Pathetic Fallacy - Lesson 21/10/2010

Before this lesson we all had a rough idea about what Pathetic Fallacy is and how it is used. Our starter was to write a facebook status on our current thoughts on the definition of this term; for example, Charlotte thinks that pathetic fallacy is when you use the weater or inanimate objects to represent the mood in a text.

John Ruskin (1856) defined Pathetic Fallacy as: "to signify any description of inanimate natural objects that ascribes to them human capabilities, sensations and emotions". In other words it is a form of personification. Interestingly it has been said that the use of this method is derogatory as it does not describe the true appearence of things to us. The term itself comes from the Greek word "pathos" which means suffering/experience and is linked with the capability of feeling empathy.

In order for us to get a better picture of how pathetic fallacy can be used, we watched a short clip from the Lord of the Rings and we made note on the sound, light, colour amd weather features that we could see. From this we could think about the affect that these features had on the mood that was reflected to the audience. All of the colours in the clip were bright and vibrant (blue, yellow and green) and the weather was clear and sunny which made us feel as if the characters were quite happy, joyous and hopeful. Also we could hear birds tweeting in the background as representation of the hope of the characters.

After we had a visual example of how pathetic fallacy is used, we were able to look closer at literature to see how the author can create similar effects (feeling the mood through the inanimate) through the use of words. In groups of 2/3 we were given a scenario and asked to compose a short passage incorpoarating elements of sound, light, weather and colour to give our desired effect. For example; me and Chris had to write about about a man in a carriage on his way to the "strange and mysterious castle of count dracula" so we sed sounds such as the wheels of the carriage "crashing off the ground rhythmically alongside the constant rumble of thunder" to add suspence and represent his anticipation to reach his destination. There was mist and rain to show that there is something bad to come and also how he is blind to what he will have to face. The only light in the forest is a "sudden flash of lightning which represents that what he will see is going to be dangerous.

Finally we drew all our knowledge of pathetic fallacy together to see how it is used in Wuthering Heights. We analsed two different extracts A and B (on sheet). Extract A presented us with the night that Heathcliff has run away after hearing that Cathy will marry Edgar; they are all waiting for him to return to the Heights. In this passage ther was a clear representation of both Cathy's and Heathcliff''s feelings. "The clouds apperared inclined to thunder" just as Cathy wanted to go an get him back and the "approaching rain" was personified to be "certain to bring him home", again reflecting Cathys longing to get him back safely. In contarst to this, the "growling thunder" can be seen as Heathcliffs threatening and anger-filled reply to Cathy - blocking out her chances of him returning soon.

Extract B shows Nelly in the garden the night that Heathcliff returns. This extract had relected Nellys very calm and laid back mood as she walks through the garden. This is shown through the description of the "mellow evening" and "the sweet,soft air". However there is an ominous and eery feeling in the background caused by the "undefined shadows" representing Heathcliff that "lurk in the corners"; a description which shows how unknown and sectretive Heathcliff is. Also, "the moon looked over the high wall of the court" showing that Nelly is not alone and reflecting how Heathcliff is watching her and creeping up.

At the end of the lesson we created a staus update based on our new, deeper understanding of pathetic fallacy and how it is used.

Homework:

1. Analyse the use of pathetic fallacy in extract C and D(see sheet) and the impression it gives us about the places that are described.
2. Write 4 timed assays over the half term holiday
3. Read the rest of volume 1 and complete chapter summaries
   

MONDAY 17th October 2010
In today’s lesson our initial activity was to complete a task 1, 2, 3. With number we had to write down three things we knew about Heathcliff. Number 2 was to write to questions about Heathcliff and number 3 would be an analogy of him e.g. - Heathcliff is like marmite; you either love him or hate him (sir’s example).
Contrary to this we read an article about Heathcliff comparing him to Lord Byron and Frankenstein. The article talked about many things such as:

• Heathcliff being a parody to an aristocrat – The article stated that Heathcliff guarded himself with a mysterious required wealth but is unable to come across as anything other than a fake. For example he is “dirty”, “ragged” and “as black as t’chimbley” yet owns a large estate.

