Notes on Birdsong.

The opening of Birdsong is overflowing with characteristics of historical movements which are important throughout literature. The novel features both Romantic and Gothic elements.

Romantic: 

Throughout the opening chapter of ‘Birdsong’ both nature and symbolism are evident through the description of Amiens. The novel begins with the description of the rural village of the ‘Boulevard Du Cange’ which is situated in the city of Amiens, France. The language used to describe the place is pastoral and depicts a place of pre-industrialization: “On the damp grass were chestnut trees, lilac and willows, cultivated to give shade and quietness to their owners.”  He describes the Somme as “fertile”. This could be argued that Faulks has used this imagery to link Stephen and Isabelle’s relationship as Isabelle later falls pregnant. Faulks emphasises the natural beauty and tranquility of the Somme in the opening chapter which is later destroyed by the war.

Furthermore, the Romanticism is also shown when describing the river which runs through Amiens: “the river Somme broke up in to small canals that were the picturesque feature of Saint-Leu”. The river introduces a theme of tunnels which here create the Romantic fertile image which is later contrasted with a deadly image of tunnels which isn’t where life is created but where life is horrifically destroyed. This is also seen when Faulks makes a reverence to “unregarded passageways”.

The idea of new life is expressed at the start of the novel when Faulks writes “It was a spring evening with a late sun in the sky beyond the cathedral and the sounds of blackbirds from either side of the house.” Spring is a time of phenomenal renewal therefore it could be argued that this is expressing both Stephens new arrival or the strong contrast between the positive new start at the beginning of the novel opposed to the negativity which can be seen through the horrific characteristics of war.

Gothic:

Throughout the novel there are many Gothic characteristics. However, in the opening passage the Azaire’s house has “iron railings” which suggests not only a well established house from a high class background but also cold and harsh imprisonment which is ironic as Isabelle claims that she is not happy within her relationship and feels trapped due to Azaire’s abusive and manipulative ways. Their house is also described as old and mysterious which is important in Gothic literature: “the floors made distinctive sounds beneath the press of feet”, “the house was always a place of unseen footsteps” and “corridors that disclosed new corners”.

However, other parts throughout the novel where Gothic elements are expressed is through Stephen being trapped underground and trapped in his emotions because he did not know why Isabelle left and also because he loved her immensely. The winding dark and long passages which can be seen in the corridors of Azaire’s home, the trenches and the tunnels.

‘The White Devil’ – Act Three.

Summary:

Vittoria is trialed for both adultery and the murder of her husband. Marcello blames Flamineo for Vittoria’s situation and begs him to be honest. Whereas Francisco and Monticelso arrange for the foreign Ambassadors to attend they arrive later in the first scene.

Although there is not enough evidence to convict her of murder, she is nonetheless put in a prison by Cardinal Monticelso. Flamineo, decides to fake insanity and is therefore released pending payment of fines. He later, pretending to be mad expresses bitterness about the courts judgement. Lodovico and Giovanni arrive and announce Isabella’s death.

Finally, Lodovico learns that he has been pardoned by the Pope on his deathbed and he is delighted. However, Flamineo and Lodovico quarrel and fight.

Key parts of Act Three:

• The Ambassador’s who are invited to witness the trial of Vittoria was a high ranking minister who was resident at a foreign court who represents his country and has the right to a personal interview with the chief magistrate of the country which they reside.
• The English law courts at this period used the Law French instituted by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest.

‘The White Devil’ – Act Two.

Summary:

At the start of the act Bracciano’s wife Isabella arrives in Rome with their son, Giovanni. She asks for help from Francisco de Medici (her brother), and Cardinal Monticelso. Both men approach Bracciano and confront him with his adultery. Bracciano meets with Isabella and is cruel to her and thus decides upon a legal separation. Isabella is extremely angry towards Vittoria for what she has done to her marriage, but later agrees to a divorce as she thinks it is what’s best. Isabella publicly requires to divorce her husband where as Brachiano wants to divorce her in private.

Both Bracciano and Flamineo then plot the murders of both Isabella and Camillo. Flamineo finds a doctor to poison Isabella and says that he will personally take care of Camillo. Flamineo tricks Camillo and then breaks Camillo’s neck and tries to make it look like it was an accident.

Key parts of Act Two:

• Webster is well known for his animal imagery which can be deemed to be used ironically as it implies that his characters have become less human like. Francisco describes Camilo’s house as “a dove house” which is symbolic for peace and innocence which he suggests is haunted by “pole-cats” which are known for foul smelling. (could also mean prostitutes).
• There are two dumb shows within this scene (dumbshow – a piece of dramatic mime)These were common in revenge tragedy, usually used as an introduction to the play. However, Webster uses them to show: how it contributes to the plot; what we learn of the characters that is depicted in the dumb show and not through the scenes; what can be shown of Brachiano who observes these shows; the contrast between the two dumb shows and finally how the device affects the audience’s response.

