Discovery Essay

Away- Discovery Leanne Wong Discovery involves an individual being removed from their comfort zone. In Michael Gow's play, Away, tells the story of three internally - conflicted families. Each of the three families hopes that the holiday will resolve the crisis that they face. The main characters Gwen, Tom and Coral respond to challenges and discover more about themselves and the world as a result of their experiences in the play. Self-discovery is about letting go and moving on. As a result of the individuals' life experiences, he or she will tend to cling onto their valuable possessions in the safety and awareness of losing everything. When the individual has been living with limited resources during their childhood years, the individual discover that life is difficult and confronting. Eventually, the individual will desire to escape reality and try to forget about their past experiences. In Away, Gwen is a stereotypical nagging mother and wife who is continually looking over her shoulders. "No one likes a snide girl, always arguing, always throwing a tantrum, getting your own way...." (Act Three, Scene Two). Gwen is yelling at Meg, when it actually sounds like she is yelling at herself. She thinks she can stave off her poverty and working class background by accumulating more possessions. Some individuals who are born from an interior status are driven to have a

  • Word count: 745
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Narrative Narrative Techniques in 'The Woman in Black'

Unit 2709 Literature Complementary Study Susan Hill (1942 - ) THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1983) Whole Text Narrative Techniques in 'The Woman in Black' Susan Hill's eclectic use of many aspects of ghost stories makes her own story a typical one, which in the readers' eyes would work, e.g. having a 'sensible, rational' protagonist as well as even using titles of famous books for her chapters (Whistle and I'll Come To You, taken from M.R. James' tale Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad'). However, in The Woman In Black, narrative techniques are used the most successfully in terms of Susan Hill's representation of both the stages of fear and the protagonist, which I will look at in more detail during the course of the essay. The protagonist Arthur Kipps himself is presented as serious and determined ('the firmness of my resolve'). His naivety is also emphasised because when he expresses his annoyance at the secrecy of the townsfolk regarding Eel Marsh House, he feels that he is superior to Keckwick when speaking to him ('he must have recognised'). He brands his former self as 'rational, sensible', therefore showing evidence that he himself can sense a change within him. His resolve that he 'needed an explanation' shows that he is still thinking rationally. The frame opening chapter is an introduction to the book, and it occurs when the main plot has already happened to the

  • Word count: 1603
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A critical exploration of Irish Society at the end of the 19th century. How far would you agree with this comment on The Real Charlotte?

The Real Charlotte Coursework "A critical exploration of Irish Society at the end of the 19th century". How far would you agree with this comment on The Real Charlotte? "The Real Charlotte" is a novel which contains a wealth of information regarding Irish society at the end of the 19th century. The authors Edith Somerville (1858-1949) and Violet Martin (1862-1915) - who adopted the pseudonym of Martin Ross - lived in Ireland during this period and belonged to the landed Anglo-Irish Ascendancy class. Not only did they have an inherent knowledge of their own class but they also had a deep understanding of the Irish peasantry. This stemmed from their keen observations of the native Irish people and Martin in particular had an intimate knowledge of their lives, having observed and interacted with the tenants of her father's estate. Likewise, she spent sixteen years living in the north of Dublin which enabled her to acquire knowledge of the middle classes. As John Bayley points out in the Listener : "Edith Somerville and Martin Ross knew Irish manners through and through: they were connoisseurs not only of the Ireland of the Ascendancy, with its ramifications of cousinage high and low, but also of the Ireland of turf-cabins and of genteel poverty in the back streets of Bray and Dublin. They knew their world as well as Jane Austen knew hers". Throughout the novel we are

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Katherine Mansfield The Collected Stories. Katherine Mansfield is a modernistic writer of the 20th century who often used erotic imagery to convey human emotions within her stories.

