Aspects of Narrative
60% AS Written Paper 2 hours Open Book Two Sections, answer 1 question from each section - essay questions Cormac McCarthy The Road Robert Browning The Patriot My Last Duchess The Pied Piper of Hamelin Porphyria's Lover The Laboratory |
Section A
One question on each of the set texts Each questions two parts Answer one question on one text Comment in detail on the narrative method of an extract. Relate this extract to wider concerns within the text as a whole. Section B Two questions - only answer one Don't mention texts from Section A Using the three texts not used in Section A, compare aspects of narrative |
A story is all the various events that are going to be shown, whereas a plot is the chain of causes and circumstances that connect the various events and places than in some sort of relationship with each other. Narrative involves how the events and causes are shown and various methods used to do this showing. Exploring aspects of narrative involve looking at what the writer has chosen to include and not include and how this choice leads the reader to certain conclusions. All stories are manufactured, they have a master plot, rebranding plots - a plot which exists in society.
When building a narrative it can include: > What are the scenes and place? > Why are they so important? > What could the story be about? In this, you must consider the semantics, which is the meanings, and the pragmatics which is the implied meanings or connotations to it. Time and Sequence In building a narrative, you have to think about the time and sequence of this, which is how long it take? and what order does it come in? - For Time, you can compress time, meaning an hour in the story can have a whole chapter, whereas a few days can have a couple of pages, and time can be fast or slow. - For Sequence, it can either be chronological, which is in order of events or non-linear, which is also known as flash backs, which is where the story jumps back in time and forth. |
Characters
- The use of Stereotypes for characters - Voices are either direct, meaning to the reader, or reported, meaning what they heard. Voices are the direct narrative forward by giving information and developing characters, called characterisation. Point of View Third person narrative - omniscient narrator First person narration - it is called person, persona or speaker in poetry Destination The text is designed to make you (the reader) think about what is going on and what has happened. It might have a purpose or a moral to the story The author takes you on a journey to reach a destination, and we have to understand the author's ideology behind it |
Elements of Fiction
Plot:
Setting:
Character:
Conflict:
Point of View:
Theme:
Plot:
- Beginning > Middle > End - do all stories follow the same structure?
- Is the plot familiar or unfamiliar?
- Is the beginning/end really the beginning/end?
Setting:
- Where is the narrative set?
- Is it real or imaginary?
- What kind of world is it?
- Is it hierarchical? patriarchal? multi-cultural? pluralistic (more then one society)?
Character:
- Who are the key characters?
- What are the main character's key quality?
- Are the characters round (believable) or flat (unbelievable)?
- Do they conform to stereotypes or rebel against stereotypes?
Conflict:
- What is the key issue that drives the story?
- Is the issue internal (in the character's head) or external (in the character's environment)?
- Is it believable?
- What does it reveal about the world which the characters are in?
Point of View:
- Who tells the story?
- Is it in first person ("I", "me"), second person ("You") or third person ("They", "He", "She")
- Why are they telling the story - what is their motive to utterance?
- What is the effective choice of the Point of View?
Theme:
- What is the main idea of the writer wants want to take away from the story?
- Does the main idea uphold or challenge the prevailing values of society?
Scenes and Places
Where a story is set? - You must remember that stories are representations of a place - Metaphors can be used to describe a place or a setting, and connotations can be used to go with it. Porphyria's Lover - Where is it set? > Darkness > Pathetic fallacy > Porphyria brings warmth into the cottage > Isolation - so he can keep her, there is no escape for her |
The Road - Where is it set?
