LITERARY GENRES
MODULE
1
What is literature to you?
ACTIVITY 1
Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases with the help of a dictionary or the
glossary. Do they all belong to the world of literature? Discuss with the help of your teacher, then
give an example for each item either in English or in Italian.
Paragraph
Theme
Plot
Simile
Short stories
Article
Novel
Fairy tales
Narrator
Character
Lyrics
Setting
Pulp fiction
Metaphor
Dialogue
Scene
Act
Diary
Play
Nursery rhymes
Playwright
Description
Stage direction
Comic strips
Drama
Film scripts
An anthology usually offers you a variety of literary texts that may be labelled as prose works (novels
and short stories mainly), poetry or drama.
ACTIVITY 2
Before starting, see if you can identify the main features of the three genres by filling in the
following chart with the help of a partner. Tick as appropriate, then discuss with the class.
Prose
It tells a story
It has plots and sub-plot(s)
The plot develops though conflicts and resolutions
It is mainly based on dialogue
It contains descriptions of settings
There is a number of characters
It is divided into act/scenes
It is written in prose
It may be performed
It is divided into chapters or episodes
It is written primarily to be seen
It is a public experience
It requires other people than the reader for full effect
It is written primarily to be read
Sounds and visual effects are added to words
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Poetry
Drama
Prose
As a first step to literary analysis, let us take into consideration the short story, which is a short narrative
text usually based on the following pattern:
CLIMAX
FALLING
ACTION
EXPOSITION
RISING ACTION
RESOLUTION
Like a novel, but on a smaller scale, the short story includes:
- an introduction or exposition, in which the author gives the first necessary information about the
background (setting) and main characters. A typical short story usually revolves around a single
character and his/her achievements;
- a problem or complication to face;
- several points of rising tension or action;
- a climax or a turning point, which corresponds to the highest moment of tension;
- a resolution which may either restore life as it was before or open it up to new horizons. The short
story may end after satisfying the reader’s doubts or it may leave some questions unanswered.
ACTIVITY 3
Read the following short story and identify the sequences listed above.
A Lot To Learn
by Robert T. Kurosaka
The Materialiser was completed.
Ned Quinn stood back, wiped his hands, and admired the huge bank of dials,
light and switches. Several years and many fortunes had gone into this project.
Finally it was ready.
Ned placed the metal skullcap1 on his head and plugged the wires2 into the
control panel. He turned the switch to ON and spoke:
“Pound Note.”
There was a whirring3 sound. In the Receiver a piece of paper appeared. Ned
inspected it. Real
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1. skullcap: calotta.
2. plugged the wires: inserì i cavi.
3. whirring: ronzante.
“Martini,” he said.
A whirring sound. A puddle4 formed in the Receiver. Ned cursed silently. He
had a lot to learn.
“A bottle of beer”, he said.
The whirring sound was followed by the appearance of the familiar brown
bottle. Ned tasted the contents and grinned5.
Chuckling6, he experimented further.
Ned enlarged the Receiver and prepared for his greatest experiment. He
switched on the Materialiser, took a deep breath and said,
“Girl.”
The whirring sound swelled7 and faded. In the Receiver stood a lovely girl.
She was naked. Ned had not asked for clothing. She had freckles, a brace and
pigtails. She was eight years old.
“Hell!” said Quinn.
Whirr.
The fireman found two charred8 skeletons in the smouldering rubble9.
4. puddle: pozzanghera.
5. grinned: fece un largo sorriso.
6. chuckling: con un riso soffocato.
7. swelled: aumentò.
8. charred: carbonizzati.
9. smouldering rubble: calcinacci ardenti.
(from The Little Book of Horrors, 1992)
ACTIVITY 4
A. Focus on plot
To give a concise definition of plot (= the arrangement of events in a story), the novelist E. M. Forster
used the following example:
The king died and the queen died is a story, (= the chronological order of events); The king died
and then the queen died of grief is a plot, in which the events are based on causality (Aspects of
the novel).
The writer may decide to change the order of the events. Therefore, the sentences above may also
become: The Queen died of grief soon after the King’s death.
Referring to the short story you have just read, write a short plot
Story
Plot
Ned Quinn made experiments
with the Materialiser and died.
B. Focus on the setting
The setting is the time and/or place of a story. Its main functions are:
- it gives the background for the action;
- it acts as an antagonist;
- it creates atmospheres or moods;
- it reveals the personality of the characters;
- it suggests underlying themes.
Now consider the context of Kurosaka’s story. Underline with different colours the geographical,
social and historical references to the background. Can you find any? Probably not even one, since
this story focuses on a basic, unsuccessfully solved problem, without offering any descriptions of
place or time. You may simply infer it takes place in a scientific lab.
C. Focus on the characters and characterisation
To distinguish a main character from the minor ones, make a list of their names, personal features
(material and spiritual), actions, words.
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Use the following grid for the story you have just read.
Main
Minor
Minor
Name
Features
Actions
Words
Characters may be divided into flat and round, that is to say those who never change, built round a
single idea and those who may surprise the reader since they undergo a change.
Are there enough elements in this story to define Ned Quinn?
• Why do you think he is not presented as a scientist?
• Is he static or dynamic? Is he a stock, conventional character, like the fool in a play by
Shakespeare, the muscular hero of an adventure story or rather an ordinary man who makes
mistakes?
Consider the way characters may be presented. Two techniques are mainly used:
- telling: the author tells the reader about the characters, their features and personality, often
commenting and describing in details.
- showing: the author shows the reader the characters’ behaviour, dialogues, interactions and the
reader draws his/her conclusions about their features and personality.
How is Ned Quinn presented?
D. Focus on the narrative technique
Let us now investigate the point of view to see who tells us the story and how it is told as well as to
find out how meaningful these choices are for the reader. There are three basic types of narrators:
- first person (a character in the story);
- second person;
- third person (not a character in the story).
Taking into consideration the narrator’s perspective, we can distinguish:
- The Omniscient narrator (third person omniscient): the narrator reports everything about his characters,
including their feelings and thoughts. He is usually not a character in the story but an invisible storyteller
who can see and report everything. He may either express his opinions and judgements (intrusive) or
just report neutrally.
- Limited Omniscient (third person limited): the narrator tells the story in the third person, but tells it from the
viewpoint of one (sometimes more) character(s) in the story. Therefore, he seems to have the same
limitations as the protagonist because he does not explain the inner thoughts of other characters.
- First Person Central: the narrator is also the protagonist of the story and tells the story from his/her
perspective.
- First Person Observer: the narrator is a character in the story but not necessarily the main character.
He tells the protagonist’s story, having witnessed most of it.
- Objective: the narrator is not a character, he is not omniscient, nor does he report any thoughts or
feelings. This narrator is like a journalist or a movie camera reporting externals and not explaining
anything.
- Second Person: the narrator uses “you” to create an identification with the reader and the text.
Which type of narrator do you see in A Lot to Learn? Choose the right one and give reasons for
your choice.
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We must also focus on how a narrator may present the characters’ thoughts and emotions. This
affects the way the sentences are built. If we take a sentence from the story, we may define what type
of sentence it is by referring to the following chart:
Example of speech/thoughts
Definition
Features
“A bottle of beer”, he said.
Direct speech
An introductory clause + quotation
marks.
“A bottle of beer.”
