Doll's house & Top Girls

essay by cheryl yow

This essay compares two plays:
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
Churchill’s Top Girls

Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=Ibsen%20A%20Doll%E2%80%99s%20House%20picture&imgurl=http://whiteoftheeye.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/images-dolls-house

A Doll’s House is an 1879 play
by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

The play was controversial and it is sharply critical
of 19th century marriage norms.

A Doll’s House is often called the first true Feminist play.

The play focuses on the intricacies of marriage.

It raises questions about the female self-sacrifice
 in a male-dominated world.

 Nora is a ‘wife and child’
to her husband, Torvald helmer.

She is his doll , his plaything ,
his display to the world

and is of little intellectual value
and even less utility in his life, nothing else.

 Thus it is shocking and unacceptable for him
to discover that

Nora is able to manage financial affairs,
she can act alone and indepdendently without him.

When ‘dependent' Nora eventually decides
to walk out of her meaningless marriage,

breaking free of the oppressive marriage,
 Torvald becomes hysterical.

Though the marital madness,
Ibsen questions the roles of both husband and wife,

he questions the domination within a relationship
when one person is demeaning to the other.

Churchill’s Top Girls

http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=Margaret%20Thatcher%20%20picture&imgurl

=http://danshas.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/margaret-thatcher.jpg

 Caryl Churchhill’s ‘Top Girls’

is a 1982 play, set in Britain,

it implicitly condemns

the increasing influence of Thatcherite values

in the society.

It argues against the type of feminism

that turns women into new patriarchs

and argues for a more socialist feminism

which is about caring

for the weak and downtrodden.

 Marlene left her poor life,

her family and her illegitimate child

with her sister

to become a career woman,

she works at the ‘Top Girls’ employment agency.

Marlene is the tough career woman,

she is soulless and she exploits other women

while suppressing

her innate caring instinct in the cause of success.

Question
Compare the endings of A Doll’s House and Top Girls
Take into account how different kinds of production and
performance may affect -and perhaps even ‘change’-the
endings of these plays.

• The ending of A Doll’s House is from pg 64 onwards
when Helmer says: ‘You too, of course; we are both saved…’

• The ending of Top Girls is from pg 81 onwards
when Marlene says: ‘I have been on the pill so long
I’m probably sterile.’




The ending of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House presents realistic
portrayals of the rigid roles that people are forced into
and are blindly following them. Though divorce was
considered scandalous, Nora makes a courageous decision in
spite of the limitation independent women would face at that
time. Nora is a woman ahead of her time; she serves as a
symbol for women fighting for equality and liberty.
Churchill’s Top Girls, written a century later, at the height
of Thatcherism raises many uncomfortable questions about
where feminist movement is heading. Both endings focus on
the psychological concerns and challenges of the position of
women in the society.



Though the endings of both plays are set 100 years apart, both
women felt similarly oppressed in an exclusive male society.
Confined in domestic comfort, Nora realized she ‘must stand
quite alone ‘(Ibsen p 67) to escape from man’s dominance.
Marlene, trapped in poverty, wants to escape from being
downtrodden. Nora seeks to pursue her beliefs while Marlene
seeks success and power in a man’s world. Additionally, both
endings paint a bleak picture of women’s sacrificial roles.
Nora commits a crime to save her husband and has to choose
between her home or independence. Marlene has to give up her
child and family lifeto achieve success in career. In
Joyce’s case, staying home and taking care of Angie is a
sacrifice. Women have to choose between career or a family
life while men can have both. Ironically, independence which
is supposed to empower women seems to oppress Marlene instead.



In A Doll’s House, men are very much in control. Nora reveals
how she is moulded first by her father then by her husband
according to their ideals. The roles of women are prescribed
by males and defined within the domestic domain - ‘Before all
else you are a wife and a mother’ (Ibsen p 68). Women’s
‘sacred duties’ are duties to her husband and children. In
contrast, in Top Girls, there is an absence of men implying
that men are redundant. Nora is treated as helpless and
childlike whereas Marlene has stepped into the male public
realm and has to imitate men to succeed.



Both endings indicate that men and women lives are dictated
by the values of the society. They seem to live in an
illusion embedded in the ‘social lie’. Torvald denies
reality by trying to pretend everything is back to normal
and to continue to live under the illusion of the ‘lie’ of an
ideal marriage. Nora, however, questions the values of the
society: she no longer believes the books she read, she does
not know what religion is and she is not even convinced that
the law is right. In Top Girls, politics invades personal
lives - sisters are divided by class and status. Marlene
believes in individualism, dreams and freedom. She hates the
working class –believing ‘they’re too stupid, lazy or
frightened,’ (Churchill p 86) to make any change.
Indignant, Joyce justifies by painting a pessimistic view
of the working class, she talks about their father ‘working
in the fields like an animal’ and ‘…couldn’t afford a
whiskey’ (Churchill p 84). She affirms their mother had a
‘wasted life’ and their parents’ lives ‘were rubbish’
(Chruchill 84/85). Joyce believes that nothing can change.
Top Girls’ ending seems to implicitly condemn the increasing
influence of Margaret Thatcher’s policy that celebrates
individualism, neglecting the weak and the downtrodden.
Successful, over-individualistic women are not helping
other women to achievesuccess. The issue here is about to
what extent feminism is advancing women if individualistic
women are gaining success at the expense of the future
generations.



