This is for both groups and will be discuss in you double lessons this week.
Depending on which coursework question you are tackling, you should complete one of these essays by you next double lesson.
Essay 1:
Show how Carter’s short story, The Bloody Chamber and two other Gothic texts by other writers
• Comment on ‘patriarchal oppression’
• Present society’s readiness to identify women as ‘victims’ of such oppression.
Essay 2:
“Elegant, dark, rich, exotic and dripping with gore – such is the language of Angela Carter”
With reference to The Bloody Chamber, Tiger’s Bride or The Courtship of Mr. Lyon, discuss the effect and contrast of Carter’s language in her short stories with that of two other Gothic writers.
If you're in David and David's group, for extension, you should complete the essay below as part of your coursework development for Browning's poem!!!
Mr. D
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Monday 16 November 2009
Milestone task...(Carl's group)
It is milestone week and you need to submit an essay for the following task:
Deconstruct and explain, with examples, Browning's methods for creating an effective 1st person persona in 'My Last Duchess'
You should use the work from Saturday's sessions, but develop it further and submit as an essay of no fewer than the 2 A4 pages.
Failure to submit will mean a failed milestone - due 20th November!
Mr. D
(iambic pentameter, enjambment, casesura, rhyme, tone and monologue)
Deconstruct and explain, with examples, Browning's methods for creating an effective 1st person persona in 'My Last Duchess'
You should use the work from Saturday's sessions, but develop it further and submit as an essay of no fewer than the 2 A4 pages.
Failure to submit will mean a failed milestone - due 20th November!
Mr. D
(iambic pentameter, enjambment, casesura, rhyme, tone and monologue)
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Character Essay (13C)
Complete the follow essay for next Tuesday's lesson:
How is the traditional role of motherhood been questioned within 'The Bloody Chamber'?
1. How is the character of the mother and her role (as mother) changed within Carter’s text?
2. Carter is particularly interested in the portrayal of women as victims of male aggression as a limiting factor in the feminist perspective of the time – what does is seem her argument is for women in relation to the acceptance of this role?
3. How does she use her stories to explore how this may be achieved?
This will be your milestone assessment due 17/11/09
Cheers,
Mr. D
How is the traditional role of motherhood been questioned within 'The Bloody Chamber'?
1. How is the character of the mother and her role (as mother) changed within Carter’s text?
2. Carter is particularly interested in the portrayal of women as victims of male aggression as a limiting factor in the feminist perspective of the time – what does is seem her argument is for women in relation to the acceptance of this role?
3. How does she use her stories to explore how this may be achieved?
This will be your milestone assessment due 17/11/09
Cheers,
Mr. D
Sunday 18 October 2009
Research task on Angela Carter
In pairs, chosen by me, you should gather information on the following study areas and compile your finding onto a PowerPoint. You shall deliver a presentation in lessons.
Biography - including her studies, e.g. Marquis de Sade
Chronolgy of works
Critics' comments, reviews etc...
Focus on one story from the collection and comment on the fairytale's heritage, original storyline and other transformations of it other than Carter's, e.g. film, pantomime, twists in details, etc...
For extension (you should all show some attempt!) you should also explore the some of the postmodernist literary conventions this text deploys (such as temporal disorder, metafictionality, intertextuality, and magical realism).
You have one week from the lesson this task is introduced!
Cheers,
Mr. D
Biography - including her studies, e.g. Marquis de Sade
Chronolgy of works
Critics' comments, reviews etc...
Focus on one story from the collection and comment on the fairytale's heritage, original storyline and other transformations of it other than Carter's, e.g. film, pantomime, twists in details, etc...
For extension (you should all show some attempt!) you should also explore the some of the postmodernist literary conventions this text deploys (such as temporal disorder, metafictionality, intertextuality, and magical realism).
You have one week from the lesson this task is introduced!
Cheers,
Mr. D
THERE WAS ONCE...by Margaret Atwood
"There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest."
