Typical exam questions - Streetcar

This is you in 7 weeks time!

Here are some tough and not-so-tough questions on Streetcar.

I strongly urge you to practise these within an one hour time limit - if at first you don't succeed, try try again...practice makes perfect, time waits for no man, procrastination is the thief of time etc etc

You should at least attempt to write a plan for each of these. That way, you've covered everything and nothing will scare you in the exam!

1. Describe the use of light in the play. What does its presence or absence indicate?
2. How does Williams use sound as a dramatic device?
3. How does Blanche’s fascination with teenage boys relate to her decline and fall?
4. Compare and contrast Mitch to the other men in the play.
5. Compare and contrast Blanche and Stella.
6. What does Williams’s depiction of Blanche and Stanley’s lives say about desire?
7. The plot of A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the dueling personalities of Blanche and Stanley. What are the sources of their animosity toward one another?
8. A Streetcar Named Desire can be described as an elegy, or poetic expression of mourning, for an Old South that died in the first part of the twentieth century. Expand on this description.
9. Streetcar is divided into eleven scenes rather than the traditional act and scene divisions. What is the effect of this structure?
10. How does Williams tend to end scenes? On a consistently dramatic note? A tragic one? With suspense?
11. Are there any moral or ethical lessons to be found in A Streetcar Named Desire?
12. We’ve spent a lot of time contrasting Blanche and Stanley as opposite characters and symbols of conflicting ideals. But in what ways are these two similar? And how do these commonalities complicate the interpretation of the play?
13. What sort of acting choices do you see the characters having to play, particularly Blanche, Stanley, and Stella? Are the characters pretty clearly mapped out in the script, or is there much room for interpretation?
14. How important is the final scene (Eleven) of Streetcar? What does it add to the play? Why not just end with the rape in Scene Ten?
15. In what ways does Blanche represent the faded American Dream?
16. What effect does the combination of fantasy and reality have in A Streetcar Named Desire?
17. Does Williams' presentation of all the characters in this play evoke sympathy and compassion from the audience?
18. Discuss the presentation of Stella/Stanley/Blanche/Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Women in the 1950's

This has to be one of the funniest and probably most unethical ways I can express the sexist and misogynistic (remember that word?!) attitudes in the 1950's. Check out this website and the article on how advertisements used to 'appeal' to women.

This may also be entertaining... 

How to analyse poetry - where do you begin?

We all know I love my mind maps, so here is a really good one to help you with your poetry.

Have a look at these ideas too:

	ELEMENTS OF ANALYSIS DESCRIPTION SUBJECT-MATTER What event, situation, or experience does the poem describe or record? Who is the speaker? Is the poet speaking in the role of another person, an animal, a thing? To whom is the speaking talking? What is the time setting - hour of day, season, era? What is the place setting? PURPOSE,THEME, OR MESSAGE What seems to be the poet's purpose in writing this - what message, ideas, issues, themes, (etc.) are communicated? EMOTION, MOOD, OR FEELING What is the poet's tone? Watch for shifts in tone especially toward the end of the poem. What is the poet's attitude toward the subject? What is the predominant emotion, or mood, of the poem? Does the mood change during the poem? What emotions or feelings does the poet seek to evoke in the reader / listener? CRAFTSMANSHIP, OR TECHNIQUE (see below) This aspect of the poem deals with specific skills the poet has used in creating his or her work of art: • Structure • Language • Imagery • Movement • Sound SUMMARY Having analysed the poem, it is important to synthesise (pull all the information together) into a summary. What is the impact of the whole poem for you? How successful is it as a work of art? Does it successfully achieve the poet's purpose or is it flawed in some serious way? Looking Closer at Craftsmanship Structure How is the poem structured? Does it have a conventional structure such as a sonnet, or an ode? Does it have stanzas with a regular number of lines, or any other interesting features of structural design? Can you identify the type of poem - sonnet, free verse, ballad, etc.? Is the poem lyric, dramatic, narrative, or a combination? How can you tell? Language How would you describe the poet's use of words - vivid, striking, effective or colourless and predictable? What visual images are brought to mind? What sensations does the poem evoke: sound, touch, smell, taste, movement, etc.? What words are used in surprising or imaginative ways? Look for puns. Are there any inverted word orders or sentences? What would be the usual order? What purpose is served by the inversion? Is the language appropriate to subject and/or theme? What effect does the language have on the poem's achievement? Imagery Are there any striking examples of figurative language used? What things are compared (similes, metaphors, personifications or symbols) in the poem? Are their analogies or conceits? What is their effect? Movement or Rhythm Does the poem have a regular (slow or fast) rhythm? What is the effect of any rhythmic qualities? Sounds Does the poem have any significant sound features? Is it musical? Does the poet use onomatopoeia, alliteration, or assonance? Does the poem rhyme? What are the effects of these features of sound on the achievement of the poem?

