Act 1 Scene 2

Line 375 onwards

• Ferdinand appears vulnerable and alone
• Ariel's song is eerie, otherworldly and hypnotic
• F is confused, uncertain and lost
• Ariel telling F that Alonso is dead increases sympathy and sadness of the scene
• Emphasis on how differently characters react to vulnerability
• Miranda - 1st sight of Ferdinand = first sight of another man - naïve and her feelings control her
• Prospero - wants F and M to get together (he wants her to marry a prince, but their love is not necessarily natural - use of magic?)
• First meeting F asks M if she is a maid - confident in himself
• Prospero - "at first sight they have changed eyes"
• "There's nothing ill that can dwell in such a temple" (Miranda) childlike innocence, emphasis on naivety
• P prevents their relationship from happening to give it value and make it more likely to happen
• He is encouraging the relationship by preventing it, more tense and engaging
• F's speech full hyperbole, exaggerated

Definitions of blank verse and prose

Blank verse - a metrical pattern consisting of lines of iambic pentameter without any rhyme

Prose - written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure

Act 1 Scene 1

• Chaotic
• Panicked
• Overwhelming
• Dramatic
• Loud
• Grabs the audience's attention
• Power hierarchy switched
• Transience of power

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Good things about multiculturalism:

• Learn about lots of different cultures and experience new things such as food, music and art
• Diversity
• More open-minded/accepting
• Less ignorant and more understanding
• New perspectives and ideas
• Religious pluralism
• Gets rid of stereotypes
• Positive effect on the economy
• Unity

Bad things about multiculturalism

• People believe stereotypes and therefore treat people negatively
• Religions may clash
• Negative attitudes (taking jobs etc.)

The immigrant experience:

• When Changez meets the stranger, he is stereotyped immediately (page 1)
• Islamic people with beards = assumptions
• Attraction or fear - reactions to difference
• Beard = symbolic of his pride
• Changez is told to shave after 9/11, however he wants to be less American
• Meeting Erica's family - he wears traditional clothing, Erica wears a Minnie Mouse t shirt - highlighting the difference between America and Pakistan
• Stereotype that he doesn't drink - Erica's father wants a similarity
• Drinking is considered a sin/illegal however everyone still does it (opposite of fundamentalist)
• Conflicting emotions, he is unsure of his identity (he smiles at 9/11)
• On his first business trip, Changez acts American
• In the car park, he has a confrontation with an American - this is the first time he sees violence as a solution
• He is stopped by the police - humiliating and his underwear emphasises his vulnerability
• Narrative framing device - chooses 1st person and direct address
• The character takes on the role of the reader
• The stranger is suspicious of Changez
• Both characters may think the other one is trying to kill them
• Changez = fundamentalist?

Style choices in The Kite Runner

Style choices


Disappointed - parallelism, repetition
Unwilling to adapt, feels patronised, sarcasm (learning the language)
Anecdote - symbolic of a wider issue
Sees request for ID as disrespectful - lack of trust for immigrants
Shopkeepers are also immigrants - they are two groups of immigrants against each other, adds to the pressure of simulation
They weren't questioned in their home country - loss of status
Triplet - "dust, sweat and gasoline" - manual labour, brutal
"Widower" - love for his home, something missing, simile, analogy, figurative, bereavement

Attitudes and style choices in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Attitudes


Page 3 - Changez describes Princeton as a "dream come true"
Page 82 - Changez is in a hotel but he is not being treated differently to anyone else, unlike he normally is
Page 62 - 63 - Changez is having a conversation with Erica's father
Page 4 - System to choose candidates
Page 77 - Changez is looking into the Philippino man's car and feels more like him than the people he is in the car with




Style choices




Page 3 - "This is a dream come true", "Everything was possible" - he is making assumptions and preconceptions of Princeton, something which is common with immigration
Page 82 - "Cloaked by his suit", "Invisible" - he is confused as this is probably the first time he has not felt like an outsider.