Free direct speech
No introduction.
He asked for a bottle of beer.
Indirect speech
Words are reported with changes
(pronouns, tense, deictics).
A bottle of beer.
Free indirect speech
Same but no introductory clause.
He anxiously asked the Materialiser Narrative
for a bottle of beer.
Words reported but modified,
summed up, reworded, filtered by
the narrator.
Try to identify what type of sentence “He had a lot to learn” is.
An experimental technique used by many contemporary writers is the Stream-of-Consciousness: the
author gives us the character’s relevant thoughts or feelings, and imitates the whole flow of that
character’s mind. In many cases, the structure of the sentences becomes loose and unconventional; the
character speaking or thinking seems to shift from one image to the other with illogical transitions, since
the writer is imitating the free associations our mind makes.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS = psychological field
FREE INDIRECT
SPEECH
INTERIOR
or
MONOLOGUE
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES
The two main narrative techniques in the grid are formally different: free indirect speech is in the third
person, while interior monologue uses the first person, a loose structure often without punctuation, with
grammar mistakes, ellipses, and a range of vocabulary tailor-made for the speaking character.
Does the narrator in A Lot to Learn look inside Ned? How limited is his narrative perspective?
• Why does the narrator choose to report few details and not all the project development? Why
doesn’t he provide any comments or interpretations?
• Which conclusions is the reader led to draw?
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E. Focus on style, tone and irony
Style is the way a writer uses the language. When considering it, we must refer to his choice of words
(diction), to his use of syntax (grammar, structure of the sentences) and imagery (or figurative language),
that is to say metaphors, similes and other rhetorical devices.
Tone can be defined as the voice filtering the style and it conveys the writer’s or the character’s attitude
toward something. Tone can be said to be neutral, tender, serious, sarcastic, light hearted, angry, distant,
formal, ironic, etc.
Irony is the use of language to express the opposite of what is actually said. Therefore, it shows an
incongruity or discrepancy creating tension between what is and what is expected, desired, or hoped for.
There are four types of irony:
- verbal irony, when what is expressed is the opposite of what the speaker says;
- situational irony, when there is a difference between appearance and reality;
- behavioural irony, occurs when a character believes reality is one way but his expectations are
frustrated;
- dramatic irony, when the reader or audience knows more than a character does.
Would you define the style of ”A Lot to Learn” above as difficult, rich in images, or plain, with a
minimal variety of structures? Do you find the tone serious, neutral or ironic? Can we talk about
frustrated expectations?
F. Focus on theme
The theme is a central idea, the concept, thought, opinion or belief that the author expresses within
his work, and it is not explained overtly, but usually presented indirectly through the elements or
strategies used. It is made up of two components:
- first, it is a generalization about the subject or issue highlighted by the story, expressed with
abstract words, like love, death, war, etc.;
- then, it includes the writer’s comment on that issue.
In our text, the theme dealt with is technology and how difficult it is to use it well. Does Kurosaka
convey his ideas about technology overtly? Consider if in the story there are:
- direct statements expressing his opinions;
- imagery and symbolism suggesting evaluation;
- a character who stands for something else (e.g. an archetype).
• If you cannot find any of the above mentioned devices, you are free to infer the author’s position
about the theme. What is your overall impression of the message hidden in the passage?
G. Focus on response
After analysing the story, you may reflect on its meaning and see how you respond to the topic
presented, to the images suggested, to the emotions aroused.
In this case, do you agree with Kurosaka that science must be used carefully? Should there be any
control on scientific experiments? How far should science go? Discuss with a partner, then with the
whole class.
• If you are not interested in reflecting on the current debates about science and technology, you may
use your imagination for a totally different type of response: if you had a Materialiser and you
were allowed three wishes, what would you wish for? Write them down, then share them with the
class so as to choose the class’s top ten.
• As a final activity, give examples or definitions of the following types of short stories below, then
say to which type A lot to learn seems to belong, giving reasons for your answer:
tall story; crime story; ghost story; science fiction story; fairy tale; myth; adventure story;
whodunnit; thriller; romantic story; joke; humorous story.
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ACTIVITY 5
Popular Mechanics
by Raymond Carver
The following short story is an example of oblique story, whose plot is minimal, compressed in time and
it offers the reader a “slice of life”. Oblique stories are also called sketches and sometimes lack a clear
solution, as in the following narrative, where a husband and a wife are arguing before their separation.
Which setting would you use as a background to the separation of a young couple? Describe both
time and place, then read the opening of the story.
Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water.
Streaks1 of it ran down from the little shoulder-high window that faced the
back yard. Cars slushed2 by on the street outside, where it was getting dark.
But it was getting dark on the inside too.
1. streaks: rivoli.
2. slushed: avanzavano a fatica.
The short, minimal description by Carver is completely objective; it seems to offer a “camera eye”
point of view. Does it correspond to your previous choice? Which small details convey a dark,
depressing atmosphere to prepare the reader for the tone of menace of the story?
He was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the
door.
I’m glad you’re leaving! I’m glad you’re leaving! she said. Do you hear?
He kept on putting his things into the suitcase.
Son of a bitch! I’m so glad you’re leaving! She began to cry. You can’t even
look at me in the face, can you?
Then she noticed the baby’s picture on the bed and picked it up.
He looked at her and she wiped her eyes and stared at him before turning and
going back to the living room.
Bring that back, he said.
Just get your things and get out, she said.
He did not answer. He fastened the suitcase, put on his coat, looked around the
bedroom before turning off the light. Then he went out to the living room.
She stood in the doorway of the little kitchen, holding the baby.
I want the baby, he said.
Are you crazy?
No, but I want the baby. I’ll get someone to come by for his things.
You’re not touching this baby, she said.
The baby had begun to cry and she uncovered the blanket from around his
head.
Oh, oh, she said, looking at the baby.
He moved toward her.
For God’s sake! she said. She took a step back into the kitchen.
I want the baby.
Get out of here!
She turned and tried to hold the baby over in a corner behind the stove.
But he came up. He reached across the stove and tightened his hands on the
baby.
Let go of him, he said.
Get away, get away! she cried.
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The parting couple is presented without any introduction; you see them as if they were two
characters already on stage. What can you infer about them from the way they interact? Does their
behaviour show any remains of feelings? Does it reveal anything about their marriage?
The baby was red-faced and screaming. In the scuffle3 they knocked down a
flowerpot that hung behind the stove.
He crowded her into the wall then, trying to break her grip. He held on to the
baby and pushed with all his weight.
Let go of him, he said.
Don’t, she said. You’re hurting the baby, she said.
I’m not hurting the baby, he said.
The kitchen window gave no light. In the near-dark he worked on her fisted
fingers with one hand and with the other hand he gripped the screaming baby
up under an arm near the shoulder.
She felt her fingers being forced open. She felt the baby going from her.
No! she screamed just as her hands came loose.
She would have it, this baby. She grabbed for the baby’s other arm. She caught
the baby around the wrist and leaned back.
But he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and he
pulled back very hard.
In this manner, the issue was decided.
3. scuffle: fight.
(from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, 1974)
Which tragic event is caused by the struggle? How do the parents react? And you?
WAY IN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sum up the passage in about 80 words.
Are the characters shown or told about?
Who is the narrator? What about his tone?
What is the theme of the story?
Comment on the style of the passage.
Explain the meaning of the title.