There could be other different valid interpretations of these
endings that will alter their meanings and elicit different
audiences’ response. In an alternative ending, a vindictive
Nora may start speaking in a cynical tone. With Torvald
taking on a pleading tone ‘I have it in me to become a
different man’ (ADH Ibsen, p 70). She realized now she is in
control of him. The children might be woken up and appear at
the scene, this will further stirs Nora’s maternal instinct.
The ending could be:

Nora: I don’t believe any longer in wonderful things
happening. It has to be so changed that …’
(in a manipulative tone)

Torvald: But I will believe in it. Tell me, so changed that?
(pleading tone)

Nora: That I had to be taken seriously, not as your shadow,
not as your doll but as an individual, an equal
partnership, you and me.
(vindictive tone, walking towards him and standing
above him, looking down on him)

Silence

Torvald: We both deserved that chance.
Lessons not just for you but for us both.
A chance for the most wonderful thing.
(Standing up, putting his arms around her)

Nora: The most wonderful thing.
(ominous tone with a glint in her eyes)



The stage setting could have more obvious reminders of the
children’s presence, perhaps displaying a family portrait
taken with the children or a teddy bear lying around. Nora's
status can be elevated by sitting on a separate chair
that is higher than the sofa where Torvald is sitting on.
This setting could be in the nineteen century where divorce
is scandalous and society does not support independent women.
It makes sense that Nora choose to stay on although with
a different motive on different terms. Here Nora is less
vulnerable; she can be dangerously manipulative. This time
around it will be on her terms, she will manipulate him
and he will be her toy instead. The objective here is to
make known once a caged woman wakes up from illusion and
stop playing the prescribed ‘ideal’ role, there is no
limitation to what she is capable of.



An assertive Nora set in twenty-first century would be
determined to leave where there is more support for
independent women. With such determination as well as the
business acumen she has shown in saving her husband, she
would perhaps become more successful than Torvald. In
contrast, a confused Nora might speak in an array of tones
(helpless, anger, frustration) in a disconcerted manner. She
may be moving a lot, her gestures trembling and facial
expressions showing great despair. The furniture are more
clustered, for example, the coffee table, the sofa and a
chair could form a barrier between them as Nora moves around
them in a haphazard manner. The clustered furniture could
represent an inescapable maze where she feels trapped in. She
might end up in an asylum or perhaps commit suicide; a sign of
woman’s madness, triggered by her disillusion. Audiences may
be drawn into her state of mental anguish, feeling deep
sympathy for her and anxious for her future.



In Top Girls, a different ending could focus on the Marlene’s
isolation. Marlene’s career defined her existence and it is
the only identity she has. Yet beneath that mask of success
lies a troubled soul devoid of emotion and intimacy. A barren
life – no family and no friends - an empty existence.
The ending could be:

Angie: Mum? (Angie heard the fiery conversation, she is
giving Marlene a chance to acknowledge her
as her (Marlene's)daughter.

Marlene: No, It’s Aunty Marlene.
(assertive tone, aware that Angie might
have heard the conversation.Angie
might have overheard the conversation

- where Marlene discloses that Angie is her daughter,
Marlene does not want Angie to acknowledge
her as Angie's real mother).

 

Angie wanted to switch on the lights.

Marlene: No. Leave the lights off. There is warmth in
this darkness.

Silence

Angie: Are you happy?

Marlene: Happy? (pause)… is a difficult word.
(tone - choked on her emotion)
Comfortable, yes.

Angie: Sometimes lonely?

Marlene: Sometimes lonely (affirmative tone),
(quickly wiping away her tears)
but other times too busy to be lonely.
(cynical tone)

Angie: It’s all worth it?

Marlene: It’s a choice.
And life is a choice between being downtrodden
or being unfulfilled. That’s life.
(a hollow, resigned tone)

Marlene here is vulnerable, isolated and she seeks comfort
in the darkness.



Another interpretation of Marlene could feature her as cold
and impassionate. The society has moulded her into an
emotionless working machine. Here she is void of any feeling,
she just goes on each day on a perfunctory existence. This
time the tone would change:

Angie: Mum?

Marlene: 'Your' mum, she just gone to bed.
(cold, indifferent tone even though she suspects
Angie might have overheard the conversation
- where she discloses that Angie is her daughter.
Marlene does not want Angie to acknowledge
her as Angie's real mother).

(There is an awkward silence).

Angie: Are you happy?

Marlene: Happy? There are more important things in life
than happiness.
(cold and emotionless tone)

Angie: Have you ever felt lonely?

Marlene: Lonely? (cynical laugh) I am so busy having
countless appointments, meetings, and if I am
lucky I get a full night sleep.

Angie: It’s all worth it?

Marlene: Once I stop working, I’ll be useless or if I am
stupid enough, I become a man’s slave. A successful
woman thinks, works rather than feel. Feelings are
unproductive, an obstacle, a trap. Success means
respect and financial security. And success equals
freedom, that is what I need most.

This ending is ironic. In imitating men for success, Marlene
loses her femininity,innate emotion and her soul. It is an
illusion to think that success equal freedom. Although she
freed herself from poverty or male dominance, in reality she
is trapped within herself.



Roles of women have evolved. Marlene could be seen as an
evolved Nora.During 1800s, women are gradually becoming
more independent. However, even with the freedom modern
women have, their dilemma still exists –the choice between
career or motherhood, and if they choose both, how
effectively can they stay balancing on a tightrope?
Additionally, the continuous changing of gender roles also
resulted in pressing mental confusion for both men and
women.

( 1566 words)



Bibliography

Churchhill, Caryl. Top Girls, Methuen Drama, 2005

Ibsen Henrik, A Doll’s house, Dover Publications, INC,
1992.

VCD 1-3, A Doll’s House, The Open University

VCD 4-6, Top Girls, The Open University



Marks: 80

Tutor Comment:

Dear Cheryl
You have analysed the two endings quite well and have been
very creative in developing different possible endings
with some additional dialogue and stage props. Well done.
Souk Yee

The Colour Purple

essay by cheryl yow

http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=Colour%20Purple%20photo&imgurl
http://www.theaterofthestars.com/images/shows/
colorPurple_lg.jpg&imgrefurl=



Alice Walker's The Color Purple,
tells the story of Celie,
a black woman living in Georgia.
Celie writes letters to God
in which she tells about her life
--her roles as daughter, sister,wife, and mother.
The story focuses on black female life
during the 1930s in the Southern United States
addressing the numerous issues
including their exceedingly low position
in American social culture.





Question
Please read pages 186 to 187
(from ‘Dear Nellie’ to ‘Amen, amen’)
in The Color Purple and then answer:
a. Analyze the ways in which ideas of gender
   are presented in this extract
b. How this extract relates to relevant parts
    of the rest  of The Colour Purple.
   What is the function of this extract?