Words to describe the setting of 'The Road': > Danger > In the future? where there is corruption > Winter - cold, they are travelling south > Deserted towns > Smoke > Isolation > Darkness - symbolises no hope > Mountains > Grey - ash, coldness > No life (no trees, plants, animals or vegetation) - the falling trees symbolises that everything is falling apart and dead. > lack of humanity > The Road is a visual metaphor for a journey, they are going south which symbolises warmth and hope. They are going to the beach, the sea symbolises life and hope. |
Time and Sequence
- In 'Porphyria's Lover' it takes a night for the narrative to unfold. - In 'The Road' it takes over a period of months for the narrative to unfold. Porphyria's Lover: It was set in 1840s? because there is a cottage and Porphria comes in and lights a fire. The Road: This is set in the future after an apocalypses has happened, and to them time is not important. |
AO2: Time within a story
FORM (the shape) STRUCTURE (chapters - when is it set?) LANGUAGE (reflects when it is set, and shows the time) AO4 : That which surrounds the narrative CONTEXT (the reason why the characters are doing something) > The story has to be influenced by the outside context.
> A specific time e.g. Victorian/Science Fiction has language, objects, scenes etc. to represent that time. The narrative/plot/story line is influenced by this. |
Chronology - Telling the story in order.
- The story does not always have to be in order. - Time needs to be compressed and altered in order for the story to be shorted and more exciting. |
Characters and Characterization
- Characters are not real! - They are representatives of a person and they are built by the author. - We need to analyse them, not describe them. Names: Can be apocryphal (means a hidden meaning - in biblical terms) > Revelation > Someone wouldn't understand it, but you would maybe because it is symbolic > E.g. John Goodman > They can carry a great deal of significance Charles Dickens uses apocryphal names and uses convoluted plot which creates more memorable names, which makes it more useful to identify each character. For example, Scrooge means someone who is tight with money. |
Names in 'The Road':
- Father - The man (omniscient narrator) - Papa (the boys says it because it is personal to him) - The boy - The Good Guys - The Bad Guys - The Thief - The Family - Wife The reason why McCarthy doesn't use any proper names it because he wants to portray that society had been damaged beyond repair, so their is no need for identification as there are not many people left. Also, another reason could be that it is meant to show that this could happen to anyone at anytime (everyman). Identity are fashioned through characteristics, which is different to the actual characters. In this world which McCarthy has painted, no names are needed because they are insignificant. |
Speech
- Speech drives the narrative forward - It gives us information and tells us about the events, but in a more subtle way - It also helps to tell the story in another way - We learn the characteristics from the idiolect Idiolect - (Idio) one's self (lect) the way and style in which someone speaks in. Even a group of people who are simliar to each other have different idiolects Eye-dialect - When you spell something phonetically to show their accent (e.g who dat?) There are also Internal Attributes, such as: - Thoughts - Feelings - Motives and External Attributes, such as: - Names - Speech - Characterisation |
Internal Attributes in 'The Laboratory': - Even though she appears to be the villain in the poem, her actions are justified due to what he lover had done to her. - Males and females would have biased views on the woman's characters - women can only identify with her character. And men would find it absurd and unconventional of what she is doing. - She has no name because she conveys the voice of all the women who have been betrayed by their lover. - She could be jealous of the women, which is why she presents more anger to them rather than her lover. - She is selfish and possessive, as she wants her lover all to her self. - She challenges the stereotype of the weakness of women because she does the act of killing herself. External Attributes in 'The Laboratory': - The persona is a woman, and she is omniscient - Her revenge drives her motive - "no minion like me" - she is short and fat - She is a perfectionist, as she wants the poison to be perfect |
Voices in a Text
- Voices in a text help to create a character
- It drives the narrative forward
Types of voices:
> Narrator (homodiegtic) - a narrator who is part of the narrative (they know everything that happened in the narrative)
> Narrator (intradiegtic) - a narrator who is part of the story, but doesn't know everyone's side of the story - e.g. Nick Carraway in 'The Great Gatsby'
> Narrator (omniscient) - knows everything but is not part of the story
> Direct Speech - they show the intentions of ideology of the characters, shows by speech marks. Exactly what the character said.