"Forest? Forest is passé, I mean, I've had it with all this wilderness stuff. It's not a right image of our society, today. Let's have some urban for a change."
"There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs."
"That's better. But I have to seriously query this word poor."
"But she was poor!"
"Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor."
"But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace-"
"Aha! They had a fireplace! With poor, let me tell you, there's no fireplace. Come down to the park, come to the subway stations after dark, come down to where they sleep in cardboard boxes, and I'll show you poor!"
"There was once a middle-class girl, as beautiful as she was good-"
"Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don't you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can't you make her, well, more average?"
"There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out, who-"
"I don't think it's nice to make fun of people's appearances. Plus, you're encouraging anorexia."
"I wasn't making fun! I was just describing-"
"Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what colour she was."
"What colour?"
"You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I'm telling you right now, I've had enough of white. Dominant culture this, dominant culture that-"
"I don't know what colour."
"Well, it would probably be your colour, wouldn't it?"
"But this isn't about me! It's about this girl-"
"Everything is about you."
"Sounds to me like you don't want to hear this story at all."
"Oh well, go on. You could make her ethnic. That might help."
"There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average-looking as she was good, who lived with her wicked-"
"Another thing. Good and wicked. Don't you think you should transcend those puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is conditioning, isn't it?"
"There was once a girl, as average-looking as she was well-adjusted, who lived with her stepmother, who was not a very open and loving person because she herself had been abused in childhood."
"Better. But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers-they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don't you? That would make more sense anyway, considering the bad behaviour you're about to describe. And throw in some whips and chains. We all know what those twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like-"
"Hey, just a minute! I'm a middle-aged-"
"Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar, or whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on."
"There was once a girl-"
"How old was she?"
"I don't know. She was young."
"This ends with a marriage, right?"
"Well, not to blow the plot, but-yes."
"Then you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It's woman, pal. Woman."
"There was once-"
"What's this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now."
"There-"
"So?"
"So, what?"
"So, why not here?"
"Forest? Forest is passé, I mean, I've had it with all this wilderness stuff. It's not a right image of our society, today. Let's have some urban for a change."
"There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs."
"That's better. But I have to seriously query this word poor."
"But she was poor!"
"Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor."
"But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace-"
"Aha! They had a fireplace! With poor, let me tell you, there's no fireplace. Come down to the park, come to the subway stations after dark, come down to where they sleep in cardboard boxes, and I'll show you poor!"
"There was once a middle-class girl, as beautiful as she was good-"
"Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don't you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can't you make her, well, more average?"
"There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out, who-"
"I don't think it's nice to make fun of people's appearances. Plus, you're encouraging anorexia."
"I wasn't making fun! I was just describing-"
"Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what colour she was."
"What colour?"
"You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I'm telling you right now, I've had enough of white. Dominant culture this, dominant culture that-"
"I don't know what colour."
"Well, it would probably be your colour, wouldn't it?"
"But this isn't about me! It's about this girl-"
"Everything is about you."
"Sounds to me like you don't want to hear this story at all."
"Oh well, go on. You could make her ethnic. That might help."
"There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average-looking as she was good, who lived with her wicked-"
"Another thing. Good and wicked. Don't you think you should transcend those puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is conditioning, isn't it?"
"There was once a girl, as average-looking as she was well-adjusted, who lived with her stepmother, who was not a very open and loving person because she herself had been abused in childhood."
"Better. But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers-they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don't you? That would make more sense anyway, considering the bad behaviour you're about to describe. And throw in some whips and chains. We all know what those twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like-"
"Hey, just a minute! I'm a middle-aged-"
"Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar, or whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on."
"There was once a girl-"
"How old was she?"
"I don't know. She was young."
"This ends with a marriage, right?"
"Well, not to blow the plot, but-yes."
"Then you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It's woman, pal. Woman."
"There was once-"
"What's this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now."
"There-"
"So?"
"So, what?"
"So, why not here?"
