frankenstein appearance essay

Physical Appearance in Frankenstein

How it works

The main theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the importance of appearance which correlates to the idea of acceptance in modern society. Today’s society, as well as in the society of Frankenstein, people judge one often solely on their looks. Social prejudice is often based on looks, whether it be the pigments that make up someone’s skin color, the facial features that one has and the clothes that a person wears.

Society makes rapid judgments based on these and other considerations and they affect the way people treat someone.

In Frankenstein, the society of that time is much like our own today. It is an appearance-based society, and this is why the extreme ugliness of Victor Frankenstein’s creature is very alarming to the characters in the book. One of the parallels in today’s society and Frankenstein is that of racism and discrimination. These parallels from both today’s society and Frankenstein are shown from the very first moments of Frankenstein’s creature point of view in life.

The very first thing Victor observes about his newly alive creation is that His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; (Ch.5 2) and he viewed his creation with breathless horror and disgust (Ch.5 3). Here we find out that Victor notices the color of his creatures skin first and judges it to be horrible unlike what he believed would turn out to be as beautiful. This proves that Victor did not purposely intend to make his creation such a breathless horror and disgust

Throughout the novel, the monster is tormented for his looks, but no one takes the time to get to know him as a person. The monster is so hideous even when he does good deeds he is still looked at as evil, This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human the creature remarks as he is Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. But the agony of my wound overcame me; my pulses paused, and I fainted (Ch.16 20). The creature was just walking and notices a girl and she falls in the river, the monster jumps in and saves her and a man comes up and grabs the girl then shoots the creature. The man that shot him judged the monster by his looks and automatically looked at him as evil. This is how his good deed is repaid. The monster meant no harm he just wanted to help. From this point on in the novel, the monster is seeking revenge on humans for what they bring him solely pain to his heart.

During this point of the book, the creature is seeking revenge on Frankenstein for abandoning him at his apartment. The creature threatened that he will be there on Victor’s wedding night. As the day of the wedding started to get closer Victor started to go out with Elizabeth more and think about the monster a little less due to their love but always having the creature haunting him in the back of his head. Victor’s father started to notice him becoming a less more like his prior self before the creature. I am happy to remark, my dear son, that you have resumed your former pleasures and seem to be returning to yourself. And yet you are still unhappy and still avoid our society. (Ch.18 3) Victor is being seen as unhappy but returning to who used to be but he still avoids to be a part of his society. His family and friends do not think he is happy due to the way he had left and not written back to his family or friends. Due to this Victor is worried that people with discovering about the creature he had created while away. People are always being judged or appear to feel a certain way and they are treated differently.

In Walton’s case, he is looking for acceptance in society such similar toward’s Victor’s life both came from wealthy families and both looking for a way to be recognized other than appearing as a man who was given all of his wealth by his family. Victor’s way is to be the first to create life from the dead and Walton’s is to be the first to find unknown territory through the north polar. I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. (Letter 1 p.2) Essentially, Walton wants to see a place no other man has ever seen. On top of that, not only does he want to see an unexplored area but to be the first one to place a footprint upon a never before touched place. Outside of that, Walton knows that his travels could result in a new path which other travelers and shippers could use. In the end, Walton is simply seeking personal and historical known for doing/finding something which no others have ever found before. In summary, Walton desires to take this trip in order to show his father and uncle, as well as himself, that he can do something of worth and importance to the world. He can discover new things and learn new information to share with others. His self-image and his persona to others will undertake a transformation, should he return alive and successful.

In conclusion, the idea of wanting to be accepted and how appearances affect the way you are perceived/accepted in society in the book and modern real-world society are really similar due to the fact that we have three important characters from the book the creature, Victor, and Walton looking to be accepted in their society by searching for a purpose Victor by creating life out of death by being renown and accepted by society for being, Walton by searching for a shortcut passage through the north pole also by being renown and accepted in society, and the creature by trying to find a family where he is accepted without being judged on his appearance.

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How are Female Characters Portrayed in the Opening Chapters of Frankenstein?

‘Frankenstein’ has only a few female characters, however, Shelley makes these female characters part of the plot and uses descriptive vocabulary to make then seem ‘more important’ within the novel.

The female characters that are featured within this gothic novel, never really seem to have any dialogue within the text, however, this reflects the time period it was written in, because women were supposed to be ‘seen and not heard‘.

This idea is also presented upon the pages of this novel, because this was what was socially acceptable at this time, with this idea in mind Shelley used descriptive language to describe the appearance and behaviour of the female characters, from Victor’s and ‘the monster's’ points of view.

The female characters within the novel are… Caroline Beaufort, this is Victor’s mother. Beaufort was her maiden name before she married Victor’s father, then she became Caroline Frankenstein. Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mould, and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. “She procured plain work; she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life”. This describes how determined Caroline was to earn enough money to support herself and her father during his ill health, when she was child. Victor’s character describes how hard life was for his mother before she married Victor’s father, this is because Victor was inspired by his mother and loved her dearly.

Mary Shelley’s reason for including this part of the character's life must have stemmed from her own personal life, as her mother was a feminist writer, so including statements of women’s independence must have been important and rewarding for her mother and perhaps Victor’s mother's character brought this element of femininity to the novel.

Elizabeth Lavenza became Victor’s adopted cousin after Victor’s mother saw her as a baby being nursed by a ‘peasant woman’ in Italy. ‘The peasant woman, perceiving that my mother fixed eyes of wonder and admiration on this lovely girl, eagerly communicated her history. She was not her child, but the daughter of a Milanese nobleman. Her mother was a German and had died on giving birth. The infant had been placed with these good people to nurse; they were better off then’.

Shelley describes how Victor’s mother and father came to love Elizabeth and soon after adopted her and returned home to introduce her to Victor. ‘Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house - my more than sister - the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures’.

This shows how much Victor loved Elizabeth even from being a young child, and as his love grew he later married her in his adulthood.

Appearance and the description of how the female characters looked within the novel is a frequent characteristic that Shelley uses throughout the novel, this may be because women were judged upon how they looked rather than what they said or did. Shelley regularly describes how the female characters look, i.e as we are introduced to Justine’s character Victor describes her appearance in these exact words… ‘The appearance of Justine was calm. She was dressed in mourning, and her countenance, always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful’. This is the first description Victor gives on introducing Justine, the maid that they have known for years and that has lived with the Frankenstein family for years.

Further into the novel we discover more of Victor’s love for Elizabeth, which tells the reader women were seen as lustful and loveable and impracticably (in Elizabeth’s case) good friends. Good. ‘Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend; may heaven, in its bounty, bless and preserve you; may this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer! Live and be happy, and make others so’.

This is an affectionate account of Victor’s feelings towards Elizabeth. Again, this writing style was in keeping with the time it was written and this use of language would be used regularly when describing your love for someone at this time. This is a more romantic gesture and is less commonly used today. Shelley may have got inspiration from her husband when writing these particularly affectionate and romantic verses as her husband Percy Shelley was a poet, she may also have included this because she felt what Victor would be feeling, and as she had taken on the persona of Victor’s character within the novel she wanted to include this.

Victor’s creation ‘the monster’ also commented on the appearance of the female characters that he witnessed, ‘Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she endeavored to wipe away unperceived; but I generally found that her countenance and tone were more cheerful after having listened to the exhortations of her father’.

This is how ‘the monster’ describes Agatha, (one of the three inhabitants that live at the cottage, where ‘the monster’ slept near and watched. to learn more about human behaviour).

‘The monster’ particularly focuses on describing Agatha’s body language rather than her looks, however, he does also comment of how the female characters look further in this chapter. -

‘The lady was dressed in a dark suit and covered with a thick black veil… Felix came up hastily to the lady, who, when she saw him, threw up her veil, and I beheld a countenance of angelic beauty and expression. Her hair of a shiny raven black, and curiously braided; her eyes were dark but gentle, although animated; her features of a regular proportion and her complexion wondrously fair, each cheek tinged with a lovely pink’. This again links back to beauty and how women were seen as ‘beautiful’ and ‘angelic’. ‘The monster's’ feelings are similar to that of Victor’s and they both see women as ‘beautiful’ and delicate. However, they seem to be judged on their appearance and how they look too much, although this is how women were seen at the time the book was written, so this shows how society has changed and how people are now judged on ‘what they do’ not ‘how they look’.

In conclusion, the female characters that are featured within the novel are portrayed as ‘beautiful’ and are supposed to be seen not heard, although the character of Caroline Beaufort was slightly different to the other female characters within this novel, ‘But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mould, and her courage rose to support her in her adversity‘. This describes how Caroline’s character contrasts with the other female characters in the novel because she is more ‘independent’ and ‘has a mind of her own’ which is an important characteristic to have in a novel especially if you are a female author like Mary Shelley. 

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

October 26, 2020

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Frankenstein is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

2. Historical Contexts and Setting

4. Feminist Interpretation

5. Sample Essay Topics

6. Essay Topic Breakdown

• Frankenstein is a Gothic novel. The genre emerged in the eighteenth century, and was characterised by elements of mystery, horror and the supernatural. Such elements are manifested in the novel by Shelley’s use of isolated settings and dark undertones. Through her main plot of raising the dead to create a living creature, Shelley stays true to Gothic elements by allowing her characters to cross boundaries between mortal and supernatural worlds. 
• The novel is told in the epistolary form - written in a series of letters. This effectively integrates the reader into the story by allowing them to feel as if they are receiving a personal account of the events of the novel, adding an element of immersion. 
• Frankenstein is also a frame narrative, a form which examines the dark, internalised consciousness of each character that narrates the events of a story in each frame. Unlike in an omniscient narrative perspective, each storyteller is a character with concomitant shortcomings, limitations, prejudices, and motives.

Historical Contexts and Setting

• Born in London, 1797, Mary Shelley was the only daughter of notable intellectual radicals. Her father, William, was a philosopher who condemned social institutions as corrupt and instead advocated for reason to guide people’s decisions. 
• During the 18th century, the traditional and metaphysical understanding of the meaning of life were replaced by more secular ideologies. It was during this period that galvanism was born; Luigi Galvani’s experimentalism with electrical currents to stimulate muscle movement. Shelley took inspiration from this to form the crucial plot device of Frankenstein .
• The context of Frankenstein was also the backdrop of the French Revolution. There has been critic speculation that Shelley’s creature is an emblem of the French Revolution itself – originally created in order to benefit mankind, but the abuse of which drives it to uncontrollable destruction. 
• Thus, in Frankenstein , Shelley explores not only the scientific possibilities of human existence, but also the nature of man and self awareness of ambition. The novel is designed to make the reader wonder - is scientific exploration an exciting or terrifying thing? How much ambition is too much - and does having it offer more good or harm to humanity?

Pursuit of dangerous knowledge

Victor’s personal torment throughout the novel arises as a result of his attempt to surge beyond accepted human limits of science. Walton mirrors this pursuit by his attempt to surpass previous human explorations in his endeavour to reach the North Pole. Shelley evidently warns against such pursuits, as Victor’s creation causes the destruction of all those dear to him, and Walton finds himself critically trapped between sheets of ice, with only his deep loneliness to keep him company. A key difference between Victor and Walton’s fate, however, is that while Victor’s hatred of the creature drives himself into misery, he serves as a warning for the latter to pull back from his treacherous mission, proving just how dangerous the desire for knowledge can become.

Sublime Nature

The sublimity of the natural landscape is a typical Romantic symbol throughout the novel, as it acts as a source of emotional and spiritual renewal for both Frankenstein and his creature. Depressed and remorseful after the deaths of William and Justine, Victor retreats to Mont Blanc in the hopes that its grandness will uplift his spirits. Likewise, the creature’s ‘heart lightens’ as spring arrives, delivering him from the ‘hellish’ cold and abandonment of the winter. Such as this, nature acts as an instrument through which Shelley mirrors inherent similarity between Frankenstein and the creature. Nature is also constantly depicted as a force stronger than that of man, perceivable by its punishment of Frankenstein for attempting to violate maternal laws in his unnatural creation of the creature. As such, Shelley suggests that Frankenstein’s hubristic attitude towards nature ultimately results in his damnation.

Beauty and Monstrosity (Societal Prejudice)

The creature is rejected almost solely due to its hideously ugly physical appearance, standing at ‘eight feet tall’ and described as ‘a thing even Dante could not have conceived’. Prejudice against outward appearances becomes apparent throughout the novel, as despite educating itself and developing a ‘sophisticated speech’, the creature continues to be judged solely on its appearance and is shunned and beaten due to its repulsiveness. Shelley condemns the extent of this prejudice through the character of William, who, despite the creature’s belief that he is far too young to have ‘imbibed a horror of deformity’, demonstrates intense loathing at the ‘ugly wretch’. In stark contrast to this, the reader can perceive a prevalent social privilege of beauty, as numerous characters are favoured solely for their outward appearances. Safie, similar to the creature in that she is also foreign and unlearned in English, is admired for her ‘countenance of angelic beauty’. While the ‘demoniacal corpse’ of the creature is perceived by society as ‘a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned’, Safie’s beauty marks her as a cherished individual who ‘infuses new life’ into souls.

Victor’s obsession with creating life is shrouded in secrecy, and his obsession with destroying his creation remains equally secretive until his revelation to Walton near the end of the story. However, while Victor chooses to remain reclusive due to his horror and guilt, the creature is forced to do so merely by his hideous appearance. Despite this, the theme of secrecy also links the creator and creature through the character of Walton; in confessing to Walton of his crimes before he dies, Victor is able to escape this stifling secrecy that ruined his life, just as the monster desperately takes advantage of Walton’s presence to force a human connection, hoping to find someone who will empathise with his miserable existence as ‘a monster’. 

Feminist Interpretation

• Frankenstein has been perceived by many as a feminist novel, as Shelley’s weak representation of women acts as a critique to patriarchal ideals of females.
• During the eighteenth century, a woman’s finest characteristics were described by Rousseau himself: ‘The first and most important qualification in a woman is good nature or sweetness of temper.’ 
• Thus, in Frankenstein , women are almost always perceived through a male’s perception. The women in the novel are thus excluded from all spheres; not given voices in telling their stories, nor truly figuring in the male characters’ romantic lives. 
• Female representation is purposefully excluded from the novel in order to accentuate this flaw in society. As such, the women that do appear are symbols of the ‘ideal women’ of the eighteenth century - they are presented as reflections of their male counterparts; as mothers, daughters, sisters, or wives, rather than strong individual entities. 
• It is important to note that most of Shelley’s idealised women in Frankenstein all die in the end, and the character traits that had defined them as idealised women were the cause of their deaths. For example, Caroline Beaufort dies directly as a result of her acting as a dutiful caregiver, and looking after Elizabeth when she contracts scarlet fever. By emancipating her from her stereotypical role as a woman through death, Shelley suggests that her Enlightened society must depart from this systematic oppression of the female sex.

Author's Views and Values

Frankenstein depicts a variety of Shelley’s views and values. Some ways to word these in an essay would be: 

• Shelley suggests through Frankenstein’s downfall that an individual cannot succeed in isolation.
• Shelley visibly condemns the misuse of intellect and scientific discovery for one’s own personal gain.
• In Frankenstein , Shelley depicts the creature’s mistreatment to oppose the societal judgement that beauty is reflective of character. 
• Shelley offers a moral edict that superfluous pride leads to downfall.
• Shelley denounces the naïve ideals of revolution ideology through the tragic and violent consequences of Frankenstein’s discovery 

Sample Essay Topics

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response . ‍

Here are a few practice essay questions:

• ‘In Frankenstein, the creature is shown to be more humane than its human creator.’ To what extent do you agree?
• ‘Frankenstein often falls physically ill after traumatic events.’ Discuss the role of sickness in the novel.
• 'Although Frankenstein is written by a woman, it contains no strong female characters.’ Discuss.
• ‘Life, although it may only be awn accumulation of anguish, is dear to me and I will defend it.’ How does Shelley use paradox to show the complexity of the human condition?.
• ‘In Frankenstein, suffering results when imperfect men disturb nature’s perfection.’ To what extent do you agree

Essay Topic Breakdown

Essay topic 1 : 'although frankenstein is written by a woman, it contains no strong female characters.’ discuss..

