity of Mr Knightley’s
not require an audience member to be literate to enjoy
influence. Mr Knightley attempts to influence Emma’s
its narrative.
choice in friendships, particularly in relation to Jane:
‘But
you will soon overcome all that part of her reserve
Purpose
which ought to be overcome, all that has its foundation
William Shakespeare wrote plays that appealed to both
in diffidence’ (p. 155). Knightley’s high modality in ‘you
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
will’ is persuasive and reveals a deeper level of his
tragedies, romances and comedies. His ability to write
confidence and control over Emma.
for a diverse audience, including royalty, nobility, the
Witty
and class
ironicand
comments
from time
merchant
illiterate appear
commoners,
is onetooftime
his
throughout
Emma.
Ironic
comment
is
made
most defining characteristics and achievements.through
Austen’s authorial voice regarding Harriet’s book of
Shakespeare wrote plays primarily to entertain, yet
riddles: ‘In this age of literature, such collections on a
despite the popular nature of his plays they manage to
very grand scale are not uncommon’ (p. 68). However,
reveal a deep understanding of the operation of the human
in reality a collection of riddles hardly represents a
mind, the relationships between people and the workings
collection on a ‘very grand scale’ and the comment
of society.
provides opportunity for Austen to mock the literary
Shakespeare
engages
his audience
through
his use to
of
standards
of her
day. Emma
is revealed
as choosing
wit,
allusion,
impressive
imagery,
emotive
language
encourage Harriet in this occupation rather than
and likeablemore
characters.
appealed
to his
16th-century
something
useful, He
with
the irony
of the
comment
audience
by
making
references
to
contemporary
also ridiculing the exaggerated seriousness with events
which
and people.
Shakespeare’s
plays continue to appeal to a
Harriet
perceives
her collection.
modern audience through his treatment of significant
themes such as
love, jealousy,
ambition and
mortality.
Dramatic
effect
and language
choice:
key
scenes
Reading
the text
Austen is acknowledged for her mastery and exactitude
Students
mustofremember
Shakespeare
was writing
in
her creation
character that
and through
her sophistication
over
400
years
ago
and
as
a
result
some
elements
of the
of expression.
plays may seem obscure and complex. This play was
The
reader
introduced in Chapter
to Emma
Woodhouse,
written
in is
Shakespeare’s
‘middle1period’
before
he had
awritten
femalehischaracter
endowed
with
beauty,
intelligence
great tragedies such as Hamlet and
Macbeth.
and
and play
a loving,
selfish
She is who
described
It is wealth
a romantic
in that
therefather.
are couples
wish
as
having
‘some
of
the
best
blessings
of
existence’
to be together but a complication stands in the way of their
despite
thinking
little too well
herself’at(p.
Emma
happiness.
This ‘a
complication
is of
resolved
the7).end
and
reflects
the
attitudes
and
values
of
her
elevated
social
they all live ‘happily ever after’. It is also a comedy which
class.
herbecomfortable
single
life she avoids
meansThrough
there will
mishaps and
misunderstandings
the
disgrace
of
being
unmarried
and
is
instead
observed
along the way.
with approval by those she interacts with in her social
All of Shakespeare’s
playstowere
written
behas
performed
domain.
Emma explains
Harriet
that to
she
fortune
in
the
theatre
and
this
must
be
kept
in
mind
enough to support herself for the rest of her life andwhen
that
reading
of Venice.
should Her
try
she
needThe
notMerchant
seek financial
gain Students
from marriage.
their
best
to
imagine
what
a
scene
would
look
like
wealth allows her the luxury of spending her days reading,
onstage.friends
If possible
should
a performance
of
visiting
and you
walking
in watch
the garden,
the perfect
the
play,
whether
it
is
recorded
or
live,
to
gain
a
better
employment for an upper-class 19th-century woman:
understanding of character relationships and the way
the language sounds when spoken onstage.
Module B • Critical Study of Literature • Emma
249
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Letter writing was considered a prized art during the
18th century. Letters play an important role in the life of
Emma Woodhouse, who is easily influenced by what
she reads. Emma inaccurately interprets Frank
Woodhouse based on his letters, while she allows her
fantasies to influence her strong regard towards him.
The receipt of Frank Churchill’s letter provides lasting
excitement for the people of Highbury as well as fodder
for gossip. While Frank is indeed a talented writer of
letters, his real talent lies in his ability to manipulate the
About
the composer
opinions of others. Frank’s letters may be beautifully
William
Shakespeare
bornvirtue
in 1564
written but
they do notwas
convey
and in
it isStratfordonly Mr
upon-Avon,
England.
