“So what do we remember since early September?”

A review of the style and themes of the senior AP Literature books we studied…

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManAuthor: James JoyceGenre: Bildungsroman (Coming Of Age novel)Time Period: Written in 1916 (early twentieth century). Set in 1904-ish.Setting: Dublin, Ireland… Clongowes Wood College (Jesuit Boarding School), Belvedere College, Cork, Dublin, University College DublinMajor Characters: Protagonist: Stephen Dedalus. Others: His father, mother, Charles Parnell, Uncle Charles, Aunt Dante, Father Arnall, Cranly, Davin, EmmaPoint of View: Third person limited (stream of consciousness, limited to Stephen’s point of view; reads as very personal), changes to journal entries in ch. 5 (short, clipped entries that distance reader)

Structure and Form:

5 Chapters, chiasmus. Symmetry, balance. STASIS at the end of each chapter.Growth of protagonist depicted in 5 stages:1. Embryonic feelings of ignorance and innocence…

emotions and sensations2. Sexual awareness / loss of innocence / guilt / sexual

appetite, adolescence 3. Religious influence, personal torture, soul-searching4. Spiritual growth, personal punishment / freedom, love5. Art, intellectual growth, self-acknowledgement of failure,

acceptance and independence

• Ideas: (Themes)• Loss of innocence (human sexuality) • Alienation from others leads to self-questioning,• Sin and redemption comes from guilt and self-examination,

personal epiphany from trivial events, sounds, sights, etc., discovery of self

• Art… passion is found through knowledge and making mistakes• Nonconformity vs. conforming to social and religious norms,• Life with all its flaws is preferable to imposed self-discipline of

the artificial world of the church • Rejection of religious institutions for the freedom of the artist

(art arrests the beholder and leads to self-discovery)• Seeking answers to life’s quotations / moving from a place of

ignorance to knowledge in all its forms

• Symbols & Sustained images/motifs: - Water (purification, also sin, poverty, epiphany,

self-realization, etc.)- Colors (blue = Virgin Mary, red = passion /

blood / sin, green = nationalism, etc.)- Birds (freedom, escape) and flight (Daedalus

and Icarus- Eyes- The senses (sight, smell, sound, touch)- Sensations: Hot and cold

• Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Purity and impurity - Body (male) and soul (female)- Hot and cold- Fire and water- Old and young- Freedom and confinement - Noise vs. Silence• Stylistic Devices:- Chiasmus (silence in the middle of ch. 3 --- Father Arnall looking at his watch),

symmetry – ch.’s 1 and 5, ch.’s 2 and 4)- Motifs developed as protagonist develops to show stage of growth (whether,

spiritual, physical, emotional, or intellectual)- Allusions developed same as above to reflect Stephen’s state of mind- Stasis at end of each chapter- Odd chapters end with males- Even chapters end with females

• ALLUSIONS! Several… some are from:• Dante’s Inferno• Greek mythology (also Daedalus and Icarus)• Seven Deadly Sins (note PRIDE leads to all others, lust,

sloth, avarice, envy, etc.)• Aristotle (Poetics, etc.)• Thomas Aquinas (aesthetics, theories of art)• Literature (Irish, Shakespeare, the Romantics)• Also poets: Tennyson and Byron• The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)• The Bible• Irish folklore

A few Important Quotations / excerpts /diction worth noting:

• “Once upon a time… a moocow… he was baby tuckoo…”• “Apologize! Apologize! Pull out his eyes. Apologize!”• “Lazy little schemer!...”• “… pick, pack, pock, puck: like drops of water in a fountain falling softly in the

brimming bowl.”• “Madam, I never eat muscatel grapes.”• “Admit… Admit…Byron was a heretic…”• “They [her lips] pressed upon his brain as though they were the vehicle of a

vague speech;… he felt the unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour.”

• “The preacher took a chainless watch from a pocket within his soutane and, having considered its dial for a moment in silence, placed it silently before him on the table.”

• “The past was past… The ciborium had come to him.”