You could approach this topic in a character-based manner , and focus on three female characters: 

Paragraph One: 

• Focus on how Shelley depicts women as merely weaker, sacrificial reflections of their male counterparts.
• Margaret Saville, Walton’s ‘dear sister’, is only present in the novel through his narrative portrayal of her. She is described as the ‘angel [of] the house’, and while her brother is exploring to ‘accomplish some great purpose’, Margaret is at home, passively waiting for his letters.
• Caroline Beaufort, Victor’s mother, is also only perceptible as the archetypal female, encompassing the roles of wife, mother, and daughter. After her father dies, leaving her as an ‘orphan and beggar’, Caroline is reduced to a damsel in distress in need of saving by Alphonse Frankenstein, who comes to her ‘like a protecting spirit’. 

Paragraph Two:

• In this paragraph, you could focus on how females are valued primarily as objects of physical beauty, rather than individual human beings of autonomy.
• Elizabeth is selected from the orphan peasant group merely due to her ‘very fair’ beauty. Thus, it is this ‘crown of distinction’ which affords Elizabeth her subsequent life of happiness in the Frankenstein household. However, beauty for women also induces objectification, as she is ‘given’ to Victor as a ‘pretty present’, and he views her as his ‘possession’ to ‘protect, love, and cherish’. 
• Safie is also physically beautiful, with a ‘countenance of angelic beauty and expression’. It is this attractiveness of Safie which affords her marginalised power as a woman. Unlike the creature, who is rejected by the De Laceys because of his ‘hideous deformity’, the foreign Safie ‘[diffuses] happiness among’ the De Lacey household through her ‘exotic’ beauty.

Paragraph Three: 

• Shelley’s deliberate exclusion of women from romantic and reproductive spheres in Frankenstein condemns the societal oppression of females.
• Frankenstein encompasses an immense focus on male relationships. There exists an almost homosexual ‘brotherly affection’ between Walton and Frankenstein, as Frankenstein can be perceived as the figure fulfilling Walton’s ‘bitter… want of a friend’ and companion for life; something that would conventionally be found in a wife. 
• Homosexual undertones are also evident in Frankenstein’s ‘closest friendship’ with Henry Clerval, who he treasures arguably more than Elizabeth. The murder of Frankenstein’s ‘dearest Henry’ exacts from him ‘agonies’ in the form of ‘strong convulsions’, as he subsequently falls physically ill for two months ‘on the point of death’. In contrast to this, the strangulation of Elizabeth is received by a brief period of mourning, implying that Frankenstein does not require as much time to grieve Elizabeth. 
• Finally, the male creature and his assumption that a female creature ‘will be content with the same fate’ as himself further emphasises male dismissal of female autonomy. 

Essay Topic 2: ‘Life, although it may only be awn accumulation of anguish, is dear to me and I will defend it.’ How does Shelley use paradox to show the complexity of the human condition?’.

• As the creature’s education by books teaches him contradictory lessons on human nature, Shelley portrays the acquisition of knowledge as a paradoxical double-edged sword.
• Through intertextual references to the books through which the creature ‘[studies] human nature’, Shelley presents the paradoxical characteristics of mankind. 
• Although The creature is propelled to suicidal thoughts of ‘despondency and gloom’ by Goethe’s Sorrows of Werther , the book also reveals his empathy, as he becomes ‘a listener’ to the ‘lofty sentiments and feelings’ of humanity. 
• Plutarch’s Lives instils in him the ‘greatest ardour for virtue… and  abhorrence for vice’; two traits, the creature realises, that simultaneously and paradoxically manifest in society.
• Milton’s Paradise Lost allows the creature to compares his rejection by Frankenstein with that of Satan by God. This results in his own paradoxical turn in character - as he subsequently declares ‘ever-lasting war against his ‘accursed creator’, ’evil thenceforth [becomes his] good’. 

Paragraph Two: 

• Shelley purposefully pairs the grotesque physicality of the creature with potent verbal power to showcase his complex humanity. 
• The creature’s humanity despite his ‘physical deformity allows him to be perceived by the audience as human rather than a ‘wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition’. 
• For De Lacey, the hideous appearance of the creature is eclipsed by his eloquence, which ‘persuades [him] that [he] is sincere’. Shelley portrays through his initial acceptance of the creature that he is a ‘daemon’ only in appearance, and thus criticises the ‘fatal prejudice that clouds [the majority of society’s] eyes’. 
• This idea is furthered as Felix’s perception of the creature’s ‘miserable deformity’ results in a ‘violent attack’ upon him. However, the creature abstains from defending himself out of human goodness - despite his capability to tear ‘[Felix] limb from limb’, the creature instead showcases his sensitivity. 
• Thus, the paradoxical antithesis of the creature is the way in which human actions, such as those of Felix, diminish his own humanity and mould him into the monstrous animal his appearance presents him as. 

Paragraph Three:

• The symbolism of fire and ice in ‘Frankenstein’ serves as a moral reminder of the paradoxical essence of human ambition. 
• The motif of fire symbolises the seductive quality of scientific aspiration, as Frankenstein’s ‘longing to penetrate the secrets of nature’ is described as literally ‘warming’ his young imagination. Despite being life-giving, fire is also evidently death-dealing, as fifteen-year-old Frankenstein perceives a vicious storm during which lightning causes the destruction of an oak tree into a ‘blasted stump’ issuing a ‘stream of fire’. As such, the powerfully antithetical nature of fire complicates his ambition, as he muses, ‘How strange… that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!’.
• In contrast, the motif of ice represents the perils of superfluous ambition. The icy sea of Mont Blanc serves as the backdrop of Frankenstein’s dialogue with his ‘filthy creation’. The creature utilises his familiarity to the icy climate to overpower his ‘master’; there is a disturbing reversal in roles as the creature forces Frankenstein to follow him into the ‘everlasting ices of the north’, and wishes for him to suffer ‘the misery of cold and frost to which [he himself is] impassive’. 
• The paradox of fire and ice in Frankenstein culminates in the creature’s dramatic announcement of death by fire, surrounded by ice. This acts as a bitter and ironic parody of both Walton's and Frankenstein's dream of the fire, underscoring its tragic fatality. This is emphasised by the creature’s final words, ‘I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames… my ashes will be swept into the sea by winds’.

For more advice on Frankenstein , read Kevin's blog post on How to Nail A Frankenstein Essay.

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The Great Gatsby is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

• Introduction

Call it the greatest American novel or ultimate story of unrequited romance— The Great Gatsby is undoubtedly a stunning snapshot of one of the most American decades that America has ever seen. The 1920s saw significant economic growth after WWI, and what’s more American than material excess, wealth, and prosperity? The stock market was going off, businesses were booming, and people were having a great time.

Well, not everybody—and on the flipside, what’s more American than socio-economic inequality or the ever-quixotic American Dream?

In this blog, we’ll go through the novel in this context, examine some of its key themes, and also have a think about the critiques it raises about American society. We’ll also go through an essay prompt that ties some of these things together.

Life in the Roaring Twenties

This snapshot from the 2013 film adaptation actually tells us a lot about the 1920s. On the one hand, social and cultural norms were shifting—men no longer sported beards, and women were dressing more androgynously and provocatively. On the other hand, the modern, American economy was emerging—people began buying costly consumer goods (like cars, appliances, telephones etc.) using credit rather than cash. This meant that average American families were able to get these things for the first time, while more prosperous families were able to live in extreme excess.

In Fitzgerald’s novel, the Buchanans are one such family. Tom and his wife Daisy have belonged to the 1% for generations, and the 1920s saw them cement their wealth and status. At the same time, the booming economy meant that others (like the narrator Nick) were relocating to cities in pursuit of wealth, and (like Gatsby) making significant financial inroads themselves. 

The Great Gatsby traces how the differences between these characters can be destructive even if they’re all wealthy. Add a drop of Gatsby’s unrequited love for Daisy, and you have a story that ultimately examines how far people go for romance, and what money simply can’t buy. 

The answer to that isn’t so obvious though. Yes, money can’t buy love, but it also can’t buy a lot of other things associated with the lifestyle and the values of established wealth. We’ll get into some of this now.

Wealth and class

Fitzgerald explores tensions between three socio-economic classes—the establishment, the ‘nouveau riche’ and the working class.

Tom and Daisy belong to the ‘old money’ establishment, where wealth is generational and inherited . This means they were born into already wealthy families, which affects their upbringing and ultimately defines them, from the way they speak (Tom’s “paternal contempt” and Daisy’s voice, “full of money”) to their major life decisions (including marriage, symbolised through the “string of pearls” he buys for her—which, fun fact, is estimated to be worth millions of dollars today). It also affects their values, as we’ll see in the following section.  For now, consider this image of their home (and those ponies on the left, which they also own), described as follows:

“The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for [400 metres], jumping over sun-dials and brick walls and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.”

Nick Carraway also comes from a similar (though not as extravagant) background—his family had been rich by Midwestern standards for “three generations” before he came to New York.

Conversely, Gatsby belongs to the ‘ nouveau riche ’, or new money. Unlike the Buchanans, Gatsby was born into a poor family, only coming to wealth in the 1920s boom. Specifically, he inherited money from Dan Cody after running away from home at 17.

Although they are all rich, there are significant cultural differences between old and new money. Old money have their own culture of feigned politeness which Gatsby doesn’t quite get. When Tom and the Sloanes invite Nick and Gatsby to supper in chapter six, Gatsby naively accepts, to which Tom would respond behind his back, “Doesn’t he know [Mrs. Sloane] doesn’t want him?” Even though Gatsby is financially their equal, his newfound wealth can’t buy his way into their (nasty, horrible) lifestyle.

Finally, this is contrasted with the working class, particularly George and Myrtle Wilson who we meet in chapter two. They live in a grey “valley of ashes”, the detritus of a prosperous society whose wealth is limited to the 1%. Fitzgerald even calls it a “solemn dumping ground”, suggesting that life is precarious and difficult here. Consider what separates George—“blond, spiritless… and faintly handsome”—from Tom (hint: $$).

Myrtle is described differently, however—she is a “faintly stout” woman with “perceptible vitality”. This may be less of a description of her and more of a commentary on Tom’s sexuality, and what attracts him to her such that he cheats on Daisy with her. Still, Myrtle’s relative poverty is evident in her expressions of desire throughout their meeting—“I want to get one of those dogs,” she says, and Tom just hands her the money.

Ultimately, looking at the novel through the lens of class, we see a society where upward social mobility and making a living for yourself is possible, just not for everybody. Even when you get rich, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll suddenly, seamlessly integrate into the lives of old money. 

Morality and values

Added to this story of social stratification is a moral dimension, where Fitzgerald can be a little more critical. 

Firstly, old money is portrayed as shallow . Daisy’s marriage to Tom and the Sloanes’ insincerity are elements of this, but another good example is Gatsby’s party guests. Many aren’t actually invited—they invite themselves, and “they came and went without having met Gatsby at all.” Their vacuous relationship to Gatsby is exposed when he dies, and they completely abandon him. Klipspringer, “the boarder”, basically lived in Gatsby’s house, and even then he still wouldn’t come to the funeral, only calling up to get a “pair of shoes” back. 

The rich are also depicted as cruel and inconsiderate, insulated from repercussions by their wealth. Nick’s description of Tom’s “cruel body” is repeatedly realised, as he breaks Myrtle’s nose in chapter two and condescends Gatsby with “magnanimous scorn” in chapter seven. After Myrtle dies, Nick spots the Buchanans “conspiring” and describes them as “smash[ing] up things and creatures and then retreat[ing] back into their money or their vast carelessness”—he sees them as fundamentally selfish.

Gatsby is portrayed more sympathetically though, which may come from his humble upbringing and his desire to be liked. This is probably the key question of the novel—is he a hero, or a villain? The moral of the story, or a warning? Consumed by love, or corrupted by wealth?

I’m going to leave most of those for the next section, but I’ll finish here with one last snippet: Lucille, a guest at his parties, tears her dress and Gatsby immediately sends her a “new evening gown”. Weird flex, but at least he’s being selfless…

That said, a major part of Gatsby’s character is his dishonesty, which complicates his moral identity. 

For starters, he fabricates a new identity and deals in shady business just to reignite his five-year-old romance with Daisy. We see this through the emergence of Meyer Wolfsheim, with whom he has unclear business “gonnegtions”, and the resultant wealth he now enjoys. 

In chapter three, Owl Eyes describes Gatsby as a “regular Belasco”, comparing him to a film director who was well-known for the realism of his sets. This is a really lucid analysis of Gatsby, who is in many ways just like a film director constructing a whole fantasy world.

It’s also unclear if he loves Daisy for who she is, or just the idea of Daisy and the wealth she represents. Indeed, he doesn’t seem to treat her as a person, but more like something that he can pursue (like wealth). This is a good read, so I won’t really get into it here—just consider how much things have changed since Gatsby first met Daisy (like her marriage and her children), and how Gatsby ignores the way her life has changed in favour of his still, stationary memory of who she used to be.

Love, desire and hope

All of this makes it tricky to distil what the novel’s message actually is. 

Is it that Gatsby is a good person, especially cast against the corrupt old money?  

This analysis isn’t wrong, and it actually works well with a lot of textual evidence. Where Nick resents the Buchanans, he feels sympathy for Gatsby. He explicitly says, “they’re a rotten crowd…you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Maybe love was an honourable goal compared to money, which ostensibly makes you “cruel” and “careless”. 

I wouldn’t say he was cruel, but this reading is complicated by how he can be careless, choosing not to care about Daisy’s agency, and letting his desires overtake these considerations. 

Is it that Gatsby and his desire for Daisy were corrupted by wealth despite his good intentions? 

There’s also evidence to suggest wealth corrupts—Nick describes it as “foul dust” that “preyed” on Gatsby, eroding his good character and leaving behind someone who resembles the vacuous elite. Although love might’ve been an honourable goal, it got diluted by money. 

Gatsby’s paradigm for understanding the world becomes driven by materialism, and he objectifies Daisy. He starts trying to buy something that he originally didn’t need to buy—Daisy’s love. She certainly didn’t fall in love with this man who owned a mansion and a closet full of “beautiful shirts.” Thus, Gatsby is a sympathetic product of a system that was always stacked against him (a poor boy from North Dakota). Capitalism, right?

Is it that capitalist America provides nothing for people to pursue except for wealth, and therefore little reason for people to feel hope?

Past the basics: structural economic tension and the doomed American Dream

Now we want to start thinking beyond the characters (e.g. if Gatsby is a good person or not) and also factor in their social, historical, political and economic context (e.g. if he was doomed to begin with by a society driven by money). This subheading does sound a bit much, but we’ll break it down here. 

A key part of this novel is the American Dream, the idea that America is a land of freedom and equal opportunity, that anyone can ‘make it’ if they truly try. Value is placed on upward social mobility (moving up from a working-class background) and economic prosperity (making $$), which defined much of the Roaring 20s…

…for some. 

For many others, there was significant tension between these lofty values and their lived reality of life on the ground. As much as society around them was prospering, they just couldn’t get a piece of the pie, and this is what makes it structural—as hard as George Wilson might work, he just can’t get himself out of the Valley of Ashes and into wealth. Indeed, you can’t achieve the Dream without cheating (as Gatsby did). 