Alice Walker’s The Color Purple depicts the oppression
and transformation of black women. It explores the
strength of female’s bonding and intimacy, the flexibility
breaking away from the stereotyping of gender roles, the
vigour of empowerment through cultivating an identity evolved
through education, work and creativity, communication and the
redefinition of God. Walker celebrates the African culture
through the gradual transformation of Celie, from an
oppressed girl to an assertive, independent woman, aware of
the rights of her existence, regardless of her gender, race,
status or class.


Using the epistolary narrative(letters in form of diary
entries), Walker seeks to engage the readers intimately -
readers become personally involved with Celie’s private
motivations, they struggle and transform along with her.
Being isolated, writing is a means of escape, of quietly and
safely expressing herself. Celie’s confessional narrative is
reminiscent of African-American slave narratives which use
storytelling to break the imposed silence.


This extract is the climax of the novel,in leaving with Shug
to Memphis, it begins Celie’s journey to freedom and self
-empowerment. The discovery of Nettie’s letters, her sexual
awakening and the redefinition of God empowered Celie, she
begins to assert her existence. It starts with the cynical tone
of a pessimistic view of men ‘…whenever there’s a man, there’s
trouble’ (Walker, p 186). Grady is talking so much ‘bout stuff
to drink’ makes Celie ‘have to pee’ (Walker, p 186). The
contrast between ‘drink’ and ‘pee’ is interesting. This sense
of ridicule seems to indicate that the pleasures(drinks) of
black-men are associated with filth and waste.Grady, Shrug’s
ex-husband, previously spending Shrug’s money recklessly, is
now flirting with Squeak and raving about his flamboyant
lifestyle. These negative descriptions reveal the unproductive,
idle and aimless nature of black men.



This passage explicitly discloses black women’s oppression –
their destiny are solely dictated by men. Mr ---’s derogatory
tone has a deflating effect on Celie’s self esteem - ‘But what
you got? You ugly’, ‘..nobody crazy enough...to marry you’
(Walker, p 186). Mr ---’s further criticism of Celie of not
being a good housekeeper and may have to work in the farm or
railroad suggests that Celie has no talent and that getting
married is the ultimate goal for women. He continues ‘I
probably haven’t whup your ass enough…I should have lock you
up. Just let you out to work’ (Walker,p 187). In contrast,
with Shug, he is filled with admiration - ‘Shug got talent…
She got spunk… Shrug got looks’ (Walker, p 186). The idea here
is, if a woman is not pretty, has no talent and who cannot
stand up on her own then she becomes man’s slave.



Additionally, this episode offers Celie’s first-person account
of racism and sexism. Mr --- announces ‘You black, you pore,
you ugly, you a woman…. you nothing at all.’ (Walker, p 187).
This sarcastic tone affirms black women’s multiple jeopardy of
racist race, class and gender issues. African-Americans are
treated differently. For instance, Celie’s biological
father’s shop was burned and he was lynched for being more
successful than white storeowners. Sofia’s refusal to be a
white mayor’s maid, was reduced to complete helplessness
-put in jail, beaten up and ironically, end up working as
a maid. The cyclical nature of racism and sexism constantly
governs the black society where personal life is ruled by
politics. Black men, being humiliated daily, with not much
chance to upgrade and be respected in society, vent their
frustration towards their women. To feel manly, men seek
dominance over women through physical violence. Even in
loving relationship, Harpo believes in beating Sofia into
submission. Women are exploited and treated as objects to
serve their needs. Men are themselves, victims of paternalism
and racism.



The relationship between genders differs distinctly. Unlike
women, black men lack solidarity, incapable of bonding,
unable to understand their women and communicate only at a
very basic, crude level. Although Mr--- and Harpo are
capable of deep devotion to women, they failed in
 understanding them intimately. Women, in contrast, are able to
function and bond in a supportive network without men. Shug’s
love leads Celie to her discovery of self-awareness and dignity.
Other instances of reciprocity includes Celie and Nettie letters
that help to support each other morally. Even Squeak endures
rape just to get Sofia (who once hit Squeak) out of jail and
helps to look after her child. The message is that women can
stand up to unfair treatment by sustaining one another.



This extract ends with Celie identifying God with nature.
God is speaking to Mr --- through nature – ‘it seem to come
to me from the trees.’, ‘…the air rush in and shape words.’
‘The dirt say, Anything you do to me, already done to you.’
(Walker, p 187). Celie declares that though she may be poor
and ugly, she firmly asserts ‘But I’m here.’ (Walker, p 187).
With these powerful words, the extract ends with Celie’s
newfound self-esteem and dignity. She is no longer ‘nothing’
but ‘something’.



Celie’s ability to assert herself sharply contrasts with Celie
at the beginning of the novel when she reacts passively to
abuse by being silent and invisible. God turns out to be a
distant figure, a man and white who cares nothing for her
concerns. By the end of the story, we experience Celie’s
personal transformation along with her. Through renaming,
narratives, female bonding, education, work and creativity,
sex and spirituality, Celie transforms herself.




The importance of naming marks the humanisation and
redefinition of the characters. As long as Harpo calls her
Squeak (belittle name), Squeak remained powerless, thus
she demands respect by announcing that her name is Mary
Agnes. Unable to call Mr --- by his name, Celie is rendered
powerless and forced into a subservient role. When Albert
has a name he becomes humanised. Additionally, as Shug
renamed Celie a virgin, it instantly transforms her as she
reinterprets her world.




Narrative is a powerful weapon - without a voice, there is no
power. Narratives initiated by female friendships through
telling stories and sharing secrets lead to self-understanding.
Failed communication can raupture into unresolved problems
between men and women, blacks and whites. Through
Nettie’s letter, Celie finally has enough knowledge of herself
to form her own powerful narrative and give expression to
her self-worth.




