In the novel “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” the author Robert Stevenson, uses the two conflicting characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to explore the link between civilization
“And a wooden leg/ And a wooden leg”
Here’s the thematic question from the second section (section B) of the World War One Specification paper issued 4 years ago
Have a ago and I’ll attach a response soon
QUESTION 13: War Poetry ed. Jon Stallworthy
How far do you agree with the view that there is little variety in subject matter and style in the poems in this selection?
In your answer, you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through the whole selection.
‘Poetry’ Wordsworth reminds us ‘is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ and there can be no area of human experience that has generated a wider range of powerful feelings than war: hope and fear; exhilaration and humiliation; hatred- not only for the enemy, but also for generals, politicians, and war- profiteers; love for fellow soldiers, for women and children left behind, for country and cause. In his introduction to the 1984 publication of the Oxford Book of War Poetry it is apparent that Stallworthy aims to present a ‘variety in subject matter and style’ in the poems from this selection. He does this in the inclusion of translated and transliterated works. For example, there are from French poets and surrealists – a calligram by Guillaume Apollinaire and ‘Little Song of the Maimed’ by Benjamin Péret. Stallworthy includes the South African writer Isaac Rosenberg, the American modernist E.E Cummings. However, it could be argued that there is ‘little variety’ because only 2 female poets are included; Elizabeth Daryush and May Wedderburn Cannan.
Variety in style is obtained from Apollinaire’s calligram written to his lover Madeleine A calligram is where the text is written in a way that presents a visual image related to the word itself. For example, after the first and second couplet the stanza begins ”The evening star a punctual gem’ arranged to form a five pointed star. This layout is a clear contrast from the ordered sonnets of Brooke and the alternating rhyme scheme in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Men Who March Away’. Furthermore the inclusion of a Frenchmen’s work lends a wholesomeness to the collection, However, the perspective of women are largely ignored in Stallworthy’s collection- only included two at the very end. Cannan’s ‘Rouen’ ends with ‘My heart goes out to Rouen, Rouen all the world away,’ The personal pronoun ‘My’ denotes a particular attachment to the town she worked in as a VAD she uses the metaphorical phrase ‘goes out’, as if her heart is physically removed from her and integrated that the caesura comma is used to illustrate the poets disregard for the life beyond Rouen. as phonetically ‘Rouen all the world away’ perhaps the poet underlines her love in this play on words. to show that Rouen takes precedence over ‘all the world’. Clearly the ‘all’ is hyperbolic but does underline her exultation. This exultation and pride clearly contrasts with Daryush’ Subaltern’s where the ignorance and inexperience of the women is compared with the horrific scenes the soldier describes in return. The dialogue begins with ‘How glows/My heart at the hot thought/of battle’s glorious throes’ The enjambment here may be used to underline the discrepancy between the ignorance of those who did not serve with the experience of soldiers. The women’s thoughts are conveyed as fragmented and broken – not in a continuous line because her perception and view of the war is constrained by the traditional chivalric ‘battle throes’. The exclamative denotes an excitement and exhilaration from the thrill of ‘battle’s glorious’
Cecil Day Lewis
1 Read the following extract carefully. It is taken from a letter written by twenty-four year old airman George Downing to his family in 1917. In this account he is describing his participation in aerial combat.
How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings about his participation in World War One?
How far is the extract similar to and different from your wider reading in the literature of World War One? You should consider the writers choices of form, structure and language, as well as subject matter. (45 marks)
Now for my little adventure! Hold your breath, shut your eyes, and try to pick out any sense of the following vivid narrative.
Yesterday morning (Sunday) four of our flight set out on a patrol, your humble as per usual with the leader of the patrol. We were peacefully parading about six miles over Hunland, to the accompaniment of sunny little shells, when I suddenly spotted six Hun machines about three hundred feet higher than we were. We went for them, and I blazed away at the beggars with my gun. Soon I
saw one of my machines and a Hun go tearing to earth (each had shot the other). The rest of us carried on and chased the five Huns off. About five minutes later we met another batch, and we were soon separated, each fighting about two Huns. My pilot dived straight at one of the beggars and when I was quite close I fired sixty rounds right off into the machine and had the tremendous satisfaction of seeing it depart in flames to Mother Earth. After that it was glorious sport, we fought four different Hun formations for one and a half hours.
