Module C: Representation
and text
Representing people and politics
W H Auden.
Rubric – key changes
Representation
• This term has now become a part of the
elective title as students were not
engaging with this in their responses. This
should be at the core of everything they
do in this module. This term should be
utilised in all thesis statements and every
paragraph should begin with the idea of
representation and the ways ideas are
portrayed in texts
• Evaluate is also another key term – must
be utilised in response. Students must
illustrate they are evaluating the
cause/effect of these political
representations
Individual, shared or competing
political ideals
• Students need to address all
these perspectives and
representations in the texts.
Need to engage with the impact
of political acts as well as the
representations of their
motivations and their actions
Context
• Students should be familiar with the context of the poet and the world which Auden represents.
Students should be aware of the chronological order of the construction of these poems so they
are aware of where he is living and which political system and ideology he is commenting on.
• Students should be familiar with his original home and the importance of his move to New York in
1939. Also the importance of the date September 1st, 1939
• Look into what is happening in Europe throughout the construction of these poems
• Students should also have a strong contextual knowledge of Modernism and the impact it had on
style, voice, techniques and language choices. Wrote Avant Garde plays, left wing literary groups,
totalitarianism/facism of the 20/30s (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin), surrealism, ambiguity, Irony,
sophisticated intellectual wit. Auden a strong symbol of Berlin during this period.
• Auden's personal context – homosexuality – noteworthy but not overly crucial – more important
is his engagement with Freud's dream theory and Karl Marx's ideology. More important his
literary influences- Elliott, Yeats, Woolf
• Onset of WW2 and Post War literary scene. Auden leaves left wing for pacificism
• Better students should engage with Cambridge Companion to WH Auden and John Fuller’s WH
Auden: A commentary.
Auden and Representation
• Representation is a matter of poetic style and poetic voice
• The mode of poetry itself is a representation
• Considered a public intellectual – strong influence from TS Elliot
• Considered himself a commentator on modernity – a wasteland
• His own political ideals are represented through his poetry but as are the surrounding worlds politics and historical politics
• His socialist idealism is influenced by Marx
• Engages with politics as beliefs and ideas and contrasts these to the politics of action.
• He is a poet with an interest in rhetoric (voice of poet) and sophisticated wit
• Extremes – ambiguity, cleverness, intellectualism, literary borrowing or literary pastiche, doubleness, irony, self contradiction and
at times silliness
• Poems are often a complex reflection of himself – doubt and contradiction
• Poems often can be comic or involve comic irony in serious poetry
• Concerned with war and morality
• Reflects major developments in history but interested in his own voice (individual and shared)– eloquence of this.
‘O what is that sound that so thrills the ear’
•
Auden 25 years old when writing and 27 when published. Focus on early twentieth century as a period of people, political conflict and war
•
Border Ballad (ballads –songs that tell a story, written on the border of Scotland/England during the 1200-1500s became fashionable with the English during the 1700s. Plays on
historical tricks of perspectives. Read ‘Charlie is my darling’ as a comparison to traditional/authentic border ballad. Traditional Form – quatrains alternating between 4 stresses
and 3 stressed lines. Auden's ballad seems authentic
•
Contextual knowledge of the “scarlet soldiers” – the red coats of the 18-19th centuries. These links and the form suggest he is referring to the 18th century. This period is linked
with the Jacobite rising of 1745 where the Scots clans joined with Charles Edward Stuart in a rebellion against the English (represented through image of Battle of Culloden the
climax of this rebellion). This terminology ‘scarlet soldier’ illustrates a lack of empathy with the “Redcoats” and that perhaps he is not on the side – a dissident. Context further
built through setting – hillside looking down into a valley – traditional social world – doctor, parson, farm, soldiers on horses. A poem that represents a composite world – part
past, part modern
•
Poem as a clever imitation of a folk ballad- clever modern pastiche – virtuoso. Sweet and pretty ballad effects that end partly being a parody, a faux contemporary literary game
that is a comment on war, politics and morality.
