Doctor Faustus - Prologue

'Not marching now.......heavenly verse...'- the story isn't about love or things around this - it is going to be a story of war and conquest
'...Faustus' fortunes, good or bad....' - suggesting both good and bad deeds are going to be part of the story and Dr. Faustus' life and journey.
'... His waxen wings ..... overthrow..' - reference to Icarus - (flew to close to the sun with wings made out of feathers and wax and when the wax melted he fell to his death) - suggesting that Dr. Faustus is going to fall.
'...necromancy...' - conjuring the spirits of the dead - suggesting that death is going to be involved in the play some way or other but also that magic is is big part of the story and the black arts that Faustus wants to use.
'...devilish exercise...' - the magic that Faustus is falling into is not just silly but is the devil's work and nothing good can come of it.

Morality Plays

The base of a Morality play is a character that a reader can easily relate to makes a journey and is influenced by other characters along the way eventually gaining 'some kind' of personal integrity. Traditionally characters in morality plays wouldn't have normal names they would be called things such as: fellowship; knowledge and goods.On the characters journey with death its usually only good-deeds that stays - giving an overall moral of only the good deeds can get you into heaven no other earthly things last that long.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Notes

• Creature is a child but no parents - so doesn't know right from wrong.
• Victor is more evil than the creature.
• Victor never thought what would happen once the creature had been created - message 'don't mess with nature'.
• Shelley's view on life and death - death is nature just like life
• Creature is society overall - made up of different people - bad, good, evil and gifted. - society has equal measures of everything but the creature has to work this together
• The creature is Victors other side
• Suggested that Victor is almost turning into the creature same characteristics
• Nature will always balance its self out

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Chapter 12

Key Quotations -

"A considerable period elapsed before i discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty." - this links to the contextual idea of poverty. some key words can be highlighted as linking to other themes within the novel.

discovered - the discovery made by Victor.
family - the strong sense of companionship
it was poverty - contextuals links that been seen as the time of the way the creature of treated

"I distinguished several other words without being able as yet to understand or apply them, such as "good" "dearest" "unhappy" ' i spent the winter in this manner. the gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, i felt depressed; when they rejoiced, i sympathized in their joys" - this helps the reader understand the idea of nature.

"good" "dearest" "unhappy" - the words that he learnt can link to the theme companionship but not being able to apply them can be seen as Victor's childhood and the companionship he was looking for.
winter - the cold background behind the plot
when they were unhappy, i felt depressed; when they rejoiced, i sympathized in their joys" - the constrast between emotions can be seen as the constrast between the characters and the creature.

"the pleasant showers and genial warmth of Spring greatly altered the aspect of the earth"

altered the aspect of the earth - again suggesting the discovery that Victor has made

Course Work

How far do The Authors Audrey Niffenegger and Alice Sebold Portray Time in the Novels The Time Travellers Wife and The Lovely Bones.

In the Time Travellers Wife Niffenegger portrays time in many ways, using the ideas of: fate; reality; time passing and time periods and then linking them to relationships and childhood memories, this compares to Sebold’s The Lovely Bones in many ways but can been also seen as quite similar such as: there is a strong relationship between the main characters in both novels which are affected by the events which happen over time.

In the opening of The Lovely Bones, the characters of Susie is the narrator her childlike speech lets us see her innocence’s ‘My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.’ The punctuation breaking up the speech allows us the understand Susie’s a child.  Sebold introduces us to the idea of time and how quickly it goes, by letting us know Susie age ‘I was fourteen when I was murdered’. As the chapter is strong and very dramatic, as a reader we start to understand time goes quickly. Sebold’s strong opening to time draws the reader into the story. This is similar to Niffengger’s prologue in ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ when Henry is the narrator and describes his time travelling to the reader we read ‘you hear the blood rushing’ the idea of rushing automatically makes the reader feel that time is rushed and goes too quickly, similar to Sebold idea of age and dying young. From both openings we can assume that something is going to be cut short in the characters life.

In the first chapter of The Lovely Bones, Sebold writes ‘My name was Salmon, like the fish’ the idea of fish makes us think of sinking and swimming, and this is Susie’s chance to sink or swim – after death. This idea runs into The Time Travellers Wife and the chapter called ‘Lesson’s in Survival’ when Henry teaches his younger self the arts of time travelling which will later be his key to surviving with his gift. In both novels this idea runs throughout and questions the reader. This continues with the way Niffengger’s portrays time in a strange way as she follows her character’s syndrome and the fact that he cannot control where he goes. For example in chapter one Henry is a lot older than Clare whereas in some chapter she is older this can take an interesting turn when he crosses his own timeline. This can also be said to happen in the lovely bones where Susie watches her family suffer and their life’s carry on after she is murdered. Both main characters later have to help themselves or their families to keep time running the way it should.

This then takes the reader onto the idea of time and fate and its plans for the characters. Fate has planned for Henry to be a time traveller and pass this onto his daughter – later finding out his own fate, making things go terrible wrong, suggesting the idea of choosing your own plans in life and then this idea immediately makes us think of ‘The Lovely Bones’ and the character of Susie. In the beginning of the book we read ‘I took a short cut through the cornfield back from junior high. It was dark out because the days were shorter in winter’ Telling the reader this path that Susie took Instead of her usual way home. Suggesting the idea of choosing your own paths in life but this time it was a choice in time that was going to cut time short for the character.

