W.H.Auden- Musee des Beaux Arts

How is the story told?

•  This poem is about suffering and how it is always happening but others get on with their lives, and those suffering are unnoticed.
• One stanza in the middle, one line.
• Enjambement- could represent the isolation compared to the rest of the poem, whereby there are individuals and groups that are separate.
• Ekphrastic- using a painting as a poem, to tell the story of the picture through poem.
• Voice- is Auden as an art fan, and his interpretation of the paintings- Cencus at Bethlehem, Icarus etc- this is subjective as its his perspective and opinions- it is an observation.
• There is an irregular rhyming pattern- free verse structure.
• The setting is in an art gallery.
• There is no sense of time
• There are 3 stanzas.

These poems so far link  together about suffering, particularly Miss Gee.

W.H.Auden- Miss Gee

How is the story told?

•  Form- it is a ballad- in the form of a blues song
• Quatrain- 4 beats
• It has a regular metre
• ABCB rhyming pattern.
• Tone- is childlike, with the easy diction to understand. But it also has a serious, and ironic meaning behind it. The story is almost a cautionary tale that could cover the sadness that the poem expresses. The way that it is a song makes it more friendly to understand and more fun. 
• Setting- i imagine a small village, and church. 
• Miss Gee's clothing is described- 'with her clothes buttoned up to her neck'- Imagery and her street repetition.
• Time- shown through stanzas
• It is black comedy.
• Religion is used a lot- it could show the irony that she goes to church all the time but still gets cancer in the end. Possibly Auden making a statement about the church, his beliefs. She worked for the 'church bazaar', prayed regularly . Also she may have been sexual, as she wishes to be 'a good girl' she is ashamed of herself  and has dreams that subtly made point out that she may not be honorable, and certainly conflicting the ideas of the church.
• She is lonely- the readers become emotionally attached and feel sorry for her. She looks away at the couple. She is generally a good person.
• Linear chronology
•  Voice- the poets voice addresses the reader.
• The voice changes when the doctor talks about Miss Gee, he tells the story for a bit- we find out she has cancer. When this happens so does the mood, it becomes more serious and depressing as we know she is going to die.
• Linear chronology.
• The ending of her in a hospital being dissected by students is odd. It shows she is worthless, as she did not have a funeral. backing up the point she is alone, without any friends. It's very ironic and sad.
• The poem is written in a framed narration- start middle end. 

Debate between religion and science
Spinsters( unmarried women)- secret lives under appearance
Religion
Death
Life- the importance, that cancer could happen to anyone, even religious people
The voice is objective- cold voice, negative and to the point.

W.H.Auden- O What Is That Sound

How is the story told??

• It is a ballad- which is in quatrain (4 lines per stanza)
•  Form-it is a conversation- call and response between a couple.
• It is subjective
• It is phonetic ( the repetition of drumming drumming)
•  Binary opposition of 'brightly' and 'weapons'
• 'O' is an exclamation of dispair, used at the start of every stanza- it's woeful. The reassurance of 'only'
• ABAB regular rhyming pattern and metre
• Setting- in the war, the soldiers are coming for the man.
• The title is missing a question mark.
• The tone changes in stanza 7- 'cunning' - showing the end is coming- change in diction.
• Each line of each stanza sums up and tells the story.
• The story is of someone trying to evade signing up to fight or on the run from the army.

The History Boys- Act One

History boys analysis.

• The physicality of Hector, the boys teacher. He wears a bow tie, is flamboyant and eccentric. He creates slapstick comedy as he hits the boys. 

• There is clear characterization of Dakin at the start he is called the pretty boy and he likes attention from the teachers and is Hector's favourite. Posner is the typical bookworm, with the constant referencing of the dictionary.

• The boys mocking and feeding off Hector by saying the lines of 'King Lear', they encourage him to go off task- showing respect and his authority.

• The issue that Hector grooms the boys, all except Posner- this is a big problem today and would have been at the time- the fact that the boys do not mind about this, or they appear to not mind because they like Hector so much as a friend and a teacher. Towards the end of the Act 1, just after the Headteacher finds out what he has been doing, Dakin comes in and ask about having a lift home on Hectors motorbike, claiming ' its Wednesday sir'. The acceptance and the normality of the malasting is shocking.
•  A rivalry between Hector and Irwin forms.
• Irwin is the outsider of the group, but Posner has a different relationship with him, he could open up about being gay but not to Hector. Also Dakin agrees with the thoughts of Irwin about poems that they are all about unhappy endings.
• The two teachers debate the nature of education. This highlights their differences in terms of teaching methods. Hector is much more relaxed, but he is caring as he wants the boys to be cultured instead of learning the full syllabus as Irwin would do, he is focused on passing the boys through the exams. However Hector is attached to the boys.