•
Look at Modern style influences – ‘St Patricks Bend’ and the ‘Battle of Culloden’ (painting). Modern pastiche – language and phrasing stylishly sophisticated and in a way that
outreaches traditional ballad writing “so thrills the ear”, ‘the light I see flashing so clear’, ‘the usual manoeuvres’, ‘its broken’, ‘it’s the gate’ which is colloquial and potentially
Scottish combines with the modern cinematic realism of the broken lock and splintered door, the noise of their feet and the sophisticated poetic horror that ‘their eyes are
burning’. Modern contextual links – Ireland v England 1916 Uprising, Nazi persecution at time of publication, WW1, Russian revolution
•
Female perspective metaphorical for the national perspective. Sense of deceit and abandonment. Narrative ambiguity. Who are the speakers? Ends with a love story- this
relationship raises more questions than it answers.
•
Auden as the master of versification – strong abab (common measure) rhyme scheme strong rhythm in the metre includes insistent anapaests in “is that sound” “which so thrills”
and the interplay of trochaic and iambic
•
Marxism – his interest throughout the 30s – distrust of authority of old order that brought WW1. Lucas ‘Yet no poem more fully captures that feeling so prevalent in the decade of
the abandonment of their responsibilities by Western Liberal governments, of their betrayals’. Christianity Matthew 26:36-46 – disciples sleep instead of guard Jesus and Judas
arrives and captures him – the first speaker becomes a Christ like figure ‘ for the disciples who ran away I substituted a single figure , whom the dreamer loves and trusts – ie the
reader can choose whatever image suits him or her – but who in the end deserts the dreamer leaving him to face the terror alone’ Auden at Freud lecture 1971. Freudian links
politics and identity/gender/sexuality – reflection of Auden's own identity as a homosexual at a time in which this was a crime. Fuller “the poem successfully works at many levels:
the archetypal dream of desertion, the icon of Christian betrayal, the pastiche Jacobite ballad, the contemporary of Nazi gun butts on the door with its attendant political
dilemma’
INFLUENCES
Modern Influences
Traditional Scottish Border ballad
Charlie is My Darling
Chorus
O Charlie is my darling,
My darling, my darling;
O Charlie is my darling,
The young Chevalier!
When first his standard caught the eye,
His pibroch met the ear,
Our hearts were light, our hopes were high
For the young Chevalier.
Chorus
The plaided chiefs cam frae afar,
Nae doubts their bosoms steir;
They nobly drew the sword for war
And the young Chevalier!
Chorus
But he wha trusts to fortune's smile
Has meikle cause to fear;
She blinket blithe but to beguile
The young Chevalier!
Chorus
O dark Culloden - fatal field!
Fell source o' mony a tear;
There Albyn tint her sword and shield,
And the young Chevalier!
Chorus
Now Scotland's "flowers are wede away;"
Her forest trees are sere;
Her Royal Oak is gane for aye,
The young Chevalier!
Chorus
Meaning of unusual words:
pibroch = Highland bagpipe
steir = stirred
meikle = great
Albyn = Alba, Scotland
tint = lost
wede = faded, removed by death
gane for aye = gone for ever
Sir Patrick Bens http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/poems/the_ballad_of_sir_patrick_spens.html
Battle of the Culloden (painting)
Continued
• 2 personas in the poem – he is knowing and she is coming to the
realisation. He seems to be a political dissident but this is ambigious. This
narrative ambiguity supports the political motivations
• Foreshadows later horrors of Hitler. Uses a particular event to represent
later events or even events that have preceded this event
• Emphasis on war horrors and the idea of betrayal – what happens to her
• Christian allusion – betrayal, suffering and agony in the garden (L. Greco –
Christ in the Garden, Matthew 26:46 – intertextuality). First speaker god
like figure- other is disciples left to face the terror alone. Representation of
armed forces – blindly obedient to tyrant
• Freudian reading – dream text/surrealism, sense of identity
• Complex meditation of beliefs, morality of war
Spain context
• Written in 1937
• Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936-8. Right wing Nationalists led by Franco vs left wing
republicans. Volunteers from Europe supported this. Young pro Marxist English writers where
amongst this group. Political ideology clash of Marxist sympathisers aligned with communist
Russia against more liberal socialists. This war defined war as a twentieth century political eventpolitical history
• Auden served in this war with Orwell, although Auden did not fight but volunteered as an
ambulance driver and was eventually a broadcaster from January to march in 1937. He wrote ‘the
poet must have direct knowledge of the major political events’. This poem was a direct response
to those experiences. Therefore this is one of Auden's most politically overt poems ad also it takes
both sides of political debate. Overtly left wing statement about solidarity. Becomes a call to
political action in support of Republicans. He uses his voice as a poet in reality.