• Heathcliff’s fairy tale beginning. Heathcliff’s entrance to the world is intriguingly enigmatic. He is introduced as another world being, as a “gift from God”. He has no separate surname, and his name is inhuman. His name describes a natural phenomenon – Heath – Cliff and like his name his behaviour doesn’t replicate one of which fits the norms of society.
  
• The article also looked at Heathcliff being this underdog, causing us to secretly root for him. Because he represents the loser and the runner up we have a desire for him to get Catherine in the end.

• Also Heathcliff’s appeal comes from his inherent beastliness. There is something innately unnatural or if anything too natural. These animalistic associations cause Heathcliff to be attractive because of the dangerous passions in which he can provide.
  

The next activity done was in groups. We got into pairs and discussed certain comments made about Heathcliff. The comments were:

Heathcliff as a social outcast & misfit
Feedback- Heathcliff has no social and domestic status, yet still remained a threat to the upper class. Some argue that Heathcliff represents the threat in which the lower class poses on the upper class. He is a revolutionist as he jumps from being a servant of Wuthering Heights to owning it.

Heathcliff as a product of circumstance
Heathcliff’s rejection during his childhood justifies his actions now. He has been “hardened to ill treatment”. However there a various reference which would make us think that his devilish characteristics are innate. For example his black eyes- as apparently the eyes are the shadow to the soul.

Heathcliff as a Romantic/Gothic hero
Heathcliff because of his mysteriousness, ruthlessness and power is this romantic hero. His mysterious beginnings amplify his ambiguity even more. However it could be argued that Heathcliff doesn’t fit the role of a Byronic hero and in fact isn’t mysterious as it is easy to explain why he behaves in the manner which does-because of his past.


Towards the latter stages of the lesson we started to look at essay writing. We learnt about thesis statements. Thesis statements are SO important in our essay writing as it gives your essays base to hang your points off. Here is a plan of an essay done in class.

ESSAY QUESTION: What contribution does Heathcliff make to our reading of ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a ‘Gothic’ novel?
THESIS STATEMENT- Heathcliff is a mysterious and unknown character – gothic genre is also mysterious and unknown – no easy judgements
Intro – outline and explain your thesis statement (also consider other views (A03)
• Heathcliff as mysterious gothic figure – fairy tale origins etc
• Byronic Hero (A04 – ‘mad bad...)
• Narrative structure = uncertainty/ambiguity in judgements of everything (reported speech etc)
• HC = radical challenge to society
• Other elements apart from HC that make it gothic OR novel is not gothic at all – MORE ROMANTIC ETC (A03)

lesson 6- monday 4th october

Monday 4th October lesson
In this lesson we recapped on last lesson on illuminate and how we can see evidence of it in Wuthering heights (Wuthering heights and the gothic the sheet). We then moved on to the meaning of semantic fields with the help of the hand-out sheet (the semantic fields of Wuthering Heights). We learnt that semantic field as a definition was a group of words with similar meaning. We searched for evidence for this in both Wuthering Heights and Thursh Cross grange.

We found that in Wuthering Heights (chapter 1) that the semantic field fell under two themes, extreme weather “atmospheric”, “stormy weather" “north wind” and it also fell under the domestic setting theme “squealing puppies” silver jugs” “chatter of tongues” and “cluster of legs of beef”. Bronte creates a unexpected scene of domestic scene within Wuthering Heights making it more to the reader a normal household however whilst creating this theme of domestic setting she also reveals its more sinister side to the household “villainous old guns” and “horse pistols”, Bronte is grafting violence and the domestic setting with when another to show perhaps that Wuthering heights is not a place of simplicity but more a place of confusion, sinister, the unknown this again linking to one of the gothic elements of the unknown.
In Thrush Cross Grange the semantic field can be seen in Chapter 6 of Wuthering Heights. The semantic field fell under again 2 main themes, the first one being a conjured up image of a heavenly place. “beautiful-a splendid place.... crimson” “gold....... hanging in silver chains” all of these words scream to the reader that this is a place that anyone would enjoy being there however as we read on we see that was not that case as we are introduced a shocking change in the vocabulary and instead are introduced to the opposite of a heavenly place. “Screaming” “shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles” the language betrays the second theme which is a violent imitation of hell. The children are “weeping” and bullying the dog. This is not what the reader would have expected to see at ThrushCross Grange, we expected it to be a place of joy not a place of violence. Bronte has yet again grafted on violence with the home setting but in this case i think personally she did this to create a sense of terror within the reader as we would expect the exterior of high status (ThrushCross grange) to be radiating wealth “gold” “crimson” but also we would expect interior wise for it to be a civilised place which instead Bronte chooses to the show opposite creating the gothic element of terror, that things aren’t what they seem.