Monday 12 October 2009
Contextual Homework for Group 2
You need to continue to develop your originality of analysis and interpretation when evaluating the moral, philosophical and social influences that affect the writing and understanding of a poem. To do this, you need to firstly be able to research the contextual influences on both the writing and reception of the poetry and then explore the details whilst attempting to make connections with the poet’s intended meaning.
You are to research the life and times of Browning. The focus of this task should be on the contextual influences on his poetry, not solely the historical details of the time.
Possible areas for exploration are:
Themes and motifs in his poems
Contextual/historical details that link to gothic elements within his text (especially grotesque imagery/actions)
Contextual details/issues that feed into the psychological elements within his poem (evil and violence in particular)
Cultural tastes and interests that have influenced his poetry
Philosophical underpinnings that have influenced his poetry
Thursday 8 October 2009
Questions on The Last Duchess...
Feel free to post any responses you wrote in class - although this is not compulsory!
1. The poem is of the type called a dramatic monologue because it consists entirely of the words of a single speaker (persona) who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself. The dramatic monologue reveals its own place and time as it proceeds to uncover the psychology of the speaker at a significant moment in his or her life. Browning's Duke has been labeled (despite his apparent cunning) as "witless"--why?
2. The form of the poem is iambic pentameter couplets. How does Browning give this highly regular form conversational and informal qualities?
3. The speaker is the arrogant, art-collecting Duke of Ferrara. We might even call him the protagonist, for, although we may not agree with him, we are virtually compelled to identify with him since he speaks directly to us, with a mediating narrator. How does Browning force us to place our sympathies with so objectionable a persona?
4. The place is the grand staircase in the ducal palace at Ferrara, in northern Italy. How does Browning have the Duke himself subtly reveal this location and the general circumstances under which he addresses the envoy?
5. The time is the Italian Renaissance, as Browning establishes by references to art and the dowry which the Duke is negotiating with the Count of Tyrol, as well as by the Duke's "thousand-year-old name." Why is this "name" so important to this Renaissance Duke?
6. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?
7. As the poem opens, the Duke has been making dowry arrangements with the envoy of the Count of Tyrol, whose daughter he intends to marry; "the company" awaiting the Duke and envoy below are the Count's party. Why does the Duke apparently try to forestall the envoy's rushing down the stairs at the end of the poem?
8. In all likelihood, the Duke will not succeed in his suit because the envoy will warn his master about the dangerous possessiveness of the prospective son-in-law. Agree or disagree, citing evidence from the poem.
9. The Duke reveals himself to be an emotionally cold, calculating, materialistic, haughty, aristocratic connoisseur; on the positive side, he is a patron of such artists as Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck (both fictional). What does he value in art? What does he see as his role in the creation of great art?
10. The statue of Neptune ("a rarity") taming a seahorse may be regarded as a symbol of brutal male domination of the beautiful and natural. How might we regard this statue as representing the Duke?
11. The envoy, apparently alarmed by what he has heard, tries to break away from the Duke, but is restrained by him. What, if anything, does Browning reveal about the envoy?
12. The Duke regards artists as names to conjure with, but also as social inferiors, lackeys who do his bidding and by their works attest to his refined tastes. Ironically, for the Duke the portrait of the duchess is better than the living duchess herself because he can control who sees and enjoys the portrait; the living duchess was beyond his control. Browning allows the reader to assess the Duke for himself. The reader sees that such powerful Renaissance rulers were ruthless and rapacious parvenus. He also sees how jealousy and possessiveness can destroy those very things we love the most. Despite his depravity, what is pathetic about the Duke?
13. At about the same time (1842), Alfred Lord Tennyson was publishing his first dramatic monologue, "Ulysses." In what respects are the two poems similar? How do they differ, especially in terms of the "understood auditor"?
14. In view of the probable fate of the former duchess, why may we describe the Duke's taking the Count's envoy into his confidence situationally ironic? How does Browning render the Duke's doing so probable rather than improbable?