Poetry - Getting to grips with the texts

Apart from going through the notes I emailed you on every single poem, I strongly suggest you do some background reading - not just on the text but on the poets themselves. A poet can either reinforce your idea or contradict it (depending on what you're writing about) and you can give you a better insight as to whether the author is dependable and reliable.

Think about how you feel about the poem. Does it make you sad? Does it make  you happy? Read it to yourself and try and identify the places that evoke emotions and try and work out a precise word or phrase that triggers those feelings.

Remember, personal response is very important and you can score really high marks with poetry if you just engage with the material. Look between the lines, look further into the poem, rather than look at it as a bunch of words on the page.

This is quite a good summary of what you should be doing:

The very first step in critical appreciation of a poem is that of determining whether you initially liked or disliked it and to what extent. This is not to say that further readings and thoughts about the poem will not alter your initial opinion. Here are some points to check:

Title - Is it appropriate to the subject, tone and genre? Does it generate interest, and hint at what the poem is about? 

Subject - What does the basic situation appear to be? Who is talking, and under what circumstances? Try writing a paraphrase to identify any gaps or confusions. 

Shape - What is it appealing to: the intellect or emotions of the reader? What structures such as progressions, puns, comparisons, analogies, bald assertions, acrostics, repetitions, etc, have been used? Are these aspects satisfyingly integrated? Does structure support content? 

Tone - What attitude to the subject is expressed? Is it appropriate to content and audience: assured, flexible, sensitive, etc.? 

Word Choice - Are these appropriate and uncontrived, economical, varied and energizing? Can each word be understood properly, considering its common uses and associations? Are there any innovations? List the verbs and see if they truly push the poem along. Are words repeated? Do they set mood, emotional rapport, and distance? 

Personification - Is this striking or persuasive? Does it add to unity and power? 

Metaphor and Simile - Are these fresh and convincing? Do they combine on many levels? 

Rhythm and Metre- Are these natural and inevitable? Do they integrate the poem's structure? 

Rhyme - Is this fresh and pleasurable? Is it unassuming but supportive? 

Dynamics - Is the poetic force pure, unpolluted and unadulterated? 

Weight - Is the poem light, medium or heavy? 

Overall Impression -Is the poem original, honest, coherent, expressive, and significant?

Have a look at this website too

 

PEEing in your essays

Have a look at this guy - try not to get distracted by his fantastic bit of facial hair, I suggest if you can't, just listen and don't look!

Writing an essay becomes far simpler once you get the hang of what you need to achieve within each paragraph. While the detail of this obviously changes between paragraphs and between essays, the broad structure can remain the same. When planning your essay, try basing each paragraph around the simple acronym, PEE -- P - E - E.

P is for Point. Start your paragraph by explaining the idea you are introducing. How does this paragraph develop your work? Try to avoid stating the obvious here, and make sure that your point relates to the plan you outlined in your introduction.

E is for Evidence. Once you have established the point you are making you will need to provide proof. This might be a quote from your primary text, reference to a secondary critic, supporting statistics or even the explanation of a logical progression.

E is also for Explanation. This might be an explanation of your evidence, of how it relates to your point, and/or where it takes your argument. This is where your personal interpretation comes in. The explanation should help to build towards your final conclusion.

So, to write a well-structured paragraph, you simply need to PEE. But it only remains effective if it avoids being formulaic -- be flexible and vary the lengths of your sentences. Also, remember that the separate paragraphs need to work together, so the explanation of one should lead into the point of the next.

This is also another link for explaining the process. The examples are not very helpful as it doesn't deal with English Literature, but you will get the idea of how it should be done. It's very detailed so read it step-by-step and understand it.

The idea is that you interweave the quote into your text. For example,
Lord Goring seems to be the voice of reason at this point, explaining to Lady Chiltern how men and women "love differently"... (I don't think that's a real quote but never mind! You get the picture!)

Victorian Education

Education

"Education is an admirable thing but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught". Daily Life in Victorian England (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996).

This quote by Oscar Wilde shows his distaste for formal education with no self reflection and self thought. Often Wilde is able to express his views through his characters such as in "The Importance of Being Earnest" with a particular exchange between Lady Bracknell and Jack Worthing.

Lady Bracknell: A man who desires to marry should know everything or nothing. Which do you know?

Jack Worthing: I know nothing.

Lady Bracknell: I am pleased. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance.