Once we were within ten yards of a two seater Hun, when my gun jammed. I could see that bally German gunner glaring over the top of his machine gun as he fired at us, but his nerve was poor, as he should easily have brought us down, but it was a nasty moment. I felt something hit my leg, but it was only the concussion as the bullet went through my trousers. Jove though we had our revenge on the beggar afterwards. We dived on him with both guns firing and he also went west.
What do you think of that for a days sport?
Crazy people ar…
Crazy people are not crazy if one accepts their reasoning
In 1967 an obscure Colombian writer and journalist by the name of Gabriel Garcia Marquez published what was to become the most widely read book in the Spanish language since Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quijote. That book is One Hundred Years of Solitude. An amazing feat of fantasy and realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude covers the political and cultural struggles of Latin American life through the story of the Buendia family. The novel caused what Mario Vargas Llosa called a “literary earthquake” in Latin America. At one point in 1968, One Hundred Years of Solitude was being published at the rate of one new edition per week. In the years to follow, Garcia Marquez received accolades from around the world. (In 1969 the French named One Hundred Years of Solitude the best foreign book of the year, Time magazine chose One Hundred Years of Solitude as one of the twelve best books of the year in 1970). The world has lost a revolutionary writer.
The White Feather
Read the following extract written by Frederick Broome, a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery, recalling his time in the army at the outbreak of war in 1914 and his subsequent experience of being invalided back to England.
When the war broke out I was fifteen years of age but I was already in the Army. I went to France in August 1914 and was there through the retirement from Mons, the battle of the Marne and then the advance to Ypres. It was there that I caught enteric fever and was invalided back to England. I went and visited my father and he sent in my birth certificate so I was discharged for having misstated my age on enlistment. I got a job in Civvy Street and a few months afterwards I was walking across Putney Bridge when I was accosted by four girls who gave me three white feathers. I explained to them I had been in the Army, and had been discharged, and that I was still only sixteen years of age, but they didn’t believe me. By now several people had collected around the girls who were giggling. I felt most uncomfortable and awfully embarrassed and said something about how I had a good mind to chuck them into the Thames and eventually broke off the conversation feeling very humiliated. I finished the walk across the bridge and there on the other side was the 37th London Territorial Association of the Royal Field Artillery. I walked straight in and rejoined the Army.
Reflect on how the writers present their thoughts and feelings
about war
• explore the extent to which the extract you are given is
similar to and different from your wider reading in the
literature of World War One
• consider the writers’ choices of form, language and structure
Biology
- Microorganism; single celled organism
- microorganism too small to be seen without microscope
- microorganism: bacteria and viruses
Disease- description of symptoms (physical and/or mental)- malfunction of body/mind has adverse effect on health For a microorganism to be considered a pathogen:
- gain entry to host
- colonise the tissue of the host
- resist host defences
- damage host tissue
Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi
- Pathogen gets into host
- pathogen colonises tissue
- INFECTION
- recognizable symptoms in host= Disease
Transmission -“when pathogen is transferred from one person to another.”
Interface – boundary/ surface linking two systems e.g internal and external environment (body/air)
pathogens enter the body by penetrating one of the organism’s interfaces (eg the skin)
To help prevent pathogens entering the body has natural defenced
- mucous layer covers exchange surfaces forms thick barrier
- enzymes to break down pathogen
- stomach acid kills microorganisms
- skin forms thick continuous layer, barrier
Pathogens penetrate the interface (skin) through cuts, abrasions, bites from insects/animals
some interfaces have evolved to allow exchange between external and internal environments; here the body lining is thin, moist, sticky, large surface area, large blood supply (loads of blood vessels); this means fast and easy molecule entry so easy and fast pathogen entry
common entry points for pathogens:
- gas exchange surface eg in tuberculosis and bronchitis
- digestive system through food, water into intestines eg cholera typhoid, dysentery
Pathogens damage host tissues
- preventing tissues functioning properly
- viruses inhibit the synthesis of DNA, RNA, proteins
- break down the membranes of the host cells
pathogens produce toxins (cholera)
causes of disease- pathogens, lifestyle, genetic factors
pathogen damage depends on how quickly it divides.