> Attributed Speech - this is unreliable, (repeating what a character said in the past) and so it is edited to suit the point of view of the narrator. It says more about the narrator rather than the character who said it
> Persona - not a poet, they are usually not named and a character within the poem
- First person narrator talks to the reader, they tell the reader what they are feeling at a time
- Third person narrator assume something about a character
- Voices in a text help to create a character
- It drives the narrative forward
Types of voices:
> Narrator (homodiegtic) - a narrator who is part of the narrative (they know everything that happened in the narrative)
> Narrator (intradiegtic) - a narrator who is part of the story, but doesn't know everyone's side of the story - e.g. Nick Carraway in 'The Great Gatsby'
> Narrator (omniscient) - knows everything but is not part of the story
> Direct Speech - they show the intentions of ideology of the characters, shows by speech marks. Exactly what the character said.
> Attributed Speech - this is unreliable, (repeating what a character said in the past) and so it is edited to suit the point of view of the narrator. It says more about the narrator rather than the character who said it
> Persona - not a poet, they are usually not named and a character within the poem
- First person narrator talks to the reader, they tell the reader what they are feeling at a time
- Third person narrator assume something about a character
Point of View
Where you stand affects how you see something. This depends on: - The point of view - Where you stand - The perspective that is taken - Your position - The angle that you take (It's physical and Ideology - how it works in a text) Advantages of a First Person Narrative: - The reader is able to understand the narrator more - There is more emotion to it and is more intimate - It is a personal narrative voice - You are close to the action - You have internal attributes Disadvantages of a First Person Narrative: - There is only one point of view - The narrator could cloud the reader's judgment of a character - It could be bias - The narrator can only comment on how they felt and their actions Advantage of a Third Person Narrative: - The narrator sees everything - Not usually biased Disadvantages of a Third Person Narrative: - There are more facts than emotion and depth - It becomes remote - It lacks personal interest - The omniscient narrator can change the point of view A third way of telling a narrative: - Emails/letters which have reported conversations - More than a first person point of view - more than one points of views Proximity to the Action - are we close or distant to the action? Does this change? The Road: We are both close and distant to the action. We are close to the action with the man and the boy, for example when in claustrophobic conditions (the bunker scene and the house with dead people), we are physically close to this. However, with this, we have a restricted view of everything else which was going on elsewhere in that world, which we did not know of. We are distant to the action when the Man and the Boy have their conversations, as to us it seems like we are just watching them. Also, the Man's dreams are also distant, as we don't know what was happening. |
Shifting Perspectives - The Road
Through the book we have different perspectives and views of the Man: This is called a Narrative Arc. - First, we meet the Man, and we think he is brave and strong as he has kept his son alive for so long. - Then as the narrative progresses, we have doubt about the non-logical decisions he makes e.g. the bunker scene - he escapes the safe warm house in case the 'bad buys' find them. We don't know who these bad people are, and we find out that he is paranoid. - When the Man dies, the boy is free from the bad decisions that the Man had made. Before this, the boy was questioning (which he hadnt't done before) about his father's decisions. The boy had more humanity and was less paranoid about this, so he was the real hero. - We also realised that the Man knew that he didn't have a lot of time left, so he wanted to get his son to a safe place before he died - a hero? Point of View in Poetry Porphria's Lover > The missing voice is Porphria, because she is dead. > It is missing because the persona may just think of her as a object, not a person, as she had no dialogue. > The persona is nameless - he was just obsessed with the writing of this that he forgot to wrote his name? > We do not know what she might have said - did she really love him? was she scared of him? - we can't trust the persona. > Browning is saying that women are given no power/choice, so he gives them no voice, to show that they are struggling. > The persona has an obsession with her, and we know psychological things about him and he gives it alt o us. When he speaks, it seems normal to him, but if we read between thew lines we learn that he is insane. My Last Duchess > The missing voice is the duchess. > She was only 14 years old, so not much to say if she did have something to say. > The persona here is the Duke in Italy. > He too is insane, evil and doesn't care about women - he keeps the painting of her behind a curtain. > Browning is showing that men can be possessive and paranoid (PL - he thought that his lover would get away). > It is a psychological study of a male trait. The Laboratory > The missing voices are the lover's, the mistresses and the poisoner's. > The persona is a woman, and her motive is to kill everyone who is with her lover, as she is also paranoid and jealous. |