He
was
born
into
a
middle-class
Knightley who can see through Frank’s eloquence.
family and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
In response to Frank’s letter of excuse for not visiting
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
the Westons, Knightley says:
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
can sit down and write a fine flourishing
age of He
fifty-two.
letter, full of professions and falsehoods, and
Shakespeare
was
influenced
byhas
thehit
popular
playwrights
persuade
himself
that he
upon the
very
of his best
day,method
particularly
Christopher
Marlowe.
Heat was
in the world of preserving peace
also influenced
classical texts
from Greece
andany
Rome.
home andbypreventing
his father’s
having
Shakespeare
had a special
talent
forme.
recording
right to complain.
His letters
disgust
(p. 140) the
behaviours, attitudes and dialogue of people he knew,
Knightley sees Frank’s letters as attempts to trick his
or knew of, in his plays.
readers into accepting his lies through elegant, yet
Shakespeare
was interested in the human condition
deceptive, language.
and this is reflected in the main themes of his plays. These
Humour, wordplay and dialogue—Austen’s characters are
include the role of people in society, the search for
distinguishable by their individual speech and peculiarities,
individual identity, the impact that materialism and wealth
with speech used as a tool to reveal information. In
have on morality and the tyranny of ambition. Other
Emma a pattern is used to introduce characters, with
familiar themes included unrequited love, mortality,
the character first being referred to by another character
religion and jealousy.
through indirect speech and then revealed more
pointedly
the reader through direct speech and
Type of to
text
actions. This use of direct and indirect conversation
The Merchant of Venice is a play
varies according to how much Austen wants to reveal to
the
reader.cultural and historical contexts
Social,
From the smallest
to the
presentationera
of
Shakespeare
wrote word
during
the wider
late Elizabethan
relationshipsand
Austen
is at times
witty,
cryptic
or
(1558–1603)
the early
Jacobean
eraacerbic,
(1603–25).
These
distancing
on her
Techniques
eras
were depending
characterised
by satirical
turmoil purpose.
and growth
due to
suchrise
as offragmentary
speech
used
to suggest
the
capitalism and
the are
middle
classes
througha
character’strading.
traits and
tone. In the
following
merchant
Thetheir
reformation
of the
church quote
from
Emma mimics
Miss Batesmade
by capturing
her obsequiousness
Catholic
to Protestant
for a destabilised
society
and resulted
tendencyinto
get bloody
stuck in
inappropriate domestic
and
many
uprisings.
detail through her fragmented syntax, resulting in
The period in which Shakespeare lived and wrote was
strong parody:
referred to as the English Renaissance. This period saw
How changes
would he in
bear
to perception
have Miss Bates
belonging
significant
the
of the
world and
to
him?
...
and
thanking
him
all
day
long
his at
the place of humans within it. The focus of for
science
great kindness in marrying Jane?—‘So very kind
this time was on the relatively ‘new’ scientific method
and obliging!—But he always had been such a
which very
focused
on empirical evidence over an appeal to
kind neighbour!’ and then fly off, through
God forhalf
life’s
answers.
a sentence, to her mother’s old petticoat.
‘Not that it society
was such
a very
old petticoat
either—
The Elizabethan
was
distinctive
for its
valuing of
for stillwith
it would
last
a greatawhile—and
indeed,
appearance,
one’s
clothes
determinant
of social
must thankfully
say thatfor
their
petticoats
were
status.she
Beauty
products—both
men
and women—
all very strong.’
‘For
shame,their
Emma!’
[says Mrs
were extremely
popular
despite
toxicity.
The real evils, indeed, of Emma’s situation were
the power of having rather too much her own
way, and a disposition to think a little too well of
herself: these were the disadvantages which
threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The
danger, however, was at present so unperceived,
that they did not by any means rank as
misfortunes with her. (p. 7)
Through Austen’s subtle use of understatement, the
quotation foreshadows what Emma fails to acknowledge
at the time: that it is possible to have too much of one’s
‘own way’.