Pathogens causing gastreoentrisis divide every 30 minutes so symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting are apparent in 24hrs of infection
typhoid bacterium harms when in small groups
smoking- increased risk of lung cancer, emphysema
osteoarthritis from excess exercise
risk-“a measure of the probability that damage to health will occur as a result of a given hazard.”
2 elements to risk concept;
- probability that a hazardous event will occur
- consequences of the hazardous event
risk measurement 0%- 100% form no harm to definite
Health risk need a SCALE
risk is relative “comparing the likelihood of harm occurring in those exposed to a hazard with those who are not exposed to it”
misleading statistics- media manipulates data 2007 headline ‘HRT alert after more that 1000 women die’
lifestyle factors leading to cancer
- (passive) smoking
- diet (low fat, high fibre reduce risk)
- obesity
- physical activity – regular exercise lower risk
- sunlight
1 cigarette lowers life expectancy by 10.7 minutes
1/2 of cancer patients could have avoided their diagnosis by change of lifestyle
CHD coronary heart disease largest cause of death in UK
giving up smoking is the single most effective way of increasing life expectancy
Lifestyle factors leading to CHD
- Smoking 2to 6 times more likely to suffer CHD
- High blood pressure – stress, some diets, lack of exercise
- Blood cholesterol levels – kept lower by including fewer saturated fatty acids I the diet
- Obesity body mass index of +25 increases CHD risk
- Diet high salt levels in diet raise blood pressure, high saturated fatty acids increase blood cholesterol, dietary fibre reduces risk lower blood cholesterol
- physical activity aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure, lower blood cholesterol, avoid obesity
Reduce cancer risk and CHD risk
- give up or don’t start smoking
- avoid obesity
- salt reduction in diet
- cholesterol saturated fats reduction in diet
- taking regular aerobic exercise
- moderate alcohol consumption
- increase dietary fibre, antioxidants
Experimental evidence smoking link to disease
1960s experiment dogs inhale cigarette smoke directly and indirectly. Those that inhaled directly obtained pulmonary disease and showed early sign s of lung cancer. Those that inhaled through filter tip were found to be healthy
Experiment process;
1. machines used to stimulate smoking action
2. machines collected harmful constituents accumulated in filter
3.analysed, tested for its ability to damage epithelial cells by adding tar to mice skin or cells grown in culture
4.carcinogens found in cigarette smoke from tests
5.constituent tar chemicals were tested
6.benzenopryrene (BP) shown to mutate DNA
7.scientists had to answer how it mutated DNA
8.BP is absorbed by epithelial cells, converted to a derivative, derivative binds to gene, gene mutates
9.further experiments.. showed that this mutation caused uncontrolled mitosis (cell division )
10. growth of tumour
further experiments showed that gene mutation in cancer cell is at 3 points BP derivative from tobacco smoke mutates gene at same 3 points
History of smoking
1600s tobacco introduced in Britain, pipe
end 1900s cigarette making machine invented, tobacco readily available
1920s women smoke flapper
1945 12 cigarettes a day for males
1947 conference, suggested it caused increase in lung cancer death
1951 smoking survey
Smoking link to disease
epidemiologists collect data -> look for correlations between diseases and other factors in people’s lives
Results showed regular smoker is 3 times more likely to die prematurely than a non smoker.
more cigarettes smoked a day, earlier on average a smoker dies
1/2 long term smokers die early because of smoking
smokers 98% of emphysema sufferers
Correlations between lung cancer, smoking
male smoking 25 cigarettes a day 25 times more likely to die of lung cancer than non smoker
death rate from lung cancer is 18 time greater in smoker than a non smoker
longer smoker, greater risk of lung cancer smoking 20 cigarettes daily for 40 years increases risk 8 times more than smoking 40 for 20 years
takes 10 to 15 years for the risk of lung cancer to decrease to the level of a non smoker
- scientists suspect correlation
- collect epidemiological evidence (to demonstrate the existence of correlation)
- design/carry out experiment ( to establish causal link)
Nothing is absolutely proven ‘proof within the bounds of our current scientific knowledge’
so knowledge theories constantly adapted
(82% UK males use tobacco 1948 / 305 UK males use tobacco 2002) because Government took steps
- progressively raised tax on tobacco
- banning adverts
- health warnings on products
- smoking ban in workplace, some bars clubs
Ethics of animal experimentation (1960s dog inhale cigarette smoke)
experiments indirectly prevented million of premature deaths but beagle dogs and mice hurt, public outcry, dogs with pulmonary disease
