Month: June 2015

Shakespeare structures the whole play around the idea of revenge through his use of language features and quotations to back those language features.

This essay I am writing will be telling you how William Shakespeare explores the idea of revenge throughout the play and story of Titus Andronicus. I will be writing 8 paragraphs about how the idea of revenge is explained, the effect it uses on the reader and how it defines the text in the form it is embedded in. This would be an important feature (how is revenge portrayed) to analyse, but also to understand how it gives deeper meaning to the text in a whole new different way than what the eye can see on a piece of paper with words. I will be writing these paragraphs in ways which an example is given during the paragraph, as well as an explanation on how it is used and the effectiveness of placing the idea of revenge in that type of situation.

To begin with, as Titus Andronicus comes back from fighting the Goths at war, he confirms that it was a victory and presents all of his sons that died during the war in a black coffin. He demands two of his living sons to sacrifice the eldest of Tamora’s sons, Alarbus and introduces him to the citizens using the quotation,  “I give him you, the noblest that survives, The eldest son of the distressed Queen”. By doing telling his sons to execute Alarbus, Titus is avenging all of his sons that died in the war. Then Titus asserts his authority over the Queen of the Goths, Tamora, once he had killed the oldest son Alarbus, Titus must have been expecting hesitation from Tamora if she every thought of attacking him behind his back or fear if she even thought of doing something dark and torturous to Titus, however as Queen, we all knew that she is stronger than that and that she has ways of coping over the death of her eldest son. The quotation shows how Titus praises him almost as if it was a friendly welcome. By using the adjective distressed when referring the Tamora (Queen), Titus is already assuming her reaction to be very upset to the point where she is not longer seen to be that strong Queen that was idolized, but just an average Goth crying at the fate of her sons death.

Secondly, as a result of the loss of her eldest son, Tamora begins to plans a way to take revenge upon the family of Titus to avenge her fallen son that was ‘sacrificed’ by two of Titus’ sons after the war had finished. “I’ll find a day to massacre them all” is a quotation used by Tamora aside to Saturninus showing that she was plotting to kill Titus’ family one by one (or possibly as many as she could before she was noticed). Tamora begins with planning her promiscuous sons Chiron and Demetrius to rape Lavinia as they are hunting in the woods / forest. Then the language feature Allusion makes an entrance with referring to the story of Philomel and Tereus where Philomel was raped and she had her tongue cut out and she was locked away in a tower. Then Philomel was forced to knit what happened and her sister received it and reacted in an unusual almost psychotic way. Not only do her sons fantasize about having sex with Lavinia and her luxurious body, they begin to get very sexual just thinking about her. Knowing Tamora, she would not just massacre them, but she will torture them in a way that it pains the rest of the family and in a way that they will never forget the pain that they felt at that moment compared to similar things that has happened in their life. The effect of doing this is creates a never ending pain for those that have suffered and the ones that are close to them.

Some people that were not included in the revenge system that was mainly between Titus Andronicus and Tamora the Goth Queen, are starting to be dragged into the quarrel and barrage of acts all resulting in the loss of lives from innocent individuals that most likely could have been avoided. “Who have we here? Rome’s royal Empress.” This quotation from Bassianus tells us he knew nothing of what was happening and was wandering why the ‘Royal Empress’ Tamora was there alone in the woods. They begin to transfer words then Tamora skips to the chase and thinks to herself, why am I here taking all of this rubbish? This shows that she has had enough of the argument. Tamora orders Demetrius to kill Bassianus so. Demetrius stabs him he falls to the ground. Then Chiron shows his strength and stabs the injured Bassianus one more time. As a result the innocent victim Bassianus dies a unnecessary death beside his wife (or girlfriend) Lavinia. Lavinia is then threatened by Tamora to follow Chiron and Demetrius to get raped, otherwise she will die a fateful death just as her lover Bassianus died, but then if Lavinia was to get killed, what use will a sexy dead body be for rape? Chiron and Demetrius will be getting absolute no pleasure from it and it will be a waste of their time.