Mansfield Short Stories Katherine Mansfield is a modernistic writer of the 20th century who often used erotic imagery to convey human emotions within her stories. These descriptive styles, along with her sexual motifs, give her characters a more humanistic approach, allowing them to express their inner inhibitions through the use of nature. Along with this, Mansfield also uses personification in a variety of stories to explain the deeper meaning of inanimate objects, as they assist, and in some ways burden, the characters throughout their stories. Mansfield works rely heavily on the importance of nature and surroundings in order to better understand each character and their overall mindset. Passage One, from The Modern Soul, clearly shows the significance of nature as Herr Professor flirtatiously devours his cherries in the narrator's presence. Herr Professor clearly develops "etherealised sensations" when eating the cherries and talks meaningfully about the importance of "satisfy[ing] the desires of nature". There is an apparent tension between both characters which can be seen clearly using this imagery of nature. The use of sexual motifs can also be seen in The Little Governess as the Governess enjoys the succulent strawberries with an old man she has recently met. "They were so big and juicy she had to take two bites to them-the juice ran all down her

  • Word count: 959
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"The double-faced Hazard/Chance family is served up the reader as a model for Britain and Britishness."

"The double-faced Hazard/Chance family is served up the reader as a model for Britain and Britishness." To what extent do you agree with Kate Webb's assessment of the political underpinning of Wise Children? Wise Children, by Angela Carter, concerns itself with the life, family and societies inhabited by Dora Chance. Wise Children's plot contains subplots, messages and themes. Carter uses the traditional Shakespearian five act (and therefore, here, five chapter) structure which the reader would recognise as an integral part of a Shakespeare play. Shakespeare plays deal with societies and relationships, providing messages for the audience; the part we play in society and interact and how societies develop and function. The reader would see this in Wise Children's five-chapter structure. The characters Carter creates present sides of life that aim to change our perceptions of our world and of ourselves. The reader would consider the novel a commentary on Britain. Britishness is society within Britain over time. In the past, Britishness may have been the 2-up-2-down 2.5 children family but today Britain is multicultural, so traditional views of Britain have changed. Britishness is hard to define, therefore, but perhaps this difficulty in definition makes Britishness. Britain's 20th Century was a century of change and we must consider political context when studying Wise

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A discussion on Billy Liar.

Billy Liar This play is set in the 1960's. This was a time of change in Britain. The music, clothing and the attitudes of society were changing. Billy Fisher wanted to be a part of this change. But living in a small working class town near Yorkshire Billy could not. The main place where this was happening was London, if -Billy wanted to be a part of this he had to go there. There was a large difference between the town, which Billy lived in, and London. In Billy's own words he says, "A man can lose him self in London, London is a big place. It has big streets and big people." We can see when reading the play why he wants to 'lose' him self in London. He wants to escape from all the things, which have gone wrong in his life and start a fresh. It seems as though Billy cannot do this on his own and we meet a girl in the play called Liz who tries to get Billy to leave. Liz is a part of sixties as this was a time when women were much more liberated. She is free and does as she feels. We see the exact opposite in the play as we meet a girl called Barbara. She is still living in the past and wants to be a part of a cliché family. She is sexually moral and a stereotypical female of the past. We meet one more girl in the play called Rita; she is not as free as Liz or as dull as Barbara, she is a still a very strong character and we see that she wants to have the security of a

  • Word count: 2005
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Brief Encounter and Falling in Love - a story simplified and continued.

UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA ODDELEK ZA ANGLISTIKO IN AMERIKANISTIKO Anja Ambrož-Bizjak: Brief Encounter and Falling in Love: a story simplified and continued Mentorica: Prof. Tina Mahkota Kranj, 17.2.2003 Discussing David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) is often conclusive to mentioning its remakes: Brief Encounter produced by Carlo Ponti in 1973 and the 1984 version Falling in Love directed by Ulu Grosbard. All three are beautiful, perhaps even text-book examples, of how a film or a story can develop through time, different cultural approaches, of how different aspects of a certain story are brought into focus at different times by different people, how different techniques are used, and ultimately, why one decides to make a remake rather than an 'original' film. To show that a remake is not merely a copy but that it is an original piece of work, I am only going to focus on the original Lean's Brief Encounter and on the last version Falling in Love. Moreover, the comparison of the two will show that the remake is largely culturally influenced and that the story itself may be changed to a great extent. First of all, the most apparent reason why remakes happen is economic - a remake as a 'presold' property. And yet, we must bear in mind that the remaker must also believe that particular story still inspires what Ira Konigsberg calls "another attempt to

  • Word count: 2233
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state?