When Miss Taylor leaves Hartfield to marry the widower
Mr Weston, Emma is left without a companion or
mother-figure. Miss Taylor’s marriage is a preoccupation
for Emma and illustrates the significance of marriage
and gender roles in the novel. Austen presents Miss
Taylor and Mr Weston as equal in character and social
standing and their union is approved of:
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
The event had every promise of happiness for her
friend. Mr. Weston was a man of unexceptionable
character, easy fortune, suitable age, and pleasant
manners; and there was some satisfaction in
considering with what self-denying, generous
friendship she had always wished and promoted
the match; but it was a black morning’s work for
her. The want of Miss Taylor would be felt every
hour of every day. (p. 8)
Despite the obvious advantages of the match Emma’s
father shows his self-centredness, which he continues
to reveal throughout the text: ‘Poor Miss Taylor!—I wish
she were here again. What a pity it is that Mr. Weston
ever thought of her!’ (p. 8).
Mr Knightley, the brother of Isabella’s husband, visits
on his return from London. He confirms his support of
the match between Mr Weston and Miss Taylor, and
gently rebukes Emma when she immodestly claims
credit. Observing his disapproval as a challenge she
declares that she will repeat her matchmaking success
by finding a wife for Mr Elton, the village rector. The
opening chapter illustrates a sense of the society’s
established conventions, and those ordered structures
that centre around behaviour and routine are ultimately
challenged by Emma’s interference.
Chapter 16 reveals Emma’s innermost thoughts and
feelings after Mr Elton’s proposal. She appears to have
gained some understanding, as seen by her
acknowledgement that she had ‘blundered’ (p. 130) and
hurt Harriet. However, Emma cannot help but criticise
Mr Elton as ‘proud, assuming, conceited; very full of his
own claims, and little concerned about the feelings of
others’ (p. 128). His proposal is a shock and, as she
meant to make a match between him and Harriet, she
experiences extreme guilt at her meddling:
250
Year 12 Advanced English
The first error, and the worst, lay at her door. It
was foolish, it was wrong, to take so active a part
in bringing any two people together. It was
adventuring too far, assuming too much, making
light of what ought to be serious—a trick of what
ought to be simple. She was quite concerned and
ashamed, and resolved to do such things no
more. (p. 129)
However, Emma also cannot help exposing her true
value system. Along with imagining new matches for
Harriet, she blames Elton more than he deserves for her
own errors and she is quick to show her disgust that he
thought himself well enough to marry her:
She thought nothing of his attachment, and was
insulted by his hopes. He wanted to marry well,
and having the arrogance to raise his eyes to her,
pretended to be in love ... (p. 128)
Emma rejects Mr Elton for several reasons but it is her
family’s rank that ultimately guides her.
In Chapter 49 Emma is reserved because she fears that
Knightley will reveal his feelings for Harriet. However,
Knightley misinterprets Emma’s quietness for grief over
Frank. Their interchange represents an accumulation of
misunderstandings that eventually results in the exposure
of true feelings and an emotional release. Mr Knightley’s
declaration of his love for Emma is contrasted by Mr
Elton’s insincerity and by Frank’s ornate wordplay.
Knightley says:
I cannot make speeches, Emma ... If I loved you
less, I might be able to talk about it more. But
you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth
from me ... Yes, you see, you understand my
feelings. (p. 403)
Austen employs sincere, direct communication to
convey the idea that the best and most honest feelings
are best revealed through simple ideas rather than
through elaborate constructions. The narrator’s description
of Emma’s response to Knightley is punctuated with
sporadic dashes to reveal the erosion of barriers between
them and is correspondingly charming in its simplicity:
‘—She spoke then, on being so entreated. What did she
say? Just what she ought, of course—’ (p. 404).
The narrator’s comment, which follows Emma and
Knightley’s betrothal, reveals the overarching themes of
the text. Austen leaves the reader to reflect on the idea
that confusion and interference is a result of the imperfect
nature of human relationships, with the solution being
an earnest and authentic expression of human emotion:
Seldom, very seldom does complete truth belong
to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen
that something is not a little disguised, or a little
mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the
conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may
not be very material. (p. 404)
E
C
I
N
E
V
F
M
O
U
U
T
C
N
A
A
V
H
A
C
URBEBYYER
PIHCETM
T
KESPEARE
TEMMSPHEAST
TELIA
KWAIL
About
composer
Type ofthe
text
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in StratfordThis text is performance poetry.
upon-Avon, England. He was born into a middle-class
family
and married Anne Hathaway who bore him three
Composer
children. In 1590 he travelled to London to pursue a
Kate Tempest is an English spoken-word poet, performance
career as an actor and playwright. He died in 1616 at the
artist, novelist and playwright who was born in 1985. Her
age of fifty-two.
first poetry collection was published in 2014 while her
Shakespeare
was The
influenced
by theBuilt
popular
playwrights
2016
debut novel,
Bricks That
The Houses,
was
of
his day, particularly
Christopher
Marlowe.