Ideas for the essay : To think about the role that hector has for the boys, linked to comedy aspects.How the boys act towards the teachers, it is interesting how natural they are and prefer Hector over Irwin in general. The different teaching methods of the teachers.

The Great Gatsby- chapter 9.

• Time passing- after 2 years
• Personification of the report
• Imagery- alone, with Gatsby, the only one on his side.
• Nick is connected to all that has happened, and maybe feels partly responsible.
• Nick imagines Gatsby speaking to him, but he is dead, could this show loneliness and that he is missing Gatsby.
• The conversation through the telephone, the pace is slow as he is not getting any replies.
• Themes of outsiders, solidarity- against everyone else, Nick feels.
• Telephone fills in the businesses of Gatsby that we never learn before, all is revealed. As the telephone is always used, and Gatsby often mysteriously goes off to answer the phone calls.
• Recollections of Nick's past, showing how good his memory is, how detailed they are.
• Gatsby's dad's hands are 'trembling'- this tells the story as it links Gatsby to his father- character related actions.
• Repetition of the newspaper- The Chicago one.
• Gatsby's importance has gone with him.
• Another telephone conversation, with Klipspringer- he doesn't care about Gatsby's death, he just wants his shoes back- how ironic, he was a lodger.
• Paradox ( a paradox is a statement that is self contradictory because it often contains two statements that are both true, but in general, cannot both be true at the same time) Gatsby had nothing, he couldn't have Daisy, he only had money. It was only an illusion, the idea of love.
• Death brings out the truth, we learn Gatsby's background.
• Multi-voice narration, helping to tell the story.
• Weather- dark, the tone has changed, weather is often key for changes.
• His Dad is proud that his son is rich, he doesn't know that he has got all the money from wrong-doing and corruption.
• Touching irony- Gatsby's childhood schedule. Shows the innocence from a very young age, and that he was determined.
• 'Nobody came', to the funeral apart from 'Owl Eyes'.
• We are entering into his autobiographical state, memory Nick, romancing the past, it doesn't really relate to the rest of the novel, the structure changes. He realises none of the characters belong in the east, they are westerners.
• At the end when Tom says that Gatsby 'had it coming to him'. it relates back to the idea that there is lots of corruption and immoral things going on. They have all come to a stop: the illegal drinking at Gatsby's parties, Tom's mistress Myrtle, Daisy's fling with Gatsby, Gatsby's affairs. 
• Daisy and Tom use people and cause lots of problems and then retreat to their money,  they are as bad as Gatsby. The excitement of New York and the east in general is no longer thought of well- it brings back memories.
• Imagery- of the settlers, the Europeans  Unknown world. Brings the story back to the start, Nick is back alone and returns home.

The Great Gatsby- chapter 8

Focussing on how the story is told.

• Time- how a long amount of time has passed, he awakens at dawn.
• The imagery of the sea/ boat and how this makes his feel.

The story is told about time passing and the subtle imagery makes the audience think  that Nick feels uncomfortable and struggles to sleep.

• Dark , depressing scene, how they are searching for the cigarettes- as if it is a relief from the tragedy. It adds to the idea that they are really tired.

• Flashbacks, of the time when Daisy and Gatsby are together, in real time, their relationship seems to have finished, it's showing that it is the last time. The romance contrasting,... happiness and love.

1. The sense of time jumping, the change in pace, how they are rushing and on edge. This builds suspense- ' i couldn't sleep all night'. He builds the story, by putting in emotion, through the imagery. The tone is depressing, tired and slow. The search for cigarettes,and they turn out to be stale- dissapointment.
2. Gatsby's dialogue. Time jumps. The use of 'I'. Layers within the story.
3. Gatsby and Daisy's time apart. Seasonal/time imagery.
4. Foreboding ( Fearful apprehension; a feeling that something bad will happen).

Countdown, the hours going down. The story is pieced together, but Nick wasn't always there and still has very vivid memories, as though he is reading or writing these parts, how does he know all of this? The narrative is switched, he makes assumptions-  'I had an  idea'. The distance from events is reflective.  Metaphorical language- he has come to terms with real love- grotesque roses, are usually related with connotations of love and beauty. Ghostly imagery, relating to death, foreshadowing morbid imagery, something is going to happen.

The Great Gatsby- chapter 7.