• Again Auden uses this war as a representation of history. Combines ‘the people’ with a tragic
political battle.
• A long poem measured through shifts in temporality that unite various stanzas
Spain
Section One –Stanza 1-6 - Past
Section two – Stanza 7-14 World
• Surveys the past through the
refrain that works as a
philosophical statement – a war
slogan for Republicans. Parallel
effect that it echoes popular
Marxist revolutionary slogans
“But today the struggle”
• Surveys the reaction of the world
to the war with Spain through the
response of the poet, scientist,
poor, nations and the life of the
contemporary world. Reveals this
view to be confused and superficial
and it seems that this is what has
led to this war. Spain is presented
as an iconic event of modernity
and its confusion ‘I am Spain’
Spain
Section three – stanza 15-19 volunteers
• Point of view shifts to an account of
the volunteers. 15-16 explore the
migration of people across Europe to
climax ‘all presented their lives’ ready
to die for political cause. 17 describes
Spain – geographical and cultural
definition ‘that fragment..’ 18-19 the
transformation of the people from the
contemporary world ‘medicine ad’ to
‘invading battalions’ and explores the
conditions of the war and ends with
the socialist phrase ‘a peoples army’
Section four- 20-23 Future
• The future account that balances the
opening focus on the past. Builds the
refrain ‘Tomorrow, perhaps the future..’
Possibilities of the future as a nostalgic
celebration of the contemporary world
with its trivial and cultural pleasures.
Shifts to a sophisticated account of
Europe – a reminder of the best
possibilities of human life that are being
subverted by Spain. Becomes a lament for
life that is lost by those who go to war.
Double point of view that is underlined by
the return to a refrain ‘But today the
struggle’
Section 5-stanza 24-26 The men fighting
• Temporal Shift to an account of
today – present conditions of
fighting in Spain – implied
through the view of the
volunteers. Dramatic inference
that Auden is the voice of them
and one of them. He speaks for
those that are alone with the
horror of war ‘we are left alone
with our day and the time is
short
• Look at how the poem
intertexualises political slogans
and anthems
• ‘But today the struggle’
• All presented their lives
• Our hours of friendship into a
peoples army
• Read “The International”
Notes on Spain
• Direct statement about people and politics – illustrated through political slogans through the refrain ‘But today the struggle’ and
political anthems ‘all presented their lives’, ‘ Our hours of friendship into a peoples army’
• The Internationale – left wing anthem, symbolic of socialist movement 19th C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVB3YGIUk0.
First section echoes Marxist slogans
• Ends with a complex call to arms and tragic lament. ‘The stars are dead and the animals will not look’ is poetic tragedy antithesis's
to the heroic statement that combatants must face their day emphasises the need for action with a warning that adds ambiguity.
Dramatic challenge of victory and defeat but its not clear who is who. The openness is a part of tragedy, whoever wins history will
lament the horror of war but the future cannot help but pardon the facts of war. On the other hand the political commitment of
the rest of the poem suggests that the lines read as faith that the Nationalists will lose and they will never be pardoned. In that
case there is a historical irony that the Nationalists won.
• The ending becomes a graphic dramatic account of men at war – almost documentary. Stanza 25 is persuasively authentic as an
account of the ‘makeshift consolations’ of men at war- ‘the shared cigarette..’ It also has the advantage of encapsulating one of
Auden's key characteristics of his rhetoric – an attention to words and descriptive detail with an edge of sophistication and
cleverness that goes beyond conventional war poetry; ‘makeshift consolations’, ‘scraping concerts’, ‘fumbled and unsatisfactory
embrace before hurting’.
• Auden's definition of men at war is also confrontational and controversial. The morality of war ‘the conscious acceptance of guilt in
the necessary murder’. This moral reflection is not part of traditional, national celebrations of war and its heroes. Auden raises for
discussion when is a war just, when is it murder’. Responses criticised Auden's the nature of his involvement in the war and Orwell
was scathing in his response to this as he believed it was a ‘just war’ and even attacked Auden's lines and sexuality; ‘ utterly
irresponsible intelligentsia, the alliance of ‘the gangster and the pansy’. These classic lines become a challenge to morality of all
politics and war – even contemporary – Iraq/Syria – call to arms/radicalisation of youth. Hemmingway also served in this war –
actively.
