Frankenstein:
Themes:
Alienation Knowledge
Social Class Obsession
Death Nature
Rejection
Guilt
Judgment
Society
Love
Connections with Macbeth:
Victor created the monster and tried to escape his reponsibilities in the same way that Lady Macbeth helped initially to create the "monster" within Macbeth, then killed herself to escape the pain.
The whole "Nature" aspect of Frankenstein relates to Macbeth not only like weather ect but it reflects Macbeths inner nature also and how you can be corrupt.
We could talk about the fact that thier goals are their ultimate flaw. Victor created the monster and it back fired much the same as Macbeths flawed actions backfired on him.
There is a conflict with "Higher power" in both texts.
Connections with "The Bloody Chamber".
They were both flawed by temptation. The key to the door that she has been told not to enter. And Frankenstein with the knowledge that he will be known for "Something". Creating new life, being a great scientist. Although it could be argued that he didn't do this for the recognition or status.
The religious connotations.
All the Nature again relates in the same way to frankenstein as Macbeth does.
MACBETH:
Themes:
Death
Power
Love
Hallucination
Health
Supernatural
Fate
Connections with 'The Bloody Chamber'
There is a strong sense of the supernatural throughout 'The bloody Chamber' much the same in macbeth with the wierd sisters and the 'Higher Forces' that are apparent throughout.
Macbeth with the temptations like the girl and the battle with her temptations.
The tainting of good/innocense.
Nature.
The good and bad, dark and light ect.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Finding on Frankenstein.
Statement – ‘Frankenstein’ can be seen as a text that rejects woman from society. Discuss.
Victor takes away a woman’s purpose in a way because he has found a way to create life with out the need of a woman therefore denying them a purpose.
Rejection in her life in general.
Another Statement...
Frankenstein can be seen as a reflection of Shelley fears.
Shelley had a fear of having a deformed baby, also 3 of her children died ... In that respect you could argue that shelley's novel is a rejlection of that and god, typically being seen as a male, took her children and her purpose of being a mother which could be shown through the character of Victor.
Victor takes away a woman’s purpose in a way because he has found a way to create life with out the need of a woman therefore denying them a purpose.
Rejection in her life in general.
Another Statement...
Frankenstein can be seen as a reflection of Shelley fears.
Shelley had a fear of having a deformed baby, also 3 of her children died ... In that respect you could argue that shelley's novel is a rejlection of that and god, typically being seen as a male, took her children and her purpose of being a mother which could be shown through the character of Victor.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Notes ... ect ....
Key Issues.
Exploytation of Innocents.
Shock Factor.
Explicit Language.
Nature.
Entrapment.
Solitude.
Obsession.
Essay Question:
Discuss the link between nature and innocents through Carter's characterisation refering to at least two texts from 'The bloody chamber'.
Snow Child
. The name 'Snow Child' can connote the link between innocents and nature.
. The snow itself in the short story.
. The Rose.
. The fact that she is a female child and the fact that he is a grown man.
. The fact that it is a fairytale being used.
Exploytation of Innocents.
Shock Factor.
Explicit Language.
Nature.
Entrapment.
Solitude.
Obsession.
Essay Question:
Discuss the link between nature and innocents through Carter's characterisation refering to at least two texts from 'The bloody chamber'.
Snow Child
. The name 'Snow Child' can connote the link between innocents and nature.
. The snow itself in the short story.
. The Rose.
. The fact that she is a female child and the fact that he is a grown man.
. The fact that it is a fairytale being used.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Timed Essay ^.^
'Drawing upon at least two stories from The Bloody Chamber explore the ways in which Carter might be considered to re-interpret gothic conventions'
AO1: Coherence of argument & Clarity of expression
‘Bloody Chamber’ & ‘The Snow Child’
There are many ways in which Angela Carter takes the concept of the ‘gothic genre’ and simply makes it her own by branding the conventions of gothic with her own unique style and views on the gothic genre. In respect to this, you could argue that her short stories do not follow the classic conventions of typical gothic novels such as ‘Macbeth’ or ‘Frankenstein’ however, I feel that her differences in taking something like a children’s fairy-tale and making it shocking to the point where it can simply be described as nothing else but gothic is justification enough to me as a spectator.
