Contents
Character map
2
Introduction
3
Tips for writing essays
12
Essay 1: ‘Neither Keller nor Paul are wholly admirable characters.’
Do you agree?
14
Essay 2: ‘First impressions? Misleading of course. As always.’
How far is this quote true of the characters in Maestro?
19
Essay 3: ‘Maestro illustrates the impossibility of escaping the past.’
To what extent do you agree?
24
Essay 4: ‘Maestro’s protagonists are too deeply flawed to be
sympathetic.’ Discuss.
29
Essay 5: ‘All of the characters in Maestro experience loneliness
and displacement.’ Discuss.
33
Essay 6: ‘The reader, in the end, sees Paul and Keller both as egotists
and as equally unattractive characters.’ Do you agree?
38
Essay 7: ‘Keller was bad for me, the worst possible teacher: revealing
perfection to me, and at the same time snatching it away.’
Is Paul’s assessment of Keller correct?
43
Essay 8: ‘Paul’s rite of passage from childhood through adolescence to
maturity is dominated by the influence of Eduard Keller.’ Discuss.
48
Essay 9: ‘Keller advises Paul: “Don’t trust the beautiful”.’
In what ways does Maestro show that appearances cannot
always be relied upon?
53
Essay 10:‘What Keller could not teach Paul might have been what Paul
most needed to learn.’ Discuss.
57
Practice topics
62
© Insight Publications 2010
Sample essays on texts
Character map
John & Nancy
Crabbe
Scotty Mitchell
Jimmy Papas,
Reggie Lim
Paul’s parents; good
amateur musicians;
support Paul’s music
studies and ambitions.
Rick Whitely
Initially bully Paul but
come to respect him.
Middle-aged DJ;
befriends members
of Rough Stuff.
form the rock
band Rough
Stuff
love and
support
suspicious of
Eduard Keller
The ‘maestro’; former
concert pianist in
1930s Vienna; piano
teacher in Darwin.
comes to
respect and
love
Paul Crabbe
Megan Murray
Narrator/protagonist;
talented pianist;
hopes to become
a concert pianist;
becomes an academic.
Paul’s classmate;
Scotty’s girlfriend;
seduces Paul on
one occassion.
initially
adores and
dreams
about
feels he has
betrayed
loves
Mathilde & Eric
Keller’s Jewish wife
and son; Holocaust
victims.
Rosie Zollo
betrays
reveals Keller’s
past to
Bennie Reid
Joseph Henisch
Viennese cellist and
former colleague of
Keller’s; Holocaust
survivor.
Paul’s girlfriend
from 1968; wife
from mid 1970s;
studies medicine
in Melbourne and
becomes a doctor.
Awkward boy at
Paul’s school; briefly
befriends Paul.
2
© Insight Publications 2009
© Insight Publications 2010
Maestro
Introduction
Peter Goldsworthy was born in South Australia in 1951. He lived in several country towns before
completing his schooling in Darwin.
Goldsworthy has published several collections of poetry and short fiction. He has also published
five novels, including Maestro, and has written a libretto for The Summer of the Seventeenth
Doll. Goldsworthy has won many prestigious literary awards, including the Commonwealth
Poetry Prize, the Australian Bicentennial Literary Award and the South Australian Bicentennial
Award. Peter Goldsworthy is a general practitioner who divides his time between writing and
practising medicine.
At some stage in our lives, it is not unusual to be influenced by someone who enriches our
lives through their ideas, skills and experiences. They give us a glimpse of our own possibilities,
activate a dormant or unrefined talent, invest our lives with meaning or direction, inspire us and
enable us to understand who we are. We remember that person with clarity, with images and
snatches of words said or written. Their presence is embodied in us. No matter what detours
we make, that presence will be there, even if it no longer overtly influences our lives. Of course,
the influence may not always be as affirming as we thought it was at the time. Perhaps time will
allow us to place its importance in perspective.
This is certainly the case with Paul Crabbe who, in 1967, was a budding concert pianist at
15 years of age. He remembers with clarity those images, words, facial expressions, gestures,
and experiences which defined his relationship with Eduard Keller, the expatriate Austrian piano
teacher with links to Liszt and a past life he wants to obliterate in the steamy perfumes of
remote Darwin.