The novels both have the idea of Nature VS. Nurture which can be seen as a distance link to time as nature is affected by time and the way we a brought up over time. This is shown in The Lovely Bones set in 1974 and the idea that people were still very shelter and didn’t want to believe that things like raping and murdering children especially younger girls didn’t happen – so the this somewhat takes Nurture’s side as people would believe that children should know better and Susie shouldn’t have walked down the path she did. Although taking the side of Nature Susie were only 14 but in 1974 her maturity age would be about 11 so therefore you could say that children of this age don’t really know any better about the danger of dark pathways. This can be seen that Sebold is trying to put time into context for the reader.

 Time and society play a big role in The Lovely Bones because of the themes and the time the novel is set. For example good and evil and the feminist view on rapes in the 1970’s. Firstly, we see the development of George Harvey and him turning into a monster, but as the reader we almost sympathise with the character because he’s in a time and place anyone could have become a monster. As a reader I believe Sebold wants to communicate with the audience and through uses an early time shows how views have change and everything can get o the best of us. She contrasts this with the character of Susie and the revenge she wants to take on the character of Mr. Harvey. Susie reasons are serious as she wants to protect all women and girls from people like him. In time she realises walking away is best for her and the living as when his ends, he can’t hurt anyone else. Sebold use of George Harvey suggests that no matter what happening in society and time we also have to be supportive of the families that are affected by this sort of story. The idea carries into The Time Traveller’s Wife and the fact the Henry’s condition. As he was naturally born with it but his over the top reactions, helps show the reader the time he was in and the context. For example wherever Henry travels he always ends up naked and as to find a source of clothes, this automatically tells the reader that his condition is something natural. For example you can relate Henry’s condition to the idea of birth and being re-born. Henry’s reaction always seems hidden and unclosed –so you can say that Henry believes his CDP (Chrono-Displaced Person) is something no one else understand so Henry believes he has to hide – maybe because the time he was brought up in and if no one understood something or if it was out of the ordinary people would dismiss it and hide it in the back of their minds.

The idea of animals in the book the lovely bones is brought into the equation with Susie surname and the place she was murder and the fact that a dog found her elbow from where Mr Harvey had cut up her body. As a reader I believe that Sebold included animals references in her novel as, humans own pets all the time and it is believe to help take away stress levels and grief, I believe that animal reference in Susie’s name is to show that when  her family think of her after her death they are comforted by the thought. To contrast this with Niffengger’s Time Traveller’s Wife the character stress level never really seem to pass because of Henry’s CDP – for example ‘Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?’ The word infinite in Clare’s speech suggest she can see some immeasurably great moment that are ever ending but can’t find a way to get there, this is later confirmed by Henry’s speech: ‘I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going and she cannot follow.’ His speech can almost suggest the idea of death we read ‘ she cannot follow’ suggesting a place where no living thing/person can go – linking to Sebold’s The Lovely Bones  The speeches both suggest there time together is unforgettable but something strong is holding them apart and pulling them both down.

Both authors use single words to suggest time and the reactions it has to society. In The Time Travellers Wife some are: rushing; infinite; floating; running; resistance and every minute. The word that interest me the most is ‘resistance’ the act of stopping something or at least trying, some readers would think of this as something in electricity and the current from this you could see time as the current and Henry as the resistance stopping time from travelling the way it should. In The Lovely Bones words that remind the audience of time are: dead; loneliness; breathing shallow and dreaming. The words all link it together but have a strange meaning towards time. The words ‘breathing shallow’ and ‘dead’ link together brilliantly, with the idea that everything will die eventually and cannot escape time no matter how hard someone will try and breathing shallow can be seen as this is what happens before someone dies but can also be seen as a metaphor for time and how we can never see it or hear it and ever know when it creeping up on us, linking to how quickly Susie’s life ended and the way her families life’s continued in no time at all.

Overall both authors use the idea of time in many different ways, Sebold’s use of reality and different societies and the decades work well as the reader thinks about how times have changed, on the other hand Niffengger’s view on time is very different as she portrays in more as if open ways as if it can ruin your life. As a reader I think both authors have tried to portray time differently but both ways are successful.

Bibliography

-          The Time Travellers Wife By Audrey Niffenegger

-          The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold   

The Importance Of The Witches in Macbeth - Note Form

- Thunder - The witches always enter with thunder displaying their supernatural form but also can help represent the terror they create in all ages - for example children and adults are scared of thunder and witches.
- They can be seen as the three fates playing with the string of people's life's - this can then be taken into a modern context of three women playing games - making fools out of men
- The witches seem to want death and destruction everywhere and will do their best to create this - we get the sense they have done this before with their repetitive language
- They are the main Gothic element in the play - in my opinion.
- There present to Macbeth seems almost planned to block of his path and take a deadly one -They help present Macbeth as more of an evil character - for example They tell the future been Macbeth chooses his path from then

Lady Macbeth

In my opinion Lady Macbeth has changed from the beginning of the play to end for example she now follows Macbeth and is now more in his shadow, as an audience we may say that she is scared of Macbeth because she knows what he has done as before she was more the controlling wife. Her personality is still however not every likable and is more of a upstage character away from the audience as we don't really make a connection in a friendly way. Lady Macbeth seems to have a deeper conscience than Macbeth as she is fully aware of everything whereas Macbeth is more influenced by the words of Witches.