Next, once Lavinia is ‘deflowered’ and has lost her tongue, in her first appearance with Titus, Titus does not see anything or more like he ignores the main thing that is happening (in this case what has happened and how he could deal with it), but instead he goes straight to how they can react in order to take revenge on the enemies for what they have done to Lavinia that was seen to be one of the most beautiful women in the play. “What shall we do? Let us, that have our tongues, plot some deuce of further misery, to make us wonder’d at in time to come.” This quotation says it all, Titus sees Lavinia all bloody and ravished and doesn’t even ask her if she is okay or if she needs any help. He straight away wants to find away to harm the ones that have done this to her he possibly doesn’t even know who it is! In this, Revenge is seen to be their top priority of Titus as he wants to rid of his enemies as fast as he can without any hesitation. This could be a problem as he may skip all of the important information and jump straight to a conclusion, as a result of it people will acknowledge him to be unwise and a foolish man and what makes it worse it the fact that he threw his daughter aside to find the ones that made his daughter what she is now. This shows the type of personality Titus Andronicus has especially since he is a soldier (or a war hero) and how it affects his family matters.

Moreover, Titus Andronicus was so desperate to reclaim his sons’ that were falsely accused back, he was willing to give anything necessary without a second thought of it. It just shows how much Titus loves the two of his sons that were framed for the murder of the Emperors younger brother… Bassianus. Aaron says,  “Chop off your hand and send it to the King; he for the same will send thee hither both thy sons alive”      Titus Andronicus was so amazed at this opportunity to retrieve his sons’ back he never thought to think about what Aaron could really be doing. The fact that Aaron is not a messenger but he is giving orders from the King possibly means that something is going on and it is not going to result in something good. Tamora is already having an affair on the Emperor with Aaron. This tells us how untrustworthy she is as an ‘Empress’ and how dark she can be to her loyal ones/ lovers.

Furthermore, feeling responsible for his children’ actions, Titus then to cuts off his own hand and sends it to the King believing he would have both of his sons in return. However, what he receives is the exact opposite, he receives the heads of his two sons and his own chopped off hand. Through this little moment, Titus goes insane enough to laugh at the heads and his hand realizing that he can no longer cry or be upset of what is happening, as a result Marcus and Lavinia are a bit worried about him knowing that this type of reaction is not normal. Titus gets angry over little things such as Marcus killing a fly and confirming how Marcus is not longer pure since he has put something so innocent to death despite the fact that Titus has killed so many people at war.

In conclusion, the idea of revenge is used throughout the whole play using language features. When Marcus finds Lavinia wondering around the forest with nothing but a bleeding mouth and no arms. He uses a series of Metaphors and Hyperboles to show his feelings and emotions. This tells us that the emotions and feelings could be gathered up into anger and as a result (from what we have acknowledged from Titus Andronicus) the person who is in the shock would ignore the main situation (bleeding Lavinia) and go straight to revenge. Shakespeare has found a way to use language features to create an effect on the way revenge is presented in a situation to make it seem as if the situation is tenser than it usually should be.

This essay will explore the story, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka,  and will mostly be reffering to Gregor’s death. We will be studying  the language features used throughout them. We will also be studying the movie by Chris Swanton and explaining the  difference between the such as how it changes from the film to the novella or how it is presented in various way. We may be looking at the ways the compare to each other by using camera angles or detail.

In both the film and the novella, Gregor’s death is presented as a relief to Gregor. In Kafka’s version (the book), we can see this when Kafka states, “The rotten apple in his back and the inflames surrounding area, entirely covered with white dust, he hardly noticed”. This quotation shows that while alive he has felt excruciating pain. The word ‘inflamed’ suggests that the pain Gregor feels is a burning sensation. He uses imagery to show the extent of Gregor’s injuries. However the phrase ‘he hardly noticed’ shows that he has become used to the pain and that death has come as a relief. Kafka places this clause at the end of the sentence because he is trying to with hold the information because despite the fact that the apple is rotting on his back, he really does not want to notice it with all that is happening around it. In the Swantons’ version (the movie), we can see this when near the end (the dying scene), the little dust ball representing Gregor’s breathing, is blown gently. We can tell that this is a relief to Gregor because if it was painful, then Gregor (in th demolished state he is stuck in), would be blowing very harshly giving the film watcher an idea of the pain th Gregor is forced to go through. In this scene, you need to focus on the little dust ball to understand how weak Gregor is and the fact that the dust ball is just barely moving and then it stops completely. Because of this we can tell that dying is a relief to Gregor.

