wace exam prep lit

The Hollow Men

• Mentions of a multifoliate rose
• Dante’s Paradiso:
  • Empyrean
  • Enormous rose, symbolising divine love
    • Petals are enthroned souls of faithful (from Old and New testaments)
    • Home of all the souls in Heaven
    • Angels are likened to bees, flying around the rose, distributing peace and love

Context

Poem: The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot Question: context/language features: stuff abt loss of faith after ww1. 1st para: loss of faith 2nd para: way to regain faith 3rd: lack of salvation due to lack of faith

Context in Introduction: Due to the large number of deaths in WW1, many soldiers loss faith in Christianity. However, as Elliot was deployed to a relatively peaceful placement, he became Anglo-Catholic, believing in God. By considering these 2 contexts, the Hollow Men can be viewed through a religious context, and

• Biblical Allusions: Loss/Lack of faith
  • “Stone images” and “supplication”
    • Judges 2:11-23
  • “fading star”
  • “Thine is the kingdom” references a Biblical Hymn, with the lyrics, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, amen.” To summarise, God is the ruler of everything in the universe. However, this line is italicised, implying that the line is given by an external voice. This external voice could potentially be related to God, as they know the Bible and can quote from it. Conversely, the speaker cannot; they try and fail, with “Thine is the…thine is the…”, representing their disconnection to God.
    • Matthew 6:13
• Symbolism: Regaining faith
  • To further illustrate their lack of connection to God, the “hollow men” are described as blind, and “sightless”, with sight being a symbol of faith, and thus they are losing their faith. They can restore their “eyes”, i.e. faith, through a “multifoliate rose”. The rose is a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and thus the speaker is saying that to restore their faith, or “sight”, they need the Virgin Mary’s help.
    • ALSO REFERS TO DANTE’S PARADISO!!!!
  • Restoring their sight leads them to ”death’s twilight kingdom”, which symbolises heaven, and links to the common Catholic belief where rejection of God, leads to hell. This further supports the notion of having their “sight” restored, to save them from hell.
    • Could also refer to Erebos, the Greek Underworld
• Metonym: Lack of salvation (for darkness from lack of faith)
  • The Shadow mentioned in the poem could also be interfering with the persona’s ability to relate to God. The Shadow interferes with notions such as “idea and reality”, and “motion and act”. In essence, it is dividing cause and effect, and seems to be tied to negative emotions, as increasingly nihilistic statements start to appear, as can be seen through the repetition of “this is the way the world ends”.
  • The persona views the Shadow as invincible; the poem ends with the world seemingly ending “not with a bang but a whimper”, suggesting an inevitability to this end, which, in a religious context, is not unlike Judgement Day.
  • As the Shadow separates cause and effect, the world seemingly fades. However, the aforementioned allusions remind the reader that God can reset everything, i.e.  Make everything right, and perhaps provide the Hollow Men salvation, through a higher purpose. However, since the poem states that the world has already ended, the persona acknowledges their failure and has given up on trying to follow God, but still reminisces of their past religion.
  • Reminiscent of judgement day, i.e. they know they can save themselves from judgement day, but refuse to, in order to atone for their sins
    •  2 Corinthians 5:10

Values and Attitudes

Thesis statement: Top Girls endorses my belief that the patriarchy has a detrimental effect on society, by highlighting the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, by criticising the patriarchal representation of feminine values, and by showcasing the need to share and validate women’s stories.

Paragraph 1

Churchill highlights the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, a core value of the patriarchy

Dialogue

• bourgeois feminism: acceptance of the idea of the patriarchy, and the integration of women into society as well, given those slight effects
  • it took until end of 1970s for this to become a visible and effective tendency. one that is massively overloaded with problems
  • Unseen effects of patriarchal society on women
  • Poisoned ideas and infected minds of women to not criticise the patriarchy, perhaps even idolise it
  • accept the patriarchy as part of everyday life
• Nijo fails to see that she has been violated, due to the internalised misogyny present within her social system
• The lack of humanity within her speech represents the objectification of herself. It’s as if her story is being told without emotion, and she’s indifferent to it Marlene: Are you saying he raped you? Nijo: No, of course not, Marlene, I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby.