Explain the word “issue” in the last line. Does it sound neutral or extremely tragic?
How does the story continue? (150-200 words).
Useful words for fiction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
antagonist
character
conflict
convention(s)
diction
exposition
imagery
irony
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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motif
narrator
plot
point of view
protagonist
setting
theme(s)
tone
ACTIVITY 6
There Was Once
by Margaret Atwood
The following story is post modernist and uses tradition as a source of inspiration, to modify it and play
with the reader’s expectations. It actually seems to start as a fairy tale, but does not develop in a
traditional way. After reading it, explain why.
Would you be able to tell the class your favourite fairy tale? Before starting, be sure your tale
includes the main characters of such stories, as in the list below:
- the villain;
- the donor (provider);
- the helper;
- the princess (or sought-for person) and her father;
- the dispatcher;
- the hero or victim.
“There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her
wicked stepmother in a house in the forest.”
“Forest? Forest is passé, I mean, I’ve had it with all this wilderness stuff. It’s
not a right image of our society, today. Let’s have some urban for a change.”
“There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her
wicked1 stepmother in a house in the suburbs.”
“That’s better. But I have to seriously query2 this word poor.”
“But she was poor!”
“Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor.”
“But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the
wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace...”
“Aha! They had a fireplace! With poor, let me tell you, there’s no fireplace.
Come down to the park, come to the subway stations after dark, come down
to where they sleep in cardboard boxes, and I’ll show you poor!”
“There was once a middle-class girl, as beautiful as she was good...”
“Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don’t you? Women these
days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is,
what with those bimbos3 in the ads. Can’t you make her, well, more average?”
“There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth
stuck out, who...”
“I don’t think it’s nice to make fun of people’s appearances. Plus, you’re
encouraging anorexia.”
“I wasn’t making fun! I was just describing...”
“Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what colour she
was.”
“What colour?”
“You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I’m
telling you right now, I’ve had enough of white. Dominant culture this,
dominant culture that...”
“I don’t know what colour.”
“Well, it would probably be your colour, wouldn’t it?”
“But this isn’t about me! It’s about this girl...”
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1. wicked: evil.
2. query: question, doubt about.
3. bimbos: silly girls.
“Everything is about you.”
“Sounds to me like you don’t want to hear this story at all.”
“Oh well, go on. You could make her ethnic. That might help.”
“There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average-looking as she
was good, who lived with her wicked...”
“Another thing. Good and wicked. Don’t you think you should transcend those
puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is
conditioning, isn’t it?”
“There was once a girl, as average-looking as she was well-adjusted, who
lived with her stepmother, who was not a very open and loving person because
she herself had been abused in childhood.”
“Better. But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers… they
always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don’t you? That would
make more sense anyway, considering the bad behaviour you’re about to
describe. And throw in some whips and chains. We all know what those
twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like...”
“Hey, just a minute! I’m a middle-aged...”
“Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker4. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar5, or
whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on.”
“There was once a girl...”
“How old was she?”
“I don’t know. She was young.”
“This ends with a marriage, right?”
“Well, not to blow the plot, but-yes.”
“Then you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It’s
woman, pal. Woman.”
“There was once...”
“What’s this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now.”
“There...”
“So?”
“So, what?”
“So, why not here?”
4. Nosy Parker: you, curious.
5. stick in your oar: intervenire.
(from Good Bones, 1993)
WAY IN
1. Identify the speaker and the listener of the story.
2. Is there a traditional plot development? Why/why not?
3. Who is the character chosen as the protagonist of the story? Underline all the character’s features
suggested by the narrator in one colour, all the ones suggested by the listener in another colour. To
what extent do they differ?
4. Is the story actually told or is the work by Atwood a meditation about the impossibility to tell
traditional stories in the contemporary world?
5. Would you be able to continue it, either in pairs or individually?
STOP AND THINK
• The grid below sums up the main features of narrative texts and it can be used to analyse fiction.
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Prose
Items
Elements
Useful words
Plot
basic story line
Exposition, climax, etc.
Setting
time, place, circumstances
Exotic, familiar, remote,
contemporary
Characterisation
actors in the story (traits, motives, Flat, round, etc.
personalities, changes)
Point of view
told from whose perspective
1st/3rd person, omniscient,
non-omniscient, etc.
Tone
author’s attitude
Objective, critical, detached,
impersonal, neutral, angry,
committed, humorous, etc.
Theme
main point(s) or message
Subject matter + writer’s attitude
toward it
For more detailed activities on a text, focus on content words and their functions, by following the
hints below.
Content words
Nouns
Functions
• Concrete vs abstract/Vague vs
precise
• With positive/negative
connotations
• Long/short words
• Proper names
• Symbolic names
• To suggest a material, realistic
vision vs theoretical
• To unveil narrator’s point of
view
• To give different rhythms
• To recall individuality, precise
identity
• To link the particular to the
universal
Adjectives
• Evaluative/referential
• Appealing to senses
• To express narrator’s opinion
• To make the language concrete
and rich in images
Verbs
• Static/dynamic
• To suggest passivity/alienation
vs movement and change
Syntax
• Coordination/subordination
• Unusual order
• To give character’s personality
• To express easiness or difficulty
of understanding the world
around
• To suggest degrees of
formality/impersonality
• Active/passive
Rhetorical level
•
•
•
•
Repetitions
Similes/metaphors
Symbols/Allegory
Irony
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• To make the language rich,
varied, poetic, more refined
• To express the narrator’s
opinion or social irony
Poetry
MAIN ELEMENTS
Poetry expresses mainly what is unspeakable, our innermost emotions, by using peculiar features such
as rhythm, rhyme and shape, imagery, language and sound.
Poems are written for several purposes; the main ones are:
- to tell a story;
- to present a new picture of the world, a new perception of reality;
- to express emotions;
- to reflect on life, to educate and create a mood;
- to entertain.
A. What distinguishes poetry from prose is above all the attention paid to musicality.
The poem below by the Afro-American poetess Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) may give a precise
idea of the importance of music.
Underline with different colours:
- parallel line structure;
- internal rhymes (words rhyming inside a line, not at the end);
- repeated word sounds.
We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks
THE POOL PLAYERS,
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL1.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
5
Lurk2 late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
10
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
1. Golden Shovel: nightclub.
2. lurk: restiamo in agguato, svegli.
(from The Bean Eaters, 1960)
The general sound effect gives the poem a regular but intense rhythm in a short space, which seems to
express a carefree attitude on the part of the speaker, but the last line, with no repetitions, no internal
rhymes, surprises the reader for its sudden change of tone. Explain why.
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B. The second important element of poetry is imagery, i.e. the way to suggest reality and emotion
through images. They may be classified into types according to the sensory impression they are
related with. We may have visual images, connected with sight; auditory images, appealing to
hearing; olfactory images, from smell; gustatory images, referring to taste; tactile images, referring
to touch; and kinesthetic images, suggesting movement.
The following two-line poem by the American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) is an apparently simple
example of emotions suggested through visual imagery. The poet juxtaposes what he saw in a Paris
subway station, rather dark and badly lit, with elements from nature.
In a Station of the Metro
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
(written in 1913, now in Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose,
Contribution to Periodicals, 1991)
WAY IN
1. What are the faces of the people he met compared with? Is the comparison explicit? What does the
poet’s choice suggest? (think of colour, texture, delicacy, beauty, etc.)