Goblin Market

• List of exotic, unusual fruit - list emphasises passion of the goblins
• Encouraging attitudes
• Dimeter - strong, hypnotic rhythm
• Similar to a magic spell
• Aiming their list at the maids (at the time maids were young, virgin women)
• Sensuous figurative language
• The sisters contrast each other
• Laura - more adventurous and tempted by the list
• Lizzie - frightened
• Idea of temptation
• Boundary - something is forbidden
• Limitations of women are explored
• Tension all throughout the poem
• Goblin's are animalistic - not at all human
• "Come buy, come buy" - attraction of the forbidden
• Laura - romantic poetry - literary, natural similes and metaphors
• Described like a ship being launched - got rid of restraints
• Attempting to find freedom
• Gives in to temptation, enthused in it
• Rhyme, rhythm and repetition - enthusiasm
• Uses hair to buy fruit - magically valuable (wore jewellery with hair on it at the time)
• "Golden curl" - tension and fear giving them power
• Gives the goblins control over her
• Contrast between the two locations - the Glen and their home
• Lizzie warns Laura - tells her a narrative story about a girl
• Sense of an addiction
• Description of domestic setting - no men or parents
• Females supporting each other
• Listing of similes - detailed and figurative (sisters together)
• Draws the reader closer to them
• List of duties - iambic tetrameter - slower than dimeter
• Large contrast between duties and fruits
• Return to the Glen - Laura can't hear goblins cry anymore
• Increases the conflict
• Description of Laura's decline - heading towards death
• Description of the goblins joy - mischevious and evil
• List of how they act - dimeter, strong rhythm
• Lizzie wants to help her sister - obstacles and limitations
• Distressing, violent and intrusive attack - Lizzie laughs as she sees how she can help Laura
• Climax of the poem - confrontation between good and evil
• Erotic desciption of the sisters - transgressive
• Controversial at the time
• Not intended to be sexual - motive to cure her sister
• Saves Laura
• Repetitive and rhythmic ending - shows purpose of the poem
• Dedicated to her sister
• Ambiguous poem
• An analogy - sexual temptation?**
• Fruit = symbol of sex?**
• **Parallel with the bible
• Similar to the "Eve of St Isles"(???)
• Rape? Possibly warning against male sexual appetite
• Influenced by fairytales, folktales and dreams
• Lizzie is Christ-like
• Drug addiction - opium was a problem at the time
• Rossetti worked with women with problems
• About sisterhood

Twice

• Heart is symbolic and valuable - she is offering her life to someone
• Parallelism of 1st lines of the 1st and 2nd stanza highlights the change in possession
• Use of imperatives in the first stanza
• The use of brackets represents an aside (thought process)
• "Yet a woman's words are weak" - alliteration - "w" is a very soft and weak sounding letter which emphasises the weakness of the woman's words
• The heart is compared to fruit - it is unripe
• "Better wait awhile" - vague and unconvincing
• Trochee emphasise the caesura in the 3rd stanza "...broke - Broke"
• Switches to present tense halfway through the 3rd stanza
• The male in the poem is rejecting the female compared to No, Thank You John where it is the other way around
• The structure of the 1st half of the poem is mirrored in the second half
• References to judgement day
• "Yea, judge me now" - confident tone
• "O my God, O my God" - said aloud unlike "O my love"
• Judgement is a biblical illusion
• Fire to purge sins - suffering is needed
• "I shall not die but live" - self belief - declarative and confident
•   "All that I have I bring...I give" - determination to live for God and parallelism is similar to that of a hymn or prayer
• "But shall not question much" - won't question anything from God 

Maude Clare

Maude Clare -

• Narrative poetry
• Narrative is a wedding day
• Themes of love and loss
• The two main characters do not love each other as much as the characters in In the Round Tower at Jhansi
• Final stanza - character is mocking
• Lofty step - sense of self confidence 
• The poem begins in media res - middle of a situation - making it tense and suspenseful
• Introduction to two female characters in the first stanza - the similes used to describe them highlight the vast differene between them (a "village maid" and a "queen")
• The second stanza begins with dialogue - more common in a drama or play rather than a poem
• The 3rd stanza is ambiguous and has a formal tone to it - it also foreshadows what is to comein the marriage
• "My lord was pale" - 1st person narrative
• Repetition of pale - characters are pale for different reasons - inward strife vs pride but it is not made clear why Maude Clare is pale
• 5th stanza - sarcastic and angry tone
• "We waded ankle deep for lilies in the beck"- euphemistic of sex and fertility - ruined their reputation
• Only women wore a ring when married - symbol of possession in the Victorian era
• Nell may or may not know about the affair - evoke sympathy
• The father is barely mentioned - he is not given a voice or presence - disempowered male figures are a prevalent theme in Rossetti's poetry
• ABCB rhyme scheme deviates from typical ballad rhyme scheme - unusual
• "Faded leaves = dead love
• 7th stanza has sexual connotations throughout - "The lilies are budding now" - possible suggestion of pregnancy
• 8th stanza emphasises Rossetti's view of the male characters in the poem - he is faltered in his place and his speech appears nervous and uneasy - represented by the hyphens 
• "My Lady Nell" - Maude Clare wanted her title - posessive
• Maude Clare presents them with a sarcastic gift
• 1st dialogue from Nell in the penultimate stanza
• The main male character in the poem is fickle, untrustworthy and an adulterer - a very negative portrayal
• 
  

Light, sound, action

• Light is a metaphor for the truth
• Blanche's jewellery is beautiful but fake - representative of herself
• Large dichotomy created between Stanley and Blanche
• Harsh light = harsh truth - Blanche is dragged into it by Mitch (reality)
• "Coloured lights"
• Stella fuels Stanley's need for power and dominance
• Celebratory tune heard in Blanche's head juxtaposes the dark events that occurred that night 

The Old South and New America (ASCND)

Blanche represents the old South- she wears posh white clothes and has old fashioned values and opinions (which make her appear pure and vulnerable)
DuBois is a French surname - the French were original settlers in the USA
Blanche taught English but her students became disinterested


Stanley represents the modern new America - he is roughly dressed in stained work clothes and has more modern values and opinions
Kowalski is a Polish surname - the Polish came to the USA in the 1920s
Stanley throws the radio playing classical music out of the window


