World war 1 poetry
During the First World War it is estimated that a total of 10 million people were killed and twice that number were wounded. The war lasted from 1914 to 1918. The war was fought between Britain and her allies and Germany and her allies. Most of the fighting took place in France and Belgium. At first, British people thought that Britain would win very quickly and the soldiers were lucky to be able to fight the Germans. Men were eager to join up because they wanted to impress their families and girlfriends. However, as the war progressed, people realised that it was not going to be that easy. British and French soldiers faced the Germans in their trenches and both sides used bombs and guns to kill each other. When the British side tried to advance by sending men over the top of the trenches, they suffered huge casualties. Altogether 750,000 British soldiers were killed, 2,500,000 were wounded and many were permanently disabled. By the time the war had ended the British people were fed up with the fighting and just wanted to get back to normal. The returned soldiers who were wounded were an unwelcome reminder of the war. During the war writers and poets were beginning to write about the horrors of war rather than the glory. Two important poets of the war were Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 in Shropshire. He signed up in 1915, but by 1917 he
writing to entertain
Kerry: Too Much Too Young THE NIGHT HAD BEGUN quite normally for us: in a pub. I'd just turned thirteen and had been living with Mum and her boyfriend Dave Wheat in London's East End for a couple of months. She'd been out all day 'kiting'. She'd taken orders from friends and neighbours, then gone to different shops using stolen credit cards to buy £50 to £100 worth of stuff in each one. Afterwards she'd sell everything on at half the price. While she 'worked', Dave would wait for her with a drink in a pub nearby. They'd had a good day and we'd gone to the Three Rabbits to round it off with their friend Barbara, who was a heroin addict at the time, her redhead husband Micky and their eight-year-old daughter Sharon. The Three Rabbits was a smoky old-fashioned pub on the Romford Road, in the heart of London's East End. In those days it was a real gangster haunt, where men carried guns or knives in their leather jackets and weren't afraid to use them. There were worn stools by the long wooden bar, a patterned carpet that had seen better days, tables covered in glass stains, beer mats and overflowing ashtrays, and two pool tables. Seeing the film Moulin Rouge when I was older reminded me of what it was like, because the guys who drank there were all such weird characters. There was the midget; the one who kept passing out; the one who was a bit of a lunatic; the funny one; the
Wuthering heights
Examine the reasons for destructive relationships in Wuthering heights Bronte's Wuthering heights displays several characteristics of destructive relationships, stemming from jealousy, uncaring parents, and not knowing the true personality of a husband or wife. These situations are all present in the novel, and all cause a breakdown in communication between characters, resulting in hostility and separation. The destructive relationships between parent and offspring are shown through the characters of Hindley and his father, as well as Linton and Heathcliff. When Heathcliff first begins living with Mr Earnshaw, it becomes difficult for the relationship between him and his son to remain unaffected. Hindley becomes hostile towards his father as a result of being overshadowed by Heathcliff, who is favoured by Mr Earnshaw. Nelly reveals to the reader in chapter 4 that she had noticed Mr Earnshaw becoming increasingly fond of Heathcliff, disregarding the feelings of his own son Hindley. This resulted in a separation between Hindley and his father. The destructive relationship between them presents themes such as isolation and depression, typical of a gothic novel. "..and at Mr Earnshaw's death, which happened less than two years after, the young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend...". Bronte skilfully chose to continue the theme of
With what techniques and with what success does Gilman shape the readers response to the central character
With what techniques and with what success does Gilman shape the readers response to the central character. Gilman uses setting in the novella to create a sense of isolation. The house they have moved into "is quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village..there are hedges walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses". The narrator described the house as an isolated place, separate from society. The "gates that lock" and "separate little houses" describes a house that restricts and confines its occupants. The isolation and restriction of the house reflects the mental position of John's wife. Her actions are restricted by her husband and brother who are "physician(s) of high standing". They believe that their method is the only way she will recover and as a result, she is confined to the room with the yellow wallpaper. The setting of the novella is a good technique, it allows some readers to feel sympathy for the narrator and her oppression early in the story. The use of a first person narrative is another technique Gilman has employed. John's wife acting as the narrator allows her to take us through her path of insanity. We are placed in her head and given constant reason to empathise with her. We are told "he says that with (her) imaginative power and habit of story making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to
Women and the war effort in Britain 1914-1918
Coursework Assignment: Women and the war effort in Britain 1914-1918 World war one beginning in 1914 and ending in 1918 brought around many changes in Britain. One change was that many women were invited into the work place because men were fighting in war. Most of the work changes though came after conscription where men were forced to join the army. Many people and historians argue that these work changes for women would have happened anyway but just later and that war acted as a catalyst and sped up this process. I will be discussing various points on sources A to H, and answering three main questions. Source A is propaganda and is unreliable but gives us an insight into what the government were really thinking. The source is unreliable because it has a very obvious aim, to get women into the work place. The poster, made in 1917 after subscription, shows us women being 'equal to men. After subscription where it was mandatory for men to be in the army women were needed in the factories and propaganda was released to entice women into the work place. After careful study of the poster I found faults, which show that men still thought of themselves as higher than women. Small things such as the woman having to hold the flag with two hands and the mans flag being in front of hers shows that although women were 'equal' men were still the dominant race. I believe these faults
Women have been perceived differently by different people at different times. Using Shakespeare's Hamlet,consider his representation of women.