Education and literacy, work and creativity are means of escape
from multiple oppressions. Celie redeemed herself through
writing. She maintains a remarkable commitment to writing
letters to Nettie over many years. Nettie’s letters educate
Celie and open her eyes to a bigger world. Work and creativity
has given Celie’s economic independence. Her business is
paradoxically, a "woman's job"- sewing - but the product is
trousers, for women to wear. Sewing, traditionally, a domestic
chore, has become an instrument of independence. It symbolizes
the power women gain from productively channeling their
creative energy. In quilting – the repeated pattern symmetry
symbolizes unity and by making patchwork of old fabric into
something new gives women hope for the future. This contrasts
with the unproductive males who believe that work is for the
powerless not the powerful.



Sex is also a form of empowerment. Celie's sexual encounters
with, Mr--- are unloving and sordid, as Shug remarks, ‘make it
sound like he going to the toilet on you’ (Walker, p 74).
However, Sex can also empowers Celie, once Shug shows Celie
what sex can really be like, she gains control over her body
and sexuality thus freed frees herself from the restraints of
male dominance. Sexual experience between women are varied,
multilayered, simultaneously tender, maternal, sharing,
conversational, intimate and empathetic. Walker presents
sexuality as a complex phenomenon-not a simple dichotomy of
heterosexuality and homosexuality. Sexuality and sexual
orientation is defined as a spectrum of flexibilities.




Shug’s new version of God is empowering. God is redefined as
‘it’ with no race and no gender, who exists and delights in
all nature and creation. She believes each individual manifest
God in one’s own way. This existentialist feel leads to
Walker’s notion of spirituality - pantheism. Through the
Olinka’s idea of pantheist spirituality, Nettie too learns to
see God everywhere. Shug explains that church is somewhere
people go to share God, not to find God. By rejecting the
oppressive, patriarchal, white religion; pantheist
spirituality becomes the inspiration in an oppressive
society. ‘I think it pisses God off if you walk by the
colour purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it’
(Walker, p 177). Since God is everywhere, then the colour
purple (identifies with Celie as certain shade of purple
denotes lesbianism) who has previously been unnoticed,
should be noticed.



Interwoven into Celie’s transformation is Walker’s rejection
of traditional gender stereotypes. Characters blurred the
boundaries of gender traits -Harpo’s insecurity, Shug’s
sexual assertiveness and Sofia’s strength. By the end of the
novel, Walker seems to advocate mixing of roles rejection of
stereoptypes; Celie become more assertive, Shug mellows
whereas Harpo cooks, while Mr ---- learns to sew and become a
good listener. Walker expresses the ideals of gender equality
through the love story of Adam and Tashi, an Olinka village
girl. Adam had to undergo similar painful rituals of facial
scarring procedure as Tashi in order to marry her and take her
to America. Walker views rigid gender roles as impractical and
meaningless.



The Color Purple is the a celebration of black women’s
identity and their courage to rise above their multiple
jeopardy of gender, race and class. ‘Black is the colour of
the underclass…’ (Willis,1990) and Celie has evolved to a
powerful position of dignity and self-worth.

(1566 words)



Bibliography
Goodman, Lizbeth. Literature and Gender, The Open University,
1996.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple, The Orion Publishing Group,
1992.


Marks: 77

Tutor comment:
Dear Cheryl
This is a competent and well-discussed essay which shows you
have a good understanding and analysis of the issues raised
in the book. Perhaps because of this, you have tended to write
expansive detailed analysis of key episodes in the entire book,
instead of doing a close reading of the extract on p.186/7.

Science & Religion

essay by cheryl yow

        RELIGIONS

                                                                    SCIENCE                                        

http://www.sciencepicturecompany.com

 

Question:
(Humanities2)
According to its ‘Introduction’, Block 4 introduces
Religious Studies and History of Science…
as illustrations of responses
to common problems in these disciplines'.
What kinds of problems do they respond to
and how do they deal with them?




Our world is shrinking due to globalisation, and it has
become more chaotic from terrorists attacks- 9/11 to
environmental issues. All these political, economical and
social changes affect us more intimately than ever. We seek
solutions to clarify doubts in the midst of these confusions,
difficulties and unexplained phenomenon in two eminent,
distinguished masters- Religion and Science. These pressing
issues along with the changing face of belief are the most
compelling reasons for us to study Religion and Science to
reconsider our understanding of the world. The
Enlightenment/Reformation movements, the breaking away from
the dogmas and authority of the catholic church and the rise
of science; rejecting creation theory in the favour of the
evolution theory culminated in the drift between religion and
science.



Due to the complex nature of both religion and science,
there exists continuously, hotly debated issues of criteria
for studying these disciplines, their definitions, boundaries,
what qualify us to study them(insiders or outsiders) and in
what form do we study them? There exists unresolved debates
of boundaries/definitions of religion and science. For Barker
(outsider),Transcendental Meditation is considered a religious
movement, but for Denniston and McWillaims(insiders) they
claimed that Transcendental Meditation is not a religion, it
is a scientific discovery. Most new religious movements may not
involved god so where do they fit in? There have been many
attempts to define ‘Religion’, boundaries seems to overlapped
creating a fuzzy line.



Ninian Smart's seven-dimensional functional model is being
too broad that it includes secular views like Marxism but does
Marxism qualify to be called a religion? Steve Bruce narrow
substantive definition is a better alternative:'Religion….
consists of beliefs, actions, and institutions which assume
the existence of supernatural entities with powers of actions,
or impersonal powers or processes possessed of moral purpose’
(Block 4,p.37).Steve Bruce definition is comprehensive, concise
and specific. It includes NRMs yet exclude secular views like
Marxism and at the same time accommodates Buddhism that has
no focus on god. Ninain smart functional definition model’s
(Practical & ritual, Experiential & emotional, Narrative &
mystic, Doctrinal & philosophical, Ethical & legal, social
& Institutional & material) is highly ineffective as it
creates a fuzzy boundary in its definition. However, it works
well as a model guide in deciding the form of studies or
activities in religious studies.