So, there’s this tension, this irreconcilable gap between economic goals and actual means. Through this lens, the tragedy of The Great Gatsby multiplies. It’s no longer just about someone who can’t buy love with money—it’s about how nobody’s dreams are really attainable. Not everyone can get money, and money can only get you so far. Everyone is stuck, and the American Dream is basically just a myth. 

Thus, the novel could be interpreted as a takedown of capitalist America, which convinced people like Gatsby that the answer to everything was money, and he bolted after the “green light” allure of cold, hard cash only to find out that it wasn’t enough, that it wasn’t the answer in the end.  (.

Consider what kind of message that sends to people like the Wilsons—if money can’t actually buy happiness, what good is it really to chase it? And remember that Gatsby had to cheat to get rich in the first place. 

Is [the novel’s message] that capitalist America provides nothing for people to pursue except for wealth, and therefore little reason for people to feel hope?

You tell me.

Prompt: what does Fitzgerald suggest about social stratification in the 1920s?

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response .

Let’s try applying this to a prompt. I’ll italicise the key points that have been brought up throughout this post. 

Firstly, social stratification clearly divided society along economic lines . This could be paragraph one, exploring how class separated the Buchanans and Wilsons of the world, and how their lifestyles were so completely different even though they all lived in the prosperity of the Roaring 20s . George Wilson was “worn-out” from work, but he still couldn’t generate upward social mobility for his family, stuck in the Valley of Ashes. Conversely, Tom Buchanan is born into a rich family with his beach-facing mansion and polo ponies . Colour is an important symbol here—the Valley is grey, while East Egg is filled with colour (a green light here, a “blue coupe” there…).

The next paragraph might look at the cultural dimension , exploring how you just can’t buy a way of life. This might involve analysing Gatsby’s wealth as deluding him into thinking he can “repeat the past” by buying into the life(style) of old money . This is where Fitzgerald disillusions us about the American Dream —he presents a reality where it isn’t possible for anyone to ‘make it’, where the Buchanans still treat you with scorn even if you’re just as wealthy. Gatsby’s dishonesty is ultimately a shallow one—try as he might, he just cannot fit in and win Daisy back.

Finally, we should consider the moral dimension —even though the wealthier socioeconomic classes enjoyed more lavish, luxurious lifestyles, Fitzgerald also argued that they were the most morally bankrupt. Money corrupted the wealthy to the point where they simply did not care about the lives of the poor, as seen in the Buchanans’ response to Myrtle’s death. Even Gatsby had to compromise his integrity and deal in shady business in order to get rich—he isn’t perfect either. Social stratification may look ostentatious and shiny on the outside, but the rich are actually portrayed as shallow and corrupt. 

A good essay on this novel will typically combine some of these dimensions and build a multilayered analysis. Stratification, love, wealth, morality—all of these big ideas can be broken down in terms of social, economic, cultural circumstances, so make sure to consider all angles when you write. 

Have a go at these prompts!

1. Nick is biased in his assessment of Gatsby—both of them are no better than the corrupt, wealthy Buchanans. Do you agree?

2. In The Great Gatsby , money is a stronger motivating factor than love. Do you agree?

3. Daisy Buchanan is more innocent than guilty—explore this statement with reference to at least 2 other characters. 

4. What does Fitzgerald say about happiness in The Great Gatsby ?

5. Is money the true antagonist of The Great Gatsby ?

6. The women of The Great Gatsby are all victims of a patriarchal society. To what extent do you agree? (Hint: are they all equally victimised?)

Challenge: According to Fitzgerald, what really lays underneath the façade of the Roaring 20s? Make reference to at least 2 symbols in The Great Gatsby . (Hint: façade = “an outward appearance that conceals a less pleasant reality” – think about things like colours, clothes, buildings etc.)

Updated 14/12/2020

• Definition of Metalanguage
• Examples of Metalanguage in VCE English

1. Introduction

Although it appears on criteria sheets, many students never really understand the term  metalanguage . Strangely, it is something that is rarely addressed in classrooms. While the word may be foreign to you, rest assured that metalanguage is not an entirely new concept you have to learn. How come? Because you have been unknowingly using metalanguage since the very beginning of high school.

It's a word that is more and more frequently thrown around as you get more advanced in high school. And, it's something that becomes tremendously important in your final year of high school, because the more you include metalanguage discussion in your essays, the more intricate your discussion becomes and the more unique it also becomes.

So, let's find out exactly what metalanguage is.

2. Definition of Metalanguage

Metalanguage is  language that describes language .

So, instead of maybe using the word, "He was sad ", we might say something like, "He felt sorrowful " . The choice in words changes the meaning that is interpreted by the reader, just slightly, but there is still a difference. So, when it comes to studying texts or reading articles, and trying to analyze what the author is trying to do, we look at metalanguage as a way to help give us insight into the ideas that they're trying to portray.

The simplest way to explain this is to focus on part 3 of the English exam – Language Analysis. In Language Analysis , we look at the author’s writing and label particular phrases with persuasive techniques such as: symbolism, imagery or personification. Through our description of the way an author writes (via the words ‘symbolism’, ‘imagery’ or ‘personification’), we have effectively used language that describes language.

Now, if we look at the bigger picture, our analysis of an author’s language can be applied to Text Response, and even Reading and Comparing. To learn more about why metalanguage is important in Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response . Otherwise, for those interested in Comparative, head over to our Ultimate Guide to VCE Comparative .

3. Examples of Metalanguage in VCE English

• Grammar and punctuation
• Characterisation
• Foreshadowing

For example

• Achilles is  characterised as a foetus, for his position is ‘chin down, shoulders hunched’ as though he is inside a womb. ( Ransom , David Malouf)
• In the first scene of All About Eve* , Mankiewicz foreshadows Eve's sinful and regretful actions, as a sorrowful expression is emphasized as she accepts her award

As you can see, the word 'foreshadows' pushes us in a new direction. Rather than just saying what has already happened or telling your teacher or examiner something that they already know, it forces you to actually analyze what's in front of you and to offer your own unique interpretation of why this metalanguage or why this technique has been used.

*If you happen to be studying this text, check out our All About Eve Character Profiles .

• Mise-en-scene
• Camera angles

When Terry leaves Friendly’s bar, the thick fog symbolises his clouded moral judgement as he decides whether he should remain ‘D and D’, or become a ‘rat’. ( On the Waterfront , Elia Kazan)

• Stage direction
• The miniature set Zac creates is designed with a white backdrop, symbolising his desire to wipe away reality since he ‘can’t stand real things'. ( Cosi , Louis Nowra)

In Medea , the motif of animals emphasizes the inhuman and bestial nature of Medea, highlighting how she defies natural norms.

This student has actually given us an analysis of why animal motifs are used. And that is to highlight how Medea defies natural norms, because of her inhuman and bestial nature.

4. Conclusion

As indicated earlier, you should be familiar with many, if not all the terms mentioned above. Take note that some metalanguage terms are specific to a writing form , such as camera angle for films. If you need help learning new terms, we have you covered - be sure to check out our metalanguage word banks for books and our metalanguage wordbank for films .

As you discuss themes or characters, you should try and weave metalanguage throughout your body paragraphs . The purpose of this criteria is to demonstrate your ability to understand how the author uses language to communicate his or her meaning. The key is to remember that the author’s words or phrases are always chosen with a particular intention – it is your job to investigate why the author has written a text in a particular way.

[Modified Video Transcription]

Hey guys, welcome back to Lisa's Study Guides. Today, I'm really excited to talk to you about metalanguage. Have you guys ever heard of metalanguage before? It's a word that is more and more frequently thrown around as you get more advanced in high school. And, it's something that becomes tremendously important in your final year of high school, because the more you include metalanguage discussion in your essays, the more intricate your discussion becomes and the more unique it also becomes. So, let's find out exactly what is metalanguage. Simply put, metalanguage just means language that analyses language. When authors write anything, we make certain decisions when it comes to writing. So, instead of maybe using the word, "He was sad", we might say something like, "He felt sorrowful". The choice in words changes the meaning that is interpreted by the reader, just slightly, but there is still a difference. So, when it comes to studying texts or reading articles and trying to analyse what the author is trying to do, we look at metalanguage as a way to help give us insight into the ideas that they're trying to portray.

Metalanguage comes in really handy, especially if you're somebody who struggles with retelling the story - I have a video on how to avoid retelling the story , which you can watch. Metalanguage essentially takes you to the next level. It prevents you from just saying what happened, and forces you into actually looking at how the ideas and themes are developed by the author through the words that they choose to use. So, let's have a look at a couple of examples to give you a better idea. I'm going to show you two examples. One uses metalanguage and one doesn't, and you'll see how a massive difference in how the student understands the text is really clear.

Number one, foreshadowing.

In the first scene of All About Eve , Mankiewicz emphasizes Eve's sorrowful expression as she accepts her award.

In the first scene of All About Eve , Mankiewicz foreshadows Eve's sinful and regretful actions, as a sorrowful expression is emphasized as she accepts her award. As you can see, as soon as we put in the word foreshadows, it pushes us in a new direction. Rather than just saying what has already happened or telling your teacher or examiner something that they already know, it forces you to actually analyse what's in front of you and to offer your own unique interpretation of why this metalanguage or why this technique has been used. So, in this case, it's foreshadowing. ‍ Let's have a look at another one, motif.

In Medea , Euripides commonly refers to animals when describing Medea's actions and temperament.

See how, in the first example, it was really just telling you what we might already know through just reading the book, but when it comes to the second example, this student has actually given us an analysis of why animal motifs are used. And that is to highlight how Medea defies natural norms, because of her inhuman and bestial nature. So, those are some examples of metalanguage. There are so many more different types of metalanguage out there...

Last updated 20/10/19

Planning is an essential part of any successful text response essay. It helps you ensure that you’re answering the prompt, utilising enough quotes and writing the most unique and perceptive analysis possible! The hard part of this is that you only have about FIVE MINUTES to plan each essay in the Year 12 English exam… (more info on the best way to tackle that challenge in this video !)

So, I developed the FIVE TYPES of essay prompts to help students streamline their planning process and maximise every minute of their SACs and exams.

By identifying the type of prompt you’re being challenged with immediately, a number of parameters or guidelines are already set in place. For a specific type of prompt, you have specific criteria to meet – for example, in a metalanguage-based prompt , you immediately know that any evidence you brainstorm in your planning stage should be based around the literary techniques used in your given text.

If you’d like the full picture on our best FREE advice on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response here .

1. Theme-Based Prompt

‘Ambition in the play Macbeth leads to success.’ Discuss. ( Macbeth )

When you’re presented with a theme-based prompt, you can automatically shift your brainstorming and planning towards the themes mentioned in the prompt along with any others that you can link to the core theme in some way.

In regard to this Macbeth prompt, for example, you could explore the different ways the theme of ambition is presented in the text. Additionally, the themes of guilt and power are intimately related to ambition in the text, so you can use those other ideas to aid your brainstorming and get you a step ahead of the rest of the state come exam day.

2. Character-Based Prompt

‘Frankenstein’s hubris is what punishes him.’ Discuss. ( Frankenstein )

These prompts are pretty easy to spot – if you see a character’s name in the prompt, there you have it; you have a character-based prompt on your hands.

Once you know this, you can assume that each example you brainstorm has to be relevant to the specific character named in the prompt in some way. Also, you can explore how the actions of characters don’t occur in isolation – they’re almost always interrelated. Remember, however, that the actions of characters are always connected to the themes and ideas the author is trying to convey.

This type of prompt also grants you some freedoms that other types don’t give. For example, unlike a Theme-based prompt, a character-based prompt means that it’s perfectly fine to write about characters in the topic sentences of your body paragraphs.

3. How-Based Prompt

‘How does Grenville showcase Rooke’s inner conflict in The Lieutenant ?’ ( The Lieutenant )

Unlike other prompts, the ‘How’ positions you to focus more on the author’s writing intentions. This can be achieved by discussing metalanguage – language that describes language (read my blog post about it here ). These prompts tell you immediately that you need to be thinking about the literary techniques explored in the text and explain how they affect the narrative.

Rather than using specific techniques to frame your specific arguments, it’s best to use them as evidence to support arguments that attack the main themes/ideas mentioned in the prompt.

4. Metalanguage or Film-Technique-Based Prompt

‘Hitchcock’s use of film techniques offers an unnerving viewing experience’. Discuss. ( Rear Window )

This type of prompt is very similar to How-based prompts, specifically in the fact that the discussion of literary techniques is essential.

For this type of prompt specifically, however, the actual techniques used can form more of a basis for your arguments, unlike in How-based prompts .

5. Quote-Based Prompt

“Out, damned spot!” How does Shakespeare explore the burden of a guilty conscience in Macbeth ? ( Macbeth )

Countless students ask me every year, “What do I do when there’s a quote in the prompt?!” My reply to these questions is actually fairly straightforward!

There are two main things that you should do when presented with this type of prompt. Firstly, contextualise the quote in your essay and try to use it in your analysis in some way. Secondly, interpret the themes and issues addressed in the quote and implement these into your discussion. The best place to do both of these is in a body paragraph – it weaves in seamlessly and allows for a good amount of analysis, among other reasons!

When faced with unknown prompts in a SAC or your exam, it's reassuring to have a formulaic breakdown of the prompt so that your brain immediately starts categorising the prompt - which of the 5 types of prompts does this one in front of me fall into? To learn more about brainstorming, planning, essay structures for Text Response, read our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

2. Historical Context

3. Main Characters

4. Minor Characters

5. Dissecting an A+ Essay using 'The Golden Age'

6. Creative Essay Topic Brainstorm

7. Essay Topics

The Golden Age is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our VCE Text Response Study Guide.

Even though this hasn’t been one of the more popular choices on the VCE text list, Joan London’s The Golden Age is a personal favourite of mine for a number of reasons. This is a novel about the experiences of children recovering from polio inside a convalescent home in Perth. With a sympathetic and warm approach, London tells the tragic yet brave stories of these children, as well as the stories of their parents and carers.

The novel essentially revolves around Frank Gold, a Hungarian Jew and a war refugee, and London blends his mature voice with the innocence of a coming-of-age narrative, all set against the backdrop of World War II.

As you’re reading the book, watch out for her literary or poetic language, and keep track of the story’s overall mood. These will be important considerations for text study, particularly if you are to write a creative response on this text for your SAC. With this in mind, I’ve included writing exercises throughout this blog post for you to practise writing creatively on this text.

If you are writing analytically on this text, either for your SAC or for your exam, you may still complete the exercises—each one should still be insightful for your writing in some way. Also, feel free to check the video below; it breaks down an analytical prompt for this text.

Historical Context

This novel is set in Perth during the early 1940s, which gives rise to a couple of interesting historical elements all intersecting in the book.

Crucially, the events of the novel take place for the most part while World War II is raging in Europe. This is important for understanding the backstory of the Gold family: they are Hungarian Jews who have escaped their war-torn home of Budapest to seek safety in Australia. In particular, we know that at some stage, Meyer had been taken away to a labour camp, and that Frank had had to hide himself in an attic.

Their Hungarian heritage, however, is something that distances them from other Australians, and they never really get a good chance to settle in, always feeling like they just weren’t on the same wavelength as the locals. In many ways, the story of the Golds is underpinned by tragedy—not only are they war refugees, but young Frank then contracts poliomyelitis (known to us just as polio), which forces the family to reassess all the plans they had for him to settle into an ordinary, Australian life.