2. If the petals stand for the faces in the metro, what does the wet, black bough stand for?
3. What about the effect of such a concise poem on the reader: does it make the compressed image
and the emotion more or less memorable?
Also the following poems by contemporary poets show reality through images. This time the images are
made more precious by the use of metaphors and similes. To understand the way poets turn the world
into a personal vision, first read both poems, then give them their right title, choosing between The Sea
and A Simile.
................
................
by James Reeves
by N. Scott Momaday
5
The sea is a hungry dog.
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
Hour up on hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And ’Bones, bones, bones, bones!’
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.
What did we say to each other
that now we are as the deer
who walk in single file
with heads high
with ears forward
with eyes watchful
with hooves always placed on firm ground
in whose limbs there is latent flight.
(from Complete Poems for Children, 2002)
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(from The Gourd Dancer, 1976)
As a second step, explain the metaphor in the first abstract by using the following graph:
1. Tenor = what the poet is
talking about
The sea
3. Common ground
What tenor and common
ground have in common
………………………………….
2. Vehicle = the images chosen
to refer to the tenor
A hungry dog
The same chart may be used also to explain the simile.
Tenor = what the poet
is talking about
Common ground
What tenor and common
ground have in common
Lovers at the end of a love affair
………………………………….
Vehicle = the images chosen to
refer to the tenor
………………………………….
Personifications are another common way to describe the world as if it were alive.
Read the composition below by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and
underline all the words and phrases that turn the moon into a person: does it become a man or
a woman?
To The Moon
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
5
Art thou1 pale for weariness
Of climbing Heaven, and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,—
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?
1. art thou: (arch.) “are you”.
(from The Complete Works, 1969)
C. The use of language and sound is the other important element in poetry.
In the following composition by Vernon Scannell (1922-) the language is a bit more complex, since
it pivots on an extended metaphor. The poem is a dramatic one, whose protagonist is a child.
Before reading, define the meaning of the title, then prepare a list of all the words you expect to
find in a poem dealing with an incendiary, like flame, match, etc.
24
Incendiary
by Vernon Scannell
5
10
15
That one small boy with a face like pallid cheese
And burnt-out little eyes could make a blaze1
As brazen2, fierce and huge, as red and gold
And zany3 yellow as the one that spoiled
Three thousand guineas worth of property
And crops at Godwin’s Farm on Sunday
Is frightening – as fact and metaphor:
An ordinary match intended for
The lighting of a pipe or kitchen fire
Misused may set a whole menagerie4
Of flame-fanged5 tigers roaring hungrily.
And frightening, too, that one small boy should set
The sky on fire and choke the stars to heat
Such skinny limbs and such a little heart
Which would have been content with one warm kiss
Had there been anyone to offer this.
(from Collected Poems, 1993)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
blaze: fiammata.
brazen: color ottone
zany: almost.
menagerie: serraglio.
flame-fanged: dalle zanne fiammanti.
WAY IN
1. Who is the incendiary of the title? What has he done? How is he referred to? Why has he got no
name?
2. Who is the speaker? What is his mood? Why does he use the word frightening twice?
3. The poem revolves around two main images: the boy and the fire. Circle the words belonging to
each field.
4. What is your opinion about the boy? How has the poet conveyed it by means of tone and
characterisation?
5. The poem seems to die out like an extinguishing fire brought under control, with the rhyming sound
kiss/this. Is it an onomatopoeic sound? Why is this the only rhyme, while the others are only half
rhymes?
UP TO YOU
The American poetess Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) wrote two short lyrics about poppies, described
in two different months of the year. Read both poems, find the central metaphor in both, analyse
each metaphor in terms of tenor, vehicle, common ground. Then, check if they are supported by
words belonging to the same semantic field.
25
Poppies in July
Poppies in October
by Sylvia Plath
by Sylvia Plath
5
10
15
Little poppies, little hell flames,
Do you do no harm?
You flicker. I cannot touch you.
I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns.
And it exhausts me to watch you
Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like
the skin of a mouth.
A mouth just bloodied.
Little bloody skirts!
There are fumes that I cannot touch.
Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules?
If I could bleed, or sleep!
If my mouth could marry a hurt like that!
Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule,
Dulling and stilling.
But colorless. Colorless.
Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage
such skirts.
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so
astoundingly
(from Ariel Poems, 1962)
(from Ariel Poems, 1962)
A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky
Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers.
O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.
Explain the following image by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), in which the fog is turned into an animal.
He wants to tell the reader
He shows the reader
It was foggy.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
(from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, 1917).
D. Main types
There are three main types of poetry:
- narrative: the poet tells a story. It is an objective type of poetry; ballads for example are a narrative
form as well as epic poems and medieval romances. Narrative poetry unfolds and progresses like a
story.
- lyric: it is highly subjective since it mainly deals with the speaker’s personal emotions, moods, feelings,
ideas, and reflections. Lyric poetry can encompass many other forms of poetry, like the sonnet, the
ode and the elegy. It focuses on insight, it is a flash in a timeless present;
- dramatic: the poet tells a story objectively, but embodies emotional experiences in the characters and
relates the story in their words by means of dialogue. Dramatic poetry is basically happening now.
26
An example of narrative poetry is the ballad Proud Maisie by Walter Scott.
• Ballads were originally anonymous popular songs to be danced. They usually told a story starting in
medias res (not from the beginning, but from a point in the story), had a limited number of characters,
were full of repetitions, so that it was easy to learn them by heart, and were often told in the form of
dialogue. In the Romantic Age, many poets revived the genre, including Walter Scott (1771-1832),
the famous historical novelist. However, Romantic ballads are defined literary ballads, since they are
written imitating the medieval form, but they are composed to be read and insist more on feelings
than on events.
Check whether you find all the above mentioned features in the poem below, in which a robin
gives a girl precious advice. The ballad is sung by the madwoman Madge Wildfire on her
deathbed in chapter XL of The Heart of Midlothian (1818).
Proud Maisie
by Walter Scott
5
10
15
Proud Maisie is in the wood,
Walking so early;
Sweet Robin sits on the bush,
Singing so rarely.
“Tell me, thou bonny bird1,
When shall I marry me?”
“When six braw2 gentlemen
Kirkward shall carry ye3.”
“Who makes the bridal bed,
Birdie, say truly?”
“The grey-headed sexton4
That delves the grave duly.
“The glow-worm o’er grave and stone
Shall light thee steady.
The owl from the steeple sing,
“Welcome, proud lady.”
(from The Heart of Midlothian, 1818)
1. thou bonny bird: you, beautiful bird.
2. braw: brave.
3. kirkward shall carry ye: shall
carry you to church (dead);
“kirk” is Scottish for church.
4. sexton: gravedigger, becchino.
WAY IN
1. Who are the characters in the ballad?
2. Besides the speaking bird, what else gives a magic dimension to the poem?
3. Sum up the plot of the ballad: do we know why Maisie is proud? Is it clear that she is about to die
or is it only suggested? Which words refer to death?
• A well-known lyrical poem is the following sonnet by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Sonnets are a
refined fixed form, brought to fame by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), adopted in England in the
Renaissance in a slightly different adaptation. A comparison between the Italian and the English form
may simplify their features.