The rape scene could be representative of the death of old south culture (Blanche is being destroyed)

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 6

Context: Blanche and Mitch's date and Blanche talks about her husband

• Blanche's hope lies with Mitch - he is her last chance
• The encounter highlights Blanche's two personalities
• "That man will destroy me" - foreshadowing later events
• We see that her husband dying is the source of her problems
• The scene reveals that Blanche and Mitch are very lonesome people - gives the audience hope (also evokes sympathy)

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 5

Context: Blanche's encounter with the delivery boy

• Hints at Stanley's plan to destroy Blanche
• Blanche is almost trying to relive her past through her encounter with the delivery boy
• Highlights how Blanche tries to compensate for what she did to her husband by giving herself to almost anyone
• Blanche's past life is beginning to close in upon her

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 4

Context: The aftermath of Stanley hitting Stella

• Blanche appears as an outsider
• Blanche calls Stanley common, bestial and vulgar
• Stanley overhears this causing further resentment towards Blanche, motivating him to rape her
• Stanley is seen as victorious because he has won Stella back
• Although there is no direct confrontation between Stanley and Blanche, there is a confrontation between the two concepts of life represented by both characters

Good Friday

• Guilty attitude - stood under the cross and didn't cry 
• Strong rhyme scheme 
• Repetition
• Natural imagery through references to animals 
• Personification of the sun and moon
• Common theme of the role of women (religion and crucifixion)
• Stone metaphor - lacking emotion, passion and humanity 
• Questioning her faith
• Sheep could be Jesus' followers 
• Compares herself with everyone else present 
• Unquestioning faith = stronger faith 

Uphill

• Sound concerned and seek reassurance 
• Other voice - kind, calm and comforting 
• Journey and road - metaphors for life
• Simple lexical choices - unusual for Rossetti 
• Vague description of the setting
• Upward progression of spiritual journey 
• Uphill - struggle or becoming better
• Emphasising the length of the journey 
• Resting place - security - love, reassurance, church, religion, family etc
• Second voice could be spiritual and possibly the voice of God
• The voice is self assured, calm and confident 
• Poem about trust, faith and belief 

A birthday

• Sense of relief and positivity 
• Similes - "my heart is like..."
• Heart is symbolic
• Influence of romantic poets 
• Repetition - emphasises joy and celebration 
• Imperative forms - asking people to celebrate with her
• Religious connotations 
• Natural imagery 

From the antique

• Reflection on their life and why they don't think they'll be remembered 
• Possibly suicidal
• Unloved
• Sadness and melancholy
• Calm poem 
• String rhythm 
• Consistent rhyme scheme - strong and steady 
• Despondency - cynical 
• 2 narrators - 1st line
• 1st person narrative 
• Themes of alienation and oppression 
• The place of women in Victorian society - "women's lot"

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 3 (Source of conflict? Emotional connections between the characters and the audience?)

• Stanley becomes slightly aggressive and shows signs of tension
• Unpredictable (tossing rinds) 
• "Shut up" "impatient with the story" -emphasises building tension and impatience 
• Contrast between bright stage directions and toned down conversation
• Atmosphere during conversation at the table is uneasy - unsure of what is being said 
• Stanley's presence creates conflict 
• Stanley's strength fuels the conflict
• Stanley is controlling over Mitch when not wanting him to leave
• Stanley and Mitch are opposites - power battle
• Stanley is s volatile character 
• Suspicions and secrets
• Suspicious about belle reve and Blanche (clothes incident)
• Blanches clothes could represent her - glamorous exterior but fake
• Blanche is jealous of Stella and Stanley - the control he has over her - not as close - can't control Stella anymore 
• Stella is a victim - audience feel sympathetic towards her
• Stella is caring towards Blanche 
• Sympathy and empathy with characters 
• Mitch is caring and polite but also awkward 
• Mitch contrasts the other characters 
• Mitch's backstory helps the audience to connect with him 
• Blanche has lost everything so the audience may feel sympathy towards her
• Blanche's insecurities leave her seeming out of place
• Blanche is funny, intelligent, witty (rapport)
• Stanley - loss of power and control over Stella - sympathy 
• Clearly in love with Stella - strong emotions
• Appears vulnerable when Stella leaves 

Character relationships, how they develop and the tension between the characters

• Stella clearly loves Stanley and is very affectionate towards him
• Stanley doesn't show as much affection back until Stella leaves
• Stanley is forceful and dominating over Stella
• Stella seems to try to control Stanley 
• Blanche is flirtatious and shy around Stanley 
• Stanley is relaxed towards Blanche at first but then becomes aggressive overtime similarly to with Stella 
• Blanche becomes more defensive and confident towards Stanley and aggressive 
• Blanche doesn't seem as delicate anymore
• Mitch is very kind and calm around Blanche
• Blanche is not so shy around Mitch but she is still flirtatious
• Stanley becomes less aggressive and begins to show he is affectionate towards Stella
• Stella seems oblivious to what has just happened 
• After the fight, Stella acts very differently with Blanche - she seems more dominating and confident