However, Frank was far from the only victim of polio at the time—the entire nation was rocked by a wave of polio , with major outbreaks during the 1930s-40s. This was quite a nerve-wracking, and causing great fear for our country and its active, outdoors-y culture. The prospects of death, paralysis and permanent disability were understandably terrifying. About 70,000 people were affected, and almost half of them eventually died as a result. Almost every Australian at the time knew or knew of someone who had polio.

Task: You are Ida, composing a letter to Julia Marai after Frank’s diagnosis. Convey succinctly (in 250 words or less) what you think and how you feel. ‍

Key themes & implications.

I like to think that a lot of the themes in this book exist in diametric or opposing pairs. For instance, London gives Frank a voice that is wise beyond his years, yet uses it to tell a tender story of first love. She also plays on the paradox that while some characters have become isolated due to the unfortunate events that have befallen them, these very events end up becoming the thing that unite them.

Essentially, London plays with a lot of these thematic tensions, showing us that life isn’t really ever black and white, but there are whole lot of grey areas in every day life.

Central to the novel are ideas of innocence or childhood . These ideas are really explored in the friendship between Frank and Elsa, who are both on the cusp of adolescence. While they are set up as young lovers in the eyes of readers, we know that they are far too young to truly have romantic feelings for each other. In actual fact, their interactions are permeated by a sense of innocence.

However, these interactions are also punctuated by a sense of maturity , a desire for more. This is evident to the extent where nurses are getting hesitant about leaving them alone with each other (even though their parents still trust them entirely). In actual fact, these parents serve as an important point of contrast. Some manage to recapture the magic of youth even as adults—consider Ida reigniting her love for the piano, or Meyer jumping on opportunities to start anew. In this sense, innocence and maturity are a pair of themes that are interestingly not always found where one might expect.

Another key thematic element of the novel is tragedy or adversity , which are relevant to a far wider gamut of characters. Considering the story’s geographical and historical setting, it seems evident that these ideas will play a major role in the story. A particularly poignant example lies in Sullivan, who contracts polio right on the cusp of adulthood, and readers can’t help but feel a sense of loss for what might have been.

However, on the other end of this spectrum is the strength required to cope with their suffering. While Sullivan had his indefatigable sense of humour, other characters have developed different mechanisms to stay strong in the face of adversity. In some cases, you might say that they’ve transcended or risen above their tragedies, and become stronger for it.

Finally, London also tackles the idea of isolation , which can be seen as a consequence of tragedy—characters become isolated because they lose their ability to relate to others, and others feel unable to relate to them. Symbolically, the Golden Age hospital is surrounded by four roads and therefore cut off from the world, almost as if quarantined. However, the solidarity and unity of patients inside becomes a great source of strength—I’ll leave it to you to think about what London was trying to say with this!

Task: Selecting one of the above themes, write a poem from the POV of an imaginary spectator in the novel, outlining how you perceive/experience these themes in other characters. Use all five senses(how you see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and touch/feel it)

Major characters.

I haven’t written too extensively about characters for a range of reasons: on one hand, it’s important for you to form your own interpretations about what they’re like and why they do the things they do, but on the other hand, I wanted to leave you with some key points to consider and/or some essential points about their characters to incorporate into your writing. This will allow you to hopefully feel like you’re capturing them accurately when writing your creatives, but without feeling restricted by an extensive set of traits that you have to invoke.

• the central character, he is cerebral, intelligent and mature (which we can tell from his narrative voice, or how he ‘sounds’)
• he is, however, still very young, wide-eyed, inquisitive in spite of the tragedies which have befallen him (consider how he sees his relationship with Elsa)
• also significant is the motif of his poetry; not only does it highlight his maturity, but it also acts as a way for him to voice or articulate his feelings and experiences in the hospital—you could try incorporating some poetry in your writing (either original poems or quoted from the novel)

Elsa Briggs

• another central character who becomes quite attached to Frank (they are the two eldest children in the Golden Age)
• she is warm, caring and selfless, demonstrating an emotional maturity beyond her years (because of having to bear the metaphorical albatross of polio)
• a lot of what we know about Elsa comes from Frank’s perspective (though we do get some insight from her own, and some from her mother’s)—how does this shape the way we see her? Consider London’s use of imagery, portraying her as an angelic figure.

Ida & Meyer

• Frank’s parents, Hungarian Jews, and war refugees who come to Australia to cleanse them of their pasts and to have a fresh start; some of this is purely by circumstance, but there are parts of their past that they willingly and actively eschew e.g. Ida’s piano
• note that Hungary is a landlocked country in the midst of European hustle and bustle with easy access to other nations/cultures/peoples, but Australia is an island on the other side of the world—consider how this affects their sense of isolation
• on the other hand, they do form new connections with people here and in their own individual ways; Ida by reclaiming her pianist talents and Meyer by taking up a new job

Task: You are Elsa, Ida, or Meyer and you’ve just discovered Frank’s poem book. What are your thoughts and feelings towards his writing? Consider the context of your chosen character’s own experiences

Minor characters.

I’m sure you’ve heard it by now, but any piece of text-based writing (creative or analytical) can be strengthened by diversifying the range of characters that you write about. Even though you’ve already differentiated yourself from most VCE students by even doing this text at all (very few people choose it, so props to you!), some inclusion of more minor characters might help to distinguish yourself further. I’ve picked some that I think are interesting to talk about, but feel free to experiment with others as well!

• a young man who contracts a severe strand of polio right on the cusp of adulthood, thereby exemplifying the theme of tragedy—however, his sense of humour remains active in spite of his immobility, so perhaps he not only exemplifies this theme but subverts it as well
• London poses the complex question of whether or not he’s actually unhappy or defeated as a result of polio; there’s no clear answer, since there’s many ways to interpret his humour (is it a sign of strength or is it a front for inner turmoils expressed through poetry?)
• in addition to his humour and poetry, his relationship with his family could also be an interesting point of discussion to address some of these questions
• a young girl in the hospital who is quite close to Elsa (almost in a sisterly way)—how have they developed this relationship, and how does this relate to the theme of unity/companionship/human connection?
• notably, she wanted to rehabilitate herself after polio took away her ability to feed the brumbies in her desert town—think about how this might represent strength as well

Julia Marai & Hedwiga

• Ida’s former piano teacher and her flatmate/partner who live at the top of an apartment block in Budapest; they shelter Frank in their attic under no obligation whatsoever, but purely out of the kindness and selflessness of their hearts
• again, there’s this subversion of what it means to be isolated: on one hand, their apartment is so cut off from the rest of the world below, and they lead a largely self-sufficient life together, but on the other hand, the fact that they’re together means that they’re not entirely isolated consider the power of human connection in this context as well

Task: Pick a minor character from this list and a character from the above list of major characters, and write about them meeting each other for the first time. Pick two that do not already interact closely within the novel e.g. Elsa meeting Sullivan

I hope this gives you some ideas or starting points about writing creatively on this text!

Download the PDF version of The Golden Age study guide   here .

Dissecting an A+ Essay using 'The Golden Age'

Picture this: you’re sitting down at your desk, fumbling your fingers, inspecting the new stationary that you convinced yourself you needed for year 12, resisting the urge to check your phone. Your text response SAC is in two weeks. You’re freaking out because you want, no, need an A+. You decide to write a practice essay for your English teacher. Practice makes perfect, right? You stay up for hours, pouring your heart and soul into this essay. The result? B+. Where did I go wrong?

That’s where I come in! Writing an A+ essay can be really tough without examples and specific advice. Before reading on, make sure you've read our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response so you are up to scratch.

I will be explaining some basic dos and don’ts of writing an essay on The Golden Age , providing a model essay as an example.

The following prompt will be referenced throughout the post;

‘The Golden Age’ shows that everyone needs love and recognition. Discuss.

Planning: the silent killer of A+ essays

I’m sure your teachers have emphasised the importance of planning. In case they haven’t, allow me to reiterate that great planning is compulsory for a great essay . However, flimsy arguments aren’t going to get you an A+. The examiners are looking for complex arguments , providing a variety of perspectives of the themes at hand. From the above prompt, the key word is, ‘discuss’. This means that you should be discussing the prompt, not blindly agreeing with it . Make sure you don’t write anything that wouldn’t sit right with London. ‍

Don’t plan out basic arguments that are one-dimensional. This may give you a pass in English, but won’t distinguish you as a top-scoring student.

For example:

• Paragraph 1: The children at TGA need love and recognition.
• Paragraph 2: Ida and Meyer need love and recognition
• Paragraph 3: Sister Penny needs love and recognition.

The above paragraphs merely agree with the statement, but don’t delve into the many aspects of the novel that could contribute to a sophisticated essay.

Do create complex arguments, or paragraphs with a twist! If you can justify your argument and it makes sense, include it in your essay. There are many ways that you could answer this question, but my plan looks like this:

• Paragraph 1: Frank Gold yearns for mature, adult love, not recognition from onlookers or outsiders
• Paragraph 2: Ida Gold does not seek recognition from Australia, but love and validation from herself
• Paragraph 3: Albert requires love from a specific kind of relationship – family, and Sullivan may view love from his father as pity which he rebukes

See the difference?

The introduction: how to start your essay off with a BANG!

Personally, I always struggled with starting an introduction. The examiners will be reading and marking thousands of essays, so if possible, starting your introduction with something other than Joan London’s ‘The Golden Age’… is a great way to make you stand out from the crowd. Having a strong start is essential to pave the way for a clear and concise essay. You could start with a quote/scene from the text! This is not essential, but it’s a great way to mix things up. This is my start:

Perhaps nothing exemplifies the power of love and recognition more than the bond between Albert Sutton and his older sister, Lizzie, in Joan London’s ‘The Golden Age’. Many of London’s characters exhibit suffering that requires compassion and support to heal and grow, to distinguish present from past. However, London explores the perspectives of such characters from different aspects of trauma, and emphasise that love and recognition do not always work to heal and mature. Frank Gold, the novel’s resident “sneaky” boy who adjusts to newfound life in the Golden Age Convalescent Home seeks love as an adult, rather than eliciting sympathy as a supposed victim. Here love and recognition are unsuccessful in amending Frank’s troubles when given from the perspective of an outsider, a judgemental onlooker. In a similar sense, Ida Gold seeks recognition not from Australia, who she views as a ‘backwater’, but validation in herself after having been ousted from her Hungarian identity. London, however, makes sure to emphasise the impact that Sullivan has on Frank Gold’s life. Sullivan, a boy only a few years older than Frank, seems content with his future, with his fate, despite his sacrifice of rugby and conventional life.  There is a lacking sense of urgency for love and recognition in Sullivan’s life, rather, it appears that Sullivan accepts his fate, regardless of his father’s sympathy or support. Thus, London explores a myriad of ways in which love and recognition may or may not heal wounds inflicted upon individuals.

Remember, there are many other ways you could start your essay.

The body paragraphs: To TEEL or not to TEEL?

I’m sure you’ve heard of TEEL countless times since year 7. Topic sentence, evidence, explanation, link. The truth is that these elements are all very important in a body paragraph. However, following a rigid structure will render your essay bland and repetitive. It is also extremely important to note that you should be using evidence from multiple points in the text , and you should be making sure that your paragraphs are directly answering the question . Write what feels natural to you, and most importantly, don’t abuse a thesaurus . If you can’t read your essay without rummaging for a dictionary every second sentence, you should rewrite it.  If vocabulary isn’t your strong point (it definitely isn’t mine!), focus on clean sentence structure and solid arguments. There’s nothing worse than you using a fancy word incorrectly.

Don’t overuse your thesaurus in an attempt to sound sophisticated, and don’t use the same structure for every sentence. For example:

Prematurely in the paperback London makes an allusion to Norm White, the denizen horticulturalist of The Golden Age Convalescent Home…

That was an exaggerated example generated by searching for synonyms. As you can see, it sounds silly, and some of the words don’t even make sense. I mean, “denizen horticulturalist”…really?

Do mix up your paragraph structure! If vocabulary is your weak point, focus on clean language.

Here’s mine:

Early in the novel, London makes reference to Norm White, the resident groundskeeper of The Golden Age Convalescent Home. Norm White hands Frank Gold a cigarette, “as if to say a man has the right to smoke in peace”. Here, there is a complete disregard for rule and convention, an idea that London emphasises throughout the text. This feature provides a counter-cultural experience for Frank, pushing him to realise that he is a strong human being rather than a mere victim. This is a clear contrast to the “babyishness” of the home, and is used as evidence of true humanity in an era where society judged upon the unconventional. Frank yearns for a traditional Australian life after his trauma in Hungary; “his own memory…lodged like an attic in the front part of his brain”. Hedwiga and Julia Marai’s caring of him pushed him towards fear and reluctance to trust, yet also pressured him to seek acceptance in a world that ostracises him for his Jewish heritage and polio diagnosis. This here is why Frank desires a mature, adult connection – love that regards him as an equal human being. Frank seeks Elsa’s love and company as she too loathes being reduced to a victim, an object of pity. Frank thereafter uses humour to joke of his wounds; “we Jews have to be on the lookout”. Elsa sees “a look in his eyes that she recognised”, thus their bond enables both characters to heal. London alludes that Frank requires love and recognition not from the perspective of a sorrowful onlooker, rather he longs to be recognised as a mature adult.

To learn more about using the right vocabulary, read 'Why using big words in VCE essays can make you look dumber'.

The conclusion: closing the deal

I firmly believe in short and sharp conclusions. Your body paragraphs should be thoroughly explaining your paragraphs, so don’t include any new information here. A few sentences is enough. Once again, write what feels natural, and what flows well.

Don’t drag out your conclusion. Short and concise is the key to finishing well.

Do write a sharp finish! Sentence starters such as, “Ultimately…” or “Thus, London…” are great.

Although trauma is often treated with love and compassion, London details different perspectives on this idea. Whilst Frank Gold requires a specific kind of recognition, Ida and Meyer seek validation in themselves and their relationship, whilst Sullivan is at ease with his fate and does not yearn sympathy from his father.

‍ To learn more about A+ essays, you should also have a read of 10 easy English points you're missing out on .

I'll finish off by giving you an exercise: brainstorm and write up a plan for the essay topic shown in the video below. I'd recommend you do this before watching Lisa's brainstorm and plan. That way, you can see which of your ideas overlapped, but also potentially see which ideas you may have missed out on. Good luck!

The Golden Age Essay Topic Brainstorm

[Video Transcript]

The takeaway message for this video will be to utilise minor characters here and there to deepen your argument. London has really developed all her characters to feel three-dimensional and real, so it’s important not to just write about Frank and Elsa when there are so many others worth touching on.

Let's head straight into background information:

Joan London’sThe Golden Age is a novel about children recovering from polio in a convalescent home in Perth. She tells the stories of these various children, their families, and their caretakers, focusing on FrankGold and Elsa Briggs, the young protagonists who are just starting to develop romantic feelings for each other. Though they, and many of the other children, have faced much hardship and misfortune, London tells a story of hope and human connection in times of misery.

On that note, today’s essay topic is:

The Golden Age  is primarily a tragic tale of isolation. Discuss.

Let’s break this prompt down and define some keywords. The keywords we’ll be looking at first are isolation and tragic. We’ll be defining them quite briefly, but be sure to think about these in terms of how they relate to the novel. In particular, see if any scenes, passages or characters jump to mind.

Isolation is a state of being alone or away from others and can be associated with a sense of powerlessness or insignificance. Tragic can simply just mean sad, depressing and loaded with sorrow or ‘pathos’, but there are also literary implications to this word: you might’ve done a tragic Shakespeare play and learned this before, but in general, a tragic story centres on a hero who encounters misfortune, and treats their demise in a serious or solemn way. Note that a good essay will discuss both these terms, and will address not only isolation but also the question of whether or not it is treated tragically.