The boundary of science imposes restrictions on research
grants to medicine research like Traditional Chinese Medicine
that has not been proven safe to the extent of western safety
versus risk. No research grants was allowed to study human
cloning because it hits on morality and supernatural practices
are being frowned upon, an area science fear to tread.
Boundaries are subjected to social concerns like risk taking,
cultural concern like morality or economical benefits and these
do hinder the progress of science.



What qualify us to study Religion and Science is a thorny
disputed argument. Do we have to be religious to study
religion or to be a trained scientist to study science?
The insiders –the practitioners of religions and science,
have three distinct temperaments- too emotional, too sensitive,
too defensive, and these takes away the rationality to see
things in a wider perspective. They cling on to their truth
claims, the religious- their sacred texts, the scientists
-their theories. Even among themselves they have violently
disagreed about the truths and have endlessly rancorous
disputes about it. They are not able to discern through their
myopic vision from the well of their narrow internal
perspective. It is difficult to test the existence of god or
testify its sovereignty way of life and scientists are not
able to agree among themselves.



Outsiders, on the other hand are criticized for not having
experience personal life transforming experiences or the
emotion/intellect of insidersthat insiders can testify to.
They do not have insights or authority of the experts and do
not go through painstaking, sacrificing years of research or
devotional worship. Outsiders with its academic focus are seen
to be too objective and detached failing to connect the essence
of their studies like religion with the deepest spiritual
involvement. Simply by observing rituals, festivals and
practices of a religion, they are seeing it from an abstract,
superficial point of view.



Insiders of religions seem to equate faith with fear and
obedience- the fear of some supreme beings or punishments -
literally reading the truth claims, this has restricted their
visions to understand their philosophy in a wider context. Many
religions demand ‘faith’ to seal in the gaps in doctrinal
explanations that cannot be demonstrated parallel to trust
something essentially improvable. Insiders tend to believe
religion is static and stable, but who says religions do not
evolve? That is to say God spoke to us then but why not now
through other means like science or perhaps New Religious
Movements?



In addition, insiders of Science do not want to give up
their belief/theory that are closely associated with
their personality/ego/status. It was also out of fear
that Darwin kept his evolution theory for twenty years,
Darwin was afraid to upset the church and lose his eminent
status as he was the head to the scientific domain. Religious
studies and study of history of science (outsiders) were
established in 19th century and they take a detached,
dispassionate and objective view while studying
controversies and rivalries of Science and Religion and do not
get involved with their arguments. This impartiality bring in
fresh perspective to the intensity and complexity of the
issues of insiders. They refuse to take truth claims as an
absolute without concrete evidence, and they deliver a more
flexible, kaleidoscope view and an interconnectivity of other
subjects concerning humanity to it.



Strict adherence to static rules or regulations often restricts
the insider’s rationality leading them down the dark alley of
unresolved disputes or confusion. For example, taking the
two-track approach in science- where the truth claim asserts
that if someone or something is right than the other must be
wrong. So if Darwin is right therefore Wallace must be wrong?
Another approach of science, the internalist approach,
implicitly heroic also insisted its players
being either right or wrong. Darwin was hailed as the hero
whilst Wallace as the anti-hero in their theories of evolution.
Wallace was considered wrong because he went off rails by
engaging in socialism and spiritualism, dangerously pushing
off the boundaries of science. Using the internalist approach,
Wallace was discredited as he brought in politics and
supernaturals into science again pushing the boundaries.
Science seems to have nurtured an obsession over its
hero (Darwin) and anti-hero (Wallace), at times lacking focus,
they stray from the lofty quest of the simple truth.



Only the contextual approach of the outsiders provided by
contextual history of science can be fair to someone who step
out of the boundary. Wallace's social position was given credit.
Outsiders are able to look at both the achievements of Wallace
and Darwin symmetrically and equally and award them equal
status. Wallace should not be dismissed and Darwin honoured.
Only through contextual study Wallace gets fair treatment. It is
only fair to view him in his context-his childhood, his
relationship etc…



Both religious studies and history of science seek to
understand things in context - historical, social, political
and cultural and adopt a different perspective from insiders.
Outsiders may be able to understand the insiders better as what
may first appear alien takes on new meaning when view withinits
own setting while insiders benefit from outsiders’ guided
rationality. No one including the insiders has the monopoly of
truth, there are some universal truths in all religions and not
all sciences can prove all truths; it seems each time science
unravel a riddle, new ones grows from it. Boundaries should be
flexible and evolve according to changes in society as people
find new religious and scientific expressions, who knows one day
they might emerge as one discipline? Outsiders can become
insiders and insiders can become outsiders through both
disciplines of Religion and Science. Boundaries might fade and
the odd couple Religion and Science, Insiders and Outsiders
would emerge in the common quest of truth.

(1348 words)


Bibliography
Religion & Science in context, block 4, The Open University.
An introduction to The Humanities, Resource book 3, The Open University

Medea & Wide Sargasso Sea

essay by cheryl yow

This essay compares 2 novels -
a Greek classic- Euripides's Medea
& Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.



Euripides's Medea

Based on the Greek classic written by Euripides,
Medea tells the story of the revenge of a woman
betrayed by her husband.
Medea, the wife is willing to go as far
as killing her two sons
just to destroy her husband’s plan and to punish him.

Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

Wide Sargasso Sea is written by Jean Rhys in response to Jane Eyre.

She transforms Rochester’s first wife (Bertha Mason),

the infamous ‘madwoman in the attic’

to the lively yet vulnerable Antoinette Cosway.

Wide Sargasso Sea gives a voice

to the ‘madwoman in the attic’

and tells her side of the story.

It gives a voice not only to her

but also to the black people in West Indies

whom Rochester regards with much loathing

Question:
One of the most striking features of the texts in Block 5
is the way in which they surprise their audience’s expectations.
How do they do this and why?




Medea and Wide Sargasso Sea shocked us, shook us and
shattered our worldviews through powerful myths. Both
authors, Euripides and Jean Rhys are ahead of their times and
they are sharply ingenious in breaking conventions and
undermining our expectations of myths. They explore the
extreme, dark psychological depth of oppressive, isolated
women, betrayed and abandoned by their husbands.
Euripides uses unexpected dramatic climax while
Rhys applies the modernist style to break
conventions and in exposing the hypocrisy and
oppression of the patriarchy society and imperialism;
they created fearful women revealing the deep
psychological potential of insanity lurking beneath
their consciousness. Both writers explore the
darkest psychological reaches of the female psyche.