27
Italian sonnet
English sonnet
Form
octave + sestet
3 quatrains + 1 couplet
Basic rhyme scheme
abba abba cdecde
abab cdcd efef gg
Logical structure
octave: presents the issue;
sestet: develops it to the conclusion.
3 quatrains: present and develop the
argument;
final couplet: concludes, comments,
sums up, criticises.
The composition below deals with the importance of memory. Do you think remembering is
important? On which occasions?
Remember
by Christina Rossetti
5
10
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve1:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
(from Goblin Market and Other Poems, 1862)
1. do not grieve: non affliggerti.
WAY IN
1. What is the poem about exactly? What is the poet worried about?
2. Underline the pairs of opposites: what effect do they have? Are there any repetitions: what is their
purpose?
3. Look at the rhyming scheme of Remember: what effect does it have?
4. Identify the enjambements: what effect do they have? Could they suggest continuity between two
worlds? Which ones?
5. Focus on the conclusion: if the whole poem is an appeal not to forget, why does Rossetti conclude
with a contrasting remark?
Another lyrical poem is reported below, this time a contemporary lyric by the Afro-American poetess
Nikki Giovanni (1943-). It is about the strange effects of love.
28
I Wrote a Good Omelet
by Nikki Giovanni
I wrote a good omelet... and ate a hot poem...
after loving you
5
Buttoned my car.. and drove my coat home... in the
rain...
after loving you
I goed1 on red... and stopped on green.... floating
somewhere in between...
being here and being there...
after loving you
10
15
I rolled my bed... turned down my hair...slightly
confused but... I don’t care...
Laid out my teeth... and gargled2 my gown... then I stood
... and laid me down...
to sleep...
after loving you
1. goed: irregular form for “went”.
2. gargled: mi sono gargarizzata.
(from Selected Poems, 1996)
WAY IN
1. All the images in the poem show a world turned upside down by the power of a new love. Underline
all the unusual combinations of verb and object you find.
2. Daily life continues in spite of emotions, but it becomes crazy, full of jumbled clichés. Do you think it
may happen to someone in love? Is the poem too paradoxical in your opinion? Why?
• An example of dramatic poetry is The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a dramatic or interior
monologue in free verse (even if occasional rhymes may be found for special reasons) written by T.
S. Eliot in 1910 and published in 1917. It is dramatic since there is dramatisation, a dialogue in
which the speaker converses with an addressee. The external events in the poem are not important
but for their triggering off mental activities, thoughts and feelings in the speaker, that is why it may
be called interior monologue.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by T. S. Eliot
5
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
29
10
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
(from Prufrock and Other Observations, 1917)
WAY IN
1. Which technique is used in the first three lines? What is the effect of this technique on the reader?
2. What is unusual about the simile in line three? Is there another strange simile?
3. Consider the whole stanza. Underline all the information relevant to the time and place. Which
atmosphere is created? Choose among the following hints:
- solitude
- romantic atmosphere
- dullness
- shocking setting
- squalor
- magic
- sordid environment
- violence
UP TO YOU
To what extent do the following poems respect or defy conventions? Use the grid provided at the
end of the section to check all their relevant features. Are they narrative, lyrical or dramatic?
a) dying is fine)but Death...
b) in time of daffodils...
by e. e. cummings
by e. e. cummings
dying is fine)but Death
in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why, remember how
?o
baby
i
5
10
5
wouldn’t like
in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream,
remember so (forgetting seem)
Death if Death
were
good: for
in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if, remember yes
when(instead of stopping to think)you
in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek (forgetting find)
10
begin to feel of it,dying
’s miraculous
why?be
and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me, remember me
cause dying is
(from Complete Poems, 1991)
15
perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but
30
Death
is strictly
scientific
& artificial &
20
evil & legal)
we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death
25
(from Complete Poems, 1991)
d) The Sonnet-Ballad
c) l(a...
by Gwendolyn Brooks
by e. e. cummings
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
5
5
one
l
iness
10
(from Complete Poems, 1991)
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover’s tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won’t be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate — and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes”.
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
(from Annie Allen, 1949)
STOP AND THINK
To analyse a poem in details, you may follow the hints below.
Operational steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Read the poem aloud twice, then paraphrase it.
Identify the speaker (narrator). Identify the occasion for the poem and the setting.
Identify the tone (angry, sad, humorous, serious, ironic, formal, informal, etc.). Identify words that reveal this tone.
List connotative words. Look for words that have unusual or special meanings. Look for repeated words. Figure
out why they are repeated. Look up any unfamiliar words.
Locate images the poet uses. Note the relationship between images. Notice if all the images form a unified pattern
(a motif). Notice figures of speech and how they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem. Locate symbols
and determine their meanings. Decide whether the symbols are universal or limited to the current context.
State the theme of the poem in a single sentence.
Notice the sound effects (rhyme and rhythm as well as vowel, consonant, semivowel, aspirate, liquid and mute
sounds) and how they affect tone and meaning.
Notice the form (rhyme scheme and line arrangement) and how it affects the poem.
31
In short, remember you always have to take into consideration the following items:
Items
Useful words
Subject matter
Purpose, theme, message
Emotion,
Mood, feeling
Love, hatred, war, etc.
Subject matter + writers’ attitude
Tenderness, sorrow, despair, happiness, etc.
Serious, joyful, etc.
Form and structure
Language
The words chosen are formal, informal, concrete, abstract, etc.
Denotation, connotation
Imagery = all the figures
of speech and rhetorical
devices used
(constellations)
Simile: a comparison which uses like or as in it.
Metaphor: an implied comparison between objects of unlike classes.
Instead of saying a thing is like another, it states one thing is another.
Metonymy: describing an object through something closely associated with it.
Synecdoche: using a part for the whole, the whole for a part.
Personification: Attributing to objects qualities of life, especially human
characteristics.
Apostrophe: Addressing an object as if alive, or addressing a dead or absent
person directly.
Movement, rhythm
layout, stanzas
Stanza: group of lines arranged as a melodic unit according to a definite pattern.
Couplet: shortest form of stanza; consists of two lines rhyming aa.
Tercet: stanza of three lines.
Quatrain: four lines.
Quintrain: five lines.
Sestet: six lines.
Septem: seven lines.
Octave: eight lines.
Sounds
The sense of words may be stressed with sounds:
- frictives (k, f, s, z, th, sh): conflict or else quietness;
- plosives (p, b) fun or action;
- liquid (l, r): pleasant feelings;
- dentals (t, d) harsh or rushed effect;
- short vowels: move quickly;
- long vowels, diphthongs: move slowly.
Alliteration: the repetition of initial letters or consonant sounds in neighbouring words.
Assonance: the agreement of vowel sounds in words while the consonant
sounds differ.
Consonance: the agreement of final consonant sounds when the vowel sounds
differ.
Onomatopoeia: the use of words in which the sound suggests the sense
(buzz-hiss-clang-splash-murmur).
Rhyme
1. End Rhyme
2. Internal Rhyme.
The rhyme serves three functions: it is a melodic unit; it emphasizes rhyming
words; it serves to group the lines into stanzas.
Verse
Free Verse: no rhyme and irregular meter
Blank Verse: no rhyme and lines of iambic pentameter
Basic Units:
Iambic: a 2-syllable foot with accent on 2nd syllable
Trochaic: a 2-syllable foot with accent on 1st syllable
Pentameter: five feet
Metre
Refrain: the repetition of a word phrase, or line.