How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator's change in emotional state? After reading 'Surfacing' it is clear to see that as the story progresses, the Surfacer has undergone a transformation that has seen her become a more complex character and therefore it has become more difficult for the reader to interpret her thoughts and actions. Her emotional state has some what deteriorated since the start and the sense of madness that the reader is now beginning to become wary of, seems to stem from her inability to cope with the standard roles of women which have been constructed in society and she becomes increasingly secluded from all the features of life as she attempts to serve as a human, a wife, a mother and a sexual being. Ultimately it's the complexity of the language that helps to convey the Surfacer's change in emotional state and as she is the only narrative voice that the reader can listen to it means that we too, become submerged in her psychological transformation and become able to sense a change in emotion and thought. One of the main ways that the reader can see a change in the Surfacer's emotional state is through the use of semiotics. The reader knows that the narrator is constantly interpreting both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication but as she starts to feel more alien in society her reading into situations start to become more inaccurate and

  • Word count: 1083
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Angela's Ashes Summary

Angela's Ashes Précis Angela's Ashes begins as Frank McCourt describes how his parents met and married in New York, and four years later moved back to their home country, Ireland. Frank tells about the life of his mother, Angela Sheehan, who is sent to New York by her mother, where she meets and sleeps with Malachy, an Irishman recently out of prison. Angela's cousins, the MacNamara sisters, order Malachy to marry Angela. A few months later their first child, Francis, is born and baptized. Angela's cousins advise her not to have any more kids with the jobless Malachy, but a year later Malachy Gerard is born. Shortly after, Frankie's mother has twins, Oliver and Eugene. Frank's father often finds work, but continuously spends his wages at pubs. Angela has another child, a girl, named Margaret. Everyone is in love with Margaret, especially Frankie's father, who hasn't had a drink since she was born. However, Margaret soon dies, and Frankie's father goes to a pub, while Frankie's mother enters a state of depression. The MacNamara sisters send a letter to Angela's mother, who sends money for Angela and her family to take a boat back to Ireland. The McCourt's arrive in Toome, Ireland, where Malachy's parents greet them coldly. Unable to receive money from the IRA, the McCourt's travel to Limerick. Angela's mother, Margaret, meets them with a cold manner. The

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How does Jeanette Winterson convey her central concerns in the narrative and what influences are significant to the reader's appreciation of the novel's title and central metaphor; Lighthousekeeping?

The importance of stories, the urge to recreate ourselves through stories, is one of Winterson's abiding themes, along with the supremacy, the redemptive power of love." How does Jeanette Winterson convey her central concerns in the narrative and what influences are significant to the reader's appreciation of the novel's title and central metaphor; Lighthousekeeping? 'Utterly skewwhiff' is how one critic describes Lighthousekeeping, yet despite the disrupted narrative and switching of style so typical to the modern novel, the prevailing themes of Lighthousekeeping are made clear, sometimes to the point of bluntness. One of the main themes is undoubtedly storytelling and its role in our lives. We are persistently reminded of this by the repeated sequences starting with 'Tell me a story', first between Silver and Pew and then Silver and her lover. Despite the sometimes confusing structure of the novel the sequences draw the direction back to the core themes of love and storytelling, and also constantly remind us of the constructed nature of the text and the fact that we're reading a story. Storytelling is a 'way of navigating lives' and in this way the sequences help us navigate our way through the novel. For we do need help navigating; Winterson claims that it is in stories where the truth lies, yet the truth is dynamic and shifting and never solid, and we can see this in

  • Word count: 2074
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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