Rhys shows the haunting isolation of the vulnerable
Antonette, (driven mad and locked up by her Victorian,
xenophobic husband), left alone, helpless and trapped like ships
stuck in Sargasso Sea by the British. She is caught in the tension
and enmity between the Creoles and the English, although she is a
white Creole not ‘mixed’ she was not accepted by the cold, frosted
whites and could neither fit in with the warm, sensuous blacks.


Shuttled between these two societies, Rhys emphasizes the
ambiguity and elusiveness of Antonette in no man’s land. ‘It was
as if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass’(Blk 5, p.183). The
looking glass shows that they are identical yet opposites.
Rhys portrays the living as a zombie, a walking spiritless soul,
‘her face blank, no expression at all’(WSS p.107), ‘the doll’s
smile came back-nailed to her face’(WSS p.111) Readers may be
taken aback by Rhys’s choice of giving the mad woman in the attic
a voice. She gives a voice to the madness and demands that
madness is not something to be removed and be forgotten rather
that madness reveals to us a reality.


In Euripides’s Medea, Medea is a calculating woman, being
slighted in her marriage, she seeks revenge as a traditional
heroic male value. She was composed and collected without
remorse after the news of the princess and the king’s death,
killed by her poison and black magic. Furthermore, her carefully
planned killing of her children which was not done in a spur of
moment of distortion and confusion must have stupefied the male
audiences and send shudders down their spines!


It is disturbing to know that there was a mood of great
urgency in the despairing climax of her speech that she must
act ‘as swiftly as possible’ and ‘without delay’ in killing her
children. She killed them in her home- the haven,a place
associated with peace and security; she shocked the male
audiences who associated violence with the public realm not the
private home! The great satisfaction of seeing the immense
suffering of loss in Jason, her husband, predominates her
maternal instincts of tender love and protection of her children.
“ …to make their father suffer, when I shall suffer twice as
much Myself? (line 1045/6). ‘Are my enemies To laugh at me?
Am I to let them off scot free?’ (line 1047/8). By killing her
children she imposes the rivers of tradition and normality to run
uphill -the supreme expression of her difference from female
normalcy- the murder of her sons.


In addition, Euripides and Rhys astonished their audiences
/readers with their displays of male hypocrisy that reveal
the weakness of the patriarchy society which were considered
perfect. Rhys’s Rochestor preoccupied by anxieties about racial
impurity and incest, has no qualms sleeping with Amelie, a
black slave but rejected his wife when he believed that she may
have a coloured lover before him. His denial of the island’s
sensuousness was expressed in his disapproval:
‘The flowers too red, mountains too high, the hills too near’
(WSS p.42) reveals the hypocrisy of cultural superiority.


And in Medea, Jason, the status-seeker, the arch-rationalist
polarizes himself and Medea; he, the logical person whereas she
the emotional in their psychological exchange. Medea’s theme is
simple ‘Then I saved your life’ (line 478). He minimises his
obligation and claims it is their mutual benefits and that by
marrying the princess he is securing a future for her and their
children. Euripides jolts the men’s ego by exposing the
hypocrisy, rationalism and weakness of men in Jason who was
seen as a great hero.


Finally, they induce a jarring contrast to men’s negative
stereotype of weak women by creating strong, clever and wise
women. ‘Courtesans we have for pleasure and concubines to
satisfy our daily bodily needs, but wives to produce true
born children and to be trustworthy guardians of the household’
(D5b-Demosthenes 59.122 p.103). Women were expected to live
unassertively in private as men’s plaything or his housekeeper.
Male audiences were surprised seeing Medea with her
commanding personality in the public realm of men and
completes assertively and equally with her male opponents;
and her capability to move at will from logic to appeal to
emotion in each case securing her objectives. ‘This one day
- You can hardly in one day accomplish what I am afraid of’
(line 355-6).With Creon, she appeals to his feelings as a
father and finally a disarming humble request - to demand
from him a day’s grace that led to the lethal concession.
In her exchange with Jason she focuses on important Greeks
values of helping friends and punishing the enemies,
resulting in the heroic masculine Medea, seen as embodying
traditional Athenian male values whereas Jason is seen
to be deficient in the male role.


Rhys ‘s strong woman is Christophine. Christophine refuses to
use black magic to help Antonette instead advises ‘A man don’t
treat you good, pick up your skirt and walk out”, ‘…. In the end
he come to find…how you do without him….he see you fat and
happy, he want you back. Men are like that’ (WSS p.69). ‘Don’t
bawl at the man and don’t make crazy faces. Don’t cry either.
…..Speak nice….’ ( WSS p.73). Readers are astonished at the
unconventional image of the sorceress. It filled the male readers
with awe yet intimidated by her assertiveness, wisdom and fearful
of her black magic.


Both writers break conventions. Rhys uses modernistic style of
writing –the lack of connection and explanation between lines;
and she uses polyphonic quality featuring different voices from
different perspectives. By focussing on the streams of
consciousness, she gives the story a fragmented, dreamlike
quality and makes the readers feel disorientated. Her island
setting is seen at times beautiful, eden-like, brightly
coloured but isolated, oppressed and disturbing with a past.
‘I see everything still, fixed forever like
the colours in a stained-glass window. Only the clouds move’
(WSS p.75) Rhys injects a sense of ambiguity:
secrets are whispered, never revealed and it haunts us.