15. The Duke has been described as both "disdainful" and "proud." Other terms that might be applied to his character are "hubristic" and "megalomaniacal." Explain with reference to the poem how each of these adjectives is appropriate.
16. In his portrait of an Italian Renaissance nobleman, Browning has made use of an actual historical figure, Alphonso II D'Este, Duke of Ferrara (1533-97; ruled 1559-97). Use whatever resources available to compare (briefly) this real person with Browning's fictional duke, pointing out both points of congruence and differences. Speculate as to why did Browning chose not to mention the Duke by name.
17. Thomas Blackburn in Robert Browning: A Study of His Poetry (1967) argues that the poem is "a novel [which] in about sixty lines conveys a sense of the infinite complexity of life, of the under and overtones of existence" (p. 173). Defend or refute this classification and interpretation with direct reference to both the poem and an accepted definition of the term "novel."
18. Attempt to classify the Duke psychologically, explaining why he finds the portrait of his late wife preferable to the living original.
19. To what extent may we take the statue of Neptune, taming a seahorse, as an emblem of the Duke's relationship with his last duchess? Consider the identity as well as the disposition of Neptune, and how the seahorse may serve as an emblem of the duchess.
20. Why is the form of the poem (iambic pentameter couplets) both appropriate to the characterization of the speaker and effective in presenting him as a Renaissance "type"?
21. Why should we classify the poem as Browning did--that is, as a "dramatic lyric"?
22. Precisely what about the duchess did the Duke object to? How do his values partially justify or mitigate his actions to the reader?
23. Explain how the Duke's attitudes towards art and artists as revealed in the poem reveal his essential materialism, aristocratic hauteur, and insecurity.
24. Speculate as to why Browning chosen to use the form of a monologue and has thereby eliminated the possibility of providing a narrator to comment on the action and the characters.
25. Why has the Duke positioned the full-length portrait on a landing on the grand staircase, then had it covered with a curtain?
26. Discuss three contradictory characteristics that Browning reveals in the Duke, showing how each quality or characteristic is subtly revealed.
27. Based on the clues that Browning provides in the poem, explain both what happened before the opening of the poem (i. e., what fate befell the Duchess and how) and what will happen just after the poem closes.
28. How does the Envoy's reaction to the Duke's displaying and discussing the portrait condition our judgment of the Duke and the Duchess? That is, to what extent is the Envoy's response ours?
29. Attempt, with specific reference to the poem, to formulate a statement of theme or poetic intention. What truth(s) about human nature does the poem communicate?
30. Much of the great imaginative literature of the nineteenth century in some way involves a dream of a golden age, a glorious past or a utopian future. In what ways may we take "My Last Duchess" as Browning's response to the golden age of the Renaissance in Italy?
31. The title of the poem was originally simply "I. Italy." Suggest why Browning so named it and speculate as to why he changed the name.
1. The poem is of the type called a dramatic monologue because it consists entirely of the words of a single speaker (persona) who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself. The dramatic monologue reveals its own place and time as it proceeds to uncover the psychology of the speaker at a significant moment in his or her life. Browning's Duke has been labeled (despite his apparent cunning) as "witless"--why?
2. The form of the poem is iambic pentameter couplets. How does Browning give this highly regular form conversational and informal qualities?
3. The speaker is the arrogant, art-collecting Duke of Ferrara. We might even call him the protagonist, for, although we may not agree with him, we are virtually compelled to identify with him since he speaks directly to us, with a mediating narrator. How does Browning force us to place our sympathies with so objectionable a persona?
4. The place is the grand staircase in the ducal palace at Ferrara, in northern Italy. How does Browning have the Duke himself subtly reveal this location and the general circumstances under which he addresses the envoy?
5. The time is the Italian Renaissance, as Browning establishes by references to art and the dowry which the Duke is negotiating with the Count of Tyrol, as well as by the Duke's "thousand-year-old name." Why is this "name" so important to this Renaissance Duke?
6. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?
