Video Sparknote: 1984

A neat synopsis of Orwell's novel:

Mr M

Auden essay: Miss Gee

Hello all,

Here is the title for your essay on Auden's Miss Gee:

Write about the ways in which Auden tells the story in Miss Gee.

The deadline is Monday 29th September.

Some advice:

The exam board constantly stress that they don't want lots of disjointed language analysis. The task is to write about the writer's methods in telling the story, so this means a big emphasis must be on form and structure.

In particular, make sure your response is built around an analysis of how the poem is constructed. This means taking a methodical look at:

1) how the story is set up (initial characterisation/settings)
2) how it develops
3) how the story ends/how the ideas are tied up. 

Think of the story as a journey. The ideas/themes/message of the story are the destination. How does Auden take us there?


Here is an idea for an opening to get you started:

Miss Gee is written in a detached, 3rd person voice in the style of a blues song. This is immediately signposted through the regular rhyme scheme and pacy rhythm provided by the general pattern of three stress lines:

"Now let me tell you a little story
About Miss Edith Gee..."


This formulaic bluesy opening has an immediate effect on the tone of the poem and sets up our expectations. Perhaps it leads us to expect...


From this opening, you can get into Auden's characterisation and use of setting, before getting into the complication of the dream. By this time, we have started to get a sense of Miss Gee's problem and Auden is ready to give her her ironic death in order to drive home his message.

Remember, your focus is on AO2: language, form and structure. So consider:

• sequence, structure
• the connection to the blues
• repetition
• language - connotations of words
• imagery (think about religion, death, decay)
• sounds

After you've zoomed in on a quote, make sure you zoom out to consider the effect of Auden's methods and any wider significance or connections to themes, ideas and motifs which recur throughout.

If you need any help on this task, please leave a comment below or send me an email.

Good luck, 

Mr M

Theatre Review: 1984 at the York Theatre Royal

Hi folks,

Last week, the Headlong Theatre Company were in York to perform their stage adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian classic, 1984. 

The play has been touring the country for over a year now and has received a string of five-star reviews. 

Here, Y13 English Literature student Laura gives her take on it.

It is very difficult to go into a lot of detail with this version of the play as I think everyone who sees it would have come away with something different. What I found the most interesting about it was at the beginning and the end, it had people reading Winston's diary in the future and talking about the relevance of it, what they thought of it, how the Party had eventually fallen but no-one actually knew how - this opening scene was later reflected at the very end when it was said Winston Smith was never real, it is thought the diary could have been written by someone who did not wish the Party to know it was them. The most chilling part was when a character said "But what if the Party never fell? Surely, this could be their way of telling us that they are still here. Always watching" The play closed very shortly after that line.

The use of including future generations reading the book 1984 was incredibly clever as well as giving the audience the impression that the story never actually happened. How it was acted out was that Winston had perhaps never met Julia, he had always been a puppet of the Party. They'd let him imagine that all of his life had happened to him when in reality, they had always controlled him, giving a rather interesting point of view on it.

Repetition was also used during the play. For example, Winston would say something but not understand it, it would later come back round as to why he said that (basically the idea that he was in Room 101 the entire time). A scene in the canteen would play out, with characters doing the same thing every day at the same moment (As a side note, during this scene, I have never seen a man dry a teacup with such malice on his face), showing the monotonous life those in the book lead. It only changes when Syme is 'unpersoned' that Winston starts notice how similar every single day is.

The use of lighting and set was very good, even if I was blinded by the strobe light that was basically next to my head half the time! Lighting was used to create a mood, was switched on and off at the most dramatic times, increasing tension or diffusing it. The set was simple but incredibly effective. For example, Winston and Julia's room above Charrington's shop was hidden from the audience view behind the main set, it was played to the audience via a webcam - I at first thought it was a clip that they just played until the set revealed itself behind the main one when Julia and Winston were captured. This, I thought, was particularly clever as it showed even when they thought they were alone, someone was always watching.

All I really have left to say is a huge well done to the cast, particularly Matthew Spencer (Winston) and Tim Dutton (O'Brien) who both played their roles amazingly. The torture scenes were certainly not easy to watch so I imagine they were not easy to act out either, Spencer brought a very accurate portrayal of Winston (I may even say better than John Hurt in the movie version which is not easy for me to say as I adore John Hurt). Dutton as O'Brien was as terrifying as he should be, sinister and weirdly charming.

But to be honest, all of the cast were brilliant in their respective roles.

I only had one or two disappointments with this production which was there was no use of the famous first line with the clock striking thirteen, I felt that should have been a must! Another is that (even though loose ends were tied up) the beginning is rather confusing even to those who have read the book, it was difficult to understand why there were suddenly smartphones in 1984!! Obviously though, these are very minor things and it is more me just being picky.

All in all, I would give this a definite 9/10 and highly recommend you go see it while you can!

Laura (Y13)

Auden on YouTube

Hi folks,

There are a couple of great documentaries about Auden's life and work on YouTube.

Take your pick. The first is a conventional documentary covering his life and work:

The second is made up almost entirely of Auden's own words:

Watch one and be an Auden expert!

Mr M 

Poet profile: W. H Auden

Hi Y12,

I'm going to be asking you to undertake some research into the life, work and concerns of the one of your poets, W. H Auden.  As one of the biggest names in 20th Century literature, there will be no shortage of useful websites to help you. But here's a start:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/w-h-auden

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/w-h-auden

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/10491072/Why-WH-Auden-is-a-spellbinding-poet.html

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/04/poetry.whauden

I like this quote, from his editor Edward Mendelson, as a neat explanation of Auden's concerns as a writer:

"Auden was the first poet writing in English who felt at home in the twentieth century. He welcomed into his poetry all the disordered conditions of his time, all its variety of language and event. In this, as in almost everything else, he differed from his modernist predecessors such as Yeats, Lawrence, Eliot or Pound, who turned away from a flawed present to some lost illusory Eden where life was unified, hierarchy secure, and the grand style a natural extension of the vernacular. All of this Auden rejected. His continuing subject was the task of the present moment: erotic and political tasks in his early poems, ethical and religious ones later. When Auden looked back into history, it was to seek the causes of his present condition, that he may act better and more effectively in the future. The past his poems envisioned was never a southern classical domain of unreflective elegance, as it was for the modernists, but a past that had always been ruined, a northern industrial landscape marred by the same violence that marred his own." 

Thanks for reading,

Mr M

Orwell... a life in pictures

Chris Langham as Orwell

The man himself...

Hi,

Last lesson, I showed you a little bit of the BBC's docudrama, Orwell: A Life in Pictures.

It's an excellent place to start to get a sense of who Orwell was and what he was about. Remember, Orwell is played by an actor, but the words all come from the writing of the man himself.

You can watch the whole thing on YouTube by clicking here.

Enjoy!


Mr M

Y13: 1984 production and resources

Hi all,

Here's a link to the website of the Headlong Theatre Company's production of 1984, which is at York's Theatre Royal all next week.

If you click on 'explore' at the top of the page, you'll get to all that good stuff I showed you in the lesson. It's definitely worth having a rummage.

I hope some of you get yourself to York to see it! (Laura - I eagerly await your review!)


Mr M