The other important word is ‘primarily’. This word in the prompt suggests that The Golden Age is  for the most part  about these ideas - for you, that means you should ask yourself how central you think they are, and make a call on whether they are the  most  central.

Well, it’s definitely true that elements of isolation and separation do exist in The Golden Age, but these themes are not primarily tragic ideas in the novel -London explores the way in which hope can shine through in times of hardship. In fact, the novel overall has a message of kinship and hope, and this would be the primary thematic focus, as well as the main treatment of otherwise tragic ideas. So how might this look in paragraphs?

Paragraph 1: Let’s concede that the novel does evoke sadness through its frequently sombre tone and treatment of isolation

We see this through characters such as Ida and Meyer, who have been cut off from the world in their escape from their war-torn home, and forced to transition from their landlocked Hungary to an island on the other side of the globe. Their struggle to adjust is evoked through symbols - for instance, black cockatoos, which represent a “homely, comforting” omen to locals, sound “melancholy [and] harsh” to Ida. In particular, London’s solemn characterisation of Ida as constantly “frowning”, and as having a “bitter little mouth that usually gripped a cigarette ”works to emphasise her ennui or her dissatisfaction with being cut off from the world. Their homesickness is evoked through this constant longing for home, though sometimes much more literally: Meyer feels that “never again on this earth…would, he feel at home as he once had.”

Similarly, the story of Sullivan Backhouse, confined in an “iron lung” and physically isolated from outside contact, is also primarily tragic. London develops this character and gives him a backstory - he has “just turned eighteen” and had been the “prefect [and] captain of the rowing team.” This gives readers an idea of the life he might have had if not for the tragedy of his condition. Even in spite of his “good-humoured nature”, his poetry belies the pessimism within - his book, morbidly entitled “on my last day on earth”, closes with the line “in the end, we are all orphans.” We can thus see how lonely he must have felt when he tragically passed away.

In this paragraph, we’ve considered three different characters, whereas a lot of people writing on this text might just do a character per paragraph, so this is a good way to really show the examiners that you’ve considered the full extent of what the book offers. Let’s continue this as we move onto…

Paragraph 2: We disagree, however, since the novel includes various other moods and thematic material - in particular, London explores notions of resolve and hope in times of hardship 

Now, the first character that comes to mind would have to be Elsa - London uses particularly powerful imagery, such as her “translucent”, “golden wave” of hair or even her “profile, outlined in light”, to portray her as angelic or elysian. For the children, Elsa evidently represents hope - even in her state of isolation, her “graceful and dignified” demeanour and her quiet acceptance that polio “was part of her” is courageous and worthy of admiration.

Moving onto a minor character who was perhaps inspired by Elsa - the young Ann Lee, who was quite close to Elsa, also has a story which is more inspiring than tragic. When polio first crippled her, she found herself unable to give water to the brumbies in her desert town. As a result, she perseveres, “step after painstaking step” so as to be able to return home and “give a drink to thirsty creatures.” Her compassion and determination to work against her isolation become the focus of her tale.

Paragraph 3: In fact, the  novel ’s focus is on hope rather than tragedy

A range of other characters demonstrate the power of love and human connection in the face of adversity, and London seems to be focusing on these ideas instead. Plus, it’s not just the children who are brave in the face of tragedy, but ordinary people prove themselves to have the potential for strength and courage. Take Julia Marai and Hedwiga, who hide Frank in their attic during the Nazi invasion of Hungary. Even though their apartment is “on the top” of the block, and isolated in its height, suspended from the world, they become “provider[s]” for Frank. London writes that in difficult times, “kindness and unselfishness were as unexpected, as exhilarating, as genius,” and it’s easy to see how these qualities form a counterpoint to the tragedies that permeate the novel, allowing hope to shine through. 

And that’s the end of the essay! Being able to explore minor characters like we did here is a really good way to show examiners that you have a deeper understanding of a text, that you’ve considered it beyond just the main characters on the surface. The Golden Age is a really great one for this because London has done so much with her cast.

Essay topics

1. “Being close made them stronger.” In The Golden Age , adversities are tempered by camaraderie. Do you agree?

2. Despite the grim context, The Golden Age highlights and celebrates the potential of life. Discuss.

3. Memories of past successes and failures have significant lingering effects on characters in The Golden Age . Is this an accurate assessment?

4. “[I would be] a fox, following a Palomino.” How do animals such as these contribute symbolically to The Golden Age ?

5. It is largely loneliness which defines the struggles of the children in The Golden Age . Discuss.

6. In what ways is The Golden Age a novel of displacement?

7. Fear of the unknown is something which permeates The Golden Age . Is this true?

8. What is the role of family in Joan London’s The Golden Age ?

9. Isolation in The Golden Age exists in many oppressive forms. Discuss.

10. Throughout The Golden Age , London draws attention to beauty rather than to suffering. Discuss.

11. In spite of their youth, it is the children of The Golden Age who understand best what it means to be an individual in the world. Do you agree?

12. How do characters from The Golden Age learn, grow and mature as the novel takes its course?

13. Due to the range of different onset stories, each of the children and their families in The Golden Age face a different struggle with their identity. Discuss.

14. “Home. She hadn’t called Hungary that for years.” In spite of all their struggle, the Golds never truly feel any sense of belonging in Australia. To what extent do you agree?

15. Explore the factors which drive Joan London’s characters to persevere.

The Ultimate guide to VCE Text Response

For an overview of the EAL study design plus tips and tricks for reading comprehension, time management and more, check out The Ultimate Guide to EAL .

The listening section of the curriculum was introduced by VCAA in 2017 and I highly recommend having a look at the examination reports from 2017 onwards as they provide valuable insight into what the examiners are looking for in high-scoring responses. In this blog, I will explain three key tips that helped me receive a perfect study score in EAL so that you can better prepare for EAL listening. 

Tip #1: Pay Attention to the Choice of Delivery 

Delivery of speech can be described from 5 aspects:

Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of a sound. High-pitch can be used to heighten the emotion; conversely, a low-pitched voice is often softer and quieter or used to make an important point.

Pace is the speed at which the speech is delivered. Pace can be described as ‘fast’ or ‘slow’.

• Presence of pauses, repetition, hesitation

These are often used in conjunction with pace and pitch of voice to illustrate the speaker’s feelings, attitude or views towards a certain issue.

• Emphasis/stress on certain words

The emphasis a speaker places on specific words or phrases serves to draw the listener’s attention to the most important information.

• Tone of voice

When I first started learning how to nail the listening component, I made an extensive list of descriptive words for tone of voice that can be incorporated into my answers when it comes to SACs and the exam:

It is, of course, awesome and somewhat satisfying to have a glorious list of A+ words under our belt, but they are of no use if we are not comfortable using them. By this, I mean we need to make sure we know the meaning of these fancy words and how to incorporate them into sentences. 

Although the full list is very useful, I found myself frequently tending to use a certain few as highlighted below. This helped me to memorise the words I found most versatile, rather than trying to memorise ones I was unlikely to use. You can select the words that work best for you individually - no right or wrong here!

Tip #2: How To Tackle the 3 Marks Question!

Usually, towards the end of a listening task, you will get a 3 marks question that asks for ‘choice of language and delivery’.

Note: For background information on this ‘Gidon’ question, see this blog . And, if you’re not sure why we have highlighted and underlined certain words, see here .

So how do we formulate a cohesive response for this question and ensure we can get 3/3? The train of thought for answering this question is similar to that of analysing how language is tailored to persuade the readers.

The following is an example of what your final answer might look like: 

Describe Gidon’s response to the change made to hospital fees. Support your answer with his word choice and delivery. 3 marks

Gidon is very happy and proud of the change in hospital fees. Gidon uses a cheerful and hopeful tone (1st mark) to deliver the message that the change brings him ‘a really good feeling’ and he feels ‘unbelievably proud’ that ‘small people can make great change’ (2nd mark). In addition, Gidon states this in a high pitch and at a fast pace, demonstrating that he is pleased and satisfied with the reduction in hospital parking fees (3rd mark).

For background information on this ‘Gidon’ question and its answer, see EAL Listening Practice .

Here is another sample answer question and answer (see this blog for background information):

What is Beverley Wang’s opinion on some apps showing many ‘likes’? Support your answer with an example of word choice and language. (3 marks)

Beverley Wang expresses her opinion that some apps can foster addictive behaviours and can be scary by using a frustrated and alarmed tone (1st mark). Additionally, by repeating the term ‘consuming’ four times in a row (2nd mark), delivered at a fast pace, Wang affirms the unethical and addictive nature of the apps (3rd mark).

Tip #3: Build Your Vocabulary to Describe the Interaction Between Speakers 

In EAL listening, you are often expected to describe the interaction between two or more speakers. This allows you to comment on how multiple speakers express their ideas. There will typically be a question that asks you to describe the interaction between the speakers, such as, ‘Suggest 2 words to describe the interaction between A and B’. The answer you need to provide will typically be a two-word answer. Here is a list of words that I frequently used to answer questions like this: 

Words to describe positive interactions include:

• Friendly, respectful
• Professional, formal, polite
• Relaxed, warm
• Amicable, sanguine

Words to describe negative interactions include:

• Embarrassed
• Teasing, childish
• Tense, unpleasant, disappointed
• Confrontational

Hint: You have probably noticed that a lot of the words used to describe the tone for language analysis overlap with the ones you employ to describe the interaction between speakers. This is a bonus since once you have learned these adjectives, you can use them for both sections of the exam. 

I hope you found these tips useful! For further tips and tricks on tackling the EAL Listening Exam, check out How To ACE the EAL Listening Exam .

Most people only think about EXECUTING their essay - the writing. Whether that be essay structure, memorising quotes or how to avoid repeating yourself in the dreaded conclusion. However, my strategy places emphasis on the THINK. 

THINK is the brainstorm, exploration, and development of ideas. Get this right, and you'll come up with ideas and a response that pushes you ahead of your peers. The EXECUTION comes next, only strengthening your lead to the finish line.

So what does THINK actually involve? 🤔

You need to consider aspects of an essay topic that most students gloss over, including:

💭What's the essay topic type ?

Knowing the essay topic type will change your essay structure. While you might wish for a one-size-fits-all essay structure, this is a limited viewpoint that stops you from reaching your potential. Different essay types include:

• Theme-based prompts
• Character-based prompts
• Author's message-based prompts
• Metalanguage-based prompts

By understand what's required in each one of these essay topic types, you'll have a template you can follow to ensure that you answer the prompt (no more complaints from your teacher complaining that you're going off topic!).

💭 What are the question tags ?

Never heard of this term previously? That's because majority of teachers don't teach you to change your Text Response according to the question tag. A ' do you agree?' essay topic expects a different response from a 'discuss' essay topic.

💭 How do I ensure I respond to each keyword ?

This is important so you don't go off topic (we've all at least experienced this once in our high school writing careers 😥). Sometimes, one missed keyword is all it takes to derail your entire essay. No matter how well you've written your essay, an essay that doesn't answer the prompt won't fare well.

For example, have a think about which keywords can be found in this essay topic "Jeff's attempt to pursue justice are entirely without honour. To what extent is this true?".

For me, the keywords include:

- 'Attempt'

- 'Pursue justice'

- 'Entirely'

- 'Honour'

- 'To what extent is this true?'

Even though I've labelled almost every word in the essay topic, individually, each of these keywords will shape my response. Majority of students will pick up the necessity to discuss the keyword 'entirely' in their essays. They will potentially argue that Jeff's attempt isn't entirely without honour, and mention instances where honour was shown. However, a less obvious keyword that needs further exploration is 'justice'. Most students will take this word for granted, and won't really explore what the word 'justice' means in this sentence. A more advanced student will understand that 'justice' in this essay topic is viewed from Jeff's perspective, meaning that what Jeff deems to be 'justice', might not be the same 'justice' for a viewer. These are the nuances in an essay topic that I'd like you to be very confident in.

Knowing how to THINK will ensure that you EXECUTE your essay writing most effectively, optimising your potential to nail that A+. If I went from average to consistent A+s in Year 11 and Year 12, I have no doubt you can do it too. That's why I created the How To Write a Killer Text Response ebook.

I know that you are probably like I was, searching for a clear, simple way to get better at English without just relying on my teacher (despite the fact that I had a great teacher!). I've compiled my 10 years of tutoring English, refining this strategy year after year. With this knowledge, many of my students achieved a study score they thought was impossible (one student Ruby, wanted a study score of 30 to get into her university course, and ultimately achieved a 40 study score! WOW! 😮).

If you're interested, How To Write a Killer Text Response ebook shows you the inner workings of my brain 💭- what I think when I see an essay topic, how I tackle it, and how I turn these thoughts into a high-scoring essay. The ebook includes:

‍ - 50-pages teaching you how to respond to ANY essay topic

- Examples from 15+ popular VCE English texts

- Know exactly what to  THINK  about so you can formulate the best possible essay response

- Plus a bonus 20-pages of high vs low scoring essays , fully annotated (what works and what doesn't) so you know exactly what you need to do and what not to do

Click here to access the FULL version now!

Oral Presentations - fun and full-scoring. Bet you’ve never heard those words in the same sentence before! As much as the Oral is a SAC that is often feared by many English students, I managed to come out of my presentation not completely terrified - I was actually able to somehow enjoy myself a little up there, and I might have even had a smile on my face when it was all done. And, what’s even better is that I managed to score full marks! 

In this blog post, I’m going to be guiding you through how I approached the Oral Presentation in Year 12 to achieve full marks. I’ll be breaking down my Oral Presentation script as well as giving some pointers about giving the Oral Presentation on the day.

‍ Scroll down to the bottom to read my full Oral Presentation script!

The Topic I Chose and How I Chose It

You’ve probably heard a million times before to choose an issue that you’re passionate about. This can often leave you thinking, I don’t know what I’m passionate about! or I’m not passionate about anything in the media right now! I was one of those students in the beginning, but this is how I chose an issue that I ended up loving.

Taking Inspiration From My Other Year 12 Subjects

The subject I enjoyed the most in Year 12 was Legal Studies, and my love for this subject guided me in choosing an issue that I genuinely wanted to speak about. I was lucky to have a Legal Studies teacher who was a big nerd in everything law-related, and he often liked to update us about recent and ongoing legal cases that he found interesting. One case that he told us about that I became very interested in was the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case against Nine Entertainment where some journalists called out Ben Roberts-Smith (a war veteran) for committing war crimes. Roberts-Smith sued these journalists, alleging that this wasn’t true. 

I knew I wanted to speak about this case, but I also knew that I had to argue an opinion , and not just provide an overview of the case. So, I began my research into the views of the stakeholders in the case. Something that was very useful to me in my research was news podcasts ! In particular, I came across a podcast episode from a podcast called Please Explain (as of 26/02/2024 it seems to have been rebranded and is now called The Morning Edition ) by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald , where the actual journalists that were getting sued in the case talked about their experiences. After listening to this podcast episode on the way home from school, I found myself really sympathising with the journalists and that’s how I knew that I wanted to speak about this defamation case from the journalists’ perspective. 

After some thinking, the contention that I arrived at was this: 

‍ More should be done to protect public interest journalism.

So my advice for choosing an Oral Topic that you love is to take inspiration from other subjects you’re studying and enjoying , and to pick up on and research anything that your teachers tell you about that piques your interest!

Breaking Down My Script

The introduction, a hook start.

‍ Let me take you back in time. Six years ago, in 2017, many of us in this classroom were in Year 6, probably sitting in a primary school classroom, learning what an isosceles triangle is. And obviously, we had all been paying attention because now everyone’s thinking, “Oh yeah, I remember what an isosceles triangle is!” and we’re all imagining a tall triangle that looks like this.