Moving on we then looked at another sheet (life on the edge- opposition and fragmentation in Wuthering Heights) which explored opposition in more detail. We found that although opposition existed in the novel we realized that many of the characters fell in between the opposition e.g. Heathcliff is he evil or is he good, he falls in-between the opposition making him the obvious bionic character of the novel. By having these oppositions but then the reader witnessing it collapsing it creates a sense of unsettlement and anxiety within the reader.
We also looked at what a frequent motif in gothic novels. THE ‘DOUBLE’ OR ‘DOPPELGANGER’. The double suggesting exact repetition (twin), the doppelganger suggests the evil side to a character.

In Wuthering Heights, Bronte shows DOUBLE though Lockwood thinking him and HeathCliff as a double “Mr Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us’ however Lockwood soon notices along with the reader that Lockwood and Heathcliff are the opposite to one another. Bronte within this is showing opposition, Lockwood is sensitive, disillusioned bored with society, whereas HeathCliff is the real thing, fuelled by a burning hatred of society. The doppelganger is shown through Lockwood again in the sense that the characteristics of him show that he is a civilised calm sensitive man however this not this case when the reader see his brutal treatment of dogs “ejaculated’, ‘grasped’, ‘knocked’ are all betrayal of the language to reinforce the doppelganger lurks within Lockwood , what establishes it does lurk within Lockwood is his treatment to Catherine in chapter 3 “I pulled its wrist onto the broken pane and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes”. Lockwood expressed such vicious acts of violence that the reader was not expecting from a character like him. David Punter suggests that the gothic novel explores its themes through its structure and this is seen particularly clearly in the destabilising of conventional oppositions in this novel. We see the destabilising of convention when Catherine declares HeathCliff is more herself, by saying this she is destabilising the boundary between the self and the other.

Homework:
Wuthering heights is essentially a novel of oppositions, how far do you agree with this? Read up to chapter 11 and make summary. All of this bundle of work due in next lesson which is next Friday so we have plenty of time

Miss Knights lesson- 5th October

In this class, we reflected on the prologue of the pardoner. We were able to analyse chaucers language and evaluate the perception which Chaucer was reflecting about the pardoner’s and the church through his imagery and ironic language.
At first we identified the chronology of the prologue:

At first the pardoner talks of how he has returned from Rome. He also tales small anecdotes about the relics he has “juped” people about. From this he makes it clear that he has a target audeience thus revealing his conniving nature. Furthermore he plays on the fears of society- such as being a cuckhold thus further revealing his scheming character. He after talks of the theme of all his preachings- “Rodix malorum est cupiditas”

Secondly we began to look his oxymoronic potrayal of himself as a serpeant and a dove. The serpeant being a representation of the devil, and the dove being symbolic of the holy spirit are radical contradictory images and underlying the ironic insignia in which the pardoner represents. In class it was also discussed about how the pardoner presents the image in which he wants to be however inadvertly reveals his true motives. This was clear in the abrupt switch in tone and manner in line 166. He talks of having a “joly wenche” but then quickly refers to his fellow pilgrims as “lordings”.

After this he returns to his original point- “Rodix malorum est cupiditas”, however quickly diverts into another mini achacdote. He almost questions his audience why he should be poor when he has the skill and capabillity of speech to be rich.
After this sumeraising activity we looked at different parts of the text and looked at the imergery and irony used. Through this we were able to see the depraved nature of the pardoner. We saw how he played a paradoxical role to the role he was meant to see – e.g him spicing up preachings. – (pick up sheet from Miss Knight).
After this Miss set us homework –
How does Chaucer present the pardoner in the prologue?-You can go to the W drive and type in W:\Miss Knight\Year 13

The Pardoner's story

I will tell you a story from the times when obscurity and diobolic ending was the only fear that a human being had, the times when holy enlightement was unknown to all of us and most importantly, when the Catholic church started the holy war to free all the souls from the hands of evil.There are three holy substances in this planet and these are water, fire, the air that is essential for us to survive and the earth itself. God said that as humans should respect what is given to us or there shall be catastrophic consequences that would fall onto the shoulders of us the sinners!