In both the film and the novella, Gregor’s death is presents as a relief to his family. In Kafka’s version, we can see this when the maid wakes up the whole family to present a dead Gregor to them in the early morning. As the family crowd around the corpse (this word provides the reader that Gregor is still there because a dead person’s body is known as a corpse – Humanization) Mr Samsa says, “Well, now we can give thanks to God”. “Then he crossed himself and the three women followed his example”. We can tell this a relief to the family because the statement, “Well now we can give thanks to God”, shows that they are thankful for Gregors’ death, perhaps the fact that the amount of stress it made for the family to take care of a dung beetle that only eats rotten food and the family eats human food. Maybe the fact that it drive away the lodgers and stopped the familys’ income of money. The phrase ‘thanks to God’ shows that they are grateful for the death of Gregor and all the trouble he has caused thy can be removed. With this we know that the death of Gregor is a relief to the family. In the Swantons’ version, we can see this is the scene after Gregor has scared the lodgers and he is walking back into his room and as soon as he enters his room, Grete rushes behind him and locks the door and shouts “Finally!”. We can see this is a relief to the family because it is almost as if they are throwing the weight off their shoulders and it is no longer a burden to the Samsa family. The personality of Grete continues to change because she cannot decide whether staying with Gregor is the right thing for her or if it could continue to break apart her family, as the beetle that has been staying with them has given her mother a series of shocks and/or attacks and has just been aggravating her father countless times. So locking Gregor in his room and having him die has thrown the weight off the family’s shoulders and with this we know the death of Gregor has been a relief to the family.

In the film version of Metamorphosis, Gregor’s death is presented as painful whereas in the novella it is presented as peaceful. We can tell this because the film version puts more emphasis on the hatred of Gregor in comparison that his appearance shows that he is no longer human. In his last hours of death it appeared that he caused a bit of a havoc and had negative attention pressured on him. He had what seemed like a dream for him to finally be accepted as what he is and for him to announce the present he had got for his sister (also to mention, he looked more healthier that what he really looked like), instead it turned out to be the complete opposite as he sat in his room isolated from his family. Having only family to be there for you and something slips up and all of a sudden they are against you, it shows how people, even family, could be at the change of a valued member. With this we can tell the Gregor’s death was painful. In Kafka’s version, the novella, it is presented as peaceful. In Kafka’s version we can see this when Kafka states, “He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three o’clock in the morning. From the window he witnesses the beginning of the general dawning outside.” The language feature ‘Imagery’ is used in this context and allows the reader to easily have an understanding of what is happening and the detail shows the enables them to have a picture in mind about it. Therefore in this paragraph, we know that Gregor’s death, in the book, is presented as peaceful.

In the film version of Metamorphosis, Gregor appears to die of his family’s rejection whereas in the novella he appears to die from his physical wounds. In the Swanton’s version, to them(the family) it appeared as if they were doing the best they could, almost trying to adapt to his way of living. In fact to Gregor, it seemed like they shared complete disgust in everything that Gregor done. They no longer looked at him as the human he once was, but as the monstrous verminous bug he is now. They completely isolated him from what ever is happening and attempted to stop the public from seeing his appearance. But towards the end, his sister violin managed to bring out part of his humanity showing that he still had a bit of his human side remaining. But it was of no use, being locked in the room completely isolated him from his family and almost alienated him with the looks he received from them. His father did not really want to know him (before and after his transformation), and in the end his sister showed that she has had completely enough of looking after this monster. In the end they just stopped feeding him and left him to fend as the monster he is. With this we know that Gregor has died from his family’s rejection. In the novella, it shows that he dies from his physical wounds. We can understand this when Kafka states, “He soon made the discovery that he could no longer move at all. He was not surprised by that. On the contrary, it struck him as unnatural that he had really been able to this point to move around with the thin little legs.” The phrase ‘He was not surprised by that’ shows that he has seen the limit that his legs can reach and this shows a sign of his physical wounds affecting simple everyday things, but the fact that he is not surprised shows that he knew this was coming. Not to forget that he was forcing himself not to eat, making him weaker and skinnier. He refers to his ‘little legs’ in comparison to the rest of his body showing the difference in size between them. One major factor of his physical wounds could be his malnutrition. Therefore he appears  to die from his physical wounds.

To conclude, Gregor’s being presented as peaceful was supported by Gregor’s soothing breathing without having it be painful. This point could be compared to the movie with the gently tilting fluff ball and the appearance of Gregor as if he is just allowing these things to happen to him. My second point (relief) is presented by Gregor allowing himself to feel painless as he knows the pain woud go away. The movie supports this as Gregor struggles  to get into his death position and slowly stops. When something hurts  we try to avoid putting anything that would hurt the injured area. Overall, throughout the novella and film of The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s death is presented as peaceful.