In ‘The Bloody Chamber’, the story introduces us to a young girl who is to marry a wealthy count who the audience are aware has murdered two or more of his previous wives from other marriages. The count is shown to the audience to be a very masculine man. Carter also shows us that this man can be quite perverse in reminding us as an audience that the girl is very young in comparisons to the Count who continuously refers to her as ‘baby’ throughout the story. Carter arguably has added her own brand of gothic here because she has not only taken an innocent child’s fairy-tale and tainted it, but in the story itself she uses the young girls innocence, her virginity, and uses it as a gothic convention.
One part in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ that Carter re-interprets gothic conventions in her stories are when the girl enters the bloody chamber. She uses the imagery of the Iron Maiden, the blood and other various torture devices which could be seen as very classic gothic artefacts. By taking the classic gothic elements and branding them with her own style, it takes you upon a whole different experience that I haven’t often come across in other novel, especially in short stories by other author of the same gothic genre. You can clearly visualise what the young girl herself is seeing.
Reflection on this short story for me brings the realisation that it was odd and different from classic gothic novels, for example whilst reading ‘The bloody chamber’ I felt incredibly fearful for the young girl, I was tense throughout which are some of the clearest indications that the novel is of the gothic genre, but at the same time I was left puzzled by some of the characters actions and some of the more in depth parts of the novel in the way that I could see that they were undoubtedly gothic but they were different from the classic gothic genre I was use to reading. So I’m guessing it must be simply the way in which Carter re-interpreted classic gothic conventions and made them her own which I feel was personally her way of differing herself from other gothic authors.
I felt the same when reading ‘The Snow Child’. This very short story I found to be extremely gothic but not in the classic sense, only in Carter’s interpretation of gothic. Evidentially this story is somewhat based on the classic children’s Fairy-Tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’ although it is well covered by Carters interpretation of gothic. Again, she uses the innocence of a child’s fairy-tale mixed with the innocence of a dead child, with incest and necrophilia to shock the audience. I think this short stories is one of the best for seeing Carters own interpretations towards the gothic conventions in the sence that not many other authors would dare vary into this world of dark, controversial topics.
Clearly in this story there is a theme of innocence, which isn’t unusual in many of Carters short stories. I think based on her topics of choice; it takes the gothic genre to that next level, a level which can be quite uncomfortable for a spectator to read. Yet it still retains its status as a gothic novel because the all have clear, underlining, classic gothic conventions within them such as spirits, gargoyles on bedposts, mirrors, blood, death, love, revenge but all of them also have a more sinister truth which I feel is Carters own way of interpreting the classic gothic conventions and making them her own.
‘The Snow Child’ however didn’t stand out to me in the way that others have, This short story and also ‘Wolf Alice’ were completely different to any other novel of their kind. ‘Wolf Alice’ in particular quite literally isolated me as a reader, I didn’t connect with any of the characters personally, and felt as if the point of the story was to leave me unaware of what was truly happening. Maybe this is simply another way of Carter interpreting the gothic elements in her own style. ‘The snow child’ is similar to this in respects that I never fully feared for the girl because the count seemingly didn’t wat any harm to come to her despite the countess wanting her dead. Therefore I felt as is she was protected from the dangers set before her by the countess. I think I felt more sympathetic towards the count himself even whilst he was raping the girl of her innocence when she was in fact dead. For an audience to read this, its quite uncomfortable to take it in on conclusion because its simply so shocking.
By re-interpreting the gothic conventions in this way, I personally get the impression that it’s done to differ herself and her style of writing from other classic gothic horror writer. She takes such shocking topics and blends them which the innocence children’s fairy-tales with the innocence of Disabled people, young girls or the subject of virginity. I think it is very effective in the way that after reading them it seems as if for an audience, your innocence in believing that fairy-tales end happily ever after is a lie and much more sinister dark things happen.