7. As the poem opens, the Duke has been making dowry arrangements with the envoy of the Count of Tyrol, whose daughter he intends to marry; "the company" awaiting the Duke and envoy below are the Count's party. Why does the Duke apparently try to forestall the envoy's rushing down the stairs at the end of the poem?
8. In all likelihood, the Duke will not succeed in his suit because the envoy will warn his master about the dangerous possessiveness of the prospective son-in-law. Agree or disagree, citing evidence from the poem.
9. The Duke reveals himself to be an emotionally cold, calculating, materialistic, haughty, aristocratic connoisseur; on the positive side, he is a patron of such artists as Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck (both fictional). What does he value in art? What does he see as his role in the creation of great art?
10. The statue of Neptune ("a rarity") taming a seahorse may be regarded as a symbol of brutal male domination of the beautiful and natural. How might we regard this statue as representing the Duke?
11. The envoy, apparently alarmed by what he has heard, tries to break away from the Duke, but is restrained by him. What, if anything, does Browning reveal about the envoy?
12. The Duke regards artists as names to conjure with, but also as social inferiors, lackeys who do his bidding and by their works attest to his refined tastes. Ironically, for the Duke the portrait of the duchess is better than the living duchess herself because he can control who sees and enjoys the portrait; the living duchess was beyond his control. Browning allows the reader to assess the Duke for himself. The reader sees that such powerful Renaissance rulers were ruthless and rapacious parvenus. He also sees how jealousy and possessiveness can destroy those very things we love the most. Despite his depravity, what is pathetic about the Duke?
13. At about the same time (1842), Alfred Lord Tennyson was publishing his first dramatic monologue, "Ulysses." In what respects are the two poems similar? How do they differ, especially in terms of the "understood auditor"?
14. In view of the probable fate of the former duchess, why may we describe the Duke's taking the Count's envoy into his confidence situationally ironic? How does Browning render the Duke's doing so probable rather than improbable?
15. The Duke has been described as both "disdainful" and "proud." Other terms that might be applied to his character are "hubristic" and "megalomaniacal." Explain with reference to the poem how each of these adjectives is appropriate.
16. In his portrait of an Italian Renaissance nobleman, Browning has made use of an actual historical figure, Alphonso II D'Este, Duke of Ferrara (1533-97; ruled 1559-97). Use whatever resources available to compare (briefly) this real person with Browning's fictional duke, pointing out both points of congruence and differences. Speculate as to why did Browning chose not to mention the Duke by name.
17. Thomas Blackburn in Robert Browning: A Study of His Poetry (1967) argues that the poem is "a novel [which] in about sixty lines conveys a sense of the infinite complexity of life, of the under and overtones of existence" (p. 173). Defend or refute this classification and interpretation with direct reference to both the poem and an accepted definition of the term "novel."
18. Attempt to classify the Duke psychologically, explaining why he finds the portrait of his late wife preferable to the living original.
19. To what extent may we take the statue of Neptune, taming a seahorse, as an emblem of the Duke's relationship with his last duchess? Consider the identity as well as the disposition of Neptune, and how the seahorse may serve as an emblem of the duchess.
20. Why is the form of the poem (iambic pentameter couplets) both appropriate to the characterization of the speaker and effective in presenting him as a Renaissance "type"?
21. Why should we classify the poem as Browning did--that is, as a "dramatic lyric"?
22. Precisely what about the duchess did the Duke object to? How do his values partially justify or mitigate his actions to the reader?
23. Explain how the Duke's attitudes towards art and artists as revealed in the poem reveal his essential materialism, aristocratic hauteur, and insecurity.
24. Speculate as to why Browning chosen to use the form of a monologue and has thereby eliminated the possibility of providing a narrator to comment on the action and the characters.
25. Why has the Duke positioned the full-length portrait on a landing on the grand staircase, then had it covered with a curtain?
26. Discuss three contradictory characteristics that Browning reveals in the Duke, showing how each quality or characteristic is subtly revealed.
