Coursework: The Smiths- This Night Has Opened My Eyes

In my coursework i plan to argue that Morrissey's lyric's in this song deserve to be looked at as "literature". Looking at "Judgment and Value" from the critical anthology I will say how the song has most of the desired features for a piece of literature.

Complexity and Unity- The plot of the song is complex and like in the anthology "the more the reader studies the text, the more he or she is aware of the poet's skill in composing it in this way." When looking at the song, I think the song is about a teenage girl who has been involved with an older man who says she loves him, gets her pregnant then leaves. We hear the voice of a friend and then her own or a parents. "oh you did a bad thing" oh you did a good thing" The song's story shares some parallels with the Kitchen sink drama "A taste of Honey". I also think that the poems language is fairly complex and each word has been thought in a great deal. "In the river the colour of led, immerse a baby's head"
language-Morrissey's writing makes him worthy of being a "craftsperson" because every word flows perfectly and is elegant.  "A grown man of twenty five, said he'd cure your ills, but he didn't and he never will"
Subject matter- The subject matter of the song is also like those of valued texts. It tackles a more modern issue-a girl facing the decision whether to lose her child or have the baby. The girl faces and "ethical choice. It also doesn't give a particular view, like less advanced texts which makes things more up for debate.
The Cannon- Taking a marxist view this could not be in the cannon because its a song but also because it doesn't show a positive view on abortion, so its doesn't serve a purpose; giving something a negative or positive slant.

Macbeth- Gothic elements in Act 1

Everything about the first act of Macbeth is Gothic. Immediately the setting "Thunder and Lightning" gives the play a sinister tone and the first characters, the three witches make it clear that it's a Gothic play. The rhyme in which they speak is also a convention of the Gothic genre. When they say "fair is foul" this is a prominent line and we can tell that in the play something terrible is going to happen.

As the next scene begins we here from the dying captain who is covered in blood. From the captain we here how the great noble Macbeth slaughters his opponents and not only kills them but “”he unseamed him from the nave to the chops.” This makes us think what the character of Macbeth is like, what kind of man is he? “His sword smoking with bloody execution. The captain says how they “doubly redoubled”, this is interesting because the language is almost the same as the riddle like language the witches speak in. As the act continues we learn that Macbeth is going to be “Thane of Cawdor “after his predecessor betrayed them in battle and is going to be executed.

Interestingly the act end with the king saying “What he lost, noble Macbeth hath won”, is this foreshadowing what’s to come?  We also go from the topic of Nobel Macbeth to the plotting of the witches which makes us think what’s in store for the so far so noble Macbeth. The witches then say of the horrible things they’ve been doing. “killing swine” Just before Macbeth and Banquo’s encounter with them they cast a spell in their strange language. This is very scary and gothic.

The witches are stirring up trouble. They tell Macbeth he will be king and that Banquo’s children will eventually be kings. The supernatural element of them predicting the future is very gothic. Macbeth appears confused but seems to already welcome the idea of him being king with open arms. In act scene four we see how Macbeth is to the king, showing a split personality, and how grateful the king is of Macbeth and Banquo.

Act 5 begins and the first thing I notice is the pace of the play. Macbeth has only just found out he’s thane of Cawdor, he’s met these weird bearded ladies and he’s already thinking about killing the king. Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the letter is very strange and we see this irrational crazy lady who is craving for power.  The language she uses “unsex me here” and Come to my womans breasts etc is all very scary.

We then see how Macbeth behaves when his wife is around and how she seems to rule him, She tells him to “look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t”. This is very much how she behaves her self. She wants him to kill the king “leave the rest to me” she says. The double personality is very typical of the gothic genre and when she speaks to the king and Banquo she is quaint and lady like, and acts how she is suppose to. While she is charming the King Macbeth is in the kitchen thinking about killing the king, we can see how he is adding up the pros and cons. The last few lines “only Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself ”  makes it real, he is going to kill the king. Through the last scene and the discussion with his wife he has doubts to whether he is going to do it but she questions his masculinity and by the end of the act they are planning what they are going to do once he is dead.

Marxist analysis for "The Bell Jar"

When looking at the protagonist and narrator of The Bell Jar, Ester Greenwood, we can see that she is from a very privileged background and on the socio-economic scale upper or middle classed. Ester is a college student and is on a month internship writing for a magazine. Her and eleven other girls are staying in a luxury hotel where the sponsors of the trip fine dine and wine them and shower them with presents. She knows she should be having the  time of her life but starts to question her abilities and pretty much everything.

From a Marxist perspective the way she starts to feel and why she experiences her massive downward spiral is down to how the economy is organised. She begins to feel the pressures that  the sexist society  in 1950's had on women. She was worried she didn't have enough ability and was worried but also unsure as to whether she would ever get married.

What's interesting about the book is that Sylvia Plath is actually writing about her experiences at college with an exaggerated fictional twist. Sylvia Plath, like her character Ester was very middle/upper class. This proves Marxist's theory that our social existence determines are consciousness because she is writing about herself and how her socio-economics effected her; the character.