Daniel Lodwidge
(I’m Sorry if this wasn’t what you wanted; the question perplexed me for a while)
AO1: Coherence of argument & Clarity of expression
‘Bloody Chamber’ & ‘The Snow Child’
There are many ways in which Angela Carter takes the concept of the ‘gothic genre’ and simply makes it her own by branding the conventions of gothic with her own unique style and views on the gothic genre. In respect to this, you could argue that her short stories do not follow the classic conventions of typical gothic novels such as ‘Macbeth’ or ‘Frankenstein’ however, I feel that her differences in taking something like a children’s fairy-tale and making it shocking to the point where it can simply be described as nothing else but gothic is justification enough to me as a spectator.
In ‘The Bloody Chamber’, the story introduces us to a young girl who is to marry a wealthy count who the audience are aware has murdered two or more of his previous wives from other marriages. The count is shown to the audience to be a very masculine man. Carter also shows us that this man can be quite perverse in reminding us as an audience that the girl is very young in comparisons to the Count who continuously refers to her as ‘baby’ throughout the story. Carter arguably has added her own brand of gothic here because she has not only taken an innocent child’s fairy-tale and tainted it, but in the story itself she uses the young girls innocence, her virginity, and uses it as a gothic convention.
One part in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ that Carter re-interprets gothic conventions in her stories are when the girl enters the bloody chamber. She uses the imagery of the Iron Maiden, the blood and other various torture devices which could be seen as very classic gothic artefacts. By taking the classic gothic elements and branding them with her own style, it takes you upon a whole different experience that I haven’t often come across in other novel, especially in short stories by other author of the same gothic genre. You can clearly visualise what the young girl herself is seeing.
Reflection on this short story for me brings the realisation that it was odd and different from classic gothic novels, for example whilst reading ‘The bloody chamber’ I felt incredibly fearful for the young girl, I was tense throughout which are some of the clearest indications that the novel is of the gothic genre, but at the same time I was left puzzled by some of the characters actions and some of the more in depth parts of the novel in the way that I could see that they were undoubtedly gothic but they were different from the classic gothic genre I was use to reading. So I’m guessing it must be simply the way in which Carter re-interpreted classic gothic conventions and made them her own which I feel was personally her way of differing herself from other gothic authors.
I felt the same when reading ‘The Snow Child’. This very short story I found to be extremely gothic but not in the classic sense, only in Carter’s interpretation of gothic. Evidentially this story is somewhat based on the classic children’s Fairy-Tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’ although it is well covered by Carters interpretation of gothic. Again, she uses the innocence of a child’s fairy-tale mixed with the innocence of a dead child, with incest and necrophilia to shock the audience. I think this short stories is one of the best for seeing Carters own interpretations towards the gothic conventions in the sence that not many other authors would dare vary into this world of dark, controversial topics.
Clearly in this story there is a theme of innocence, which isn’t unusual in many of Carters short stories. I think based on her topics of choice; it takes the gothic genre to that next level, a level which can be quite uncomfortable for a spectator to read. Yet it still retains its status as a gothic novel because the all have clear, underlining, classic gothic conventions within them such as spirits, gargoyles on bedposts, mirrors, blood, death, love, revenge but all of them also have a more sinister truth which I feel is Carters own way of interpreting the classic gothic conventions and making them her own.
‘The Snow Child’ however didn’t stand out to me in the way that others have, This short story and also ‘Wolf Alice’ were completely different to any other novel of their kind. ‘Wolf Alice’ in particular quite literally isolated me as a reader, I didn’t connect with any of the characters personally, and felt as if the point of the story was to leave me unaware of what was truly happening. Maybe this is simply another way of Carter interpreting the gothic elements in her own style. ‘The snow child’ is similar to this in respects that I never fully feared for the girl because the count seemingly didn’t wat any harm to come to her despite the countess wanting her dead. Therefore I felt as is she was protected from the dangers set before her by the countess. I think I felt more sympathetic towards the count himself even whilst he was raping the girl of her innocence when she was in fact dead. For an audience to read this, its quite uncomfortable to take it in on conclusion because its simply so shocking.