Broken Dreams – W.B Yeats.

‘Broken Dreams’ by W.B Yeats is a poem which discusses the abstract themes of time, afterlife, ageing, death, and unrequited love. This poem has no stanzas and therefore is deemed as a long monologue where Yeats discusses Maud Gonne using past, present, idealised and transient images of her to highlight his different feelings for her. He discusses her perfections and even her imperfections being perfect he does this by adapting to the romantic way of writing and therefore see Gonne transformed to something like a myth.

The varying length of this single stanza helps contribute to the unplanned feeling, and the shifting focus of the rhyme scheme gives an almost stream-of-consciousness feel to the poem, which could also link to ‘The Cold Heaven‘. The rhyme at the start of the poem is tight,  it then becomes more ranged, distant and weak. This may suggest the drama of ageing and being vulnerable, however, love makes one stronger again therefore towards the end of the poem the rhyme becomes tight again. Also, the enjambment which is used throughout highlights this idea as it creates a fast-paced recollection of his memories. When recalling Gonne’s youthful beauty it is most prominent as this conjures the idea that he is excited and yearning to again see her beauty.

Throughout this specific poem, Maud Gonne is the main symbol. You can compare her to such symbols as the fisherman, and the Irish airman as she too is a symbol of the ideal, romantic individual and also of creativity and art. She reflects the ideal due to her being Yeats’ ideal individual just as the other symbols stated previously are, she is also his ideal love. She represents a romantic individual as he describes her as one using old pastoral language and therefore he immortalises her.  Lastly, she symbolises both creativity and art due to her being one of the main inspirations for Yeats’ poetry in general.

The very first line in the poem states “There is grey in your hair.” This highlights the unflattering truth of ageing and also presenting the idea of death and decay. Also he dramatically introduces her as negative as he then gives him self the ability to flatter her later on. He also refers to himself as an “old gaffer” who was “recovered” by Gonne. The statement “old gaffer” shows the personal and conversational tone.

However, throughout he presents alliteration and sibilance this could be to present a dream-like quality to the poem, “sole sake” and “Burdensome beauty”. The phrase “for your sole sake” is a pun. He also includes repetition of words such as “dream to dream” and “rhyme to rhyme”. He repeats both letters and words twice to perhaps highlight the desperation he feels to be with someone as even his words seem to be in a pair.

After stating “muttering like a fool” the rest of the poem reflects upon this.Yeats makes a reference to the “always brimming lake” – most possibly referring to the fountain of youth, which conjures the image of a gyre. The image of the gyre is also shown in the phrase “stroke of midnight”, which also highlights the cycle of life and therefore highlights the end of life which Yeats is also near.

An important aspect of this poem is the repetition of the line “Vague memories, nothing but memories.” which highlights that he has finally accepted Gonne’s rejection and is no longer tormented by it. He seems much more at peace writing ‘Broken Dreams’ than with his other poems describing Maud Gonne. However, although he still finds his life understandably melancholic, he no longer expects her to change her mind and, consequently does not write a depressingly bitter poem. However, the repetition of the line could also be seen as reassurance.

The title ‘Broken Dreams’ is an emotive melancholic title. This highlights the imperfection of Yeats’ life without Gonne. The adjective “Broken” suggests that he has given up all hope on his dreams. “Broken” also suggests that his dreams to not fit together just like him and Maud Gonne. However, lastly, it could be deemed that throughout this poem he accepts the fact that their relationship was something of the past and realises there is no point in pursuing something that is already lost or even “broken”.

Feminism.

 Definition: A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

Feminism first started with a very well known story. A story from the book of Genesis, a Judaic creation story. This story highlights the way in which the world was created, and then him creating man. First he made Adam (Hebrew translation: Man) second he made Eve (Woman), this created many arguments as many people saw a direct divide between Man and Woman. God made man in his image and thus they were immortal. Later, the snake tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Life. After eating from the tree herself Eve then tempts Adam, God then gets angry, and gets rid of their immortality and privileges as they disobeyed him. Moreover, the fact that Eve got tempted by the snake started the many attitudes of Men being ‘superior’ and Women being ‘inferior’.

However during this time most women were either pregnant, married or too young to bare children. Also women were banned from churches due to the fact they were either pregnant, busy or on a period.

