Flights of Fancy and

Marked for Greatness

By: Morgan Hamill and Alexis Wileman October 29, 2012

Chapter 15

Flights of Fancy

Have you ever wanted to fly?

○ a superhero○ a ski jumper○ an angel○ suspended on wires○ fictional

When we see or think people in the air, they are either:

Flying sets you free!

In most cases, flying is used to represent freedom or escape.

○ In the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, Daedalus constructs wings out of wax and feathers so that him and his son could escape from the labyrinth.

○ In E.T, when it looked like there was no more hope for the young heroes, the

bicycles suddenly left the earth and flew away from the street.

How else is flight used in Lit.?

Flying can also symbolize:○ Magic / Wonder○ Return home○ Love○ Imagination○ Spirit

Irony trumps everything

In some cases, flying doesn't set you free○ In Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, Fevvers is a

woman with wings who performs in circus acts. Because of her wings, she can't fit in with the humans in the audience and is kept in a cage.

○ See the Irony? Usually, the ability to fly gives characters freedom. But in this case, her ability to fly is the one thing that makes Fevvers unable to be free.

Interrupted Flight?

When a character's flight is interrupted, it usually signifies something bad.

○ Before Daedalus and Icarus leave the labyrinth, Icarus is warned not to fly too close to the sun. Because of his excitement, he ignores the warning and his wings melt, causing him to fall to his death.

Chapter 21

Marked for Greatness

Characters with marks

Many characters in literature have physical marks or defects that makes them unique.

○ Quasimodo○ Richard III (from Shakespeare)○ Frankenstein○ Oedipus○ Harry Potter○ Fevvers

Marks in real life vs. literature

In real life, marks or defects mean nothing. But in literature, physical imperfections always have a reason. They can be used to represent something symbolic or to make the character different.

○ "Sameness doesn't present us with metaphorical possibilities, whereas difference - from the average, the typical, the expected - is always rich with possibility."

Examples of physical marks

Harry Potter○ Harry's lightning bolt scar is a symbol of the

sacrifice that his parents took to save him when he was a child. The scar also makes him famous and different from the rest of the characters in the story.

Oedipus the King○ Oedipus is also marked early his life. When he was

a child, his parents bound his feet together and left him stranded to avoid an awful prophecy.Later in his life, Oedipus blinds himself because of his guilt for killing his father and marrying his mother.

Marked during life

Some character markings are used to express the damage that life inflicts.

○ In his Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell marks most of his characters in different ways. He does this to illustrate the way that life marks everyone over time, no matter how careful they are.

○ "We don't get through life without being marked by experience"

Marks on landscapes

Landscapes can also be marked.○ In stories such as The Sun Also Rises by Ernest

Hemingway and The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, both the land and society are left destroyed and barren after World War One. This provides the plot for the characters to restore fertility.

Monsters with Marks

Quasimodo and Beauty and the Beast○ Both of these characters are ugly on the

outside, yet beautiful on the inside. Very few people in the stories see past their hideous looks. In these cases, their deformities reflect the opposite of the truth.