Maestro explores Keller’s influence on Paul Crabbe’s life. Keller’s relationship with Paul is
ultimately a troubling one, both for Paul and for the reader. We are left with the perplexing
question, ‘Was it worth it?’
Brief synopsis
From the beginning, it is clear that Keller is an uncompromising, intransigent and sometimes
capricious teacher. He dismisses Paul’s outstanding results in his piano examinations. He is
single-minded about what constitutes a ‘great’ pianist as opposed to a ‘good’ pianist, he is
3 © Insight Publications 2009
© Insight Publications 2010
Sample essays on texts
Tips For Writing Essays
If you follow these simple tips, you’ll be assured of an extra
mark or two!
10 Do’s
• Know the text really well and answer the question properly.
• Write a plan.
• Structure your essay using an introduction, several body paragraphs and
a conclusion.
• Use paragraphs with clear topic sentences to mark the progression of your
argument. Remember ‘new paragraph = new point’. A good example of a clear
topic sentence is: ‘The consequences of racial prejudice are explored in Othello’.
• Use correct spelling and ensure you always spell book titles, characters’ names or
authors’ names correctly; for example, ‘Eli Wiesel’s Night’.
• Put direct quotations in inverted commas; for example: ‘Othello defends
Desdemona’s loyalty to Brabantio, swearing ‘my life upon her faith’.
• Display your knowledge of the text by selecting relevant references to support
your views. For example, if you choose to focus on the moments of Eli’s life that
shaped his personality in Night, you might analyse the scene featuring the death
of his father.
• Work out your own point of view on key elements such as characters, narrators,
plot, etc.
• Keep to topic.
• Acknowledge the difference between genres; for example, film, play. For example,
when discussing a film, refer to ‘shots’, ‘images’, ‘scenes’, etc. When discussing
a play, acknowledge the performance aspects, such as stage directions, the
playwright’s instructions for the setting, etc.
12
© Insight Publications 2009
© Insight Publications 2010
Sample essays on texts
ESSAY 1
Neither Keller nor Paul are wholly admirable characters.
Do you agree?
In Maestro, both Paul and Eduard Keller are imperfect characters.
Paul’s selfishness causes him to forsake Keller, leaving both with
Very brief introduction states
the essay’s contention clearly.
a sense of loss; yet Paul’s trust in beauty saves him from being
unappealing. Unlike Paul, Keller’s distrust of the beautiful mars
his character; yet these facets also hint at his debilitating guilt.
While Keller’s strength, musical prowess and rare moments of
tenderness mark him as worthy, he, like Paul, cannot be regarded
as wholly admirable.
Paul’s arrogance blinds him to Keller’s painful history. Paul’s
self-absorption is emphasised by categorising Keller as a
‘Nazi’, despite knowing ‘almost nothing about him’. This is
the older Paul’s greatest regret, as it inhibited the young Paul’s
relationship with Keller. On hearing Keller’s ‘comic book parody’
accent, Paul immediately characterises Keller as a criminal – a
judgement made easy by Keller’s authoritarian teaching regime.
This topic sentence describes
one of Paul’s main flaws – his
judgemental nature – and its
effects on his relationships
with others.
This sentence reinforces the
previous point by explaining
the unfairness of Paul’s
judgement of Keller.
Paul’s tendency to blame Keller for his own lack of success is a
serious character flaw. The spoilt Paul basks ‘in the murmurs of
appreciation’ from his parents’ friends and resists being placed
in difficult situations. This is evident in his attempts to extricate
himself from Keller’s tuition, and his reluctance to attend boarding Successful integration of
school where he may not be able to slam his pen down ‘decidedly
… at the end of every maths problem’.
While Paul appears narcissistic, he is often aware of his flaws.
Despite being pretentious, Paul is fundamentally shy. His refuge
in the music room parallels Keller’s self-imposed solitude at the
a relevant quote into the
sentence, making a useful
point about Paul’s character.
This paragraph offers a slightly
more positive view of Paul,
providing balance.
Swan. Paul is unsure of himself, as his ‘self-perception lagged
timidly behind [his] growth spurt’. His arrogance protects him
from his loneliness and his inability to attain greatness. Although
A helpful analysis of Paul’s
insecurities.
Paul’s delusions of grandeur mark him as a weak character
14
© Insight Publications 2009
© Insight Publications 2010