Tone

• Joan was killed for being a woman in a traditionally male role
• Joan herself doesn’t see how cruelly she was treated, just for being a woman
• Again, this indifference is brought up
• Conveys Joan’s indifference to her death, which speaks to her dehumanisation of herself Joan: They took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death…I don’t really remember

both cases demonstrate objectivism

Paragraph 2: Rejection of Patriarchal Representation of a woman

Churchill criticises the subservient woman, a prevalent attitude in a patriarchal society

• Mrs Kidd comes to see Marlene, as her husband (Howard) is “ill” and refusing to go to work, due to the fact that a woman (Marlene) is his superior
• Howard’s ego is so bruised by the fact that he has been passed over for a promotion, which was then given to a woman, that he is physically ill, and literally cannot imagine returning to work in an environment in which he is even in title alone beholden to a woman.
• Contrasts the patriarchal ideal wife’s (Mrs Kidd) nature as meek, submissive and in service to her husband as opposed to Marlene’s controversial “carpe diem” attitude and blunt dialogue
  • Mrs Kidd’s dialogue illustrates her meek nature, and her devotion towards her husband
    • She doesn’t want Howard’s image to be hurt, she came on a personal basis
  • This is compared to Marlene’s straightforward, blunt personality, demonstrated by her confrontational dialogue

Marlene: Are you suggesting I give up the job to him then? Mrs Kidd: It had crossed my mind…I’m not asking…You mustn’t tell him I came. He’s very proud.

Rebels against patriarchal idea that a woman should be subservient to a man

• Mrs. Kidd represents the effect of internalised misogyny, creating fractures and fissures in relationships with other women.
• Marlene represents Churchill’s rejection of this internalised misogyny, and a call for society to acknowledge it
• The dialogue illustrates the clash between these 2 ideals
• Mrs Kidd’s tries to insult Marlene about her lack of a husband, whereas Marlene rejects this, showing that she does not need a man to define her strength and happiness
  • “Ballbreaker” refers to someone who is not married, so the fact that this is an insult is reflective of traditional values of a woman
  • From “ball and chain”, a phrase for marriage i.e. jail, i.e. criminal, i.e. bound in service to a man
• Furthermore, Marlene demonstrates her independence of a partner and rejection of the patriarchal values, through her prioritisation of work in her work-life balance.
• “Piss off” is an informal colloquialism that is usually not associated with femininity, and thus serves to break stereotypical representations of women
• High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards hegemony ideals such as traditional marriage
  • High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards the idea that she has to get married and have a family which portrays dominant values of hegemony and a traditional family in a negative way
• Rejects hegemony ideals

Mrs Kidd: You’re one of those ballbreakers/…You’ll end up lonely and miserable Marlene: I’m sorry, but I do have some work to do. Marlene: Would you please piss off?

Women’s Stories/Suppression of free speech

Churchill conveys the need to share and validate women’s stories that is swept under the rug by the patriarchal society that is so frequent in postmodern literature. Realistic conversational dialogue (realism)

• In Act One, a conversation is held in a restaurant between Marlene and women affected by hegemony
• Very frequently interrupt each other
• Show this through “forward slashes”
• This use of dramatic dialogue illustrates Churchill’s choice to imbue her characters with the desire to make themselves heard speaks to her thematic preoccupation with the necessity of sharing and validating women’s stories. Joan: And next day he was ill, / I was so annoyed with him, all the time I was
• Over the course of the act, the conversations the women hold aren’t necessarily related to each other.
• Linked to disorder and chaos that is prevalent in postmodern theatre
• Further supports notion that they want to be heard Nijo: Misery in this life and worse in the next, all because of me.
• Lastly, most monologues in the play are given by female characters; almost as if Churchill is promoting this idea of women being more outspoken
• E.g., Dull Gret’s monologue of her misunderstood story of her “giving those devils a beating” to get back her children, rather than because of the greed portrayed in the actual painting

Explore the ways that at least one text you have studied can be seen as a ‘call to action’ for readers to address particular social concerns.

Bourgeois Feminism was a movement that started in the 1980s. It advocated for the acceptance and integration of the patriarchy into society, and poisoned the minds and ideas of women. Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill, published in 1982, criticises the movement as a whole, and provides a scathing social commentary on the patriarchy. Top Girls highlights the internalised misogyny prevalent in bourgeois feminism, criticises the patriarchal ideal women, and highlights the need to share and validate women’s stories, as a ‘call to action’ for the readers to address this oppression of women by the patriarchy.