1986 Animal Act passed 3 tier licensing system established, restricted animal use in experiments, laid ethical standard.
‘Subordinate to the cold machine’ D.H. Lawrence
Read carefully through the following extract which is taken from an essay by DH Lawrence published in The Manchester Guardian newspaper on 18 August 1914. Lawrence’s wife was German and he had spent some time, in the summer before the war, in Bavaria where he watched some German soldiers going through their manoeuvres. In the article, Lawrence explores the realities of war, revealing remarkable insight into the nature of modern warfare.
On the crown of the little hill were three quick-firing guns, with the gunners behind. At the side, perched up on a tiny platform at the top of a high pair of steps, was an officer looking through a fixed spyglass. A little further behind, lower down the hill, was a group of horses and soldiers.
Every moment came the hard, tearing, hideous voice of the German command from the officer perched aloft, giving the range There was a burst, something in the guns started back, the faintest breath of vapour disappeared. The shots had gone.
I watched, but I could not see where they had gone, nor what had been aimed at. Evidently they were directed against an enemy a mile and a half away, men unseen by any of the soldiers at the guns. Whether the shot they fired hit or missed, killed or did not touch, I and the gun-party did not know. Only the officer was shouting the range again, the guns were again starting back, we were again staring over the face of the green and dappled, inscrutable country into which the missiles sped unseen. only mechanically to adjust the guns and fire the shot.
What was there to feel? – only the unnatural suspense and suppression of serving a machine which, for aught we knew, was killing our fellow-men, whilst we stood there, blind, without knowledge or participation, subordinate to the cold machine. This was the glamour and the glory of the war: blue sky overhead and living green country all around, but we, amid it all, a part in some iron insensate will, our flesh and blood, our soul and intelligence shed away, and all that remained of us a cold, metallic adherence to an iron machine. There was neither ferocity nor joy nor exultation nor exhilaration nor even quick fear: only a mechanical, expressionless movement.
How does the writer present her thoughts and feelings about aspects of World War One?
How far is the extract similar to and different from your wider reading in World War One literature?
You should consider the writers choices of form, structure and language, as well as subject matter. (45 marks)
In the introductory lines of his famously published post war novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ Lawrence referred to the First World War as ‘the cataclysm’ that sent ‘the skies falling’. In this extract the author clearly cements the destructive nature of modern warfare which is even more significant and surprising than in Lady Chatterley’s Lover because it was published in August 1914, days before the outbreak of war following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. As an author of such notable works as ‘The Rainbow’ and ‘Sons and Lovers’ Lawrence tended to contravene many of the excepted Edwardian ideals. It is therefore less considerably less astounding that he takes on a more informed position on the realities of war as opposed to the jingoistic zeal prevalent in prewar Britain.