Long time ago when these beliefs where still not vanished by greed there was a a person called Paul. He was an isolated man with no hope for tomorrow. Therefore, he was not aware of the goods that the God himself provided for us foolish humans. Paul did not respect our Lord and did not listen to respect the earth; he did not grow the crops nor provided it to others. Also, he did not respect the holy gift the water as he drank it with filthy hands. In addition, he cursed at the fire and said that it is the most useless substance in the world. You may ask why? The devil whispered in his ear to do such thing however, our God couldn’t save him as he was not following the rules of his Sanctuary kingdom. For this reason, the diabolic ending had to come upon Paul; he was a bad believer. Devil the most evil of all souls decided to punish Paul as it was the satisfactory hobbies that he did. So, the fire spread onto Paul and he set on fire. Later, the earth opened up and he fell down to what we call hell. The eternity he will have to suffer there for the sins that he commited.

Lastly, to finish this, may I say that the sins that he commited belongs to each and every one of us. On the other hand, we can get rid of these by the holy water that I can give to you to drink. Sadly, it is hard to get it and for this reason I would need a small donation from all of you but remember people what is more important than the holy enlightment? So, drink it and be freed!

We're all theives

I ride through each season, spring to fall,
With my trusty pig bones and purple shawl

With peters finger, and josephs eye
Through the streets of Yorkshire my voice will cry;
Come hither, come hither, come to me
Salvation is worth this financial fee
If you’re right eye sins pluck it out,
If you’re left hand sins cut it off
But why lose body parts I say?
Come hither come hither and pay this cost!
As they heard, these convictionless words, from every direction they surely came
Holding all kinds of jewellery; silver coins and golden chains;
Pardon me, pardon me, they moaned and cried, together in one whole symphony,
Come hither, come hither, again a cried
Come hither come hither come to me.
And as I was gazing through the crowd I locked into his infuriated glance
His eyes were red, his nostrils flaring, staring at me with a hostile stance
His hair was as white as his pallid collar,
His clerical blouse blowing to and throw
He gestured me into the church:
He was a bishop; I had to go
He slammed the door, in total abhor
And asked if I knew the town’s wealth
These people are in poverty! He cried
And you are worse than King John himself!
Insult after insult, curse after curse
He insulted my family and insulted my worth
Leaving my profits on the wooden floor,
He said I was to pardon the people no more.

The chains of guilt bound me down
And decided to not let me free
So instead I up and left,
And settled down in Canterbury.
I had to go and pay penances and savour the remains of my after life
So I departed to the local cathedral with all my children and my wife
We walked across the local town, and made a checkpoint to go and buy some meat
When I saw pardoner outside the church, preaching loudly on the street.
I thought:

Let me pay my penance now and rid myself of my sinner’s fee
When I looked up towards the pardoner
And found the “bishop of York” staring back at me!

The Pardoner

Morally questionable versus rhetorically skilled

On Wednesday 29th September, our central protagonist, The Pardoner was discussed. After reading about his quintessential vanity portrayed through Chaucer’s feminine description, with 7 lines of the story being about his “heer” and metaphoric descriptions of him being a “gelding or a mare” reinforcing femininity but also pre-pubescent youth, we as readers already get a sense of what we believe the Pardoner is like – before we have even read his tale to the Pilgrims. Analysis of language, such as the simile “glaringe eyen hadde he as an hare” gave us greater insight into the Pardoners’ traits – his “glaringe eyen” showing covetousness through lust and envy. Further on, our suspicions are answered with his claiming that he had “relikes” when in truth he had “pigges bones” in order to exploit “moore money” out of obedient religious people who believed he was a Holy man who could forgive their sins. He “feyned flaterye and japes” (put on a performance of flattery and jokes) and successfully made fools out of people “made the person [...] his ape”. Thus, we are now aware that the Pardoner is a crook fleecing people out of money.