Spain
•
Poem is a paradox – non conventional war poetry indicated by sophisticated rhetoric that follows Yeats/Eliot and the Avant Garde Modernism of the 1930s illustrated through; 1.
the ornate structure – grand poetic design, seems symphonic through the length of the first section. 2. the grand vistas of history in the past and present presented through a
shifting voice from conversational to formal, becomes a poem based in intellectual identity that makes a performance of learning and philosophical understanding and wit. Iconic
representation of modernity in its confusion/superficiality. Look at the detail of the first survey of the past.
•
Nationalist celebrations of war don’t celebrate murders. Auden raises this being edgy/confrontational.
•
Post romantic views of the poet – public intellectual, visionary commentator, avant garde, sublime. Surrealistic detail in stanza 23 – ‘poets exploding like bombs’
•
Mass culture – modernity stanza 22
•
Representation of Spain – Spanish history, what shapes the individual, cultural identity, national identity as representation
•
Stanza 1 – language of size – formal educated. Counting frame – origin of maths and measurement – use of wit to represent the spread of knowledge though measurement
metaphor. Links between maths and religion through Cromlech (as representations) as temples that combine and reflect these elements. Purposefully surrealistic and disorienting
to represent the avant garde
•
Emphasis on the voice of poet – stanza 7 ‘whispers, startled among the pines’ which seems to refer back to early pastoral (Theocritus) and then to a more romantic poet modern
wasteland in ‘upright/On the crag by the leaning tower’ which is both a definitive piece of the Romantic sublime a characteristic echo of TS Eliot. Stanza 23 returns to a future
surrealistic image ‘exploding like bombs’ which seems to be in part Auden's aim in the poem as a poetic gesture of war. This jars with later problems about war , terrorism and
anarchism. Anarchist revolutionary exploding poets are dramatic and even glamorous in this context but how does this image fit with current problems?
•
Interplay of different identities that includes sophisticated satire. He creates an identity that is in part sophisticated clever, complicated and even outrageous. In particular stanza
13-14 where he channels the sophisticated relativism, decadence and disillusion o the period as ‘the bar companion, the easily duped…the suicide pact’ and stanza 18 creates the
war heroes out of a world of a wasteland of consumerism and greed ‘our faces, the institute face the chain store, the ruin’
•
What is the effect of stanza 22 and the account of tomorrow and today as ‘the exchanging of tips on the breeding of terriers’? Fashionable clever wit as an essential part of his
voice- droll and clever to the point of queer outrageousness? Is the queer a further dimension to the wit. The poem in itself acts as a representation in an extreme way – the
awareness of the poet and his rhetoric as a mode of sophisticated poetic pastiche. How effective is the balance between politics and the avant garde of Modernism? Challenging
and different – Look at other modernist and surrealistic responses to this war – Picasso’s Guernica
Epitaph on a Tyrant- context
• Last poem written in England by Auden. At this point he is considered
a leader of young radical poets and uses this hi poetry to voice
political ideals. Contrasting to Spain, in this poem he becomes more
focused on opposing direct political action whereas previously he was
concerned with the necessity of that action. This combined with his
choice to leave England impacted on his reputation.
• End of Spainish civil war, rise of totalitarian dictatorships across
Europe – Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin
The Memory of W.B. Yeats - Context
• First poem he wrote in America.
• Considered one of the major poems of
the 20th century.
• A poem from a poet at the peak of his
career about the death of another
influential poet.
• Yeats – engaged with politics of the
Irish rebellion for independence.
Easter 1916 uses the refrain ‘A terrible
beauty is born’ to be immortalised as
one of the most important poems of
its time. He was also a poet concerned
with his poetic identity and voice
(notably also a very eccentric and
tortured one)
• Three sections of the poem (triptych
structure- although it seems inverted)
• The form of an epitaph merges into a
funeral eulogy and the traditional
poetic form of the elegy- although this
is radicalised.
• The poem reflects Audens new sense
of identity in America with emphasis
that politics is personal, that poetry is
removed from direct political action
and that the political role of the poet
is about vision within the ruined and
horrific context of the contemporary
world.