• “…He had eluded the flood of temptation…”• “It was idle for him…”• “A rim of the moon cleft the pale waste of sky line,… the tide was

flowing in fast to the land with a low whisper of her waves, islanding a few last figures in distant pools.”

• “The soul is very like a bucketful of water…”• “Beauty is the splendour of truth…” (Keats)• “I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to

leave whatever I have to leave.”• “O Life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of

experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

• “Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark• Author:• William Shakespeare• Genre:• Shakespearean tragic drama• Time Period:• Written in early 1500’s (Renaissance)• Set in 12th century• SETTING:• Denmark – Royal Court at Elsinore… winter

• Major Characters:- Hamlet (Prince, age 30), Old King Hamlet’s ghost,

Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, Horatio, Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Fortinbras, Gravediggers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

• Point of View: • Drama (omniscient) / speeches, dialogue; includes

soliloquys, asides, etc.• Structure and Form:• Freytag’s Pyramid (follows Aristotle’s 5 Act structure

for tragedy), blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), except for prose excerpts

• Ideas (Themes):- Questions about existence… what conclusions can we come to

about who we are? - What is our purpose in life and what is the purpose of life?- What is fate (destiny) and what is free will?- What is nobility? What responsibility do we have?- What is truth?- What happens after life? (Death is inevitable; final acceptance

thereof)- Loyalty and betrayal- The effects and stages of grief- Alienation and estrangement from others- Rationalizing causes inaction and paralysis- Action and passion take courage, etc.

• Symbols and sustained Images (Motifs):- Betrayal- Poison- Death (note: play begins and ends with death)- Plays and pretense (antic disposition)- Cosmic imagery (and nature v. the unnatural)- Time- Bad dreams , sleep, etc.- Traps and spying, observing, etc.- Lack of passion- Sun (light; truth)- Language (words; intellect)- The brain , intellect, mind (see Yorick’s skull)

• Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Appearance vs. Reality- Action vs. Inaction- Loyalty vs. Betrayal- Sanity vs. Madness- Illusion vs. Reality (the ghost?)- Nobility vs. Savagery

• Stylistic Devices:- Soliloquys (truth on stage)- Dramatic Irony- Initial conflict, Rising action, Climax, falling action

& anagnorisis (discovery), denouement- Comic relief- Puns, ambiguity, foreshadowing, asides• ALLUSIONS:- Greek mythology, Biblical allusions, historical allusions, Renaissance Great Chain of Being, the 4 Humours (moods)

Some Quotations worth noting:“Who’s there?”“I am sick at heart.”“Frailty, thy name is woman-”“I am too much i’ the sun…”“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”“That one may smile and be a villain…”“(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an anti disposition on),”“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!”“By indirections find directions out.”“Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced… he falls to such perusal of my face / As ‘a would draw it.”“Denmark’s a prison.”“O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action… Man delights not me, nor woman neither…”“Bloody, bawdy villain!”

“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”“To be, or not to be, that is the question:”“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.”“Get thee to a nunnery.”“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!”“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;”“Rightly to be great/Is not to stir without great argument,/ But greatly to find quarrel in a straw / When honor’s at the stake.”“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio –”“There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.”“- the rest is silence.”“Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince, / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”“Go, bid the soldiers shoot.”

Macbeth• Author:- William Shakespeare• Genre:- Shakespearean Tragic Drama• Time Period:• Written in: 1606 (King James I on throne)• SETTING:- Scotland (and parts in England) –Dunsinane

Castle, Burnham Wood, the heath

• MAJOR CHARACTERS:Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macduff, Lenox, Ross, the Porter, witches (and Hecate), Fleance, murderers, Siward, Young SiwardPoint of View:- Drama (dialogue), omniscient, with soliloquys, asides,

monologues, etc.Structure and Form:-Shakespeare’s shortest play, 5-Act pyramid structure (follows Aristotle’s form of tragedy), foreshadowing, dramatic irony, soliloquys, spectacle, climax, anagnorisis, denouement.

• IDEAS (Themes):- The dangers of blind ambition, pride (hubris), etc.- Is there such a thing as fate? Do we have free will?