The structure and form of this price is noteworthy as the writer’s work in this extract is a text from the Manchester Guardian Lawrence clearly attempts to inform and explain an outlook to his readers that is likely to be unfamiliar to the. Lawrence begins with the preposition ‘On’ indicating that a description of place and surrounding will follow. ‘The crown of the little hill by the ‘quick firing guns’ and ‘gunners’ of the second clause. The adjective ‘little’ connotes a harmlessness and innocuous whilst also denoting tranquillity and calm. The metaphorical ‘crown’ used to describe the apex is possibly significant for its connotations with royalty and nobility- the patriarchal order of things in Edwardian England. In the second paragraph Lawrence continues to debunk the primary image of nature and ‘hills’ as he writes ‘Every moment came the hard tearing, hideous voice of the German command from the officer perched aloft’. Similarly Owen’s ‘Cramped in that Funnelled Hole’ also explodes the pastoral imagery that was employed in Edwardian poetry as her writes ‘They watched the dawn/ Open a jagged rim around; a yawn of death’s jaws.’ Although ‘They are not named it is apparent that they are soldiers at the Front Line particularly given the use of the proper noun ‘the shell’ in the concluding stanza of the poem. The personification of death in the penultimate line of the first stanza underlines the mortality of the soldiers situation whilst also conveying the war as a threat and danger to man’s longevity. This mirrors Lawrence’s’ references to ‘the ferocity’ and ‘fear’ in the final paragraph of the Newsletter. Lawrence employs alliteration repeating the constant ‘f’ which carries undertones of sinister omniscience. Furthermore this repetition could also denote the continuation of the ‘mechanical movement’ whilst emphasizing the writer’s observation of man’s ‘adherence’ suggests that man has formed a significant attachment to the mechanisation of warfare. The refrain ‘machine’ also underlines a ritual, repeat creating a rhythm that mirrors ‘the guns’. In Owen’s poem the setting sun is recast as a symbol of death where traditionally the sun is perceived as a symbol of hope and comfort. Owen inverts this just as Lawrence destroys the image of a living green country’ with ‘cold, metallic adherence to an iron machine’
Lawrence builds on his rhetoric in the third paragraph where he poses the rhetorical question ‘What work was there to do?’ this highlights the writers cynicism concerning the mechanisation of battle. The writer seems to compare the traditional warfare where combatants physically fought in contact with each other as opposed to the simple adjustment of ‘an iron machine’ to ‘fire the shot’. The writer’s use of the conjunction ‘only’ maybe ironic and sarcastic as the ‘killing of our fellow men’ is not a slight and insignificant matter it is a ‘blind’ and ‘cold’ feat. The writer evokes a semantic field of military stoicism by the repetition of ‘cold’ can denote emotionless apathy and lack of empathy whilst ‘machine’ refers to the mechanization and industrialization of war. Similarly the American author Henry James (of What Maisie Knew) wrote to his friend. ‘The plunge of civilization into this abyss of blood and darkness… is a thing that so gives away the whole long age during which we have supposed the world to be gradually bettering’. Here, James uses the verb ‘plunge’ as a metaphor to depict the figurative fall- decline- of civilization into war. It is noteworthy, that James uses ‘civilization’ just as Lawrence employed the collective pronoun ‘us’ in The Manchester Gazette as both writers feel the decline is a universal decline affecting everyone. It is also significant that both Henry and Lawrence wrote before he casualties of war mounted (still in 1914 before the Somme and Verdun) yet still predicted the enormity of destruction. However, the difference between difference their outlook is that James refers to the betterment of society in the years leading up to the war but Lawrence does not.
In the final paragraph Lawrence declares the declares ‘the glamour and glory of war.’ Here, the writer’s matter of fact tone is undercut by an overt sardonic nature from the juxtaposition of ‘blue sky overhead’ with the ‘insensate will’ ‘flesh and blood[…] cast away’ The ideals of ‘glory’ are presented as materialistic and idealistic fabrications denoted by ‘glamour’ ‘the attractive quality that makes some item appealing’. The American author Ernest Hemingway shared these sentiments in his post war novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’ in which he states ‘Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage or hollow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of regiments and the dates.’ The triadic clusters and lists heighten the concept of the futility of war and chivalric ideals of heroism and ‘glory’. The writer suggests that to discuss the war explicitly one must discard the fabrications of romanticised militarism and deal with terms grounded in the realities of war. The oxymoronic expression comparing ‘hollow’ with ‘courage’ and ‘honour’ illustrates the writer’s attempt to equate the two artificial concepts with emptiness and pointlessness.
In conclusion, Lawrence’s outlook on the war is in some ways unique as many did not forecast the destruction that Lawrence evidently hints at as in Jesse Pope’s ‘Who’ll swell the Victor’s ranks?’
For those of you studying the AQA LTA1A here are some past paper questions (currently unavailable on the exam board website)
January 2010
1 Read the following extract carefully. It is taken from White Slavery in London, an article written by the activist Annie Besant in 1888 for the workers newspaper Link. Here Besant describes the working conditions at the Bryant and May match factory in London and calls for
a consumer boycott in support of the women employed there.
How does the writer present her thoughts and feelings about aspects of Victorian life?