Part 1
• Describes Yeats’s death in a way that
is similar to the view of the ‘present’
in Spain.
• Traditional lament that is stated with
the description of the ‘dead of winter’
of his death and the refrain ‘the day of
his death was a dark cold day’
• Stanzas 1 & 2 – grand poetic global
view of a world that seems at once
contemporary and a timeless epic
world – airports, wolves in evergreen
forests.
• The poem itself calls attention to itself
as a grand, clever and sophisticated
performance of poetic wit and
rhetoric- consider ‘the death of the
poet was kept from his poems’.
• Note the elaborate versification of the
first stanza with the elaborate plosive
alliteration of the ‘d’ –echoes of
Thomas and Whitman in the long
lines. Do you think this versification
reflects the new identity of the poet.
The landscape is a further
announcement of Audens sense of
freedom for himself and his poetry
Stanza 3-4 Part 1
• The physical facts of death are conflated
with the political image about rebellion –
acts as a reminder about Yeats
involvement with the Irish rebellion –
repression and revolution of the 20th C.
• Image shifts from the fame and
appropriation of his poetry in the future
to the harsh bitterness about the
contemporary political world – ‘the words
of a dead man are modified in the guts of
the living’ – challenges conventional
decorum. Becomes a lament not only for
Yeats but for wider contemporary world
• Stanza 5 and refrain
• The view of the future recalls the account
of the future in ‘Spain’ but here is even
darker. The hope of revolutionary change
is reversed. The poor stay poor, the most
to expect is to almost be convinced about
freedom. Yeats death is remembered as
doing something ‘slightly unusual’ – a
tragic understatement and hugely ironic
as nothing will be achieved in spite of the
awareness of only ‘a few thousand’.
• Chances of modern poet being a modern
political hero seem limited. Reversal of
conventional expectation in tone and
praise are a major part of the
representation of Yeats death and its
significance to poetry and politics
Part Two
• The change in focus is extreme
Related Material
•
Suggested other related texts
•
Film
•
Gladiator , Henry V, Invictus, Gandhi, Robin Hood, Crash, Inception, Charlie Chaplin: Modern Times and The Great Dictator, Charlie Wilson’s War, Gallipoli, The Last King of Scotland, A Few Good Men, The Battleship
Potemkin, Erin Brokovich, Whale Rider, The Queen, Gattaca, The Hunger Games, Divergent, See also “The Fifteen Best Political Films” at http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/05/the-15-best-political-films-of-alltime-the-votes-are-in/#slide/downfall/?&_suid=1398820794517010341032416064083
•
Drama
•
Saint Joan George Bernard Shaw, Murder in the Cathedral
film adaptations), Macbeth; King Lear; RAN; Henry V
•
TV series
•
The West Wing, House of Cards, The Tudors, Game of Thrones,Yes, Minister; Yes, Prime Minister, The Dismissal
•
Prose Fiction
•
The Wave , A Handmaid’s Tale , Animal Farm, Utopia, Catch 22, The Kite Runner, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Scarlet Pimpernel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , The Hunger Games; Divergent and other
similar dystopian texts
•
Graphic novels & picture books:
•
Persepolis (or film version), Maus , The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman , The Rabbits, When the wind blows
•
Non-fiction/multimedia
•
George Orwell – Essays: Notes on Nationalism; Looking Back on the Spanish War, Mike Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom (and other writing, speeches), Gandhi - The Story of My
Experiments with Truth (and other writing, speeches), Whitlam – The Power and the Passion, Leni Riefenstahl - Triumph of the Will - Nazi documentary/ propaganda film, Geoffrey Robertson The Justice Game,
Selected speeches and TED talks
•
Poems
•
For a range of political poems see the website http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/244532 For example, see Miller Williams poem, ‘Of History and Hope, requested by Clinton to be read at his inauguration.
T.S. Eliot, A Man For All Seasons Robert Bolt, The Club David Williamson, ‘Master Harold’ . . .and the boys Athol Fugard , Shakespeare (Drama scripts and

William Blake – selected poems from Songs of Experience eg ‘London’
I wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.

Liberty Leading the People (1830) is a painting by
Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of
1830, which toppled King Charles X of France.