Do we act upon suggestion (self-prophesy?)- Corruption vs. Ethics and loyalty.- What does it mean to be a man? - What is a woman’s role? What is a man’s role?- Taking revenge on those who’ve betrayed us- What does it mean to be evil? What is the

meaning of virtue and goodness?- What is the meaning of life? Is happiness possible?

• Symbols and Sustained images (Motifs):- Clothing, borrowed robes- Daggers- Ghosts, witches, the supernatural- Paranoia- Night, shadows, darkness- Blood, blood, blood!- Hands, deeds, etc.- Health, sickness, disease- Sleep, dreams, nightmares, visions- Birds- Water (washing, cleansing)- The weather (storms, unnatural imagery, lightning, hail, rain)- Corruption, evil, serpents- Banquets, feasting, “appetite”- Time

• Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Good vs. Evil- Natural vs. Unnatural- Sickness and disease vs. health- Sleep (peace of mind) vs. nightmares- Appearance vs. Reality- Fate vs. Free Will- Cruelty vs. Kindness- Manhood vs. Womanhood

• Stylistic Devices:- Soliloquys, asides, dramatic irony, comic relief,

blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), paradoxes and oxymoron, foils, oppositions

ALLUSIONS:- The Three Fates and Greek mythology- Historical allusions- James I- Seven Deadly sins- Garden of Eden and other Biblical allusions- Dante’s Inferno, hell, heaven

• Some Quotations worth remembering:“When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”“Fair is foul, and foul is fair: / Hover through the fog and filthy air.”“”So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”“Why do you dress me in borrow’d robes?”“This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill; cannot be good –”“And nothing is but what is not.”“Stars, hide your fires! /Let not light see my black and deep desires;”“Yet do I fear thy nature;/It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness,”“Unsex me here… fill me… top/Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,”“…look like th’innocent flower,/But be the serpent under’t.”“If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well / It were done quickly:”“I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition…”“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”“Is this a dagger, which I see before me,…”“Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell / That summons thee to Heaven, or to Hell.”“Macbeth does murther Sleep…”

“Sleep no more!”“Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers!”“What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.”“A little water clears us of this deed.”“To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.”“There’s daggers in men’s smiles:…”“To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus;…”“We have scorch’d the snake, not killed it…”“O! full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!”I am in blood/Stepp’d in so far…”“By the pricking of my thumbs, /Something wicked this way comes.”“…beware Macduff; / Beware the Thane of Fife.”“Macbeth /Is ripe for shaking…”“Out, damned spot!”“Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, … And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death.”“Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / And then is heard no more; it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.”

Frankenstein• Author:- Mary Shelley- Genre:- Gothic Romantic Fiction (Science Fiction?)- Time Period:- Written in: 1816- SETTING:- Geneva, Switzerland, Arctic Circle, Ireland

• MAJOR CHARACTERS:Victor Frankenstein, the creature (monster), Alphonse, Elizabeth, Henry Clerval, Justine, De Lacey family, Robert Walton, Margaret Seville• Point of View:- First person limited, Walton writing letters to Margaret, Victor telling his story to Walton, the Creature’s story• Structure and Form:- Frame story, flashbacks, 24 chapters, 3 parts

• Ideas (Themes):- Fate / Destiny vs. Free will- Ambition and pride vs. Personal responsibility- The repercussions and consequences of pride, ambition,

etc.- The dangers and ripple effects of the acquisition of

knowledge- Science vs. nature and their effects on man- Responsibility and ethics vs. passion and personal ambition- Romantic imagination vs. Science and facts / knowledge…

reason vs. passion and its consequences- Dangers of exploring the unknown

• Symbols and sustained images (Motifs):- Knowledge, reason, science, discovery, etc.- Romanticism, the imagination- Pride, ambition- Death- Water (the ocean, the sea, etc.)- Weather (storms, etc.)- Destiny- Isolation, alienation- Nature (the moon, the mountains, man’s nature, light)- Passion- Sleep, imagination- Madness- Hell, remorse, regret, guilt• Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Innocence vs. Knowledge- Good vs. Evil- Pride vs. Humility- Dark vs. Light- Foils (Victor vs. his creature, etc.)