This is the most important chapter in the novel. It is the longest chapter as it is the most significant. It is the most dramatic, so it couldn't be split up, it deserves more time. Nick cannot forget it, the way that it is written down is the way that the processes it in his mind and recalls what happened.

• Personification of the cars-  ' drove sulkily away'.- cars are mentioned again, and they become the main part of this chapter. 
• The telephone conversations between Gatsby and Nick tell the story, it is the structure. The use of dialogue, through the phone, we find out that Gatsby has changed all his staff,so that no-one can gossip about Daisy coming round. Gatsby doesn't even trust his staff?
• Arrange to go to Daisy's house.
• The weather is not just boiling but 'broiling'.It is building up the mood for something to happen. Narrative expectation. Use of weather when something happens that is substantial to the novel's development. Setting up for drama.
• The repetition of 'hot'- to exaggerate.
• When Nick and Gatsby arrive, the women are lying on the sofas like they did in the first chapter.
• Gatsby is in awe of Daisy's house- he is love struck.
• Tom is again on the telephone, to the rumoured mistress, but it is Wilson. The atmosphere is tense, when Tom is in the room, but when he goes out Daisy tells Gatsby she loves him and kisses him in front of Nick and Jordan.
• Daisy's child shocks Gatsby.
• Weather present again- daisy is nearly crying.
• Daisy publicly gives Gatsby compliments, and this annoys Tom, he realises something is going on- weather reflects Tom's mood.
• The use of  the narrator pointing out that 'no one moved' and 'a pause' shows how slow time is going.
• Tom is sexist again.
• 'Her voice is full of money'- Daisy .
• Get into separate cars and go into town, Tom goes to see Wilson, with Gatsby's car.
• Wilson and his wife are planning to go away, more like Wilson is making Myrtle go, it makes Tom 'startled'. Wilson knows that Myrtle has been seeing someone but does not know it is Tom, how ironic!! Myrtle is locked in her house, her face is at the window.
• At the plaza hotel the genre changes to a tragedy, 'a moment of silence' from a romance.
• Tom questions Gatsby angrily, why does Gatsby call him 'old sport', the readers would have thought it was a friendly term, but they are not friends, and only Nick would be called that. Gatsby is keeping on the good side of Tom??
• Silence broken by music, 'a burst of jazz'. The world carries on, but their group are separate, in their little bubble. 
• The juxtaposition of Tom and Gatsby. 'snapped' and 'politely'
• Daisy tries to break the tension by getting alcohol.
• Argument between Tom, Daisy and Gatsby- who Daisy really loves/ did love.- Truth revealed. Gatsby is basically making Daisy say she doesn't love Tom.
• Sadness for Gatsby when Daisy says she loved both of them.
• In the middle of everything Nick remembers its his birthday- flash back to reality- maybe this is also why he remembers this day so well. 
• The sentence on its own sums up the whole chapter- ' So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight'.- reference to weather, it has changed again. It leads up the future.
• A shift dramatically after that sentence talking about a coffee shop owner- ' principal witness at the inquest' what happened???
• Myrtle was knocked down by a car- and  killed!!
• 'We saw three or four auto mobiles and the crowd'- reference to cars again, build up of the drama.
• At first tom is excited about the crash- cruel and arrogant.
• Changing genres- crime/ detective
• There is little imagery, Nick or Fitzgerald creates the dramatic sense, it has the biggest impact and it is straight to the point.
• Tom becomes authoritative he takes hold of the situation as Wilson is in shock, and clears his name- he is innocent, but they (Gatsby and Daisy) were driving his car.
• Tom cries- its a change in him, we saw a little bit of love before, and his voice breakswhen Daisy was talking about  love. Maybe he really loved Myrtle, but then he wouldn't care so much about the cars?!
• Nick has had enough of the group. He is a self- conscious narrator as seems to question himself for including Jordan . Realisation. 
• Colours - pink, and imagery of the suit under the moon.
• Next we hear Gatsby's story of the crash- story told through dialogue first hand not rumours. Flashbacks and story telling.
• The significance of names- Wilson, how ironic that Gatsby didn't know who she was or even check.
• Dramatic.
• Pink again the glow of Daisy's room. Gatsby and her are connected. 
• How vivid Nick's memory of the snapshot with Daisy and Tom sitting together, through the window, how Tom- ' his hand had fallen upon and covered her own'- very sad and sweet image,  forgiving almost. The most intimate they have been in the whole novel. How the bad things bring people together. It is a homely image- the chicken. Contrasting to the Plaza hotel that was too hot and uncomfortable.
• Gatsby is hiding in their garden hedge, he is very worried.
• Nick leaves Gatsby alone. Themes of loneliness, obsession.