By re-interpreting the gothic conventions in this way, I personally get the impression that it’s done to differ herself and her style of writing from other classic gothic horror writer. She takes such shocking topics and blends them which the innocence children’s fairy-tales with the innocence of Disabled people, young girls or the subject of virginity. I think it is very effective in the way that after reading them it seems as if for an audience, your innocence in believing that fairy-tales end happily ever after is a lie and much more sinister dark things happen.
Daniel Lodwidge
(I’m Sorry if this wasn’t what you wanted; the question perplexed me for a while)
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Snow Child reponse
The snow child happened to be really confusing for me and its clear that it could be interpreted in many different ways. I think whaen angela carter wrote this short story she allowed for such anaylisis based on the fact that the topic of this short story is so questionable. It deals with possible incest which is such a sensitive subject to adress in a short story especially when the general trend is a really messed up, gothic, pornographic fairy tale. It just seems so outrageous. This is almost a dream like story in which the count dreams up a girl and she appears, then throughout the story the countess tries to kill her, in the end its like something seemingly harmless did the job for the countess.
During the class disscussion many things that i haden't personally thought about arose and i found them really interesting the fact that maybe the girl was a symbol of evil and the countess was the victim, in this case i could possibly understand the story more.
Another way that I thought about it was that maybe it was like a previous memory. Because the part before the story tells about it being the coountesses dead daughter. The count obviously found the girl much more beautiful then his wife. Maybe it wasn't his daughter, just the countesses. The count expressed an interest in the countesses daughter so she killed her.
I dont know the whole thing is really messed up for me but i liked the story anyhow.
During the class disscussion many things that i haden't personally thought about arose and i found them really interesting the fact that maybe the girl was a symbol of evil and the countess was the victim, in this case i could possibly understand the story more.
Another way that I thought about it was that maybe it was like a previous memory. Because the part before the story tells about it being the coountesses dead daughter. The count obviously found the girl much more beautiful then his wife. Maybe it wasn't his daughter, just the countesses. The count expressed an interest in the countesses daughter so she killed her.
I dont know the whole thing is really messed up for me but i liked the story anyhow.
The bloody chamber - (Not sure if this is suppose to be an essay or a general response)
Angela Carters "The bloody chamber" from what I can see is made up of three main genres and it is the only novel I have read that can combine Fairy-tale, Gothic horror and oddly enough a sort of pornography in a way that is just about comfortable for an audience to read. For example, fairy-tale are suppose to be read by children or a parental figure with a child's innocence in mind normally for a moralistic value such as, "Talking to strangers is wrong" or "Resist temptation" The bloody chamber takes these values and twists it for the purpose of an adult. The name itself is quite graphic an can be interpreted in many ways. The huge mass of sexual imagery in the story is shocking based on the fact that the young lady is spoken to and treated like a child, also the man in the novel takes her virginity, the last scrap of innocence that she has remaining, so he more or less breaks that link with her being a child in the novel. The gothic nature is just about everywhere in the novel, where it talks about the gargoyles above the bed, the mirrors and the ironic flowers (lillies). This is in fact one of the only novels that made me personally feel uncomfortable simply because the novel itself deals with quite sensitive topics in which I have never read before. I can relate things such as the temptation idea with thing such as paradise lost and there are a few other links with other novels like when she discusses the sisterhood, that I relate highly to macbeth with the witches and the context in which that word was used didn't seem fitting the the phrase being said. The whole novel seemed very odd. Its different because of its topics and its language. Throughout the novel she speaks beautifully and poetically, then simply out of nowhere she uses some quiet shocking words with some very sexual imagery which does not really fit the young girls personality what so ever. Also the way that she simply accepts her death is very strange, if her mother had not turned up, the the girl would have been dead. I can also link the blood mark on the girls head with Lady macbeth in the way that Lady Macbeth will always see the blood on her hand just like the girl with the mark on her head.