Grabbing the audience’s attention from the very start of your speech is key! To do this, I tried to open up my speech in an interesting way by encouraging the audience to do something - to reflect on what their lives looked like six years ago. Hook starts such as the one I used (which establish a common ground with the audience) were commonly used among my classmates - they quickly grab the audience’s attention and are relatively easy to implement!

In my Statement of Intention* , I wrote that ‘I initially engage[d] my audience with a hook start, encouraging them to cast their minds back to 2017, and through the imagery of a primary school classroom, I aim[ed] to establish relatability and common ground with the audience, positioning them to be more agreeable to my arguments later on.’

‍ *Statement of Intention - a written statement accompanying my Oral Presentation, where I explained the choices I made in my presentation. As of 2024 and with the implementation of the new study design, students are no longer required to submit a Statement of Intention with their Oral Presentations. However, if you’re curious to know more about Statements of Intention, check out this blog . 

Providing Context

‍ Now, while our Year 6 teachers were providing us with the life-changing information that is the different types of triangles, something bigger was happening on Collins Street. A huge news sausage was in the making. Picture this: a conversation between two passionate and overworked journalists, working for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. One of which had heard whispers from his contact book of Australian military circles that our most decorated living soldier was not the person that everyone thought he was, and that he had in fact been involved in war crimes like the killing of unarmed civilians. A shared desire to put these rumours to the test, with an open mind, wanting to disprove them as much as to prove them. 

‍ This marked the start of a 4-year long legal battle in the form of a defamation lawsuit lodged by decorated war vet Ben Roberts Smith against two investigative journalists, Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie. And, after more than 100 days of hearings, this battle recently ended, with the judge ruling overwhelmingly in favour of Masters and McKenzie that what they had reported about Roberts Smith was substantially true, hence the two had not defamed him.

I spent a fair bit of time explaining the issue of protections around public interest journalism in the context of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case because it was a bit of a niche issue and I thought that my audience of Year 12 students were unlikely to have known too much about it. To keep this explanation engaging, I tried to explain the case in a descriptive and dramatic way, as if the events were unfolding in front of their eyes, and I tried not to make it sound like I was just listing background information. To do this, I used phrases like ‘A huge news sausage was in the making’, ‘Picture this’, to really set the scene in a dramatic way!

‍ A side note on choosing niche topics for the Oral Presentation: I know it’s often NOT recommended to choose topics that are unlikely to be well-known by your fellow students. This is because it can be disengaging when a student goes on a 5-minute tangent using complicated jargon on a topic that none of the other students know anything about. And… I guess I kind of turned that rule on its head! But this was precisely why I wanted to spend a chunk of my speech explaining the context of my issue - so that my speech would be accessible to my audience, so they wouldn’t be bored, and so we would all be on the same page. 

At the end of the day, it’s all about finding a balance between choosing a topic that you love and a topic that is easy for the audience to understand. So, if the topic that you would love to present to the class might be a bit less well-known, my advice would be to make sure to provide adequate context and spend a bit of time explaining key information at the start so that your speech is more accessible to the audience!

Stating Contention

‍ ABC News called it a win for public interest journalism. So why have I brought up this case today to highlight that not enough is being done to protect public interest journalism?

After my explanation section, I smoothly slid into contention territory. Even though I didn’t directly state my contention (i.e. I didn’t say “I believe that more should be done to protect public interest journalism”), through the question, ‘Why have I brought up this case to highlight that not enough is being done to protect public interest journalism?’, I implied that my contention was exactly that - that not enough is being done to protect public interest journalism. 

The Supporting Arguments

I actually only had one supporting argument throughout my whole Oral Presentation, and although this might be an unusual way to do it, it worked well for me since I needed to spend quite a bit of time introducing the issue at the start. My one supporting argument was bulky enough that I had a complete speech with just a long introduction , bulky argument and conclusion . 

Work out what might work best for you in your presentation. If your issue needs a bit of breaking down like mine did, it might be easier to stick to a very simple structure.

Outlining the Supporting Argument and Providing Evidence

‍ Legal battles in general are a huge issue for journalism because they can be used as a threat to journalists. This defamation lawsuit was only the tip of the legal iceberg for Masters and McKenzie. They also faced challenges to source protection and Roberts-Smith’s numerous attempts to silence the two and other witnesses by sending them legal letters telling them to shut up, to suppress the truth about his actions from coming to light.

I then went on to explain my supporting argument - that legal battles such as defamation cases put public interest journalism at risk (which is why, going back to my overall contention , more should be done to protect public interest journalism). As you can see, I constantly linked back to the Roberts-Smith defamation case because that’s what I wanted to speak about, but I did not have to do this and you absolutely don’t have to - a general explanation would have gotten the job done just as well.

You might be wondering why I didn’t signpost at the start of my supporting argument - in other words, why I didn’t include a sentence like “My first supporting argument is that legal battles such as defamation cases put public interest journalism at risk”. Some teachers love signposting and encourage students to do so. If your teacher seems to prefer clear signposting, go ahead and do that! 

TIP: Keep in mind that for anything internally marked, it is important that you keep your teacher/school’s preferences and requirements in mind. 

My teacher wasn’t as insistent on signposting, and I personally didn’t like how clear signposting made my speech sound a bit robotic, so to keep the flow of the speech I decided to fluff it out and start my argument the way that I did. You’ll also notice a lack of signposting throughout my speech in general for the same reasons.

The biggest issue about the Ben Roberts Smith defamation case for journalists and news corporations has been costs. Their win has come with a hefty price tag estimated to be around $25 million, and even though the majority of this is to be borne by the loser of the trial, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers will still end up losing millions of dollars, just for defending themselves and their journalists in court. 

I backed up my supporting argument with some evidence. To quote my Statement of Intention, ‘I went on to use numerical statistics like “4 year[s]” and “100 days of hearings” to emphasise that much of Masters and McKenzie’s time and energy was taken by BRS’s claim, aiming to evoke sympathy for them and positioning readers to agree that more protections are needed to prevent journalists from being involved in these time-consuming legal battles. I also established costs as another major issue using the statistic of “$25 million” to emphasise that not only are these legal battles time-consuming, but also expensive, and through connotations of immensity when describing this as a “hefty price tag”’.’

Explaining the Argument and How It Is Relevant to the Audience

But why exactly is this our issue? It’s not like we’re the ones having to pay millions of dollars.

But it becomes our issue when this financial burden creates a chilling effect on public interest journalism. Fear of bankruptcy or crippling financial strain forces journalists to retreat, self censor or settle for silence. This financial issue for news organisations becomes our issue as the quality of our public interest journalism deteriorates and we are deprived of vital information.

Throughout my speech, I made an effort to constantly tie it back to the audience and explain why exactly this issue was important and relevant to them . This was important for me to do because the issue I chose was relatively niche so I felt like I had to prove to them that this issue was worth presenting. Even if the issue you’re presenting isn’t exactly niche, it’s important to link back to the audience every now and then and to remind them why it’s important to them. In my case, I explained that defamation cases like the Roberts-Smith case against journalists and news corporations were a threat to high school students having access to information that they should be aware of!

Something else that I attempted to do here was to include some persuasive devices! To quote my Statement of Intention, ‘having established costs as a major issue, I segued into the effect that these costs can have on journalists, listing these effects as causing journalists to “retreat, self-censor or settle for silence”, and through listing and sibilance in the latter half of this phrase, I aimed to make these effects memorable to listeners, emphasising the consequences of the costs of legal battles on journalists and public interest journalism.”’

Masters and McKenzie talked about the pressure that was put on them to leave the rumours about Ben Roberts Smith be. Chris explained that his colleagues tried to convince him not to fight with Ben Roberts Smith by telling him that it was like shooting Bambi. Well, I guess in that case, he would have been shooting Bambi for shooting unarmed civilians, which sounds pretty fair to me. Nick explained that convincing their bosses to publish the story was an exhaustive process, and even after successfully having their story on Roberts Smith published, Chris said there was a propaganda war waiting for them, with their former colleagues being hired by other news corporations to criticise them and disassemble their work, with their story being put on the cover of a rival newspaper, as an attack on Chris, accusing him of smearing the memories of dead soldiers, and it was designed to intimidate and hurt him and his biding relationships with people in the military who consider him a deep friend. These attempts of BRS to silence the two are not just unfair - as students, we want to grow up in a world where people are held accountable regardless of their connections or wealth.

After explaining my argument, I backed it up with evidence by going back to the defamation case and giving practical, real-life examples of how this case may have worked to hinder the quality of public interest journalism. I took much of the information in this section from the podcast that I talked about earlier (where Masters and McKenzie talked about their firsthand experiences) - for example, the so-called “propaganda war” that Masters faced after having the story published, rival news outlets who were on the side of Roberts-Smith publishing articles attacking Masters - and explained that this was designed to intimidate the two investigative journalists and deter them from exposing controversial stories against prominent figures. I not only told but also showed my audience that legal battles were a very real threat to journalism. I referred to this section of my speech as ‘personal anecdotes’ in my Statement of Intention and I wrote that I hoped to make my speech more convincing by illustrating the consequences of legal battles that Masters and Mckenzie experienced firsthand.

I tried my best to not make this section sound too much like a “he said, she said” situation by slipping in some of my own commentary. My tutor at the time (yes, I also had an LSG English tutor !) gave me the idea of mirroring ‘shooting Bambi’ with ‘shooting unarmed civilians’, and it was so brutal but I liked it so much that I decided to implement it as part of my commentary. In my Statement of Intention, I wrote that this comparison ‘aims to portray Masters and McKenzie as merely holding him accountable for his actions rather than bullying him, encouraging audiences to view journalists as necessary whistleblowers that require protections.’

My final sentence in this section worked to link all of this back to the audience and remind them, again, why all of this was relevant to them! 

The Conclusion

It’s obvious that in the end, it didn’t really matter that, this time, the courts sided with the journalists and news corporations in this legal battle. Because the reality is that the fact that this legal battle existed in the first place has been enough of a threat to public interest journalism, with cover up attempts and pressures to retreat, and may be a sign of many other stories being covered up. If two journalists, working for big news companies, felt the chilling effect of the legal battles that they came across, how much worse is it for smaller news organisations or independent journalists, who don’t have the deep pockets that The Age, Masters and McKenzie had in withstanding these challenges? This is only the tip of the iceberg of other stories that need to be broken and known by the public. We can’t continue to allow the law to be weaponised against journalists and against democracy. Thus, the recent conclusion of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case is a sign that more should be done to protect public interest journalism. 

In my concluding paragraph, I did three things: 

• I wrapped up
• I aimed to evoke a sense of urgency on the issue (the bolded part)
• I restated my contention at the very end to seal the deal

I didn’t exactly include a call to action in the part where I evoked a sense of urgency, but you totally could if that would work for your speech! 

It’s optional to restate your contention as your final sentence, and I opted to do this. I wanted to emphasise the point of my speech again so that my conclusion didn’t sound like it was straying away from the actual contention. I’d say do it if it flows well with the rest of your conclusion because when it’s done right, it really is like ending your speech with a bang!

I’ve Finished Writing a Killer Oral Script. What Now?

When you’ve perfected your speech script, it’s practice time! The way you present the speech is arguably as important, if not even more important than the script itself - presenting your speech in an engaging way can really make your script shine while presenting it in a dull way can make even the best script sound unappealing. 

Practice saying your speech out loud as early as possible and work towards having at least 85-95% of your speech committed to memory (especially if you’re paranoid and get anxious about public speaking like me). By the time I presented my Oral, I had memorised about 95% of my speech and the fact that I knew it off by heart gave me confidence and helped me feel less paranoid that I would mess up. This being said, I would definitely recommend having cue cards with dot points of your main ideas or little prompts with you in the presentation (which I also did), just in case you suddenly blank out!

I spent a week memorising my speech, reciting it out loud over and over again in my bedroom. In doing this, I pretty intuitively found the spots where I wanted to include pauses, change up my intonation or emphasise certain words or phrases - I committed these things to my muscle memory. If public speaking doesn’t come naturally to you, it might be a good idea to highlight and annotate your script and physically write in the parts where you want to include pauses or emphasise words. Practice with that script in front of you until you’ve memorised those things.

I also generally focused on my projection making sure to speak loudly, and I paid attention to my speed and diction. I tend to speed up and start rapping my speech when I’m nervous, so I made a conscious effort to speak slower and steadier in my practice runs, trying to engrain the perfect speed in my muscle memory (to varying levels of success haha). I also tried to make sure I was pronouncing everything clearly and that I wasn’t mumbling.

Before I started my presentation, I took a moment to take a deep breath, shake out my nerves and fix my posture. Good posture is the first step to feeling confident or faking confidence (which we all are when we’re up there)! 

What I Wish I Had Done Before I Did My Oral Presentation

If I could go back and give my Year 12 self advice on the Oral, it would be this: 

Practice saying my speech in front of someone.

I was pretty shy about my speech - you might relate - so I was very reluctant to practice my speech in front of my peers and even my friends. Unfortunately, this meant that I never practised it in front of another person at all, not even once. This is something that I really regret because I didn’t get to practice keeping a good balance between holding eye contact and looking at my cue cards. This ended up being a criticism from my teacher when she assessed my presentation! My teacher also criticised the fact that I didn’t hold an equal amount of eye contact throughout the whole classroom - she wrote that the right side of the classroom must have felt left out because I barely looked in their direction, haha! So, if you can, I really recommend getting out of your comfort zone and practising presenting your Oral in front of your friends or family members… and practice holding eye contact!

If you’ve made it to the end of this blog post, I’m assuming you’ll be having your Oral Presentation soon. Good luck, and try to enjoy presenting your speech if you can, because it’s the first and last time you will ever have the opportunity to present it! 

For more help with your Oral, see our Ultimate Guide to VCE Oral Presentations . 

My Full Oral Presentation Script: More Should Be Done To Protect Public Interest Journalism

Let me take you back in time. Six years ago, in 2017, many of us in this classroom were in Year 6, probably sitting in a primary school classroom, learning what an isosceles triangle is. And obviously, we had all been paying attention because now everyone’s thinking, “Oh yeah, I remember what an isosceles triangle is!” and we’re all imagining a tall triangle that looks like this.

Now, while our Year 6 teachers were providing us with the life-changing information that is the different types of triangles, something bigger was happening on Collins Street. A huge news sausage was in the making. Picture this: a conversation between two passionate and overworked journalists, working for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. One of which had heard whispers from his contact book of Australian military circles that our most decorated living soldier was not the person that everyone thought he was, and that he had in fact been involved in war crimes like the killing of unarmed civilians. A shared desire to put these rumours to the test, with an open mind, wanting to disprove them as much as to prove them. 

This marked the start of a 4-year long legal battle in the form of a defamation lawsuit lodged by decorated war vet Ben Roberts Smith against two investigative journalists, Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie. And, after more than 100 days of hearings, this battle recently ended, with the judge ruling overwhelmingly in favour of Masters and McKenzie that what they had reported about Roberts Smith was substantially true, hence the two had not defamed him.

ABC News called it a win for public interest journalism. So why have I brought up this case today to highlight that not enough is being done to protect public interest journalism?

Legal battles in general are a huge issue for journalism because they can be used as a threat to journalists. This defamation lawsuit was only the tip of the legal iceberg for Masters and McKenzie. They also faced challenges to source protection and Roberts-Smith’s numerous attempts to silence the two and other witnesses by sending them legal letters telling them to shut up, to suppress the truth about his actions from coming to light.

