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ENG Notes P2
ENG Notes P2
-"The Lover" is a postmodernist novel about forbidden love and memory, written in a poetic and fragmented style.
-"The Tempest" is a play that deals with power and colonization, featuring magical elements and complex plot structure.
-"Death of a Salesman" is a tragedy that explores the American Dream and the struggles of a working-class family, using flashbacks to tell the story.
-All three works have nuanced and complex characters, and use non-linear narrative structures.
-"The Lover" and "The Tempest" share magical or surreal elements, while "Death of a Salesman" is a realistic portrayal of American life.
-The three works differ in genre and style, with "The Lover" being a postmodernist novel, "The Tempest" being a play categorized as a tragicomedy or romance, and
"Death of a Salesman" being a tragedy.
• The lover characters:
-The protagonist, who is never named, is a young girl who is exploring her sexuality and identity. She is rebellious and independent, and her relationship with the
Chinese man helps her to escape from her restrictive family life.
-The Chinese man is a wealthy older man who becomes involved with the protagonist. He is enigmatic and mysterious, and his motivations are never fully clear.
-The protagonist's mother is a stern and domineering figure who wants the best for her daughter but also wants to maintain the family's social standing.
• DOA characters:
-Willy Loman is a middle-aged salesman who is struggling to make ends meet. He is delusional and has a skewed perception of reality, and he dreams of success and
popularity.
-Linda Loman is Willy's wife, who is supportive of him but also frustrated by his lack of success.
-Biff and Happy are Willy's sons. Biff is a former football star who is struggling to find his place in the world, while Happy is a womanizer who is obsessed with success.
• TT characters:
-Prospero is a powerful magician who has been living on the island for many years. He is a complex and nuanced character who is seeking revenge against those who
wronged him in the past.
-Miranda is Prospero's daughter, who has grown up on the island and is innocent and naive about the ways of the world.
-Caliban is a native of the island who is enslaved by Prospero. He is bitter and resentful towards Prospero and dreams of overthrowing him.
-"The Lover" is set in colonial Vietnam during the 1930s, while "The Tempest" is set on a remote island in the Mediterranean, and "Death of a Salesman" is set in New
York City during the late 1940s. The setting in each play contributes to the unique tone and atmosphere of the story.
-"The Lover" is a story of forbidden love and sexual awakening, while "The Tempest" explores themes of power, betrayal, and forgiveness. "Death of a Salesman"
follows the life of Willy Loman, a salesman struggling to achieve the American Dream. The plots of each play differ significantly, but all three stories are character-driven
and explore complex human emotions.
• Structure: - Introduction
→ Hook (general statement to capture the attention of the reader) → Basics (names of authors, titles of the works and main message)
→ Thesis (key idea of your essay / author’s purpose and stylistic devices they use)
• Paragraph (PEACE ACT) / Roughly 6 paragraphs
→ Point (Both authors purpose and similar stylistic device they use). → Evidence (Can be a quotation or paraphrase, to support the point) FIRST WORK
→ Analysis (Explain how the evidence supports the point / effect on the reader) → Compare (explain how the second work is similar/different to the point) →
Evidence (Can be a quotation or paraphrase, to support the second work and use of style technique) → Analysis (Explain how the evidence supports the point /
effect on the reader) → Compare (How are the first and second work relate to the stylistic feature/main point) → Tie back to thesis (Connect the ideas back
to the thesis statement)
• The Lover: (Genre → novel, romance, autobiography, tragedy) ------ Marguerite Duras, 1984
- Setting: 1940s, post-colonialism, French Indochina.
The couple first meets on a ferry crossing the Mekong river. Demonstrates the tough times back then, racism was heavy despite class.
- Plot: semi-autobiographical novel that recounts a young girl's affair with a wealthy, older Chinese man in French-colonized Vietnam. Non-linear narrative (emerged in
her mind), story of family members.
- Themes: Familial obligation, social status, appearance, exteriority versus interiority - Her family’s history of adopting a particular image in public contrasts with the
realities of their interior life.
- Stylistic features: Symbolism - man’s fedora hat (act of rebellion, stands out), diamante shoes (maturity, femininity), photograph (past experiences), girl’s hair
(beauty). Simile: “Skin as soft as that of certain fruits.” Imagery → constant physical description of woman (comparison). “Between eighteen and twenty-five my face
took off in a new direction. I grew old at eighteen.”