Top Girls highlights the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, a core value of the patriarchy. In Act 1, various women of different cultures who all live under a patriarchy are at dinner. When asked if she was raped by the Emperor, Consort Nijo replies, “No, of course not, Marlene, I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby.” Nijo fails to see that she has been violated, due to the internalised misogyny present within her social system. The lack of humanity within her speech represents the objectification of herself, almost as if her story is being told without emotion, highlighted by her indifference. This indifference to their own story is once again brought up, when Pope Joan recounts her death where “They took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death…I don’t really remember”. Joan was killed for being a woman in a traditionally male role, and doesn’t see how cruelly she was treated, just for being a woman. This repeated indifference is brought up, and conveys Joan’s lack of emotion regarding her death, which speaks to her dehumanisation of herself. Thus, the internalised misogyny is highlighted by Top Girls, and encourages the readers to see this for themselves

Top Girls criticises the subservient woman, a prevalent attitude in a patriarchal society. In Act 2, Mrs Kidd comes to see Marlene, as her husband (Howard) is “ill” and refusing to go to work, due to the fact that a woman (Marlene) is his superior. When Marlene confronts her, asking her if she was “suggesting I give up the job to him then?”, Mrs Kidd replies, “It had crossed my mind…I’m not asking…You mustn’t tell him I came. He’s very proud. Mrs Kidd’s dialogue illustrates her meek nature, and her devotion towards her husband, e.g. she doesn’t want Howard’s image to be hurt, she came on a personal basis. This is compared to Marlene’s straightforward, blunt personality, demonstrated by her confrontational dialogue, a traditionally masculine personality. Furthermore, when Marlene refuses to quit, Mrs Kid insults her, calling her “ballbreaker” and telling her she’ll end up “lonely and miserable”, to which Marlene replies, “I’m sorry, but I do have some work to do…Would you please piss off?“. Mrs Kidd tries to insult Marlene about her lack of a husband, whereas Marlene rejects this, demonstrating her independence of a partner and rejection of the patriarchal values, as well as her prioritisation of work in her work-life balance. “Piss off” is an informal colloquialism that is usually not associated with femininity, and thus serves to break stereotypical representations of women. This high modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards the idea that she has to get married and have a family which portrays dominant values of hegemony and a traditional family in a negative way. Top Girls thus contrasts a subservient women with an independent one, to encourage the audience to reject the patriarchal ideal woman.

Lastly, Top Girls conveys the need to share and validate women’s stories that is swept under the rug by the patriarchal society that is so frequent in postmodern literature. In Act One, a conversation is held in a restaurant between Marlene and women affected by hegemony, where the women very frequently interrupt each other, demonstrated through “forward slashes”, for example when Joan remarks, “And next day he was ill, / I was so annoyed with him”. This use of dramatic dialogue illustrates Churchill’s choice to imbue her characters with the desire to make themselves heard, and speaks to her thematic preoccupation with the necessity of sharing and validating women’s stories. Furthermore, over the course of the act, the conversations the women hold aren’t necessarily related to each other, as seen when Nijo interrupts Joan, saying, “Misery in this life and worse in the next, all because of me.”, linking to the disorder and chaos that is prevalent in postmodern theatre , and supporting the notion that they want to be heard. Lastly, most monologues in the play are given by female characters; almost as if Churchill is promoting this idea of women being more outspoken. For example., Dull Gret’s monologue of her misunderstood story of her “giving those devils a beating” to get back her children, rather than because of the greed portrayed in the actual painting, has the added effect of reminding the audience that women’s stories are often altered and corrupted to better suit the patriarchy. Thus, Top Girls conveys to the readers the need to listen to women’s stories and asks them to validate these stories more.

To conclude, Top Girls highlights the internalised misogyny prevalent in bourgeois feminism, criticises the patriarchal ideal women, and highlights the need to share and validate women’s stories, as a ‘call to action’ for the readers to address this oppression of women by the patriarchy. Top Girls uses these to remind the readers of the inherent oppression of women in society, and urges the readers to speak out against it.