Heofwas
a bestseller.
In 2015 Tempest
was elected
a Fellow
the
also
classical texts from Greece and Rome.
Royalinfluenced
Society of by
Literature.
Shakespeare had a special talent for recording the
Meaning
of the text
behaviours, attitudes
and dialogue of people he knew,
or
knew aof,Vacuum’
in his plays.
‘Picture
describes an intergalactic journey
that begins inwas
a distant
cornerinofthe
the human
cosmos condition
and ends
Shakespeare
interested
herethis
on isEarth.
The
traveller
is delighted
to be These
back
and
reflected
in the
main themes
of his plays.
‘home’ (a
never uses)
and shows
emotion
include
theword
role she
of people
in society,
the search
for
toward theidentity,
solar system,
thethat
Earth
and its inhabitants.
individual
the impact
materialism
and wealth
‘Whaton
ammorality
I to make
of all
is the
that
the
have
and
thethis?’
tyranny
of question
ambition.
Other
poem
ends
on. Theincluded
title ‘Picture
a Vacuum’
is anmortality,
apparent
familiar
themes
unrequited
love,
contradiction;
it is nothing turning into something, like
religion and jealousy.
the scientific concept of the Big Bang Theory.
Type of text
The Merchant of Venice is a play
Focus on the syllabus
Social, cultural and historical contexts
How
language is used creatively and
Shakespeare wrote during the late Elizabethan era
imaginatively
variety
purposes
(1558–1603)
and the for
early a
Jacobean
era of
(1603–25).
These
eras
characterised
by turmoil
and growth due to
share
an aesthetic
vision
♦ Towere
the
rise
of
capitalism
and
the
middle
classes
through
Kate Tempest’s ‘Picture a Vacuum’ is driven
mainly
by
merchant
trading.
The
reformation
of
the
church
a search for honesty and world salvation. It works from
well
Catholic
Protestant
for a destabilised
society
as a poemtobut
Tempest’smade
performance
of it enhances
the
and
resulted
in
many
bloody
uprisings.
poem in a number of ways. Broader communication is
The
period inand
which
Shakespeare
lived and wrote
the aesthetic
philosophy
of performance
poetry.was
As
referred
to
as
the
English
Renaissance.
This
period
saw
a form of communication it is immediate and personal,
significant
the artist
perception
of the world
and
flowing as changes
it does in
from
to audience.
We will
the
place
of
humans
within
it.
The
focus
of
science
at
concentrate here on both the poem and its performance
this
time
was
on
the
relatively
‘new’
scientific
method
by the poet/artist.
which focused on empirical evidence over an appeal to
Toforevoke
emotion
♦
God
life’s answers.
The
poem
is
quite
emotional
and you for
might
even say
The Elizabethan society
was distinctive
its valuing
of
‘passionate’
about
the
state
of
planet
Earth,
including
appearance, with one’s clothes a determinant of social
what
be done
about its current
role of
status.can
Beauty
products—both
for state
men and
and the
women—
the
artist
in
all
this.
were extremely popular despite their toxicity.
There is a virtuoso alliteration of ‘f’ sounds used to
express excitement at the traveller coming upon the sun,
‘our Sun’: ‘Watch as it flickers and it roars into fullness
88
Year 12 Advanced English
and fills the whole / frame blazing a fire that you can’t
feel the majesty of’. Here the fearful strength of the sun
and its significance to human life is celebrated. It is far
Audience
too strong for humans to feel its full power and we are
The audience for The Merchant of Venice is diverse as it
in awe of it.
is both a comedy and a romance. As it is a play it did
Emotions
specifically
about
the Earth:
‘Its
not
requireare
an evoked
audience
member to
be literate
to enjoy
blueness
soothes
the
sharp
burn
in
your
eyes’.
This
its narrative.
suggests a gentler emotion, something like security. The
Purpose
emotion is made physical in ‘its contours remind you of
love / That
soft roundness’.
linesappealed
are sensual
and
William
Shakespeare
wroteThese
plays that
to both
loving.
the emotions and the intellect. He wrote histories,
tragedies,
romances
and as
comedies.
Histhe
ability
‘The sadness
of mothers
they watch
fatesto
of write
their
for
a diverse
audience,
including
royalty,
nobility,
the
children’
evokes
deep misery
as we know
through
various
merchant
illiterate
commoners,
is one
of his
media the class
kind and
of horrors
that
this line might
refer
to.
most
defining
characteristics
achievements.