This exchange can be compared to education in that a man who knows nothing would be a man who knows only what he is told through formal education (memorizing languages, learning facts, and rewritting various information). A man who knows everything would be someone who knows both how to take the important information from formal education that he recieves and apply that information to the way he thinks. The fact that Lady Bracknell is pleased that Jack does not know anything is showing that Jack Worthing is someone who relies solely on formal education and Lady Bracknell believes that is all that is important. Oscar Wilde seemes to have made Lady Bracknell exemplify an educated, close-minded individual of the upper class of whom he does not agree with.

Robert Browning agrees with Oscar Wilde in that education is necessary, but individual thinking and coming to realizations through your own experiences and thoughts is not only more rewarding but necessary. In "The Ring and the Book" Robert Browning renders the Pope as handling the morality through the book. Guido is condemned to death by the pope who was considering pardoning him but instead cannot be pardoned. In response to the Pope's decision he says, "There's a new tribunal now higher than God's- the educated man's".

The fact that Robert Browning was indecisive about his belief in Christianity makes this statement in the "The Ring and the Book" fairly ambiguous. It is hard to determine whether this quote is satirizing the fact that no tribunal can be higher than God's, or if Browning is trying to show that through the Victorian Era the ideological shift to man being equal to god becomes prevalent. This quote is also very ambiguous because an educated man could mean that he is self-taught, or formally taught which begs that question, "What is education?" It is tough to be able to see where Robert Browning stands.

Brendon O'Neil article - The campaign to 'Stamp Out Misogyny Online' echoes Victorian efforts to protect women from coarse language

Brendan O'Neill is the editor of spiked, an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms. The campaign to 'Stamp Out Misogyny Online' echoes Victorian efforts to protect women from coarse language

By Brendan O'Neill Politics Last updated: November 7th, 2011

The campaign to 'Stamp Out Misogyny Online' echoes Victorian efforts to protect women from coarse language

A Victorian lady faints upon receiving a rude telegram

One of the great curiosities of modern feminism is that the more radical the feminist is, the more likely she is to suffer fits of Victorian-style vapours upon hearing men use coarse language. Andrea Dworkin dedicated her life to stamping out what she called “hate speech” aimed at women. The Slutwalks women campaigned against everything from “verbal degradation” to “come ons”. And now, in another hilarious echo of the 19th-century notion that women need protecting from vulgar and foul speech, a collective of feminist bloggers has decided to “Stamp Out Misogyny Online”. Their deceptively edgy demeanour, their use of the word “stamp”, cannot disguise the fact that they are the 21st-century equivalent of Victorian chaperones, determined to shield women’s eyes and cover their ears lest they see or hear something upsetting.

According to the Guardian, these campaigners want to stamp out “hateful trolling” by men – that is, they want an end to the misogynistic bile and spite that allegedly clogs up their email inboxes and internet discussion boards. Leaving aside the question of who exactly is supposed to do all this “stamping out” of heated speech – The state? Well, who else could do it? – the most striking thing about these fragile feminists’ campaign is the way it elides very different forms of speech. So the Guardian report lumps together “threats of rape”, which are of course serious, with “crude insults” and “unstinting ridicule”, which are not that serious. If I had a penny for every time I was crudely insulted on the internet, labelled a prick, a toad, a shit, a moron, a wide-eyed member of a crazy communist cult, I’d be relatively well-off. For better or worse, crudeness is part of the internet experience, and if you don’t like it you can always read The Lady instead.

The crashing together of threats of violence with ridicule is striking, because it exposes a fairly Orwellian streak to modern feminist campaigns to “stamp out” bad things. There is an attempt here to treat words and violence as the same thing. Indeed, the Guardian report discusses “violent online invective” and quotes a novelist complaining about “violent hate-speech”. Anyone who cares about freedom of speech should sit up and take notice when campaigners start talking about words and violence in the same breath, because to accept the idea that words are as damaging as violent actions is implicitly to invite the policing and curbing of speech by the powers that be. After all, if speech itself is a kind of violence, if ridicule is on a par with threatening behaviour, then why shouldn’t internet trolls and foul-mouthed loners be treated as seriously as the bloke who commits GBH? Muddying the historic philosophical distinction between words and actions, which has informed enlightened thinking for hundreds of years, is too high a price to pay just so some feminist bloggers can surf the web without having their delicate sensibilities riled.

Of course it is true that the standard of discussion on the internet leaves a lot to be desired. There is a remarkable amount of incivility and abusiveness on the web. But that is no excuse for attempting to turn the internet into the online equivalent of a Women’s Institute meeting, where no one ever raises their voice or “unstintingly ridicules” another or is crude. I would rather surf a web that caters for all, from the clever to the cranky, rather than put up with an internet designed according to the needs of a tiny number of peculiarly sensitive female bloggers.