On the other hand, Euripides sets a bold and dramatic
statement at the final scene (the climax) by preparing his
audience for the wrong denouement. A mythical precedent of a
child-murderer - Ino, she at least have the excuse of been
rendered insane by god and she finally killed herself. The myth
has resumed. The powerful effect and dramatic intensity of
Medea’s final supernatural scene broke convention. The scene
of the dragon chariot transformed Medea’s status from a criminal
to the grand-daughter of the sun god, Helios to symbolise her
heroic identity. Medea deprives Jason ultimately of the paternal
role of a consoling funeral and this highlights the striking
absence of Jason’s traditional male function. Medea, godlike is
elevated above the sorrowing Jason. Its starkness makes it
deeply disturbing, how could she killed her own children and
be allowed to triumph?


Euripides uses myths to question the position of women in
contemporary society. He illuminates their oppression and
questions the rationalism and the weakness of the male gender
as well as the hypocrisy of Greek hero. He resisted the superior
attitudes of the Athenian. The reversal of the roles of the
genders serves as a strict warning to the male audiences -
are they still in control?


On the other hand, Jean Rhys challenges Charlotte Bronte’s
Jane Eyre, by giving a voice to the ‘Creole Madness’ myth and a
no name - ‘ghostly’ Rochester- to verbalise submerged attitudes.
She expresses the distance between people because of racism and
imperialism. The zombies are the victims of controlling, cruel
and demeaning colonialism- imposing order in the untamed
Carribean island. Their idea of a restrained paradise is
oppressive. The unspeakable story of possessions, ownerships;
without kindness, without pity, to own each other in marriage,
parenthood and in slavery.


Euripides and Rhys break conventions and surprise us with
their delivery of reality through myths. Myth enshrines
folk-memories, establishes ancestry and offers an early
form of psychology. We are drawn to myths regardless of its
‘truth’ or ‘untruth’. Without myths our world would lose its
magical appeal.


Both writers question the destructive nature of the patriarchal
society. Euripides ‘insanity’ reveals the hideous mind of an
abandoned woman triggered by fury and Rhys’s ‘madness’ is a
mirror compelling us to look into the hypocrisies of patriarchy,
imperialism- the alienation of racism that breeds isolation; our
obsession of processions including our hazy truths in living a
life of illusions. The sane seems insane and the insane madder
and it jolts our consciousness.

(1529 words)


Bibliography:
Euripides, Medea and other plays, penguin classics.
Rhys J., Wide Sargasso Sea, Penguin Classics.
AZS103, An introduction to the Humanities, Resource Book 3,The open university.

Great Expectations

essay by cheryl yow


CHARLES DICKENS - GREAT EXPECTATIONS

 http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=great%20expectations%20%20pictures&imgurl=http://thefilmwotiwatched.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/great-expectations1.jpg&imgrefurl

Charles Dickens shows how a young simple boy
desires to grew into a gentleman.

'Great Expectations' reveals the discontentment
in many people and
how they strive for things that are out of reach.

This is exactly the situation Pip is faced with.

Pip later gains humanity and  learns that 

the true gentleman of Great Expectations
(in the Victorian society)

is that of a true kind-hearted gentleman.

Question
‘Great Expectations, with its first narrator, makes the
reader acutely aware of the distance between the inner life
and its surrounding circumstances. Sometimes those
circumstances help to explain the inner response but other
times the inward voice expresses itself in thoughts and
language that far exceeds any outward cause or provocation.’

Discuss this statement in the light of pip’s revelations
about himself and his social world, paying equal attention
to the themes in the novel and the narrative techniques used
to explore them.




A gentleman – a Victorian ideal, consumes Pip. The
cost of becoming a gentleman started Pip’s journey of self
-improvement: moral, social and educational; and these
motivate the best and worst aspects of Pip. The idea of
expectations driven by repressed desires, aspirations and
self-development provide the psychological mechanism of
Great Expectations. The working out of these desires and fantasies
provides Dickens with the opportunity to gently satirize the
capricious nature of the class system of his era. Complicated
by the moral ambiguity of the characters and the situations:
the good versus the evil, the façade and false appearances;
these provoke us to wonder who is good and who is evil, and
what is real and what is false. We will look into the gap
between Pip’s inner life and his surrounding
circumstances in his struggles for moral development
and the narrative themes and techniques used in
developing its didactic message.



Pip, an orphan, a fragmented individual is constantly being
tormented by his sister, Mrs Joe. Along with unceasing beatings,
even innocently asking a simple question, was twisted around to
appear criminal. At a Christmas dinner Pip was attacked verbally
by adults that he should be grateful because were he a swine he
could await no better fate than to arrive on the dinner table;
endorsing a comical expression that children need to be bullied
into virtue. These have instilled in him, fear and a sense of
guilt for merely existing. Only though Mrs Joe’s submissive
husband, Joe, his affection nurtures him. Pip’s only solace was
sitting on Joe’s lap, it is here he learns how to distinguish
goodness from mean-spiritedness, the virtue that ennobled their
modest lives.



Then one memorable day came and made great changes in Pip’s life
–‘Imagine one selected day struck out of it… and think how
different its course would have been… for the formation of the
first link on one memorable day’
(p. 71).

Pip’s meeting with the terrifying, tyrannical convict, Magwitch
on the marshes where he was instructed to get food and a file.
Robbing Mrs Joe to feeda convict, Pip becomes troubled by this
additional criminal guilt - he feels like he is on secret
conspiracy with convicts, hence aligning himself as an outcast.
Pip’s childhood is saddled with the dilemma between the demands
of his bullying sister and this inner guilt.



Pip, an ignorant country boy of repressed desires, yearns for
Estella’s love
–‘her light came along the long dark passage like a star’(p.58),
aspiring to belong to her social class triggers the heightened
awareness of his common upbringing and he immediately
fantasizes of becoming a gentleman. Mysteriously, Pip was
eventually whisked away by his newly acquired fortune,
becomes a man of high social status but the affluence only
brings wealthy idleness. In his haste to climb the social
ladder of gentlemen; he abandons a loving bond with Joe.
His lack of gratitude toward Joe further intensify his guilt.