How far is the extract similar to and different from your wider reading in Victorian literature?
You should consider the writers choices of form, structure and language, as well as subject matter. (45 marks)
A very bitter memory survives in the factory. Mr. Theodore Bryant, to show his admiration of Mr. Gladstone and the greatness of his own public spirit, bethought him to erect a statue to that eminent statesman. In order that his workgirls might have the privilege of contributing, he stopped 1s. each out of their wages, and further deprived them of half-a-days work by closing the factory, giving them a holiday. (We dont want no holidays, said one of the girls pathetically, for needless to say the poorer employees of such a firm lose their wages when a holiday is given.) So furious were the girls at this cruel plundering, that many went to the unveiling of the statue with stones and bricks in their pockets, and I was conscious of a wish that some of those bricks had made an impression on Mr. Bryants conscience. Later on they surrounded the statue we paid for it they cried savagely shouting and yelling, and a gruesome story is told that some cut their arms and let their blood trickle on the marble paid for, in very truth, by their blood. Such is a bald account of one form of white slavery as it exists in London. With chattel slaves Mr. Bryant could not have made his huge fortune, for he could not have fed, clothed, and housed them for 4s. a week each, and they would have had a definite money value which would have served as a protection. But who cares for the fate of these white wage slaves? Born in slums, driven to work while still children, undersized because underfed, oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked out, who cares if they die or go on the streets, provided only that the Bryant and May shareholders get their 23 per cent, and Mr. Theodore Bryant can erect statues and buy parks? Oh if we had but a peoples Dante, to make a special circle in the Inferno for those who live on this misery, and suck wealth out of the starvation of helpless girls. Failing a poet to hold up their conduct to the execration of posterity, enshrined in deathless verse, let us strive to touch their consciences, i.e. their pockets, and let us at least avoid being partakers of their sins, by abstaining from using their commodities.
Good luck
I’ll be attaching some more essays soon to keep you updated
Victorian Literature
For those of you studying the AQA LTA1A here are some past paper questions (currently unavailable on the exam board website)
January 2010
1 Read the following extract carefully. It is taken from White Slavery in London, an article written by the activist Annie Besant in 1888 for the workers newspaper Link. Here Besant describes the working conditions at the Bryant and May match factory in London and calls for
a consumer boycott in support of the women employed there.
How does the writer present her thoughts and feelings about aspects of Victorian life?
How far is the extract similar to and different from your wider reading in Victorian literature?
You should consider the writers choices of form, structure and language, as well as subject matter. (45 marks)
A very bitter memory survives in the factory. Mr. Theodore Bryant, to show his admiration of Mr. Gladstone and the greatness of his own public spirit, bethought him to erect a statue to that eminent statesman. In order that his workgirls might have the privilege of contributing, he stopped 1s. each out of their wages, and further deprived them of half-a-days work by closing the factory, giving them a holiday. (We dont want no holidays, said one of the girls pathetically, for needless to say the poorer employees of such a firm lose their wages when a holiday is given.) So furious were the girls at this cruel plundering, that many went to the unveiling of the statue with stones and bricks in their pockets, and I was conscious of a wish that some of those bricks had made an impression on Mr. Bryants conscience. Later on they surrounded the statue we paid for it they cried savagely shouting and yelling, and a gruesome story is told that some cut their arms and let their blood trickle on the marble paid for, in very truth, by their blood. Such is a bald account of one form of white slavery as it exists in London. With chattel slaves Mr. Bryant could not have made his huge fortune, for he could not have fed, clothed, and housed them for 4s. a week each, and they would have had a definite money value which would have served as a protection. But who cares for the fate of these white wage slaves? Born in slums, driven to work while still children, undersized because underfed, oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked out, who cares if they die or go on the streets, provided only that the Bryant and May shareholders get their 23 per cent, and Mr. Theodore Bryant can erect statues and buy parks? Oh if we had but a peoples Dante, to make a special circle in the Inferno for those who live on this misery, and suck wealth out of the starvation of helpless girls. Failing a poet to hold up their conduct to the execration of posterity, enshrined in deathless verse, let us strive to touch their consciences, i.e. their pockets, and let us at least avoid being partakers of their sins, by abstaining from using their commodities.