Caesura: a pause in the middle of a line of poetry.
32
Drama
Drama is a Greek word, since the Greek were the first Europeans to stage religious performances with
the aim of collective purification. Today, when we think of drama, we associate this word with “play”
(opera teatrale).
What is a play, then? A work written by a playwright to be performed on a stage. The dramatic text is
made up of a series of characters performing a sequence of actions that usually develop into a climax
or a final resolution. As any written text, its addressee may be any reader. The development of the play
is mainly based on the dialogues among the characters, while the description of the setting is contained
in the stage directions along with hints at sounds, tones, actions. The latter are essential parts of the
performance, whose addressee is the audience at large. Instead of the chapters, like in a novel, the play
is divided into Acts and Scenes.
All the elements of a play have a particular function which is summarised in the following way.
Stage directions
Aim to:
- give information on the time and the place of the actions;
- may give information on the characters, their physical appearance, their feelings,
their personality, their actions;
- suggest the playwright’s comments, thoughts;
- define the atmosphere of the scene.
Plot
Like in a novel, there is a beginning, a development and a climax. It is given by the
arrangement of the different situations and the dialogue itself.
Dialogue
Aims to:
- build up the plot and the characters’ personality;
- inform about what is happening, what happened in the past, and raise expectations
as to future developments;
- reveal aspects of a character’s personality or a commentary on other
characters/events (soliloquy; aside, i.e. a short soliloquy);
- reveal the thoughts of a character about someone else.
Characters
There are two main types of characters:
- stock characters that never change during the play (typical of comedies);
- round characters that reveal their vices and virtues through the play (typical of
tragedies).
A further classification is between the protagonist (the hero) and the antagonist
(society, nature, the villain, the hero himself…) and their conflict leads to the tragic
action.
A play may be either a tragedy (a serious work with a tragic end) or a comedy (an entertaining work
with a happy ending).
If the basic elements of a written play are similar to a novel, what distinguishes the two genres?
Look at the table below and draw some conclusions.
33
The main differences between the novel and drama consist of….
Novel
Play
A number of characters.
A limited number of characters, but mainly presented through
dialogue and actions performed on the stage.
A detailed setting.
The same but either shown or created through dialogue and
stage directions.
A plot
Plot evolving through dialogue, actions and stage directions.
Mode (Descriptions, narration and
dialogue).
Dialogue and stage directions.
We are now going to analyse some extracts in order to discover the main characteristics of a dramatic work
by putting into practice what has been stated so far about “drama”.
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
This is an extract taken from Macbeth, one of the most famous Shakespearean plays, which acts as a
prologue to the whole action of the tragedy. The play opens with this scene showing three witches
speaking mysterious words in a setting that foreshadows impending disorder.
If you were a director, who would you choose to play the part of three witches? Where would
they meet? What would they do together? Set the scene in pairs before reading.
Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair
(Act I, Scene 1)
An open place.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches]
5
10
First Witch: When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch: When the hurlyburly’s done1,
When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch: That will be ere2 the set of sun.
First Witch: Where the place?
Second Witch: Upon the heath3.
Third Witch: There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch: I come, Graymalkin4!
Second Witch: Paddock5 calls.
Third Witch: Anon6.
All: Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
1. hurlyburly’s done: baraonda è
stata fatta.
2. ere: before.
3. heath: brughiera.
4. Graymalkin: è un gatto.
5. Paddock: rospo.
6. anon: subito.
[Exeunt]
34
WAY IN
1. Where are the three witches? What is the weather like? They are talking about a future meeting:
where? What will the weather be like? Which atmosphere do all the words connected to the setting
suggest?
2. Focus on the witches: what sort of words do they use? What is their function?
3. Focus on line 10 (fair is foul...). Is the chiasmus you find here a meaningful image to suggest
confusion? Is there any other line which is as enigmatic as this one?
WAY OUT
a. Imagine what these three witches are like and be prepared to describe them orally. (1-minute talk)
b. Imagine a modern witch. Describe and/or draw her. Also say what she does and report her
particular words, if she has any.
c. Perform the scene in groups of three in a corner of your classroom to add a halo of mystery.
Come and Go
by Samuel Beckett
The Irish playwright Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) seems to recall the episode above at the beginning of
the short play Come and Go (1965). Read the abstract below and compare:
- setting;
- characters;
- actions;
- words and silences.
Three Women
(Act I, Scene 1)
Characters: FLO, VI and RU (age indeterminable).
Sitting centre side by side stage right to left FLO, VI and RU. Very erect, facing front, hands clasped in laps.
Silence.
Vi: When did we three last meet?
Ru: Let us not speak.
Silence. Exit VI right. Silence.
5
Flo: Ru.
Ru: Yes.
Flo: What do you think of Vi?
Ru: I see little change. [FLO moves to centre seat, whispers in RU’s ear. Appalled] Oh! [They look at
each other. FLO puts her finger to her lips] Does she not realize?
Flo: God grant not.
Enter VI. FLO and RU turn back front, resume pose. VI sits right. Silence.
10
Flo: Just sit together as we used to, in the playground at Miss Wade’s.
Ru: On the log.
Silence. Exit FLO left. Silence.
35
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
This is another example of Elizabethan plays, taken from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). It is the story of Faustus, a man who dares go beyond human limits
by means of a pact with the Devil: he sells his soul to him in return for total knowledge. The following
extract shows the very end of the play, when the devil comes back to ask for his soul. A mixture of
medieval and Renaissance elements can be found here, in the conception of the world as well as in the
stage effects, with trap-doors from which devils and other ghosts appear on the scene. The play makes
use of many scenic devices to increase tension.
Think of the following wishes: full knowledge, absolute political power, absolute economic power,
perfect love. Choose one and explain what you would do to make it come true, then read the
following monologue.
The Last Hour
(Act V, Scene 2, ll. 174-201)
The watch strikes
5
10
15
20
25
30
Faustus: Ah, half the hour is past!
’Twill all be past anon1!
O God! If thou wilt2 not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ’s sake whose blood hath ransomed3 me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain.
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved!
Oh, no end is limited to damned souls!
Why wert thou4 not a creature wanting soul5?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast6?
Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosis7! Were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be changed
Unto some brutish beast!
All beasts are happy, for when they die
Their souls are soon dissolved in elements;
But mine must live, still to be plagued in hell.
Cursed8 be the parents that engendered9 me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer,
That hath deprived thee10 of the joys of Heaven.
The clock strikes twelve.
O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell.
Thunder and lightning.
O soul, be changed into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, never be found.
Thunder. Enter DEVILS.
My God! My God! Look not so fierce on me!
Adders11 and serpents, let me breathe awhile!
Ugly hell, gape not12! Come not, Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books! - Ah Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt with him]
36
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
10.
11.
12.
anon: subito.
thou wilt: you will.
hath ransomed: ha riscat-tato.
wert thou: were you.
wanting soul: without a soul.
hast: has.
Pythagora’s metempsychosis: theory according to which
after death the souls transmigrate from one body to
another.
cursed: maledetti.
engendered: crearono.
thee: you.
adders: small poisonous snake.
gape not: non aprirti.