The lines
‘You’re
feeling / The and
people,
the life, their faces
are
bright’ and
‘you plays
want primarily
to be closetotoentertain,
them, closer’
Shakespeare
wrote
yet
express
the
need
for
intimacy
in
human
interaction
despite the popular nature of his plays they manageand
to
this
traveller desires.
Frustration
is evident
revealis awhat
deep the
understanding
of the operation
of the
human
in
the the
lastrelationships
two lines ofbetween
the performance
to the
mind,
people andpoem,
the workings
point
of
fear
that
the
situation
will
not
be
remedied
on
of society.
the beloved Earth. These are the emotions we are left
Shakespeare engages his audience through his use of
with at the end of ‘Picture a Vacuum’.
wit, allusion, impressive imagery, emotive language
and
characters.
He appealed
his 16th-century
Thelikeable
versatility,
power
andtoaesthetics
audience by making references to contemporary events
of
language
and people. Shakespeare’s plays continue to appeal to a
modern
audience
through his
treatment
significant
of language
forms
andoffeatures
♦ A range
themes such as love, jealousy, ambition and mortality.
Imagery
Reading
the text
‘Picture a Vacuum’
is bursting with images which evoke
both the journey
and the reactions
of the traveller.
The
Students
must remember
that Shakespeare
was writing
second
third
of athe
poem
useelements
the device
of
over
400and
years
agolines
and as
result
some
of the
internal
rhyme,
which
normally
the effect
of increasing
plays
may
seem
obscure
and has
complex.
This
play was
the tempo,
so ‘endless’ ‘middle
rhymes period’
with ‘blackness’
and
written
in Shakespeare’s
before he had
‘peace’ rhymes
‘least’.such
In this
Tempest
cleverly
written
his greatwith
tragedies
as way
Hamlet
and Macbeth.
sets
the expectation
‘war’areascouples
the opposite
of
It
is aup
romantic
play in thatofthere
who wish
‘peace’
but this
with
the in
image
of ‘terror’,
to
be together
butisasubstituted
complication
stands
the way
of their
the
new antithesis
of peace inisthe
world.at the end and
happiness.
This complication
resolved
they
all
live
‘happily
ever
after’.
It
is
a comedy
which
The ‘speck of light’ being ‘Gold as aalso
pharaoh’s
coffin’
is
means
there
will
be
mishaps
and
misunderstandings
another image of antithesis, as the bright sparkling
along the
way.is undercut by the image of death that is
image
of gold
the
coffin.
The ‘pharaoh’
theto
passing
of time
All of
Shakespeare’s
playsreferences
were written
be performed
set
within
the and
context
the be
journey.
Next
thewhen
poet
in the
theatre
this ofmust
kept in
mind
acknowledges
the ‘tiredof
eyes’
of theStudents
audienceshould
with ‘It’s
reading The Merchant
Venice.
try
been
longto
day,
I know’,
which
for like
the
their abest
imagine
what
a draws
scene sympathy
would look
audience
an admission
of the
factathat
life is hard.
onstage. Ifand
possible
you should
watch
performance
of
the play, then
whether
it is recorded
to gainwith
a better
Tempest
presents
a display or
of live,
alliteration
the
understanding
relationships
and the
repetition
of fiveof‘f’character
sounds heralding
the arrival
of way
‘our
the language
spoken
onstage.
Sun’
and thesounds
planetswhen
‘dangled
around
it’. The word
Module C • The Craft of Writing • Picture a Vacuum
399
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Introduction
Introductionto
tothe
thetext
text
‘dangled’ implies loose and purposeless but the next
image undoes that, with ‘intricate dance’ perhaps better
capturing the relationship of the planets in our solar
system. Do they ‘dangle’ or do they ‘dance’?
Repetition suggests pride and possessiveness in ‘There
is our Earth / Our Earth’. Here we see the poet’s joy and
pride at the ‘sight’ of planet Earth whereas the Earth
itself is more uncertain, with ‘Older than she ever
thought she’d get’ presumably meaning that the Earth
had expected to implode by now. Note the introduction
of (feminine) gender at this point and that ‘Arms loaded
with trophies of her most successful child’ most likely
refers to humankind as the Earth’s most evolved species.