It’s obvious that in the end, it didn’t really matter that, this time, the courts sided with the journalists and news corporations in this legal battle. Because the reality is that the fact that this legal battle existed in the first place has been enough of a threat to public interest journalism, with cover up attempts and pressures to retreat, and may be a sign of many other stories being covered up. If two journalists, working for big news companies, felt the chilling effect of the legal battles that they came across, how much worse is it for smaller news organisations or independent journalists, who don’t have the deep pockets that The Age, Masters and McKenzie had in withstanding these challenges? This is only the tip of the iceberg of other stories that need to be broken and known by the public. We can’t continue to allow the law to be weaponised against journalists and against democracy. Thus, the recent conclusion of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case is a sign that more should be done to protect public interest journalism.  

Updated 26/12/2020

It’s that time of year again when many VCE English students start brainstorming their Oral Presentation SACs. To help you out, we’ve collated some of the biggest names and issues in the recent Australian media.

Each heading represents a broad, ongoing issue, and under it are more specific debates within each issue. Going down a more precise route with your topic selection can make your speech a lot more engaging and current, so pick a broad issue that speaks to you, and ‘zoom in’ on a debate for your speech. Don't forget to also check out Our Ultimate Guide to Oral Presentations for everything you need to know for Oral Presentations.

CLIMATE CHANGE

1. green new deal.

Originally, the 'New Deal' was a bunch of economic reforms that restimulated the economy back into action after the Great Depression. The ' Green New Deal' is a bunch of policies that combines this economic approach with the need to fight the climate crisis. It was first brought before the United States Congress by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in late 2018 , but was ultimately voted down. It called for a 10-year transformation of the economy to provide green jobs; transition to renewable, zero-emission energy sources; and eliminate pollution across sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and transport. Is this something that we need to adopt in Australia? Is now the best time for that conversation, given the political climate (not to mention the actual climate of the worst bushfire season in history)? And what exactly are the options? Australia Needs a Green New Deal (03/11/2019) What could an Australian green new deal look like? (28/11/2019) Why the Green New Deal matters (29/11/2019) Let’s make the 2020s the decade that Australia gets its mojo back (04/01/2020)

2. Young People on Strike

2019 saw the emergence of the ' school strike for climate' , an international movement of students skipping school to demonstrate and demand action on climate change. It took off after Greta Thunberg, a Swedish schoolgirl, began protesting outside the Swedish parliament in late 2018. It sparked widespread discussion on young people, education and the merits of striking. Scott Morrison was drawn into the discussion, stating that he doesn’t 'want our children to have anxieties about these issues', while defending his government’s track record on renewable energy investment. So - should young people be worrying about these issues at all? Are they missing out on crucial years of education by taking to the streets? And, is what they’re saying really unreasonable at all? Global climate strike sees ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Australians rally (video, 0/09/2019) The climate strike organiser who received a near-perfect ATAR (18/12/2019) How Greta Thunberg’s school strike went global: a lo ok back (podcast, 30/12/2019)

3. To Prime Minister or Not To Prime Minister

Australia is already facing its most severe bushfire season yet with several months of fire season left to go. During these months, Scott Morrison took a holiday in Hawaii, staying there even after stating his intention to return . Even as he returned, he was shunned for perceived insensitivity and insincerity . What should a Prime Minister do in a state of national emergency? While Morrison delegated many of the duties to state premiers, are these distinctions important in times of crisis? Is he the leader we deserve after his resounding, miraculous election victory in 2019? Where to from here? ScoMo, Where the Bloody Hell Are You? (20/12/2019) Don’t dismiss our anger in Cobargo Scott Morrison, we are the ones living through a crisis (02/01/2020) Scott Morrison, Australia’s singed prime minister (03/01/2020) ‘Bloodcurdling insanity’: Real reason ScoMo is under fire (04/01/2020)

4. Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)

An ETS basically makes carbon gas emissions an economic good that gets bought and sold like any other - corporations that emit more gas will need to now purchase permission to emit, while corporations that emit less will be able to sell their permits. The debate for an ETS in Australia is old (surprisingly perhaps, John Howard first broached the idea towards the end of his Prime Ministership ), but became political poison after Julia Gillard introduced it despite promising that her government wouldn’t introduce a carbon tax in the 2010 election. It has since been scrapped, making Australia the only government in the world to ever dismantle an operational ETS. A decade later, is it now the right time to revisit this discussion? Just why are so many people opposed to policy that would stop corporations from emitting for free? And what does this mean for our international reputation and commitments? One of the world’s biggest emitters is trying to fly under the radar at Cop25 (06/12/2019) For 10 Years, Australia Has Been In A Climate-Policy Abyss (07/12/2019) ‘Not moving fast enough’: former head of Scott Morrison’s department criticises climate change policies (18/12/2019)

SOCIAL EQUITY

1. homophobia in sport.

So this is nothing particularly new, but it’s unfortunately still present even as we move into 2020. Should sports stars be penalised for their opinions when they’re exclusionary and harmful, or should we respect them for their sporting prowess? Maybe this speaks more broadly to the standards we expect sporting stars or public figures in general to set as role models… Israel Folau: Australian rugby star condemned for linking bushfires to ‘sinful’ homosexuality (18/11/2019) Marcus Stoinis fined $7,500 for homophobic slur during Big Bash League (04/01/2020)

Bear with me on this one - while she isn’t specifically a ‘social equity’ debate, Lizzo’s emergence as a breakout singer of 2019 intersects with a lot of social equity movements, from body positivity and feminism to racial justice and self-empowerment. Her upcoming shows in Australia sold out in minutes, which speaks to her newfound popularity as a global star. What is it about Lizzo that resonates with so many people? What and who does she represent? Is the new decade also a watershed moment for diversity in entertainment? Lizzo taps into the real meaning of freedom in 2019 (07/10/2019) Lizzo, pop’s reigning phenomenon, brings her juice to Australia (05/01/2020)

3. Gender Wage Gap in Sport

Again, this one isn’t too new, but a fresh wave of activism for equal pay in sport was sparked this year by Megan Rapinoe, the captain of the US women’s national soccer team (which won the World Cup in 2019). She, her team and the men’s team sued the national soccer federation for gender discrimination and other countries, Australia included, followed suit. Why does the wage gap exist and what are the reasons for closing it? Is a preference for the men’s game enough to justify paying women less (despite the fact that preferences like this are usually rooted in misogyny and are subjective anyway)? And how does this translate between different sports such as soccer, AFLW and tennis (where Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic have clashed over this before)? AFLW pay dispute is over (28/10/2019) Matildas become first women’s team in world football to be paid the same as men’s team (video, 05/11/2019) Australia’s women footballers get equal pay in landmark deal (06/11/2019) ‘We Have To Be Better’: Megan Rapinoe and the Year of Victory and Advocacy (18/12/2019)

4. Newstart

Newstart is Australia’s income support for those aged 22 to 64 who are unemployed. Though a form of social security, it’s fallen behind in terms of how much economic security it can provide recently, with years of no real increases (that is, increases which offset inflation - basically things are getting more expensive and even if Newstart increases, it doesn’t give you more purchasing power in reality). Is it finally time to increase Newstart? There was some discussion around the holiday season being particularly expensive, but should an increase be permanent? How hard is it to get a job in today’s economy? And are the payments enough to live on if you can’t find a job? Morrison government defends Newstart amid criticism it is among low est welfare payments in OECD (08/10/2019) Report highlights social crisis confronting Australian youth on welfare (14/12/2019) Survey finds two-thirds of Australians back a Newstart Christmas boost (22/12/2019) The economic case for increasing Newstart (01/01/2020)

5. First Nations Justice

'Voice' was the Australian National Dictionary Centre’s word of the year in 2019 , in the context of Indigenous representation in the Australian parliament. A Voice to Parliament would enshrine Indigenous input into laws and policies on issues affecting First Nations communities, and has been called for by activists for some time now. How does this tie into/is this distinct from other issues such as constitutional recognition? Why haven’t we seen a lot of progress or consensus on these issues? And what might it mean for those communities to be able to make autonomous decisions? There’s a 60,000-Year-Old Way to Help Stop Australia Burning (16/12/2019) ‘I feel unchained’: Mauboy adds her voice to Indigenous recognition campaign (29/12/2019) The Voice to Parliament isn’t a new idea – Indigenous activists called for it nearly a century ago (02/01/2020) ‘It can be more controversial’: Costello warns on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians (02/01/2020)

1. Teaching as a Decreasingly Popular Profession

Australian teachers have been struggling with increasingly difficult jobs and flat-lining pay in recent years, and teachers’ unions haven’t been able to successfully find a solution to offset these concerns. Tertiary students are now turning away from pursuing a career in education , and there could be many reasons as to why. What does this mean for the future of Australian education? In what ways do you as a student feel the impacts? And what could be some solutions - perhaps both from a teacher’s point of view, but also from a student-centric viewpoint? Three charts on teachers’ pay in Australia: it starts out OK, but goes downhill pretty quickly (02/09/2019) The epic failure at the root of Australia’s maths problem (06/12/2019) Why male teachers are disappearing from Australian sc hools (12/12/2019) A new voice for class teachers (30/12/2019)

2. Australia Falling Behind

Unfortunately, Australian students have been falling behind many of their global counterparts in terms of educational outcomes - we even hit our worst ever results in the OECD’s international student assessment in 2018. What does this mean in an increasingly globalised world and is there a way to turn this around? How might a student perspective on this be unique from that of a politician for example, or another stakeholder? And is education an isolated issue, or should we be looking at more holistic solutions that incorporate health-related, economic and/or social solutions as well? Murri School students experience social and emotional benefits from six-day nature camp (13/10/2019 - a bit of a reach, but an interesting read about education outside of the traditional classroom) No need to panic – we can fix Australian schools. But to rush the reform is to ruin it (08/12/2019) Coalition to review Australian education curriculum in bid to reverse fall in student results (11/12/2019) Aboriginal English recognition in schools critical for improving student outcomes for Indigenous Australians (21/12/2019) We love to criticise the United States, but guess what? Their public schools are better than ours (04/01/2019)

This is another one of those long-running debates, though it’s on the table again as the ACT has recently legalised recreational cannabis . This goes against federal law, which still bans the possession and use of weed, and makes Canberra the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise it. Canberra has also led the way on issues such as same-sex marriage, legalising it as early as 2013 (four years before the rest of the nation would follow suit). Discussion about other drugs such as ecstasy has also been raised as a result, and this piece might be an interesting read on why different drugs have different legal statuses. Still, is legalising pot the way to go considering how other Western democracies are already moving in this direction? Is it even a harmful drug at all? And what about the others, such as ecstasy? Or even alcohol, for that matter? Nation’s capital legalises cannabis for personal use (25/09/2019) Peter Dutton: government may overturn ‘dangerous’ ACT decision to legalise cannabis (25/09/2019) Australia could be the first country to legalise ecstasy – are we going too far? (03/10/2019) Canberra women with endometriosis are self-medicating with cannabis, but legalising the drug might not help (28/12/2019)

2. Climate Grief

This is an interesting and pretty recent phenomenon - climate grief or climate burnout are new terms that have come into existence to describe the mental health impacts of the climate crisis. In particular, they describe the frustration and despair that people may feel as a result, given that progress on reducing carbon emissions is frighteningly slow and natural disasters are becoming more frequent and devastating at the same time. What is your take on it and who’s feeling it? Do you have to be affected by disasters, or can it also affect young people who feel pessimistic about the future of the planet? And what could be some strategies for overcoming it? What is the importance of seeing climate through a health lens and how might it inspire activism or change? Australian Farmers Muddled in Mental Health Crisis (26/09/2019 - a good read on how climate issues intersect with economic issues as well) Australian town breaks record for mental health awareness following devastating flood (16/12/2019) Australian bushfires could lead to a mental health crisis, expert warns (03/01/2020)

3. Mental Health

2019 saw some other new developments in the conversation around mental health in Australia. A report found that mental health concerns are getting more widespread among young people, while government investment doesn’t really seem to be effective. Meanwhile, we’re also seeing progress on destigmatising mental health issues within sport - overseas, athletes such as Paul Merson and Stan Collymore have shared stories of their battles, while Cricket Australia looks into ways of creating more supportive environments for their players. How can we streamline the message around mental health, or the relevant support networks? What solutions haven’t we tried yet, and how might the discussion around this shift in the next decade? What are the implications if we don’t address these issues? Note that this can be a sensitive issue which may cause distress to some people. Mental health issues increasing among Austra lians (30/09/2019) Push to get wellbeing counsellors into schools as mental health bill costs Australia billions (31/10/2019) What’s driving poor mental health among young Australians? We asked them (20/11/2019) Kevin Roberts: Cricket Australia committed to better understanding menta l health (14/12/2019) People with mental illness less likely to get cancer screening (03/01/2020)

4. Abortions in NSW

NSW recently legalised abortions for pregnancies shorter than 22 weeks after one of the longest debates in their state Upper House. While the choice versus life debate has raged around the world for decades now (i.e. maybe don’t do a pro-choice speech that people will have heard before, and probably don’t do a pro-life speech in 2020), what is the landscape of the debate like in our day and age? Who opposes it and why? What is the problem with making health issues criminal issues instead (e.g. drug policy as well)? And what other issues might be linked to this? Can someone who is pro-life also support tougher border restrictions that lead to refugee deaths at sea, for example? Note that this can be a sensitive issue which may cause distress to some people. Why NSW is still fighting about abortion (17/09/2019) Controversial abortion bill passes NSW Upper House after long-haul debate (25/09/2019) Abortion Is Now Legal in NSW After Controversial Bill Passes Lower House (26/09/2019) NSW abortion law: doctors say last-minute changes ‘unnecessary’ but manageable (26/09/2019)

Wondering where to go from here? Well, luckily, my eBook, How To Write A Killer Oral Presentation , details my exact step-by-step process so you can get that A+ in your SAC this year.

• Access a step-by-step guide on how to write your Oral Presentation with simple, easy-to-follow advice
• Read and analyse sample A+ Oral Presentations with EVERY speech annotated and broken down on HOW and WHY students achieved A+ so you reach your goal
• Learn how to stand out from other students with advice on your speech delivery

Sounds like something that'd help you? I think so too! Access the full eBook by clicking here !

1. Summary 2. Themes 3. Symbols and Analysis 4. Quotes 5. Sample Essay Topics 6. Essay Topic Breakdown

Alice Munro is a Canadian Nobel-Prize-winning author of short stories , and Runaway , first published in 2004, is a collection of eight such stories (though kind of actually only six, because three of them are sequential). These stories examine the lives of Canadian women throughout the last century, but not all of them are necessarily realistic to what daily life actually looks like. Rather, Munro uses borderline-supernatural events (which some critics say feel staged or contrived) to shed light on the tensions and challenge s of gender in modern life.

This can mean that some of the stories are quite hard to follow; they go through all these twists and turns, and the lines between stories start blurring after a while. Let’s go through each in a bit more detail before jumping into our analysis.

2. Story-by-Story Characters and Summary

The titular story is about a woman Carla , her husband Clark , their goat Flora , and their elderly neighbour Sylvia Jamieson . There are many runaways in the story: Carla ran away from her middle-class home to marry Clark, Flora the goat literally runs away, a scandalous lie about Sylvia’s late husband gets a bit out of hand, and now Sylvia is helping Carla run away once again, this time from Clark. Few of these runaways are really very successful: this story is really interrogating why and how.

Chance/Soon/Silence

The next three stories are sequential, and revolve around Juliet , a well-educated classicist who is working as a teacher in the first story, ‘Chance’ - it is set in 1965 and she is 21. In this story, she meets her lover Eric Porteous on a train, then finds him again six months later. Eric is sleeping around with a few women in light of his wife’s declining health and eventual passing, but by ‘Soon’ he and Juliet have settled down and had a baby together - Penelope .