Good luck
I’ll be attaching some more essays soon to keep you updated
D. H. Lawrence
‘Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins’
Now, this is not an actual set exam text but worth trying:
Read carefully through the following extract which is taken from an essay by DH Lawrence published in The Manchester Guardian newspaper on 18 August 1914. Lawrence’s wife was German and he had spent some time, in the summer before the war, in Bavaria where he watched some German soldiers going through their manoeuvres. In the article, Lawrence explores the realities of war, revealing remarkable insight into the nature of modern warfare.
On the crown of the little hill were three quick-firing guns, with the gunners behind. At the side, perched up on a tiny platform at the top of a high pair of steps, was an officer looking through a fixed spyglass. A little further behind, lower down the hill, was a group of horses and soldiers.
Every moment came the hard, tearing, hideous voice of the German command from the officer perched aloft, giving the range There was a burst, something in the guns started back, the faintest breath of vapour disappeared. The shots had gone.
I watched, but I could not see where they had gone, nor what had been aimed at. Evidently they were directed against an enemy a mile and a half away, men unseen by any of the soldiers at the guns. Whether the shot they fired hit or missed, killed or did not touch, I and the gun-party did not know. Only the officer was shouting the range again, the guns were again starting back, we were again staring over the face of the green and dappled, inscrutable country into which the missiles sped unseen.
What work was there to do? – only mechanically to adjust the guns and fire the shot. What was there to feel? – only the unnatural suspense and suppression of serving a machine which, for aught we knew, was killing our fellow-men, whilst we stood there, blind, without knowledge or participation, subordinate to the cold machine. This was the glamour and the glory of the war:
blue sky overhead and living green country all around, but we, amid it all, a part in some iron insensate will, our flesh and blood, our soul and intelligence shed away, and all that remained of us a cold, metallic adherence to an iron machine. There was neither ferocity nor joy nor exultation nor exhilaration nor even quick fear: only a mechanical, expressionless movement.
Good luck, you might want to take slightly longer than 1 hour as this is a longer extract than what will be given in the examination.
An answer will be attached shortly to keep you updated
‘Auld Lang Syne’ and ‘God Save the King.’
Here’s a Band 4 response to the previous past paper question posted
“It’s no use standing on the platform waving a hanky and singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ or ‘God Save the King.’
In this extract, Sylvia Pankhurst seems to express similar sentiments to Peter Whelan’s protagonist from the post war production ‘The Accrington Pals’. As a pacifist, Pankhurst does lament the ‘slaughter’ of men at the Front Line of World War One but also underlines the emancipation and liberation of women granted by the outbreak of war. Where the Edwardian female was previously restricted and confined to the domestic sphere the outbreak of the First World War in August of 1914 liberated women in some sense as they took on roles in industry (such as in munitions factories) to replace those positions left by men dispatched to France and other posts. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst broke away from the WSPU (Women’s social and political union) because she felt that the ‘peaceful’ suffrage strategies employed by the leader was not achieving the radical changes expected. Sylvia Pankhurst then broke away from her mother’s union because she disagreed with the terrorist activities used to persuade the conservative government (under Lord Herbert Asquith) to pass the bill of suffrage
The activist begins with the exclamative expression ‘What liveliness and vivacity in London!’ Here, the exclamative denotes an optimistic outlook by the use of the pronoun ‘What’ illustrating surprise and shock at the buzz of activity in the capital. The noun ‘liveliness’ illustrates the exciting atmosphere which the writer continues to describe as the result of the ’emancipation- for war-‘ later in the text. The noun ‘vivacity’ denotes ‘the quality of being attractively lively and animated’ especially applied to a women’. the conjunction ‘and’ separating the two nouns creates the effect of a list. Furthermore, the two nouns being synonymous underlines the gaiety and dynamism of the female crowd. In fact Pankhurst repeats the exclamative punctuation mark more that four times in the introductory paragraph including in the observations ‘How speedily they had learnt to drive! It was truly amazing!’ The adverb ‘speedily’ refers to the quick pace of change the ‘revolution’ in female empowerment. Women were learning new skills in their occupations outside the domestic sphere and for many middle class Edwardian females this is the first time they were economically independent from their husbands or other male counterparts. The author juxtaposes this image of the female ‘chauffer’ with the scarcity of the event in pre war Britain ‘One scarcely saw women driving before the War’