- Perspective: NEVER uses dialogue/breaks the fourth wall, and instead uses reported speech or free indirect speech. 1st person narrative, 3rd person occasionally to
create perspective.
- Character: The girl (traumatized, lack of identity), the narrator’s mom (naive, bipolar), the Chinese lover (vulnerable, pressured), elder brother (maniac, thief), younger
brother (weak, vulnerable).
• The Death of the Salesman:(Genre → tragedy, drama) ------ Arthur Miller, 1949
- Setting: set in the 1940s in Brooklyn, USA where the Lomans live. This time period was the peak of the ‘American Dream’ that started in 1931, which Willy
continuously romanticises throughout the entire play.
- Plot: The story is told using non-linear narration (non-chronological order) addresses loss of identity and a man's inability to accept change within himself and society.
The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Willy Loman's life. His career fading, Willy escapes
into dreamy reminiscences of an idealized past. In the play’s climactic scene, Biff prepares to leave home, starts arguing with Willy, confesses that he has spent three
months in jail, and mocks his father’s belief in “a smile and a shoeshine.” Willy, bitter and broken, his illusions shattered, commits suicide.
- Themes: Death, poverty, American Dream, denial, betrayal, abandonment.
- Stylistic features: Symbolism - seeds (opportunity, desperate to make things work), diamonds (wealth, validity), Woman’s stockings (betrayal, pride, confidence),
rubber hose (suicide). Flashbacks, foreshadowing (flute playing - Willy’s father was a flute salesman), irony (Willy wants to be successful, his neighbor Charly values
kindness and compassion).
- Perspective: 1st person narrative, never break the fourth wall, dialogue/monologue.
- Character: Willy (in denial, mentally ill), Linda (supportive, in denial), Biff (fearless, traumatized), Happy (cheater, liar).
• The Tempest: (Genre → tragedy, comedy, romance) ----- William Shakespeare, 1611 - Setting: 1183, remote island inhabited by magical
spirits which allows Prospero to develop his use of magic.
- Plot: Done in linear narration. Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including the King of Naples and Prospero’s
treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero’s slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself of his master, but is thwarted by Prospero’s spirit-servant Ariel. The King’s young son
Ferdinand, thought to be dead, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda. Their celebrations are cut short when Prospero confronts his brother and reveals his
identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. The families are reunited and all conflict is resolved. Prospero grants Ariel his freedom and prepares to leave the island.
- Themes: Revenge, forgiveness, freedom and confinement, magic, betrayal, power.
- Stylistic features: Imagery - of power (‘What cares these roarers for the name of king?’, ‘If by your art, my dearest father, you have / Put the wild waters in this roar,
allay them’ / But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. ), Ariel describes how he created the storm ( 'I boarded the king's ship'), the sea and
the sky (‘The sky, it seems would pour down stinking pitch / But that the sky, mounting to the welkin’s cheek / Dashes the fire out). Dramatic irony - many characters
believe that others died in the storm, but the audience knows otherwise. Ferdinand and Alonso each believe the other has died in the tempest, and Alonso even
threatens to drown himself in his grief. Metaphors - (They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.) Antonio is trying to convince Sebastian to murder his brother, Alonso. (I
might call him, A thing divine, for nothing natural, I ever saw so noble.) Miranda uses metaphor and hyperbole to describe Ferdinand. Symbols: Magic books - power,
chess - the play.
- Perspective: Break the fourth wall, author surrogacy, Prospero’s point of view.
- Characters: Prospero (controlling, smart), Miranda (young, naive), Caliban (dumb), Ariel (sensitive, vulnerable), Trinculo & Stephano (greedy).
• Song of myself: (Genre -+ Poetry)- Walt Whitman, 1855
-Setting: US, ISthcentury -Plot: The speakei of the poem speaks not just for himself but for all mankind, praising the joy and wonder of experiencing nature
Romanticizes the Amcrican Dream. -Themes: Identity, American Dreams, sex, nature. -Stylistic devices: Symbolism - grass (growth, death, hope) "The bodies
of countless dead people lie under the grass we walk on, but they also live on and speak through this grass." Journey (life). Imagery - ("The atmosphere is not a
perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,") Metaphors (Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes.) represents
memories. (You shall no longer look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in
books.) represents living life more Perspective: Ist/2nd person, breaks the fourth wall