In London, Pip’s knowledge of the ‘civilised’ life is dominated
by the precariousness of a class-divided society –the wealthy,
the high status and the deprivation of its underclass. Jaggers,
a prominent lawyer, continually washes his hands with soap
display his guilt as the criminal he protects. Later Magwitch,
a petty criminal and Compeyson were tried for the same crime,
however Compeyson got a reduced sentence due to his well-bred
manners and elevated position in society. The external trappings
of the criminal justice system become a superficial standard of
morality. The filthy rich are imprisoned, in self chosen
psychological prisons – The bitter Ms Havisham, by stopping her
clocks, done nothing more than even to put on her second shoe
and although Estella lived a privileged life, her callous heart
robs her of happiness, both have meaningless existence. The
coarse and cruel Drummle provides an important contrast, a lout
who inherited immense wealth while Joe, a humble blacksmith,
who works hard for the little. Later when Joe visited Pip in
London, the social change hinder their interaction. However,
despite Joe’s lower social status, Pip observes -
‘a simple dignity in him. The fashion of his dress could no
more come in way …, than it could come in its way in heaven’
(p. 222).
Pip regrets his previous snobbery and realizes that social
status has no inherent connection to moral worth.




When Magwitch suddenly appears as an escaped criminal and the
discovery that Pip’s secret benefactor is wretched Magwitch
and not wealthy Miss Havisham completely shatters him. He feels
a sense of entrapment, he is now forever bound to the lowest of
the society. Pip’s disparagement to Magwitch is expressed in
his description of Magwitch appallingly unrefined manner of
eating ‘ as he turned his food in his mouth, and turned his
head sideways to bring his strongest fangs to bear upon it,
he looked terribly like a hungry old dog’ (p. 327). Magwitch,
indebted to Pip, toiled for years as a sheep herder to make Pip
a gentleman and despite taking the great risk of a death
penalty, he still visit Pip. Moved by Magwitch noble act and
guilty of his condescension, Pip discovered Magwitch’s inner
nobility despite his status as a criminal. Prompted by his
conscience, he helps Magwitch to evade the police. Pip’s
gentility connecting with murder and deportation seems to
suggest that the triumph of mid-Victorian society were
prescribed by some very dark realities.



The first person narrative in Great expectation with its multi
-genre- bildungsroman, gothic, melodramatic and the realism of
detailed description aim to display young Pip’s perspective:
his guilt, his aspirations and moral development. The dual
personality of pip: adult Pip, the narrator and the child Pip
is a skilfully executed distinction; linking the gap between
the moral exploration and self-identification of the young,
idealistic boy with his innate conscience. The adult Pip
observes his childhood, interprets its meanings and judges
himself severely. Even at his lowest point, we still see a
grain of goodness in Pip and because of the double narrative
we never lose sympathy for pip.



Dickens creates a magnificent gothic setting to denote
Pip’s inner world of strange hallucinatory and romantic,
idealistic perception of the upper class. In Satis house,
Pip meets the eccentric Miss Havisham dressed in a tattered
wedding dress, that looked like ‘grave-clothes’ and her old
wedding cake is rotting. And everything in the room, the watch
and the clock has stopped for a long time in the midst of
decaying objects. Havisham decaying house reflects her twisted
mind and the degenerating society with its hidden diminishing
morality. Furthermore, the images of inanimate objects in the
characters’ appearances are expressed as a social critique– Mr
Wemmick inscrutable features ‘imperfectly carved-out with a
dull-edged chisel’ are compared to a letter-box while Mrs Joe
looks as if she scrubs her face with a nutmeg grater- suggests
that the character’s social position pressured them into
resembling an object and that the class system dehumanizes
certain people, just as Miss Havisham’s crime of dehumanization
by using Pip and Estella as inanimatevehicle of revenge for her
broken heart.



Irony creates tension in the novel. When the convict asked Pip
where his mother is, and Pip answered ‘There, sir!’ (p.5),
pointing to the graveyard, the convict becomes momentary
frightened creating an ironic, comical and delightful moment.
A major irony is how a simple task of bringing a convict food
and a file, changed Pip’s life forever, when Magwitch repaid
him by making him a gentleman and also turn out to be the
father of Pip’s love, Estella. Another dramatic irony is how
Miss Havisham wanted Pip to be tormented emotionally,
ironically she grew to like him and even paid for part of
Pip’s expenses for the partnership and eventually apologies
to him.



Repetition reinforces the reality. The repetition of mist
symbolise danger and uncertainty- when Pip brings Magwitch
food in the marshes, when Magwitch reappears in London-
‘It was wretched weather; stormy and wet…
mud, mud, mud…a vast heavy veil…..
an eternity of cloud and wind.’
(p. 309)
and when Pip was kidnapped by Orlick. Additionally, ‘Hands’
are repeated themes to redefine some significant moments.
Biddy’s ‘good matronly hand’ replaces Mrs Joe abusive hands
with warmth and affection. And in the climatic recognition
scene, when Magwitch ‘ holding out both hands for mine’
(p.327) and at Magwitch deathbed ‘raised my hand to his lips.
Then let it sink upon his breast again with his own hand lying
on it (p. 455), must have moved Pip to tears and lastly when
Pip meets Estella ‘her hand in mine’ (p.479) as they walked
out of that ruined place. The emphasis on hands also symbolise
the lower class with its inherent warmth and kindness.




The hybrid of genre weaves through, contrasting the city and
the country, the public and the private and reveals how society
can impair the individual. The didactic message is that Pip
realised his greatest fault of disparagement and learns that the
issue of identity lies in the dignity of labour rather than
hereditary aristocracy, in simple human integrity rather than
deceit and pretension.



What makes a gentleman? The notion of a Victorian gentleman is
of high social status, wealth, education and moral qualities.
Compeyson, the ‘false’ gentleman, resorted to crime and betrayal
whereas Magwitch in wishing to ‘own’ a gentleman triggers his
intrinsic goodness. Thus Magwitch’s generosity and nobility,
Pip’s conscience and Joe’s kindness, loyalty and simple dignity,
these are the essence of a gentleman; and it is these values that
are more important than social advancement, wealth and class.


(1584 words)



Bibliography
Dickens, C., Great Expectations (1998), Oxford University Press
Walder, D (ed.), The Realist Novel (1995) Open University