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English literature - Coggle Diagram
English literature
Anthologies
Remains
Confront the aftermath of war and the traumatic memories that ex-service people might struggle to cope with.
Remains specifically focuses on a soldier who was involved with killing a man caught looting a bank during conflict in what is implied to be the Middle East.
The title is a pun that plays on the idea of both human remains, referencing the body of the dead man, and the horrific memories that remain with the speaker after the fact.
COTLB
Written by the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in response to a battle during the Crimean War (1853-1855). In this battle, a British cavalry unit—the “Light Brigade”—was commanded to charge against a Russian artillery unit.
Celebrates an act of bravery and sacrifice—a suicidal cavalry charge during the Crimean war. Written just six weeks later, Tennyson’s poem argues that the willingness of the cavalry to sacrifice themselves—without calling their orders into question—makes them heroes.
The poem thus suggests that heroism isn’t just about bravery but also about duty: being willing to obey orders no matter the cost.
Tissue
The poem is an impressionistic meditation about paper, focusing on the way that it represents both human fragility and power.
The poem begins as a kind of hymn of praise to this material, before imagining what a human world made out of paper would be like. The poem uses this metaphor to highlight both the power and fragility of human civilization, two traits that the speaker perceives in the material of paper itself.
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The emigree
A first-person speaker describes how as a child she was forced to flee her homeland and emigrate to another country because of war and tyranny.
The poem deliberately avoids tying itself to a particular context, instead looking more generally at the emigrant experience—with all its trauma and nostalgic longing for home.
The poem shows how memory can give people strength—something to hold onto even when everything else around them has changed.
Macbeth
Key quotes
"That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty!"
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"Look like the innocent flower,but be the serpent under't."
Writers message
The play can be seen as a warning against engaging with the supernatural and witchcraft; Shakespeare is perhaps suggesting that no matter how good the promises from the supernatural seem (like the prophecies did for Macbeth), engaging with supernatural will end in death and tragedy
Lady Macbeth is an example of reverse gender stereotypes and societal expectations of women in the Jacobean era. She is desperate for power and manipulates and schemes to achieve this - the only way she can - through her husband.
Shakespeare wrote the play as a warning against committing regicide, as emphasised by Macbeth's downfall and horrific death and Lady Macbeth's slow and painful descent into madness.
Context
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The gun powder plot - Attempt of regicide on King James I. Motivated by religious strife between protestants and Catholics
Jekyll and Hyde
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Writers message
The message that Stevenson conveys to the readers is that if people explore their dark side, it can lead to problems- but hiding or denying it leads to problems too.
The importance of reputation in the novel also reflects the importance of appearances, facades, and surfaces, which often hide a sordid underside.
Context
Robert Louis Stevenson - As a child, he was influenced by the strict Christian beliefs of his nanny, Alison Cunningham.
He was interested in the behaviour of Victorian gentlemen.
Reputation was extremely important to a gentleman. In order to protect their reputation, they had to keep their sinful desires a secret from the rest of society.
Victorian society was very religious, they didn't want to have anything to do with science.
AIC
Key quotes
"Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
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"You're beginning to pretend as if nothing's really happened at all. And I can't see it like that. The girl's still dead, isn't she?"
If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.
Context
An Inspector Calls was written in 1945, however, it is set in 1912 and reflects the Edwardian era.
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Socialism is all about accepting the personal responsibility of looking after those around you and treating them as equals.
In 1912, when An Inspector Calls is set, the Suffragettes started more aggressive tactics, such as chaining themselves to buildings, setting fire to post boxes and smashing windows.
Writers message
Priestley deliberately chose to set his play in 1912 because it represented an era that was very different to 1945 when he wrote the play
Priestley urges and encourages his audience to seize the opportunity given to them by the end of the war, to build a more egalitarian society
Priestley encourages his wealthy audience members to adopt his own socialist ideologies and adhere to their social responsibility towards the poor and destitute in society, like Eva smith