We were assigned the creative writing task to construct our own tale of the Pardoner, with his sinful, greedy nature in mind. To aid us in this, we thought about the Seven Deadly Sins which throughout The Middle Ages had great significance because of a truly religious society.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:

1. Pride- distorted reflection of proper integrity and self-respect
2. Covetousness - avarice of God’s gifts
3. Lust - wanting too much of God’s gift of sexuality and love 4. Envy - perversion of admiration for others
5. Gluttony - unhealthy enjoyment of God’s gift of food and drink
6. Anger - distorted reflection of justice
7. Sloth - inability to work or pray. Refusal to accept God’s spiritual gifts

As we read on with the story, we saw how the Pardoner, not being honorary in his religious preaching’s or respecting God, had the desire to have things his own way for his own personal gain/greed (CUPIDITAS). He charmed folk by deceptively telling them that he can “heeleth jalousie” and that men can trust their young promiscuous wives, “And nevere shal he moore his wif mistriste”, if they “taak water of that welle and wash his tongue”, which he claims has a “sholder-boon which that was of an hooly Jewes sheep.”

Ironically however, the Pardoners main theme for his sermons are “Radix malorum est CUPIDITAS” which means ‘Money is the root of all evil’. And he is aware that in his ability to “hauteyn speche” (speak loudly), for his voice to “ringe it out [...] as gooth a belle”, it signifies his gift in getting his message across so he can dupe people to believing him and getting their money. This is supported by “my bulles shewe I, alle and some”, by showing religious documents and “In Latin I speke a words fewe” so his Latin words gives him credibility.

Therefore, the Pardoner proves himself as sinful and corrupt - indeed morally questionable but his skills in his speech allow him to cheat people out of money in order to fill his own pockets. This gives us very interesting tales as well as an interesting Pardoner.

Shenice

Lesson 5 - Liminality

In this lesson we focused on what liminal means and identified the liminal factors in the symbols themes and motifs in Wuthering Heights. If something is liminal it is "of, pertaining to, or situated at the limen(threshold)" or "the unfixed position between any two oppositional terms." Our starter helped us to discover an example of what this means. We were asked whether we would describe ourselves as a girl or woman/boy or man. After discussing this we decided that we are somewhere in-between.

We then began to think about the how liminality is used in Wuthering Heights. This seems to be in the form of the physical barriers the characters encounter and need to break down. Heathcliff is a prime example of a liminal character. He is firstly in an unfixed position within society - he is not at first accepted, is reffered to as a "gypsy brat" and has no family. Secondly, as he is named after the dead he can be seen as being in a marginal position between the living and he dead. Finally, Heathcliff is also described in a devilish light, an "imp of satan", which places him in an unclear position between the supernatural and humankind, especially as his origin is unknown.

Another threshold explored in Wuthering Heights is that between our world and the next; the living and the dead. Cathy seems to be haunted by self in the mirror, characters seem willing to trangress beyond life to reach deceased loved ones (e.g. Heathcliffs attempt to be with Catherine in the grave) and we are haunted by Catherines ghost. Ghosts are liminal as the are neither dead nor alive. Windows are used symbolically as a barrier to the unknown or unwanted from other realms (e.g. Lockwoods attempt to enter the Heights and later breaking the window to a "ghost". Eyes are also used as a pathway to the "other world", like when Heathcliff dies and his eyes wont shut.

Liminality is also used in the division between nature and culture/the Grange and the Heights (Cathy is a character that freqently passes through both.) Characters are constantly trying to cross the threshold laid out by society and class.

After reading this article and gathering ideas and understanding of liminality we worked in pairs to look more closely at aspects of the text that use this theme. From this we identified the symbols, motifs and themes that occur in Wuthering Heights and which ones are liminal.

Homework:

1. Read the 'examples of writing about the uncanny" and comment on it (2 stars and a wish)
2. Read the critical comments of Wuthering Heights (on sheet) and use them to write two paragraghs on Bronte's use of symbols and motifs
3. Write two paragraphs summing up the idea of the liminal and how it is communicated through symbols and motifs
4. Read and complete chapter summaries up to chapter 6