The Industrial Revolution played a huge part in feminism. This was due to during the time of the Revolution it was only Boys who were educated. This was due to the fact that it would be them providing for their families as girls were taught by their mothers as they would only take the task of common household chores.

In class we were also told about Mary Wollstonecraft who produced a book called ‘A vindication of the Rights of Women’ in order to portray that women are not inferior, they are only deemed so due to the many myths that are about during this time. She is deemed as the first feminist and therefore it is her who has inspired many more to follow in her footsteps.

As I found this topic fairly interesting I decided to go and look further into the subject of feminism. 

The modern day feminist movement should surely be attributed to Emily Pankhurst along with her fellow suffragettes who chained themselves to parliament in the bid to win the right to vote alongside their male counterparts thus being equal.

The second trigger point as far as feminism is concerned is the onset of the second world war. At this time women took on the roles that the men could no longer do as they went off to war. Jobs included: engineering; factory work; farming; driving; telecommunications and even supporting the civil powers as police women. In a strange sort of way the second world war was in fact a God send as far as the feminist movement is concerned because after the war women were no longer regarded as second class citizens indeed would not tolerate it and were in no mood to do so.

However, the rights that they had gained to this point still fell short of the rights that men enjoyed. There was still the issue of equal pay in the work place, the right to work full time and lastly the right to abort without their husbands consent.

A major jump towards absolute equal pay was made by the women at the Daghanem ford motor company factory in 1968 where they took on a major company concerning equal pay. They defied both their employer and more importantly the male run union.

In conclusion the issue concerning equal pay over the last century has culminated with the enactment of the ‘Equal Pay and Equality Act 2010’. It is blatantly obvious for the most parts of the United Kingdom, Europe and perhaps the USA are endeavoring to close the gap between men and women’s rights or lack of them. However, the rest of the world especially the middle and far east, Africa and South America the issue of equality for both men and women remains a minor issue as far as political leaders are concerned.

Easter 1916 – W.B Yeats.

‘Easter 1916’ by William Butler Yeats (W.B Yeats) is along with ‘September 1913’ a political poem. Yeats describes an Irish immature revolutionary plan, which became unsuccessful to overthrow the British reign in Ireland. Yeats believed that these heroic figures who fought for the freedom should be remembered and thus decided to write about them to share his pride with the world.

Interestingly enough the structure of this poem is very exciting. There are sixteen lines in both the first and third stanza hence ‘1916’. In the second and fourth stanza there are twenty four hence ’24th April’ the date the rising began. Lastly there are four stanza’s as April is the fourth month.

The first verse reflects the point of view of a flâneur (French: Meaning – ”Stroller”). The very first observation that is made obvious is the “vivid faces” these vivid faces are those of the youthful idealists of whom have the ambition to change the future of Ireland.

He then moves on to state “polite meaningless words” this highlights his patronising attitude towards those normal day average people who are “from counter or desk”. He shows no interest in these “grey” people consequently he greets them with a meaningless “nod of the head” or words of formality without any significance.

In the second stanza Yeats describes the story of people who participated in the Irish Revolution. A specific person who he makes reference to is John MacBride who was with the love of his life, but also “had done most bitter wrong // To some who are near my heard.” which portrays that he was in fact very abusive to Maud Gonne. However he puts his own emotions to one side as “He, too, has resigned his part”. Moreover, just after he names a few revolutionists he writes “casual comedy”, which gives the message that human life is extremely unvalued and leaves the question: “All these people died for what?“ engraved in many minds.

Throughout the third verse his main point is nature. The repetition of “stone“ throughout this verse is very important as when thrown into a stream a stone displaces water and the natural order of things; the revolutionaries do the same thing, “a stone to trouble the living stream”. However the summary of this verse is that it gives the message that nature lives in the moment, but the natural order of things will soon be destroyed. Lastly in the third verse the last line is different and states “The stone’s in the midst of all” is the stone: disruption; strength or Ireland?

In the final verse Yeats does a final count of the revolutionaries of who fought in this battle. At first people were anonymous, but later identified by name so that they are remembered and are not easily forgotten.

Lastly throughout the entire poem three of four versus all end with “A terrible beauty is born”, which is an oxymoron as it fits all the different views in each stanza together, also it reminds the reader of the real issues of fighting.

In conclusion, these fighters will live forever inspiring future revolutionaries. Furthermore, the true terrible beauty is in fact the revolutionaries themselves as they are the true reason why so many deceased and will continue to decease; the reason why both the ‘Easter Rising’ began, and so many more will continue as Ireland still have not gained full independence.