William Ernest Henley – ‘Invictus’
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Picasso’s Guernica
from Wikipedia:
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in
response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village
in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the
behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces on 26 April 1937 during
the Spanish Civil War. Guernica shows the tragedies of war
and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent
civilians.
Discuss Divine Comedy with Dante
This masterpiece was created by three famous Chinese painters Dai Dudu,
Zhang Anjun and Litie Zi. The painting, 6 meters long x 2.6 meters high,
depicts one hundred world famous people and some cultural icons such as The
Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Stonehenge etc.
[Sourced from: http://www.daydaypaint.com/blog/tag/buy-paintings-online/page/2
- go to site for more detailed identification of the figures and the painting.]
Gladiator
Representing people and politics in the film, Gladiator
Directed by Ridley Scott, 2000, M rated
Leaders and leadership:









General ideas to consider:
Benevolent / malevolent leaders; use and abuse of leadership; ambition and power
Duty, responsibility, obligation
Mercy and justice, ethics, morality
Respect and loyalty
Tyranny, fear and dictatorship
Corruption; Machiavellian manipulation
God-like image of leaders; treatment of the populace
Gender expectations/patriarchal society
And?
From the film, Gladiator:
Different types of leaders, different ambitions and positions, use and abuse of power and
how they treat other leaders and the general populace, are represented in the film.
The benevolent leader (one who looks after the people) who is noble and just and uses
power for the common good, principles, causes etc. eg Maximus: he inspires trust, loyalty
etc; he is offered the
•
leadership and power (from the dying Caesar) but has a clear understanding of his role, how to wield his influence, rule. His
purpose = to achieve a Republic but not for personal power.
•
Maximus expresses to Senator Gaius his willingness to ‘give up’ Rome once he has done what he has to do  acknowledges he will
relinquish his power back to the senate, the people
•
In contrast, is the autocratic ruler, Commodus, who is ruled by his need for power, to be the most powerful  autocratic,
manipulative, corrupt – does anything and everything to maintain HIS power and position and control. Feeds off his own power.
•
It is Maximus’ concern for the welfare of others, his loyalty, sense of duty etc that gives him power and the image of a true, noble
Roman leader – he gains the respect and loyalty of others who support him no matter what - as opposed to Commodus who is
forced to take power through fear, cruelty, corruption, deceit (eg murders his father for the throne/to become Emperor)
•
You could also look at the gender roles in the film and gender politics: how the patriarchal world of Ancient Rome is represented.
Questions are raised about who is best to lead, have the power; who is to succeed  male heirs to the throne at the time yet
Caesar says to his daughter Lucilla - “if only you had been born a man what a Caesar you would have made”; he knows she would
be strong (but questions whether she would be just!) He acknowledges her capabilities but he is powerless to make her ruler – a
fact of the patriarchal society - she would be a more worthwhile leader than her brother. The representation of a patriarchal
society where all power (political, economic, religious etc ) in reality still remains in the hands of men raises discussion about how
this is still evident in much of the world today.
•
•
Another political issue here is represented later in the film when we see Lucilla, who has proven her strength with her tactics for
‘survival’, held virtually a prisoner to Commodus’ will by his threats to her son. She ends up powerless against her Emperor brother
because of her love for Maximus and her son Lucius. Lucilla is interesting to look at in terms of degrees of political power and
leadership qualities. She definitely has some political clout as Caesar’s daughter – she intervenes in the Senate when her brother is
being temperamental etc, and the Senators accept her help; she acts as her brother’s intermediary and is able to use her position
to get into the prison and set up a possible political coup with the Senator against her brother. She is heavily involved in the
politics and her qualities are evident to others but inevitably she loses her position of power because of her mother’s love for
Lucius and Commodus plays on this to get his own way.
•
Representation of Rome, the Empire, army and its people.
•
What is Rome? What is a noble Roman?
•
Note the use of visual iconography and symbolism to represent the political leaders, the power of Rome and its people.
Gladiator
For example, such iconography in the film as the figures/statues/busts of Caesar
and other leaders as well as other symbols of position and power  the trappings of
power  dress, costumes, robes, gold adornments, plus the size etc of buildings in
the shots of Rome, sense of space, size of the city = its power as the capital and
what it represents about the Roman Empire at its zenith/height.