• Stylistic Devices:- Frame story- Foreshadowing, suspense- Flashbacks- Letters- 3 Parts (each different pts. Of view)- Lots of questions (and rhetorical questions)• ALLUSIONS:- Milton’s Paradise Lost - The Bible, Adam and Eve- The Romantics (Shelley, Keats, Coleridge – “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”)- Prometheus- Greek Mythology- Dante’s Inferno- Faustus- Philosophy

• Some Quotations worth noting:

“I have no friend, Margaret…”“What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?”“You seek for knowledge and wisdom… nothing can alter my destiny…”“Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.”“I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge.”“Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?”“Learn from me… how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.”“A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me…”“Thus spoke my prophetic soul…”“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.”“Hideous monster! Ugly wretch!”

“Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?”“Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen Angel…”“The cup of life was poisoned forever…”“Great God! Why did I not then expire?”“Why did I not die?”“I am your master – obey!”“I shall be with you on your wedding night.”“Evil henceforth became my good.”“A deadly weight was hanging around my neck…”“I was doomed to live…”“How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery.”

Heart of Darkness• Author:- Joseph ConradGenre:- Realistic fiction; novellaTime Period:- Written in 1902. SETTING:- Thames River (London) and the Belgian Congo

(Africa)

• Major Characters:Marlow, Kurtz, helmsman, accountant, the Manager, the doctor, the brick maker, the Russian, the unknown narrator, the Intended, the African mistress, the African slavesPoint of View:- First person frame story (Marlow telling the

unknown narrator who relates the story)Structure and Form:- Frame story, flashbacks, foreshadowing, 3 parts

• Ideas (Themes):- The dangers and ramifications of colonialism / greed, etc.- The darkness that lies inside each of us… what is goodness?

What is evil?- What are lies and what is the truth? Do we have a

responsibility to tell the truth?- In his natural state, man shows that he is really savage (we

look “civilized” / efficiency helps us to have the appearance of being civilized)

- Just what is man’s capacity for evil?- Why are we fascinated with evil?- Is it better to have a deliberate belief and passion (even if it is

immoral) than to be without a belief or conviction?

• Symbols and sustained images (Motifs):- Goodness, innocence, ignorance- Knowledge, experience, discovery- Greed, ambition, pride- Savagery, animal instincts, darkness- Shadows (evil, darkness, the unknown)- Water (the river, the ocean)- Blood, war, brutality, death- Evil, sin (snake)- Voyage - Weather (fog, clarity, sun, heat)Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Good vs. Evil- Civilization vs. savagery- Sun / Shadow- Foils (Marlow . Kurtz)- Lies vs. truth- Ignorance vs. knowledge- Dreams vs. Nightmares- Inner peace vs. guilt / remorse

• STYLISTIC DEVICES:- Allusions, flashback, frame story, suspense, reflection, stream of consciousness, nightmarish dreamlike memory, fragments, unnamed characters known only by their jobs (except for Kurtz and Marlow)• ALLUSIONS:- The 3 Fates- Greek Mythology- The Bible (Satan, Adam and Eve, etc.)- River Styx- Colonization- Carl Jung (dreams, shadow self, animus, archetypes, etc.)- Hero’s Journey

• Some quotations worth noting:

“They were men enough to face the darkness.”“What saves us is efficiency – the devotion to efficiency.”“…one river… a mighty big river… resembling an immense snake uncoiled…”“The snake charmed me.”“She seemed uncanny and fateful.”“The changes take place inside, you know.”“It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own…”“He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor even respect.”“Perhaps there was nothing within him… he was hollow at the core.”“Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us?”“I would not have gone so far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for him near enough to a lie. You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie,…. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies, -”“I don’t like work… but I like what is in the work, - the chance to find yourself.”