English Literature coursework Women have been perceived differently by different people at different times. Using Shakespeare's Hamlet, consider his representation of women. In Hamlet, Shakespeare carefully represents Getrude and Ophelia. Individually, Gertrude is essentially seen as weak and immoral whilst Ophelia is seen as meek and a victim of society. Collectively, they are seen to fulfil a conventional 16th century role, and it is as our beliefs and views of women change that we are able to perceive the characters in a different angle. At the beginning of the play, we get a very biased insight into the character of Gertrude and how those around her perceive her. This is because Hamlet and the ghost of Hamlet are both very biased as they feel a sense of injustice at Gertrude's marriage to Claudius, her brother-in-law. For example, Gertrude is chiefly seen as very uncaring and "unrighteous," as the "incestuous" marriage, according to Hamlet, was carried out with "dexterity" and scarcely a month after King Hamlet's death. This depiction makes the audience form a very strong opinion of Gertrude from the outset. It creates an ominous feeling about Gertrude as the first insight we get into her character is given by people who have been hurt by her in some way. This suggests that she is someone to watch out for and that Gertrude is weak and unable to live without a man who
War in the Air
War in the Air If there was a war today, aircraft would be used for the following reasons, parachuting soldiers into enemy lines, bombing enemy countries, transporting supplies to troops, spying on the enemy, observe aircraft carriers to gain valuable information about operations in the enemy lines. In 1914 planes were not as useful and were mainly used to watch enemy activities. The only weaponry used by aircraft were the guns which pilots carried to shoot down enemy planes this was very dangerous as pilots risked hitting the propeller and having the shot rebound and killing themselves. Later in 1915 a man called Anthony Fokker a Dutch designer working for Germany designed a machine gun timed to fire between the airplane's propellers. The invention made air combat more deadly and lead to dogfights which was clashes with enemy aircraft. Another source of weaponry used by pilots was small hand bombs which were dropped by hand; these bombs had little effect on the enemy and outcome of the war. In 1914 planes resources disabled the aeroplanes from transporting supplies to troops and operating attacks on the enemy. During 1914 planes were extremely unreliable and very dangerous, they were mostly used for observing the enemies lines, spying and collecting valuable information. At later stages Germany developed the Gotha it was one of the first bomber aircraft, these aeroplanes
War Poems
Comparison of the attitudes towards war presented in "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Suicide in the Trenches", and how they contrast with the views of Jessie Pope in "Who's for the Game?" In "Dulce et Decorum est", the poem starts with describing how the soldiers are subject to uncomfortable positions for long periods of time, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks". Wilfred Owen compares the soldiers to old beggars under sacks in that they are forced to sit crouched, and uncomfortable, with nothing more than themselves to their possession. This instantly paints a picture in the readers mind as you can imagine a soldier in such bad conditions, without any form of happiness. "Knock-Kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge". Owen portrays the image of soldiers coughing "like hags" whilst pushing their way with difficulty through the muddy swamp-like marsh, cursing, with loss of all dignity and respect for their surroundings. Owen also tells how "Men marched asleep", which shows the extreme exhaustion of these men, after a hard day on the battlefield. "Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling", this part of the poem shows us the extreme panic and chaos that is caused within seconds after these men hear the word gas. Not everyone manages to put their gas mask on in time, "As under a green sea I saw him drowning...", "He plunges at me guttering, choking,
War Poetry
Poetry is an art form and therefore must do something that all art does - represent something in the world, express or evoke emotion, please us by its form, and stand on its own as something autonomous and self-defining. Wordsworth described it as "emotion recollected as tranquillity" and "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" and there is no area of human experience that has created a wider range of powerful feelings than that of War: hope, fear, exhilaration and humiliation but to name a few. There are many poems that back War patriotically; they support it, and they impose it upon the younger generation, Winston Churchill said, "Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter." However there are others that are completely against the bloodshed; people like John Scott who composed the poem The Drum. In the poem he describes how much he hates the noise that the drum makes to call up young men to fight. Meanwhile there are poems that convey the idea of fighting as a vocation, an instinct that is in the blood of men, which they cannot help. On the Idle Hill is one of these poems; it was composed during peacetime in the mid -1800's and is pre - American Civil war. Alfred Edward Houseman was English and tended to write in the tone of the Latin poets he had admired. On
War Poetry.
War Poetry When the First World War commenced in 1914 many young men couldn't wait to sign up and cross the channel to what they thought would be an epic adventure. They believed that it would be an exciting experience and that they would be hailed as heroes when they returned before Christmas after a resounding win. Posters, Propaganda and Poems contributed to this glorification of war. Rupert Brooke was the most famous poet of the first part of the First World War. One of his well known poems was "Peace". The poem is a sonnet and has a typical sonnet rhyming pattern, very structured as though there is a structure and completeness about the act of fighting. It is a poem that glorifies war in a number of ways. Firstly it says that one should leave one's trivial life behind one and go to war. The poet makes war seem very admirable, "there is no ill, grief, but sleep which is mending". It is saying that there is no pain or suffering in war, there is only an honourable death. This is a false image of what the trenches were like. The poet describes civilian life to be cold, boring, dreary, empty and even dirty, "Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary". The poet is saying that if you go to war, you've been "awakened" from a dull "sleep". War will cleanse you "as swimmers into cleanness". The poem raises many questions such as, isn't the love of your country far more