[See stillframe below and its representation of Rome and Commodus’ triumphal
return  note the composition, mise-en-scene and spatial hyperbole.]
Note how all the pomp and ceremony in Rome is a visual display and representation of
Commodus’ power as Emperor; his holding of the games for so many days to win over
the people (yet he has to sell Rome’s grain stores to pay for them.) Note also the
aside in the film about Commodus’ return to Rome: “[he] enters Rome like a
conquering hero. What has he conquered?”
In his tent near the battlefields in Germania, Marcellus points to a map on his world
“that is the world I have created” representing his power but also his ‘god-like status’.
He wonders how the world will speak of his name in years to come “will I be the
philosopher, the warrior, the tyrant? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her
true self”. It is this future vision of Rome that Maximus pursues on Caesar’s bequest.
He wants Maximus to be the protector of Rome and give the power back to the people,
and end the corruption that has crippled Rome. He comments on his own son
Commodus, “he is not a moral man; he cannot, must not rule”. This raises issues
about the status of the Emperor as a creator as well as a representative of their world
and all Rome stands for. Later in the film Lucilla and Commodus discuss what the
‘greatness of Rome” is and suggest it is an idea and “greatness is a vision”.
After the battle against the Germanians Maximus is praised and honoured by his
troops and his discussion with his majesty, Marcellus Caesar, highlights the concern
he has for Rome: “we must save Rome from the politicians”. Marcellus’ vision of
Rome becomes significant in his nominating Maximus as his successor, he
understands that Maximus has not been corrupted and will always serve Rome and
ensure
Gladiator
•
his dying wish that Rome be a Republic again. Later in Rome Maximus is reminded by Lucilla that he is
a man of principle who has served Rome well. When he agrees to lead the military coup he does so to
fulfil the last wish of a dying man and will relinquish his position and power to the Senate once this
has been achieved; he will not “trade one dictator for another”.
•
Representing leaders as political strategists; controlling the plebs; the army/ Pretorian guards
•
In one of the early sequences in the film a Roman General comments on the enemy they are about to
fight: “People should know when they are conquered” before shaking hands with Maximus on the
army motto, “Strength and Honour”. Maximus is represented as a strong, respected leader with clear
principles who is able to easily rouse his troops and inspire their loyalty. As he states, “What we do in
life echoes in eternity”. It is his ‘nobleness and honour, as much as his military genius and strength,
that others perceive and for which they respect him. (Note the significance of Maximus removing his
SPOR tattoo, the symbol of his army and life as a general.)
•
The battle sequences early in the film, while showing their strength in numbers etc, also contrastingly
shows the power of the intellect – it is the General Maximus and Roman army fighting strategies and
tactics (thinking) that also makes them victorious. You can’t do it with ‘brawn’ (physical strength)
alone, a successful leader needs tactics and strategies. Also shows you can’t underestimate your
opponents. That’s why Maximus is a good and powerful leader – note how we are shown the respect
given to him by his men as they acknowledge his principles as well as his capabilities. Notice the
motto at beginning of the film for the Roman army “Strength and honour” – they are meant to go
hand in hand; the generals literally shake hands on this before the battle, and the gladiators
acknowledge this same principle later when they fight for their freedom.
•
Look also at those sequences in the film when Maximus (the natural leader) organises the gladiators in
the ring to work together – this gives them a power over their enemies and represents the importance
and power of collaboration, team work, unity etc.
•
Commodus also shows us this strategist skill in a different way. He has a whole army to command but
realises he has to be mentally manipulative in order to sustain his power – he blackmails others,
corrupts them, rules with fear etc. He understands the power of the mob but believes he can
manipulate them, control them by distracting them with games and magic/illusion in the Colosseum:
he sees them as fickle and easily swayed – even the Senators acknowledge that ‘fear and wonder are a
powerful combination’. Leadership and politics is all about ‘winning the crowd’ – we see this when
Maximus does exactly that with his courage
•
and skill in gladiatorial combat  and how the gladiator becomes more powerful than the emperor!
Maxiumus’ owner comments “Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of
Rome”; he responds to Maximus’ cynicism by reminding him that the power to amuse a mob IS
power, and the mob IS Rome; who controls them controls everything.