SHORT RESPONSE #2 – CLOSE READING
(due 12 noon, Friday April 8th): 10% of final mark
Choose ONE of the three set passages below and use your close reading and
analytical skills to build an interpretation (in 500 words) of its language, style,
and significance in relation to the work it comes from.
What are we looking for?
This assignment is a chance to demonstrate your close reading skills, as
discussed in lectures and rehearsed in tutorial. We are looking for you to use
your attention to detail and your analytical ability to produce an interpretation
of how the chosen passage works, both in itself and as an element in the larger
work it is taken from.
What is the difference between “attention to detail” and “analytical skills”?
Attention to detail provides the observations from which analysis is then built.
For example, you might demonstrate attention to detail by noticing that the
passage changes in tone, or rhythm, or voice, or positions a short sentence
after a series of longer ones, or vice versa. You would demonstrate analytical
skills by demonstrating the relationship between that change and the meaning
communicated by the passage to the reader. Or, again, you might notice that
the passage uses rhetorical questions, or exclamations, or a particular strong
image and then ask, as part of an analysis based on that detail, “What is the
purpose of this in relation to the subject matter or in its effect on the reader?”
Noting a detail is only a first step; analysis asks to infer and comment on that
detail’s significance or effect.
What counts as detail? Here are some questions and suggestions to help you
pay attention to detail. Remember, different writers use different kinds of
language to reach their effects. Your job is to note and explain how your
chosen writer shapes language in this passage.
• What level and type of language is being used in the passage?
(colloquial, formal, abstract, concrete; does it involve imperatives,
exhortations or questions etc.?) Is the passage in verse or prose?
• What does the passage look like on the page?
(spacing, word clusters, sentence length or uniformity, etc.)
• Who is speaking? What are they speaking about? Why are they saying
it? How are they saying it? To whom are they saying it?
• Underline words/phrases that surprise, interest, excite you, and also
that puzzle you. Why? What is their effect? How is their effect
achieved?
• Think about tone, mood, feeling in the passage. How do they control
how it communicates? Do they change?
• Are there striking visual images? How and for what purpose are they
used?
• What kind of rhythm does the passage have? Is it consistent? Is it
measured, or abrupt? Are the sentences long or short? Are the words
long or short?
Assessment will be based on
◦
your attentiveness to details of language and style in the passage;
◦
your clarity of analytical argument;
◦
your accurate and effective presentation of your work
Passage 1.
Dickens, Great Expectations
"Do you suppose it will still be years hence, Mr. Jaggers?"
Mr. Jaggers shook his head - not in negativing the question, but in
altogether negativing the notion that he could anyhow be got to answer it and the two horrible casts of the twitched faces looked, when my eyes strayed
up to them, as if they had come to a crisis in their suspended attention, and
were going to sneeze.
"Come!" said Mr. Jaggers, warming the backs of his legs with the backs
of his warmed hands, "I'll be plain with you, my friend Pip. That's a question I
must not be asked. You'll understand that, better, when I tell you it's a
question that might compromise me. Come! I'll go a little further with you; I'll
say something more."
He bent down so low to frown at his boots, that he was able to rub the
calves of his legs in the pause he made.
"When that person discloses," said Mr. Jaggers, straightening himself,
"you and that person will settle your own affairs. When that person discloses,
my part in this business will cease and determine. When that person discloses,
it will not be necessary for me to know anything about it. And that's all I have
got to say."
We looked at one another until I withdrew my eyes, and looked
thoughtfully at the floor. From this last speech I derived the notion that Miss
Havisham, for some reason or no reason, had not taken him into her
confidence as to her designing me for Estella; that he resented this, and felt a
jealousy about it; or that he really did object to that scheme, and would have
nothing to do with it. When I raised my eyes again, I found that he had been
shrewdly looking at me all the time, and was doing so still.
"If that is all you have to say, sir," I remarked, "there can be nothing left
for me to say."
He nodded assent, and pulled out his thief-dreaded watch, and asked
me where I was going to dine?
(from Chapter 36; vol. 2, Ch 17; p. 264 in Oxford edition)
Passage 2.
Love Armed BY APHRA BEHN
Love in Fantastic Triumph sat,
Whilst Bleeding Hearts around him flowed,
For whom Fresh pains he did Create,
And strange Tyrannic power he showed;
From thy Bright Eyes he took his fire,
Which round about, in sport he hurled;
But ’twas from mine he took desire
Enough to undo the Amorous World.
From me he took his sighs and tears,
From thee his Pride and Cruelty;
From me his Languishments and Fears,
And every Killing Dart from thee;
Thus thou and I the God have armed,
And set him up a Deity;
But my poor Heart alone is harmed,
Whilst thine the Victor is, and free.
Passage 3.
Shakespeare, King Richard III from Act 5 scene 3
RICHARD ….
If we be conquer'd, let men conquer us,
And not these bastard Bretons; whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd,
And in record, left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? Lie with our wives?
Ravish our daughters?
Drum afar off
Hark! I hear their drum.
Fight, gentlemen of England! Fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
Enter a Messenger
What says Lord Stanley? will he bring his power?
Messenger
My lord, he doth deny to come.
RICHARD
Off with his son George's head.
NORFOLK
My lord, the enemy is past the marsh.
After the battle let George Stanley die.
RICHARD
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom:
Advance our standards, set upon our foes!
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits on our helms!
Exeunt