WAY IN
1. Faustus is alone on stage and starts speaking to himself, giving vent to his inmost feelings, through
invocations, threats, rhetorical questions. Find out what he wishes.
2. Which feeling is expressed here? Despair, happiness, sadness, fear? Justify your choice by referring
to the text.
3. During the whole play Faustus has been an overreacher, aspiring to unorthodoxical knowledge, that
is, he wants to know more than what is contained in traditional books. Do you think this is the attitude
also in this scene or has he undergone a change? Give reasons for your choice.
4. The psychological climax is built up through:
- increasingly short, broken sentences;
- short, monosyllabic words;
- repetitions of words and concepts;
- various types of exclamations.
Find examples of each from the text.
5. There is also a stage device that contributes to the increase of tension and despair. Which one?
6. After collecting all the previous information, invent a graph of the development of the tension. Be
prepared to justify it.
WAY OUT
a. Describe what Faustus looks like (50 words).
b. Describe what a devil looks like (50 words).
c. Find a painting which, in your opinion, represents the figure of Faustus. Then, show it to the class
and justify your choice.
d. If you were a director, which props would you put on stage for the performance of the scene? What
about the acting? How would you ask the actors to act? Emphatically or not? Give reasons for your
choices.
After Juliet
by Sharman Macdonald
Do you know the story of Romeo and Juliet? Tell your partner. If you could continue it, what would
you write? Where would you set the story? Share your ideas with your classmates and then read
what a contemporary writer worked out.
The following stage directions are taken from Sharman Macdonald’s play After Juliet, a sort of dramatic
sequel to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The playwright imagines the development of the story after
the death of Romeo and Juliet, the famous lovers from Verona.
Macdonald has taken some characters from the Shakespearean play: Rosaline Capulet, Juliet’s cousin,
who is the girl Romeo loved unsuccessfully before meeting Juliet; Benvolio, Romeo’s best friend; Friar
Lawrence and the Nurse.
She has added some invented ones, like Rhona Capulet, a visitor from Glasgow; Bianca, Rosaline’s half
sister; and the Drummer, that is ever present but non-partisan, a sort of puppeteer.
This post–modernist work is a series of sequences showing fragments in the lives of the protagonists
(mainly Rosaline and Benvolio) who live in a city that could be “Edinburgh, Dublin, New York,
Liverpool”, as the author states. We learn that Rosaline was in love with Romeo, but Juliet took him away
from her. Therefore, she finds no peace after Romeo’s death and she is not interested in Benvolio’s love
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for her. In the play, the only culprit of the whole story is the apothecary, who is eventually hanged, while
the Friar will become a hermit and the Nurse will be banished for ever. The feud, though, begins anew
at the end of the play as in a vicious circle where nothing changes through time.
Read the stage directions from the beginning of the play and answer the questions below.
The Background
Silence.
The drummer alone.
Stands.
Moves.
Drums. Rolling soft and long.
Rosaline’s idly throwing dice. Again and again ond again.
The drummer click click clicks. Benvolio edges into the sunshine. Gazes up at
Rosaline ’s balcony.
[...]
The drummer click, click, clicks and points at Rosaline. Recorded words. An
announcement. Coming from afar.
Coming close. Moving on. Moving away.
He lets her go. Ostentatiously spits on his hands and wipes them on his tunic.
This could be Verona.
Or it could be Edinburgh, Dublin, New York or Liverpool.
Narrow alleys. High buildings almost touching at the top. A strip of blue sky
shading into cloud far away. Heat. The sudden space of a piazza.
The boys slide away. Melt.
Rosaline runs.
The girls on balconies. Like a thought murmuring.
WAY IN
1. Do the stage directions offer any information on:
- the setting,
- the sounds,
- the characters’ movements
- the characters’ actions
- the background of the story
- the author’s comments
- the development of the story?
2. Is the use of language poetic, realistic, colloquial? Is the style formal or informal?
3. Draw some conclusions about the function of these stage directions.
Now read the beginning of the play, where Rosaline espresses her opinions. Before starting,
make a list of the main qualities of a good husband/partner.
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Marry Money
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Livia: He’s looking at you.
Rosaline: Let him.
Livia: Romeo’s dead, Rosaline
And didn’t even think of you.
Forgot you as soon as he saw Juliet.
Rosaline: I can’t turn my love off like a tap1.
Livia: Forget Romeo.
He didn’t know you loved him.
You wouldn’t speak to him.
You sent his letters back;
Left his flowers without water to die
And his poems in the rain.
In what land do you call that love?
Rosaline: I wanted him to see
I wasn’t so easily won.
He was a Montague after all.
“Never trust a Montague”
I sucked that in with mother’s milk.
Livia: Your mother!
Rosaline: My mother loved my father
When your mother came along
And my father treated my mother with scorn2
And traded her in for3
A somewhat younger woman.
Don’t talk to me about caution with men.
I learnt from observation
That what’s most hard come by is most valued.
Livia: If I were a man I’d look for a woman to keep me
If I were that way inclined
Or a man if no woman could be found.
There’s no intrinsic honour in work
Only stress sweat and labour.
Whatever the gender.
Not to do it
That’s what I’m after.
Marry. Marry money, Rosaline.
Hire a cook for the kitchen
A nanny for the children
And unless he’s very talented in that direction
Hire a mistress for the bedroom.
Time would never hang heavy on my hands.
For I can live quite happily with my female friends.
WAY IN
1. Who is on the stage? What are they doing?
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1. tap: rubinetto.
2. scorn: disprezzo.
3. traded her in for: he left her
for.
2. What does the dialogue tell us about:
- Rosaline;
- Livia;
- their families;
- Romeo?
3. Does the dialogue give us information about the past of the action? About the future? About the
present?
WAY OUT
a. Continue the dialogue yourself.
b. How would you prepare the scene for this passage? Imagine it and describe it to your classmates.
c. Add your own stage directions to the passage above (at least four).
News from Afar
The announcement below comes from off stage: it is a message giving the audience additional
information about the situation. It combines the comment by a classical chorus with the reports of
contemporary news.
The drummer click, click, clicks and points at Rosaline. Recorded words. An
announcement. Coming from afar.
Coming close. Moving on. Moving away.
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(Voice off stage) “Both households straight are charged on payne of losing lyfe1
Theyr bloudy weapons to lay aside; to cease the styrred stryfe2.
The wiser sort Prince Escalus calls to councell streyt3
That a trial may be held in front of the populace
And justice meted out4 to those elders of this place
Judged to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Angelica the nurse stands accused
The servant Peter.
1. are charged… life: soffrono
per le vite sprecate.
Fryr Lawrence.
2. styrred stryfe: lotta insensata.
The apothecary of Mantua.
3. calls to councell streyt: riuniBoth households straight are charged on payne of losing lyfe
sce il consiglio immediatamente.
Theyr bloudy weapons to lay aside; to cease the styrred stryfe”.
Rosaline climbs down and moves swiftly through the piazza.
WAY IN
1. Sum up what is happening after the death of Romeo and Juliet.
2. What is the tone of the announcement?
3. Is the language modern or old fashioned? Give reasons for your choice.
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4. justice meted out: sia fatta
giustizia.
WAY OUT
a. Pretend you are a TV reporter. Simplify the announcement for a contemporary audience.
Your Spirit Haunts Me, Juliet!