Discuss the ways that at least one poem’s language features have been crafted to maximise emotional impact

Due to the massive number of deaths caused in World War One, there was a huge loss of faith in religion. In response to this, T.S. Elliot published the Hollow Men in 1925. When context from other texts such as the Bible and Dante’s Paradiso are considered, The Hollow Men uses a myriad of language features to convey to the readers the consequences of this mass loss of faith. The Hollow Men makes numerous Biblical allusions to represent the loss of faith, uses symbolism to provide hope to regaining faith, and uses a metonym for darkness to convey the consequences of this loss of faith. The Hollow Men uses these to maximise emotional impact to convince readers to regain their faith, as a means for salvation.

Numerous Biblical allusions are used in the Hollow Men to convey the mass loss of faith. The Hollow Men, the main focus of the poem, are described as such, perhaps due to their lack of faith. This becomes more apparent when The Hollow Men describes them as hands raised in “supplication” to “stone images”, under a “fading star”. This alludes to a Biblical passage where Israelites follow false gods, often represented by “graven images” (Judges, 2:11-23). The star, a symbol of Jesus Christ, is shown as fading to represent the lack of faith in God. This notion of loss of faith is brought up again later in the poem, where it is stated, “Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory”. Once again, this alludes to a Biblical hymn (Matthew 6:13); however, this line is italicised, implying that an external voice other than the persona quotes it; this external voice could be connected to God/faith, as they know the Bible and can quote it. However, the persona cannot, and tries and fails, stuttering over “Thine is the…thine is the”, further representing their lack of faith. Thus, their disconnection to God is represented by biblical allusions to maximise the emotional impact of the loss of faith.

Symbolism is used in the Hollow Men to represent the hope of regaining faith, and the methods to regain this faith. To further illustrate their lack of connection to God, the “hollow men” are described as blind, and “sightless”, with sight being a symbol of faith, and thus they are losing their faith. They can restore their “eyes”, i.e. faith, through a “multifoliate rose”. The rose is a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and thus the speaker is saying that to restore their faith, or “sight”, they need the Virgin Mary’s help. However, this rose could also be in reference to the rose mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy, in Paradiso, in the Empyrean. This rose is used to symbolise divine love, and thus the multifoliate rose could also be a symbol of God’s love. Restoring their sight leads them to ”death’s twilight kingdom”, which symbolises heaven, or could also refer to Erebos, the Greek Underworld, and links to the common Catholic belief where rejection of God, leads to hell, or in the case of Erebos, nothing after death. This further supports the notion of having their “sight” restored, to save them from hell. Thus, symbolism represents the hope of regaining faith, to maximise the emotional impact of the hope of an escape.

Finally, this metonym for darkness is used to convey the consequences of this aforementioned loss of faith. At the end of the poem, this metonym for darkness, represented as a Shadow, is referenced multiple times. This Shadow could potentially be interfering with the persona’s ability to relate to God, hence the persona’s stuttering over the aforementioned hymn. The Shadow interferes with notions such as “idea and reality”, and “motion and act”. In essence, it is dividing cause and effect, and seems to be tied to negative emotions, as increasingly nihilistic statements start to appear, as can be seen through the repetition of “this is the way the world ends”. The persona views the Shadow as invincible; the poem ends with the world seemingly ending “not with a bang but a whimper”, suggesting an inevitability to this end, which, in a religious context, is not unlike Judgement Day (2 Corinthians 5:10). As the Shadow separates cause and effect, the world seemingly fades. However, the aforementioned allusions remind the reader that God can reset everything, i.e.  Make everything right, and perhaps provide the Hollow Men salvation, through a higher purpose. However, since the poem states that the world has already ended, the persona acknowledges their failure and has given up on trying to follow God, but still reminisces of their past religion. This is once again reminiscent of judgement day, i.e. they know they can save themselves from Judgement day, but refuse to, in order to atone for their sins. Thus, this metonym for darkness conveys the lack of faith as having harsh consequences, and urges the reader to consider their lack of faith.

To conclude, The Hollow Men makes numerous Biblical allusions to represent the loss of faith, uses symbolism to provide hope to regaining faith, and uses a metonym for darkness to convey the consequences of this loss of faith. This has the effect of maximising emotional impact to convince readers to regain their faith, as a means for salvation, and to counteract the mass loss of faith after World War One. The Hollow Men forces its readers to consider the abandonment of such an ancient religion, and urges the readers to reconsider their choice.