The ending, although this has nothing to do with the question as such was well ... awful. I really did not like it. It seems so rushed and ineffective in the way that her mum just pulls up on a horse and shoots the husband in his head and that basically was the end. I didn't understand it, i was expecting a really drawn out battle where the husband could have been described as the tiger that the mother had previously taken down with her bare hands. But no, he was simply killed in an instant. IP have never been disappointed in an ending of a novel up until i read this, im sure there are reasons but none that i could deem worthy of such a terrible ending.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
La Haine - Film Reponse
1995
Mathieu Kassovitz
The film focuses on three yound man over the span of 24 hours. Vinz seems to be enraged almost all of the time and seemingly has one overall goal in life, to get respect, i think when he finds the gun its more or less a quick ticket to this respect. I get the impression that this guy is really messed up based on the fact that he througout the film sees a cow, also the fact that somebody can be so enraged all the time is just out of the question.
Hubert as a character really confused me, i almost felt like he should have been the enraged one rather the Vinz. He owned his own gym and it got burnt down with all the rioting, the film mentions about him working hard to get the grant for the gym and once he had it, it got burnt down. So simply because of that reason i figured he was really going to be crazy. Ironically, he was the oppisite, he seemed like the one in the group who always seemed to contain things and calm most situations.
The other guy, sa'id, i had no idea about actually. I couldn't understand excatly what his goal was in the film, other then maybe "Being" his brother. He seemed like a leader in their group but almost seemed to be undermined all the time. He simply seemed to have no authority amungst the group. I simply saw him as the "pannel" between Vinz and Hubert because he really was only shown when he was splitting them up from fighting.
The film as a whole i found to be quite entertaining, I liked the storylike in a way that you could understand where the messages were coming from. Although there were a few messages, i understood them well. There were alot of interesting camera shots as well as some ammusing sound effects but based on it low budget it was more or less expected.
The gun played a huge role in the film because it was the key to each persons goal.
I like the fact that the police weren't ever called the police in the film, they were always refered to as "Pigs"... Their corruption also made them seem like another gang on the estate, not nessasarily the helpful figures you would normally expect them to be.
Mathieu Kassovitz
The film focuses on three yound man over the span of 24 hours. Vinz seems to be enraged almost all of the time and seemingly has one overall goal in life, to get respect, i think when he finds the gun its more or less a quick ticket to this respect. I get the impression that this guy is really messed up based on the fact that he througout the film sees a cow, also the fact that somebody can be so enraged all the time is just out of the question.
Hubert as a character really confused me, i almost felt like he should have been the enraged one rather the Vinz. He owned his own gym and it got burnt down with all the rioting, the film mentions about him working hard to get the grant for the gym and once he had it, it got burnt down. So simply because of that reason i figured he was really going to be crazy. Ironically, he was the oppisite, he seemed like the one in the group who always seemed to contain things and calm most situations.
The other guy, sa'id, i had no idea about actually. I couldn't understand excatly what his goal was in the film, other then maybe "Being" his brother. He seemed like a leader in their group but almost seemed to be undermined all the time. He simply seemed to have no authority amungst the group. I simply saw him as the "pannel" between Vinz and Hubert because he really was only shown when he was splitting them up from fighting.
The film as a whole i found to be quite entertaining, I liked the storylike in a way that you could understand where the messages were coming from. Although there were a few messages, i understood them well. There were alot of interesting camera shots as well as some ammusing sound effects but based on it low budget it was more or less expected.
The gun played a huge role in the film because it was the key to each persons goal.
I like the fact that the police weren't ever called the police in the film, they were always refered to as "Pigs"... Their corruption also made them seem like another gang on the estate, not nessasarily the helpful figures you would normally expect them to be.
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