27. Based on the clues that Browning provides in the poem, explain both what happened before the opening of the poem (i. e., what fate befell the Duchess and how) and what will happen just after the poem closes.
28. How does the Envoy's reaction to the Duke's displaying and discussing the portrait condition our judgment of the Duke and the Duchess? That is, to what extent is the Envoy's response ours?
29. Attempt, with specific reference to the poem, to formulate a statement of theme or poetic intention. What truth(s) about human nature does the poem communicate?
30. Much of the great imaginative literature of the nineteenth century in some way involves a dream of a golden age, a glorious past or a utopian future. In what ways may we take "My Last Duchess" as Browning's response to the golden age of the Renaissance in Italy?
31. The title of the poem was originally simply "I. Italy." Suggest why Browning so named it and speculate as to why he changed the name.
Critical Articles...
For next week, please read the four articles and make any relevant annotations/notes in relation to the Gothic texts you have been studying.
If you are unfamiliar with any of the texts mentioned in the articles, part of you homework is to find a copy, see me if you can't, and familiarise yourself with these as well.
Cheers,
Mr. D & Mrs. G
If you are unfamiliar with any of the texts mentioned in the articles, part of you homework is to find a copy, see me if you can't, and familiarise yourself with these as well.
Cheers,
Mr. D & Mrs. G
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Questions for homework...
1. The poem is dominated by nightmarish images. If the poem is indeed a kind of psychological insight, how should we interpret the closing lines of the poem?
2. Browning's "landscapes are generally brief and entirely subservient to narrative and character" according to W. C. DeVane in A Browning then Handbook. Why in this poem has Browning lavished so much attention on the physical setting and described it in such detail?
3. "Childe Roland has no foes to fight; that may be past. His critical fight is . . . in the soul and against the whole appearance of things . . . . — James Fotheringham, Studies in the Poetry of Robert Browning, p. 381) Explain how such elements as the crippled gatekeeper, "The Band," and the omnipresent noise at the poem support this analysis.
4. Judith Weissman regards the object of Roland's quest, the "Dark Tower," as an "architectural symbol of a corrupt political order. What internal evidence do we find in the former poem to support Weissman's interpretation? What else may the Dark Tower symbolize?
5. Weissman groups "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" with such nineteenth-century anti-war texts as Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, and Tolstoy's War and Peace "as one of many demystifications of military heroism" (18). She sees Browning's central message in the poem as how the military code of honour and glory "destroys the inner life of the would-be hero, by making us see a world hellishly distorted through Roland's eyes" (18). What clues suggest that Roland is projecting his own disillusionment and despair onto the landscape, and that his physical surroundings are not in fact "a particularly blighted part of the world" (14)?
6. Weissman interprets "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" as reflecting Browning's belief "that energy is easier to sustain for the sake of an ethical goal than for the sake of mere worldly honor or worldly ease, and that our psychological and spiritual natures make ethical action rewarding" (20) What elements in the poem seem to support this statement? What other thematic statements can you propose for the poem?
7. The poem takes its title from Edgar's mad song in King Lear, III, iv, 187-189:
i. Child Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still — Fie, foh, and fum,I smell the blood of a British Man.
Critics have asserted that this song by a leading character in disguise, unfriended in a wasteland and attempting to escape the kingdom with a price on his head, is merely a point of imaginative departure for the poet's realistic romanticism. What connections, however, may one make between Edgar's song and Browning's poem?
2. Browning's "landscapes are generally brief and entirely subservient to narrative and character" according to W. C. DeVane in A Browning then Handbook. Why in this poem has Browning lavished so much attention on the physical setting and described it in such detail?
3. "Childe Roland has no foes to fight; that may be past. His critical fight is . . . in the soul and against the whole appearance of things . . . . — James Fotheringham, Studies in the Poetry of Robert Browning, p. 381) Explain how such elements as the crippled gatekeeper, "The Band," and the omnipresent noise at the poem support this analysis.