This idea of the emancipation of women is also portrayed in Peter Whelan’s Accrington Pals where there is the sense of the women as a growing and positive force in society, increasingly aware and prepared to assert their rights. Sarah, in particular is a character that contravenes the Edwardian ideals of womanhood. Where pre war patriarchal orders demanded that the female be submissive, passive and serve only as loving mother and wife, Sarah is loud and direct ‘And why shouldn’t you? If there’s one thing that narks the men about this war its the way it shows them up for creating such mysteries around things. My God!’ Here, Sarah refers to the inexperience of the female gender due to the traditionally male occupied roles. As in ‘The Home Front’ by Sylvia Pankhurst, Whelan illustrates the change in gender roles as women began to work in the male sector as causalities at the Front Line increased and munitions were needed for battle. Although both Sarah and Sylvia use exclamatives and rhetoric, Sarah seems more accusatory and aggressive as ‘My God’ illustrates some anger at the façade of mysteriousness and illusion that ‘the men’ have supposedly created surrounding work. The idiomatic expression ‘shows them up’ has connotations of embarrassment and shame at the apparent revelation the women have discovered as a result of the outbreak of war. In this way, Sarah also portrays her view of the opportunities created by the war she has debunked the myth building and secrecy of employment, that ‘before the war’ she was oblivious of.
Conversely, Pankhurst underlines a more omniscient tone in the final line of the first stanza where she writes ‘she was making a gesture striking the right note- giving the men the cue for the trenches!’ This seems to be the pivotal turning point of the narrative – from celebratory and vivacious to sardonic and sarcastic. Where the introductory line uses the exclamative in a light and optimistic tone the final exclamatice is undercut by irony. This is not, however, overt until the second paragraph ‘seeing their new emancipation for war- for the slaughter’ Here the noun ‘slaughter’ holds sinister undertones of mass murder and high death toll. Perhaps ‘slaughter’ also invokes animalistic imagery as the noun is usually applied to cattle or livestock bead in battery farms. This dehumanizes and devalues the live of the soldier whilst suggesting that the effort is futile. Furthermore the two nouns ’emancipation’ and ‘slaughter’ are oxymoronic as they are placed in very close proximity. Here the writer compares the empowerment of women at the Home Front to the death of men at the Front Line of World War One. Perhaps this evocation of human mortality and destruction of war is done unconsciously however it does reflect T.S.Eliot ‘The Wasteland’ where the poet describes ‘the crowds of people walking round in a ring’ This suggests that the survivors are in a kind of living hells perhaps referencing Dante’s concentric circle of hell in ‘Inferno’. Both Eliot and Pankhurst refer to the destructive forces of modern warfare yet the modernist is more explicit and overt. Perhaps this is due to the hindsight as Eliot writes from post war Europe rather than pre war
Pankhurst’s despondent ‘cry’ in the third paragraph ‘As I saw them there was a cry within me: “Stop all this! Stop this breaking of homes, these sad privations, this mangling of men, this making of widows!’ Here the writer cements her anti war attitude in some respects. The metaphorical ‘cry within me’ has connotations of deep felt emothional turmoil and anguish perhaps illustrating the writers physical and mental empathy and sympathy for the British soldier who is sent ‘to the slaughter’ as the verb ‘cry’ denotes sadness and mourning. The writer seems to predict or rather expect the fate of the men to be death by ‘slaughter’ before it is confirmed. In this way, she takes on the same attitude as Henry James in a letter addressed to a friend the day after the British Government announced war in 1914 ‘The plunge of civilization in to this abyss of blood and darkness…is a thing that so gives away the whole long age…’ Here the American author creates a semantic field of destruction and violence as in ‘abyss of blood’ this metaphor creates an image of the sacrifice and death that is an inevitability of modern warfare.
In conclusion, the writer seems to portray different attitudes to the outbreak of war, as a suffragettes (or rather, as a former suffragette) Pankhurst does view the war as an opportunity for the emancipation and empowerment of his compatriots but also distinguishes the consequences of modern combat from the ‘triumph’ of her sex
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