Passage Analysis

1. Passage Analysis How do you structure it??

2. The three passages…What links can you see across the 3 passages? How to start… • Go with your feelings – what stands out to you?! Trust what you know! • What key concerns seem important/obvious across the 3 passages? • Where do you see lovely use of language within the passages? • What are the characters revealing across the passages? • How does the tone and pace of the narrative vary?

3. Annotations • Don’t just annotate the key ideas – annotate the language use – how is it important? How would you describe it? • Try to put an adjective in front of the language to show your engagement with it Eg. Darlington’s exaggerated proclamations of loving blindly, adoringly, madly, alluding to his all encompassing compassion…. • Look at the pace of the passage – what does it imply • How is the narrative developing? How does the writer want the audience to respond?

4. Planning…. How will you order your analysis? • Remember – you must include key ideas and HOW they are conveyed. For each idea make sure you write about how the language and other devices portray it • Think of an interesting way to begin – you don’t have to start with passage 1! • If there is a great idea to ‘hook’ your response on in the 3rd passage, start there! Then show how that idea weaves through the other passages

5. Write a focus statement • Now that you have worked out your main ideas, write a tight thesis (focus) statement. • This should show where you response is headed. • It should also show your knowledge of the key language/literary features.

6. Sample opening statements. (Don’t write an English style intro!) Oscar Wilde, through the structure of the play, as it so often oscillates between fast paced irony and frustration, contrasts the less than appealing nature of the social constraints inherent within the hypocritical and shallow Victorian society with a need to question what is wrong, in order to be brave and yourself.

7. What is happening in this paragraph?? Write out and annotate what you think the student is doing Sample opening paragraph from 2010 exam Jane Austen constructs her comedy of manners novel Emma through the prism of nineteenth century class and gender constructs. In foregrounding marriage customs while never losign sight of the complexities of human relationships, Austen ensures that she is never morally neutral in the portrayal and development of her characters. Frequently merging the omniscient narration with the voice of her protagonist, the gently ironic authorial tone delivers Austen’s unambiguous perspective on the importance of self knowledge in the maturation of her heroine.

8. Plan • Everyone has a façade • Hypocrisy of society • Irony of ‘good’ and ‘bad’

9. Paragraph One Everyone has a facade • Start with passage 3 – strong dialogue. Darlington’s comments to Lady Windermere – afraid to be yourself. Represents Wilde’s ideas • Sentence structure – Be brave! Be yourself! Short, blunt, resounding • Questioning – What matter? Wrong? What is wrong? • Adjectives – false, shallow, degrading existence – strong, negative • World in its hypocrisy demands – reveals strengths of moral/social constraints • Link to passage one – Lord Augustus – None of us men look what we really are demmed good thing– motif of facade– contrasting tone of Darlington’s building anger and resentment of society and frustration with Lady W. Augustus more accepting of it

10. Paragraph Two Hypocrisy in society - altered moral standards • Hypocrisy – gossip surrounding Mrs Erlynne – her past mentioned in passage one. Wider textual evidence – act 1 – Mrs E gossip • Not concerned about Lord Winderemere possibly having affair – affairs of men accepted – wider textual reference • Duchess of Berwick – gossip, judgemental, marrying off daughter, shutting people out of ‘Society’ • Passage 3 – you would stand anything rather than face the censure of a world, whose praise you would despise – censure/despise - strong words, disappointment in Lady W • Irony – foreshadowing Demmed nuisance relations! But they make one so demmedrespectable. Importance of the past, family – irony of Lady W • Dramatic irony – saved me…worry ..and misunderstanding – still to come

11. Paragraph Three Irony – ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – those seen as ‘bad’ having strength of character • Contrast – evidence of strength and compassion of Mrs Erlynne in passage 2 • Gesture of anguish – internal monologue - bitterly punished My real punishment is tonight Sadness, strength of words – tragedies, horrible fancy, how terrible, Short sentences. Sharp, resounding, fast paced. • Contrast to Lady W in passage 3 – lack of action – I am afraid of being myself. Let me think. Let me wait. You are just the same as every other woman – Darlington’s frustration… You have no courage • Mrs Erlynne is Passage 2 – Repetition of what can I do? Determined to remedy the situation • Anxious, alters tone, moves the narrative forward. • Character development – I feel a passion awakening within me – thinking of others • How can I save her A moment may ruin a life – outward looking. Willing to sacrifice herself • All London will know why you did it – social acceptance – Mrs E – no one would know the real reason

12. Concluding statement You want to end your response with a resounding comment that shows you understanding of the passages and the text as a whole. It is not a summary of your essay! It is a resounding statement that shows you know what the writer was trying to say! Resounding idea: strength to be honest to ourselves • Passage three: There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely……

13. Wilde’s utilisation of lively and encompassing adjectives emphasises his belief in the need to choose one’s own life fully, entirely, completely. The vibrant adjectives are contrasted in his condemnation of conforming to hypocritical social expectations of aristocratic Victorian London, as Darlington laments that to follow the hypocrisy of society is to lead a false, shallow, degrading existence. Wilde highlights that it takes courage to Choose!