In this passage Rosaline gives vent to her feelings towards Juliet and Romeo. She thinks she is alone on
stage and she notices neither Benvolio, whose love for her is unreciprocated, nor Valentine, who also
loves her. They hide themselves in the shadows while she is speaking.
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Rosaline: We were hardly close1 as cousins.
You were too small, too pretty, too rich,
Too thin and too much loved for me to cope with2.
“Spoilt3” is the word that springs to mind
Though I don’t want to speak ill of the dead.
She touches the stamen of the lily. Yellow nicotine pollen stains her
fingers. She rubs it in4.
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All a flower does is wither5
It’s the memories that stay for ever:
So they tell me.
So what do I recall of you?
Juliet, daddy’s princess, rich,
Mummy’s darling, quite a bitch.
You scratched my face once,
From here to here;
I have the scar6. I have it yet.
You can see it quite clearly in the sunlight;
A silver line.
You wanted my favourite doll.
And of course you got it.
For though I was scarred, you cried.
And your nurse swooped down7
And took the moppet8 from me.
Spanked me hard9 for making you unhappy.
Gave my doll to you, her dearest baby.
Later you stole my best friend;
Wooed her with whispers;
Told her gossip’s secrets;
Gave her trinkets, sweetmeats10.
Later still, you took my love
And didn’t know you’d done it;
Then having taken him
You let him die.
If you’d swallowed11 the friar’s potion earlier
You would have wakened.
And my love would be alive.
None of this would have happened.
I know you, Juliet. You hesitated, frightened.
Didn’t take the stuff until the dawn.
1. hardly close: non molto unite, non ci assomigliavamo.
2. cope with: perché io potessi
competere con te.
3. spoilt: viziata.
4. rubs it in: si sfrega (il polline
sulle dita).
5. wither: appassire.
6. scar: cicatrice.
7. swooped down: è piombata su
di me.
8. moppet: bambola.
9. spanked me hard: mi ha sculacciato.
10. trinkets, sweetmeats: gingilli, dolcetti.
11. swallowed: ingoiato, bevuto immediatamente.
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Wakened too late in the tomb.
In the night I dream of Romeo.
He’s reaching his arms out12 from the vault.
The poison has him in its hold.
He fills my nights with his longing for life.
Until I am afraid to go to sleep.
For though I love him still
I cannot soothe his pain13.
If I could, I would
But it is not me he’s reaching for. So why, Juliet,
Should I spend my cash
On flowers for you?
Are you a saint
Simply because you were daft14 enough
To die for love?
Love?
A passing fancy,
No more nor less.
Tomorrow or tomorrow or tomorrow
You would have tired of him15.
Like your fancy for the doll;
Once possessed, you left it in the rain;
Yesterday’s fancy, mud in its hair,
Damp stained16 the dress I’d made for her.
They think you brave to have taken your life
But you believed in immortality.
Daddy’s princess could not die.
She would be there at her own funeral
To watch the tears flow
And hear her praises sung. So you haunt me.
12. reaching his arms out: allungando le braccia.
13. soothe his pain: alleviare il suo
dolore.
14. daft: scema.
15. would have tired of him: ti
saresti stancata di lui.
16. damp stained: macchiato.
WAY IN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Who speaks? Who to?
Is anybody listening to her?
What does she speak about?
What do we learn about Juliet? And about Romeo?
What do we learn about the relationship between the two girls?
Which feelings are expressed in the soliloquy?
Is Rosaline a stock or a round character? Why?
To sum up, the soliloquy offers an insight into Rosaline’s mind because she speaks as if she were alone
on the scene, opening her heart, thinking aloud. In addition to this, her words hint at various steps in
the plot.
WAY OUT
a. Write a similar soliloquy on one of the following topics:
- my brother/sister;
- my real friend;
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- my former girl/boy friend;
- a really difficult issue.
b. Are the main characters presented by someone external like the narrator or do they present
themselves through their actions and words? Draw some conclusions about the function of dialogues
and soliloquies in drama. Include the following words: psychological insight; setting; feelings;
opinions; plot (summary-anticipation-commentary); audience involvement (oral or written task).
c. Invent a soliloquy of 100 words to introduce yourself as:
- the model student;
- the model teacher;
- the model parent.
Be prepared to play one of these roles.
Act Without Words 1
by Samuel Beckett
This play by Samuel Beckett was first written in French in 1956 . As the subtitle suggests (A Mime for
One Player), it shows a character that mimes, i.e. that acts on the scene without uttering a single word.
It shows the essence of theatre but it also conveys an anguishing message on the condition of modern
man on earth.
What do you expect to find in the text of a play without words?
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Desert. Dazzling light.
The man is flung backwards on stage from right wing. He falls, gets up
immediately, dusts himself, turns aside, reflects.
Whistle from right wing.
He reflects, goes out right.
Immediately flung back on stage he falls, gets up immediately, dusts himself,
turns aside, reflects.
Whistle from left wing.
He reflects, goes out left.
Immediately flung back on stage he falls, gets up immediately, dusts himself,
turns aside, reflects.
A little tree descends from flies, lands. It has a single bough some three yards
from ground and at its summit a meagre tuft of palms casting at its foot a
circle of shadow.
He continues to reflect.
Whistle from above.
He turns and sees tree, reflects, goes to it, sits down in its shadow, looks at his
hands.
A pair of tailor’s scissors descends from flies, comes to rest before tree, a yard
from ground.
He continues to look at his hands.
Whistle from above.
He looks up, sees scissors, takes them and starts to trim his nails.
The palms close like a parasol, the shadow disappears.
He drops scissors, reflects.
A tiny carafe, to which is attached a huge label inscribed WATER, descends
from flies, comes to rest some three yards from ground.
He continues to reflect.
Whistle from above.
He looks up, sees carafe, reflects, gets up, goes and stands under it, tries in
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vain to reach it, renounces, turns aside, reflects.
A big cube descends from flies, lands.
He continues to reflect.
Whistle from above.
He turns, sees cube, looks at it, at carafe, reflects, goes to cube, takes it
up, carries it over and sets it down under carafe, tests its stability, gets up
on it, tries in vain to reach carafe, renounces, gets down, carries cube
back to its place, turns aside, reflects.
(from Collected Shorter Plays, 1984)
WAY IN
1. The main elements of the play are:
- the description of the setting;
- the actions performed;
- some sounds;
- the appearance on the scene of some objects (props).
Find out which parts describe the setting, which ones describe the actions and which are devoted to
the objects. Then, work out the plot in your own words.
2. What is the meaning of the repeated actions? Do they aim at showing that life is useless, life is a
routine, life is absurd or other?
3. Which elements typical of a play are NOT employed here?
WAY OUT
a. Write the stage directions for a play to describe one of the following:
- your favourite/least favourite lesson;
- an oral test.
STOP AND THINK
This is a grid that you can employ when reading any play.
Drama
Items
Elements
Useful words
Plot
Basic storyline
beginning, development, climax
Setting
Time, place, scenery, props
nouns and adjectives for location
Characters
Actors in the story
traits, motives, personalities, changes
given through dialogues
Stage directions
Additional information, hints at the tone of adverbs, verbs of motion, deictics
voice, actions of the actors moving on the
stage.
Theme
Main point(s) or message
Subject matter + writers’ attitude
Non-textual elements
Sounds, lights, scenery
Dim, muffled, bright, loud, etc.
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