“There were moment when one’s past came back to one, … but in came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream,…”“The inner truth is hidden – luckily, luckily.”“If you were man enough… the mind of man… is capable of anything... What is there after all?... But truth – truth stripped of its cloak of time… He must meet that truth with his own true stuff – with his own inborn strength.”“No; you want a deliberate belief.”“It’s really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one’s soul – than this kind of prolonged hunger.”“I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks.”“I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie,…”“He made me see things – things.”“I think the knowledge came to him at last – only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion.”“Oh, he enlarged my mind!”“I did not betray Mr. Kurtz - … it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”

“…But his soul was mad… I had – for my sins, I suppose – to go through the ordeal of looking into myself.”“His was an impenetrable darkness.”“The horror! The horror!”“I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more.”“I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.”“I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say.”“Perhaps all wisdom… all truth… are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.”“He lived as… a shadow insatiable… darker than the shadow of the night… like the beating of a heart – the heart of a conquering darkness.”“The heavens do not fall for such a trifle…. But I could not tell her. It would have been too dark – too dark, altogether…”

1984• Author:George OrwellGenre:Dystopian Fiction; SatireTime Period:Written in 1948Set in unknown / future / “1984”?SETTING:Oceania, once London now Airstrip 1, totalitarian government

• Major Characters:Winston Smith, Julia, O’Brien, Mr. Parsons, Katharine, Goldstein, “Big Brother”, Mr. Charrington, Syme, Inner Party, Outer Party, ProlesPoint of View:Third person limitedStructure and Form:Chronological; a few flashbacks, divided into 3 parts (Introduction, Rebellion, Rehabilitation)

• Ideas (themes):- The use and abuse of power and fear to exert control over others (and

society)- Truth exists only in the mind or written history- Dehumanization of others- Submission to authority- Ignorance and the power of knowledge; keeping others ignorant and the

distortion of truth- Isolation and alienation of humanity- Brainwashing and the ability to condition others to believe what those in

power would like them to believe- What is the power of love and hatred?- The effects of lack of individuality / freedom on others- The extent to which we will go to preserve ourselves/ How much can a

person take before they submit?

• Symbols and sustained images (Motifs):- Big Brother, Doublethink, Newspeak, language (minimized)- Freedom, truth, lies, ignorance, etc.- Brainwashing- Paper weight- Fear, control- Clothing and colors (uniforms, sashes, etc.)- Sickness and disease, filth and contamination- Love, lust, desire, human sexuality- Winston’s diary- Telescreens- Hate Week- Room 101Contrasts and Juxtapositions:- Freedom and imprisonment (metaphorically and literally)- Golden Country vs. Oceania- Proles vs. Inner Party and Outer Party- Love vs. Lust vs. Hatred- Lies vs. Truth- The Present vs. The Past vs. The Future- Fear vs. Hope- Betrayal vs. Trust

• Stylistic Devices:- Flashbacks- Suspense / foreshadowing- Paradox (Ignorance is Strength, etc.)- Newspeak language- Repetition- Interior monologue- IronyAllusions:- Modern day cities, landmarks, etc.- WWII, politics, etc.- “Oranges and Lemons”, other children’s songs, etc.- Dictators- God, religion, Marxism, economics, Shakespeare- Kipling (poetry)

• Some Quotations worth remembering:“War is Peace / Freedom is Slavery / Ignorance is Strength”“DOWN WITHBIG BROTHRE DOWN WITHBIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BRIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”“It was a good hanging… I think it spoils it when they tie their feet together.”“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”“In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible.”“Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent.”“If there is hope it lies in the proles.”“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”“I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.”“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”“Oranges and Lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s… Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.”“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”“The prevailing emotion was simply curiosity. Foreigners, whether from Eurasia or from Eastasia, were a kind of strange animal.”“The sense of his own inferiority was upon him.”“I hate purity. I hate goodness. I don’t want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to e corrupt to the bones.”“We are the dead.”

“Of all the horrors in the world – a rat!”“Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”“They can make you say anything… but they can’t make you believe it. They can’t get inside you.”“Confession is not betrayal.”“You are the dead.”“Of pain you wished only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was as bad as physical pain.”“Don’t worry, Winston, I shall save you, I shall make you perfect.”“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”“You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.”“The real power… is not power over things, but over men.”“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”“In the end we shall shoot you.”“Two and two make five.”“To die hating them, that was freedom.”“Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”“He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”