4. Judith Weissman regards the object of Roland's quest, the "Dark Tower," as an "architectural symbol of a corrupt political order. What internal evidence do we find in the former poem to support Weissman's interpretation? What else may the Dark Tower symbolize?
5. Weissman groups "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" with such nineteenth-century anti-war texts as Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, and Tolstoy's War and Peace "as one of many demystifications of military heroism" (18). She sees Browning's central message in the poem as how the military code of honour and glory "destroys the inner life of the would-be hero, by making us see a world hellishly distorted through Roland's eyes" (18). What clues suggest that Roland is projecting his own disillusionment and despair onto the landscape, and that his physical surroundings are not in fact "a particularly blighted part of the world" (14)?
6. Weissman interprets "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" as reflecting Browning's belief "that energy is easier to sustain for the sake of an ethical goal than for the sake of mere worldly honor or worldly ease, and that our psychological and spiritual natures make ethical action rewarding" (20) What elements in the poem seem to support this statement? What other thematic statements can you propose for the poem?
7. The poem takes its title from Edgar's mad song in King Lear, III, iv, 187-189:
i. Child Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still — Fie, foh, and fum,I smell the blood of a British Man.
Critics have asserted that this song by a leading character in disguise, unfriended in a wasteland and attempting to escape the kingdom with a price on his head, is merely a point of imaginative departure for the poet's realistic romanticism. What connections, however, may one make between Edgar's song and Browning's poem?
Friday 18 September 2009
Browning Contextual Reserach Booklet...
As discussed in lesson, you need to type and send you work to Amiee. Once she has all the entries she will forward this work to me. I will format it and then publish a booklet of information for you.
When we come to Angela Carter, the process will be completed entirely by the group, inedepently (except the print, which I'll organise).
Cheers,
Mr. D
When we come to Angela Carter, the process will be completed entirely by the group, inedepently (except the print, which I'll organise).
Cheers,
Mr. D
Monday 22 June 2009
This week's homework...
You need to read our first two poems:
Elegy 16: On his Mistress
Elegy 19: To his Mistress going to bed
You'll need to have completed the diction column (thoroughly exploring all layers of meaning) and the intended meaning section. You'll be sent away to complete it before you'll be allowed to enter the class.
Mr. D
Elegy 16: On his Mistress
Elegy 19: To his Mistress going to bed
You'll need to have completed the diction column (thoroughly exploring all layers of meaning) and the intended meaning section. You'll be sent away to complete it before you'll be allowed to enter the class.
Mr. D
Monday 15 June 2009
Contextual Research...
Your second task is to research the areas provided to you on the research sheet. They are:
Political
Social
Literary
Scientific
Philosophical
You should also have some research on Metaphysical Poetry specifically; its focuses and its champions.
Evidence of your growing understanding will be checked in lessons starting next week - remember, if you are unable to discuss any of the areas you will required to complete further research after school in my company.
Mr. D
Political
Social
Literary
Scientific
Philosophical
You should also have some research on Metaphysical Poetry specifically; its focuses and its champions.
Evidence of your growing understanding will be checked in lessons starting next week - remember, if you are unable to discuss any of the areas you will required to complete further research after school in my company.
Mr. D
Stanziac Form Research...
Your research task is to find a poem that demonstrates each of stanzaic form explored above.
Some of the descriptions from the English Review article point to poets who have used this form heavily and have had its structure named after them or the title of their poem – some however, don’t have much to go on.
You should record the name of the poem, the poet and one stanza from the poem. You should record these down (written or typed) and have them ready for discussion on your double lesson this week (w/beginning 15/06)
Mr. D
Some of the descriptions from the English Review article point to poets who have used this form heavily and have had its structure named after them or the title of their poem – some however, don’t have much to go on.
You should record the name of the poem, the poet and one stanza from the poem. You should record these down (written or typed) and have them ready for discussion on your double lesson this week (w/beginning 15/06)
Mr. D
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