The poet comments ‘Now, is that a smile that plays
across her lips / Or is it a tremor of dread?’ at the sight of
her ‘most successful child’ (humankind) who, like all
errant children, can bring pleasure or pain to a parent,
in this case Mother Earth. In the next image the poet
lands at the surf and is as tiny as a grain of sand. In the
‘peace that you felt is replaced with this furious neverknown
passion / you’re feeling’ the poet is experiencing a
feeling of peace but that is replaced with a fury that she
has never known before. The poet wants to be closer to
the people: ‘these are your species, your kindred’. ‘Uncurl
yourself’ suggests that she has been in a fetal position,
perhaps waiting to be born, or it could mean innocence.
The poet has arrived in ‘a city, let’s call her London
[Tempest’s City] / And these are the only times you have
known’. So the only place and time the poet has known
should give her the benefit of familiarity yet the poem
finishes on a rhetorical question: ‘What am I to make of
all this?’. This suggests uncertainty rather than familiarity.
© Pascal Press ISBN 978 1 74125 665 9
Vocality and intonation
Kate Tempest’s basic vocal intonation style uses a high
tone to a low tone; for example, ‘Picture’ is an up
intonation and ‘a Vacuum’ is down. The effect of this
up/down intonation is to sound like a chant or prayer.
All the examples of intonation discussed here will be
exceptions to this; that is, when Tempest’s intonation
does something else aside from the up/down. The
performance you are likely listening to has an amount
of sound accompaniment. This features a couple of
trills on a keyboard and a repeated rumbling sound when
the tempo increases in the second half of the poem.
Tempest applies some emphasis to the words involved
in the internal rhyme at the beginning of the poem by
simply using a slightly stronger tone. She uses a similar
tone on ‘terror’ to reflect the importance of ‘terror’ in
people’s lives and she draws attention to ‘bear’ with
vocal intonation, stressing the fact that the sun is too
hot for its people. There is sympathy in her vocal tone
on ‘It’s been a long day’ and even more so on ‘I know’.
This tone says that she has experienced the exhaustion
of ordinary people such as the audience. The word
‘look’ has a softer than normal tone as well.
400
Year 12 Advanced English
There is some irony, and truth, in the notion that the
Earth’s most successful child (humankind) is also the
most troubling. The rise in the tone of intensity continues
as ‘species’ and ‘kindred’ are stressed by Tempest’s
rising intonation. In fact the delivery of these two
words, like an appeal to the audience, sounds exactly
like that of a preacher.
‘Picture the world’ and ‘she spins’ are delivered with a
gentler intonation than normal, in a tone that is near to
sadness. Her intonation on ‘Uncurl yourself’ is also softer
and gentler than normal. The poem, and Tempest’s
delivery, rises to a climax in the last two lines as she
cries out, in a mixture of desperation and resignation,
‘Is this what it’s come to?’ and ‘What am I to make of all
of this?’.
Tempo and pauses
Tempest increases the tempo in her speech during the
‘f’ alliteration mentioned above. This implies significance
and it brings urgency to the delivery. ‘In now’ and ‘in’
are paced and spoken slowly as a precursor to the rushing
tempo of the passage that follows ‘Kaleidoscopic’. The
tempo builds and the sound of Tempest’s voice has some
aggression in it, or is it desperation? The mention of a
‘Kaleidoscopic’ vision suggests some kind of hallucination.
In ‘There is Our Earth / Our Earth’ Tempest pauses
between ‘Earth’ and ‘Our’. This works with the repetition
to emphasise her sense of attachment to the Earth. The
intensity of the passage following ‘Kaleidoscopic’ is
tempered by the use of the pause after ‘you’re tiny as
sand’ and after ‘never known’. There is also a pause
before ‘London’ and a kind of fanfare to announce London
as part of Tempest’s sense of place and of belonging.
Style and structure
‘Picture a Vacuum’ is created as a poem for performance
so its style will be loose enough to be followed by an
audience that has not seen a printed copy or heard the
poem before. Tempest employs a stabbing rhythm that
enables the audience to take in each ‘thought’ one at a
time, helping the poem to work by piling idea upon
idea. The poem’s style is affected by Tempest’s shifting
of point of view when she changes the ‘person’. First
person usually brings with it a personal tone, second
person is a way of distancing the speaker, and third
person tells the story as from someone outside of the
story. All three forms are used by Tempest.
Imaginative engagement with the text
This refers to the extent to which readers can engage with
the text and learn from it in order to enhance their own
writing. Kate Tempest’s subject matter concerns someone
returning to their accustomed time and place, and reacting
to that with all the encumbering emotions implicit in the
scenario. There is much potential for inspiration to be
derived from her use of imagery.