‘Soon’ focuses more on the relationship between Juliet and her parents, in particular her mother Sara . Juliet feels a bit out of place now at home, and feels guilty about not being more present for Sara. In turn, ‘Silence’ depicts her own daughter running away from her. Juliet returns to her studies and only hears about Penelope’s life through a chance encounter with a friend who reveals that Penelope is now a mother herself.

The next story is about Grace , an older woman revising the family home of her husband Maury Travers . Their marriage never had a lot of passion in it really - Grace was always more interested in Maury’s family - but both of them were just doing what was expected of them. The contrast comes from Maury’s brother Neil , a doctor who accompanies Grace on a hospital trip when she cuts her foot. This trip becomes longer and more sensual, feeling adulterous even though very little actually transpires between them - the story raises questions around what counts as cheating, and what marriages should entail. 

‘Trespasses’ is slightly deliberately disorienting from the start (which is actually the end of the story). We go on a flashback in the middle to learn about a father, Harry , and his daughter Lauren . One day when moving house, Lauren finds a cardboard box - Harry explains that it contains the ashes of a dead baby who he and his wife Eileen (Lauren’s mother) had had before Lauren. This leads to Lauren questioning if she was adopted, which is further complicated by Delphine , a worker at a hotel who seems to think Lauren is her biological daughter. The ending (which was teased at the beginning) is the evening of confrontation between the four characters where the truth is finally revealed. 

Conversely, ‘Tricks’ has a more linear plot to follow. Robin is a carer for her asthmatic sister Joanne , but she’s taken to watching Shakespeare plays in the next town once a year. One year, she meets a European clockmaker Danilo who plans to meet her next year when she is back in town - but this doesn’t go to plan at all. It’s only 40 years later that Robin finds out Danilo had a twin brother, which is why the plan had gone downhill.

The last story in the collection is arguably the most complex, and it’s broken into 5 parts to reflect that complexity. It follows Nancy as she ages from a fresh high school graduate to an old woman by the end of the sequence, including her marriage to the town doctor Wilf . Importantly, the stories also cover her friendship with Tessa , who has the supernatural powers mentioned in the title. However, by the third story, Tessa has been abandoned in a mental hospital and she has lost her powers. Throughout the stories, we also see Ollie , Wilf’s cousin (or a figment of Nancy’s imagination according to this analysis), who seems to be responsible for Tessa’s demise.

Let’s start tracing some of the common themes between the stories.

A key theme explored throughout many of the stories is marriage and domesticity . There’s a strong sense that it’s an underwhelming experience : it doesn’t live up to expectations and it particularly dampens the lives of the women involved. Nancy’s marriage to Wilf in ‘Powers’ only happens because she feels guilty - 'I could hardly [turn him down] without landing us both in…embarrassment' - but, as a result, she loses her fun, intellectual streak as he tells her to put down her book, 'give Dante a rest'. A similar fate befalls Juliet, who gives up her study in the process of becoming married.

 Marriage is also sometimes explored as a deliberate choice , even if it might have unintended consequences - for example, Carla’s marriage to Clark is described as a life that she 'chose'. This interpretation is more unclear though, and is contradicted in other stories like Passion, where Grace’s marriage is described as 'acquiescence ', acceptance without protest. It’s even contradicted to some extent in the same story: Munro compares Carla’s marriage to a 'captive' situation, where she might’ve chosen to enter the marriage, but after that has little say in how it goes.

This sounds a bit trite, but the title is a key theme as well - just not necessarily in the physical sense . Consider all of these different definitions and how they pop up in the stories. In ‘Runaway’, Carla and the goat run away, but also the lie Carla tells Clark about Leon, a runaway lie that taints his relationship with Sylvia completely. Some runaways are described as accidents - 'she – Flora – slipped through' - while others are much more deliberate. The question here is how much control we actually have over our own lives . Not a lot, it would seem.

The other side of runaway/s is to think about who the victim in each runaway is. Does somebody run away because they are 'in a bad situation, the way it happens', a victim of circumstance , or do they run away because they feel guilty , or because they’re abandoning someone else, the true victim of being left behind? Carla does seem like more of a victim of circumstance with good reason to run away, but think about Nancy leaving Tessa behind in ‘Powers’: ‘“I’ll write to you”, she said…she never did.’

This question about who the real victim is might be the hardest to answer for ‘Silence’. Juliet’s daughter abandons her, but it’s not like there’s a strong history of positive mother-daughter relationships in their family: Juliet wasn’t able to give Sara what she needed ( 'she had not protected Sara') and in turn isn’t able to quite give Penelope what she needs either (Penelope having a 'hunger for the things that were not available to her in her home '). At the same time, Penelope’s abandonment does feel quite callous and inexplicable , even if Juliet feels like it’s what she deserves; Munro suggests at the end of the story that a reunion would be an 'undeserved blessing[]'. The intertextuality with Aethiopica reveals Juliet’s good intentions, her similarity to the 'great-hearted queen of Ethiopia', but it doesn’t quite give us the satisfaction of a neat resolution either.

Ethics and Morality

Finally, Munro’s stories also raise questions around morality . Besides what we’ve already covered - adultery, runaways - there are further questions raised around parenthood , particularly in ‘Trespasses’. Harry seems to share a bit too much information with his child, who really doesn’t need to know about the dead baby just yet. Lauren is 'not short of information', and it’s worth questioning where that boundary should be for a child of her age.

But not all ethical questions have simple answers : as in ‘Tricks’ they can sometimes just have 'outrageous', cruel punchlines that don’t reveal themselves for decades. Munro doesn’t necessarily have all the answers on this one. She brings up complex moral situations but does not pass judgment on any.

4. Symbols & Analysis

Greek elements.

Throughout the stories, Munro brings in a few elements of Greek mythology or literature . The intertextuality in ‘Silence’ is one example, drawing on the classical text Aethiopica , but there are a few more scattered throughout the stories: the constellations of Orion and Cassiopeia in ‘Chance’ and an oracle-like figure in Tessa, a main character in ‘Powers’. All of these elements have some significance:

• Cassiopeia is known for her arrogance and vanity, which parallels with the way Juliet detaches herself from her life ('she had made herself into a rather superior, invulnerable observer' - despite her very real vulnerabilities)
• Orion is known for his forbidden romance with the virgin goddess Artemis, which parallels with Eric’s romance with Juliet (Juliet being relatively inexperienced with men herself, with all of her experiences being 'fantasy')
• Oracles in mythology are like mouthpieces of the gods who can prophesy about the future. They were often women, so oracles were unusually influential in their male-dominated societies. The question is whether this parallels with Tessa at all: even though she has these supernatural powers, are there other forms of power she might lack instead?

In general, intertextuality is a way to enrich a text by drawing parallels and linking characters to existing stories or archetypes. Here, Munro uses classical texts to add dimension to her characters in a way that is almost-but-not-quite commentary. Pre-existing Greek myths are a way for us to see what’s really going on .

(Rail)Roads and Transit

The other symbol that comes up a few times in the stories is roads or railroads - basically places where runaways might happen . ‘Chance’ is set in the middle of a train journey, ‘Tricks’ involves a couple of train journeys, ‘Runaway’ maps the roads leading in and out of Carla’s home, and almost all of ‘Passion’ takes place on the road. If we broaden ‘places where runaways might happen’ to include planes as well, then we can add ‘Powers’ and ‘Silence’ to the list.

All of these spaces are what might be called liminal - they’re ‘in-between’ spaces with an air of suspense about what can happen. It’s probably most prominent in ‘Passion’, where Grace describes the events of that road trip as a 'passage” in her life, both physically and metaphorically. In general though, they’re the settings where the wildest and most significant events tend to happen.

• 'She—Flora—slipped through.'
• 'She (referring to Carla) chose this life with Clark.'
• 'She is just in a bad situation, the way it happens.'
• 'She saw him as the architect of the life ahead of them, herself as the captive, her submission both proper and exquisite.'
• 'She might be free.' - this is the second last line in the story. Note the ambiguity here (and through all these quotes, to be honest) about which ‘she’ is being referred to (Carla, Flora or even Sylvia)
• 'Juliet was twenty-one years old and already the possessor of a B.A. and an M.A. in classics.'
• 'The problem was that she was a girl. If she got married—which might happen…—she would waste all her hard work.'
• 'She had made herself into a rather superior, invulnerable observer.'
• '…the two of them (referring to Sara and Juliet) intertwined. And then abruptly, Juliet hadn’t wanted any more of it.'
• 'But she had not protected Sara. When Sara had said, soon I’ll see Juliet , Juliet had found no reply. Could it not have been managed?…She had put everything away.'
• Penelope supposedly had a 'hunger for the things that were not available to her in her home.'
• 'Penelope does not have a use for me.'
• 'She hopes as people who know better hope for undeserved blessings, spontaneous remissions, things of that sort.'
• Grace, watching a movie with Maury, felt 'rage…because that was what girls were supposed to be like. That’s what men - people, everybody - thought they should be like. Beautiful, treasured, spoiled, selfish, pea-brained. That was what a girl should be, to be fallen in love with.'
• 'It was not in her nature, of course, to be so openly dumbfounded, so worshipful, as he was.'
• 'Describing this passage, this change in her life, later on, Grace might say - she did say - that it was as if a gate had clanged shut behind her. But at the time there was no clang - acquiescence simply rippled through her.'
• Lauren 'had been brought up to believe that children and adults could be on equal terms with each other.'
• 'How could she be sure that they had not got her as a replacement? If there was one big thing she hadn’t known about, why could there not be another?'
• 'Forgive us our trespasses' - note the ambiguity of ‘trespasses’ (does it mean sins as in the prayer, or overstepping boundaries, or both?)
• 'Some of the best-looking, best-turned-out women in town are those who did not marry.'
• 'A means to an end, those tricks are supposed to be.'
• 'I couldn’t stand for the poor man (referring to Wilf) to have had two girls turn him down’
• 'I used to have a feeling something really unusual would occur in my life, and it would be important to have recorded everything. Was that just a feeling?'
• 'She could be upset to see you leave without her. So I’ll give you an opportunity just to slip away.'
• 'He has nearly forgotten that he ever believed in her powers, he is now only anxious for her and for himself, that their counterfeit should work well.'

Having great quotes is one thing, but you also want to make sure you know How To Embed Quotes in Your Essay Like a Boss !

6. Sample Essay Topics

• What does Runaway teach us about romance?
• Carla, Grace and Tessa are more similar than different in terms of their relationships with the men in their lives. Do you agree?
• How does Munro contrast younger and older women in Runaway ?
• What does the setting contribute to the overall effect of Runaway ?
• 'Forgive us our trespasses.' What types of boundaries are created and overstepped in Runaway ?

7. Essay Topic Breakdown

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. This essay topic breakdown will give you a brief glimpse on the THINK part of the strategy. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response .

Within the THINK strategy, we have 3 steps, or ABC. These ABC components are:

Step 1: A nalyse

Step 2: B rainstorm

Step 3: C reate a Plan

‘Forgive us our trespasses.’ What types of boundaries are created and overstepped in Runaway ?

Step 1: Analyse

This quote is from ‘Trespasses’ and captures the double meaning of the word as both overstepping physical boundaries and sinning in the moral or religious sense . It’s likely we’ll want to talk about both interpretations - physically trespassing but also encroaching on boundaries in immoral ways. Note that the prompt also includes the action words ‘created’ and ‘overstepped’, meaning that there’ll be a pretty diverse range of examples that we’ll need to use to answer this prompt comprehensively.

Step 2: Brainstorm

Let’s start with physical boundaries : Carla’s marriage and the fences on her property and the US-Canada border in ‘Powers’ come to mind. Then, we’ve got non-physical boundaries: emotionally as in ‘Chance’ and ethically as in ‘Trespasses’. This is where we start getting into whether these boundaries are created or overstepped .

Clark creates boundaries for Carla and her attempts to break free from them are unsuccessful. The border in ‘Powers’ is more of an excuse for Nancy to neglect Tessa, a boundary she creates and never makes the effort to overstep. Finally, the ethical boundaries in ‘Trespasses’ are overstepped from the get-go. How can we synthesise these ideas into one essay?

Step 3: Create a Plan

I think the trick with questions like this is not to just allocate different types of boundaries and/or different action words to each paragraph. Try to think of creative ways to string these ideas together that also build towards a bigger picture or overall contention about the text as a whole. This example plan explores physical and emotional boundaries but makes a bigger argument that they are often associated with regret in Munro’s stories.

‍ Paragraph 1 : Physical boundaries are both the most intentional and the most difficult to overstep.

• Carla’s farmstead is isolated and bordered by roads; her marriage to Clark and her life on this farmstead is likened to a 'captive' situation, with Clark being the 'architect' of it all
• Munro ends Runaway on a pessimistic note about Carla’s ability to leave this boundary: 'She might be free'
• International borders also constitute physical barriers, and these are used by Nancy in ‘Powers’ to avoid responsibility; because this is an active decision (‘“I’ll write to you”, she said…she never did.’), it’s a barrier that never really gets broken. Similar to Penelope in ‘Silence’

Paragraph 2 : Munro’s stories, however, focus more on emotional boundaries , and the way these are applied varies greatly. This variation underscores their complexity .

• Emotional boundaries when created can prevent intimacy: Juliet 'ma[kes] herself into a rather superior, invulnerable observer' so as to avoid commitment. These boundaries come back to bite when she has a daughter
• Conversely, they cause a great deal of harm when overstepped: for example, ‘Trespasses’ sees 'crazy and dangerous' adults toy with the life of a child, constantly assuming that she 'can take it' when in fact this is not the case

Paragraph 3 : Regardless, Munro’s characters often come to regret the boundaries they erect or overstep.

• Carla’s ambivalence about her marriage is tinged with regret either way: when she’s there, she wants to escape, and when she escapes, she questions if she has 'anything left in [her]'
• Juliet reflects on the boundaries she puts up between herself and Penelope and realises that 'spontaneous remissions' between them are undeserved and impossible
• In ‘Powers’, Nancy struggles with the guilt of abandoning Tessa: many years later, she still wants to 'open [the past] up' and understand her motives. However, it is too late, and the boundaries are already there
• Munro does not suggest that boundaries are inherently good or bad, but her stories show how they can be sources of regret when treated improperly

Runaway is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Creative Response. Check out Audrey's blog on how to approach Runaway as a Creative Response for more.

For a detailed guide on Creative Response as a whole, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Creative Writing .

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Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , Gothic horror novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that was first published in 1818. The epistolary story follows a scientific genius who brings to life a terrifying monster that torments its creator. It is considered one of the first science-fiction novels. An international sensation, the story has been adapted hundreds of times in different media and has influenced pop culture at large.

(Read Britannica’s explanation of the science behind “Frankenstein.”)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s personal story, much like the focus of her fictional masterpiece, was mired in the struggle of giving life while surrounded by death. Her mother was radical author Mary Wollstonecraft , a trailblazing feminist who advocated for women’s education. Wollstonecraft attempted suicide two years before her daughter was born and died just 11 days after the birth, from puerperal fever . Wollstonecraft’s husband and the infant’s father, William Godwin , was also a radical writer and an anarchist philosopher committed to Enlightenment ideals of rationality. Born to these parents and introduced to the circle of writers in which they moved—which included, at various times, Thomas Paine , William Blake , and William Wordsworth —Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was uniquely positioned to make her own way in the literary scene.

Godwin became pregnant at 16 and eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley , who was 21 and frequently visited her father. The infant, a girl, would die soon after her birth in March 1815. Subsequently, Godwin wrote in her journal of a dream in which she coaxed her child back to life. She was pregnant a second time just weeks later and gave birth to William Shelley in January 1816. Percy Shelley was married to another woman who was pregnant at the time, and yet he fled with Godwin, their infant son, and her stepsister Claire Clairmont from the controversy of his situation. The travelers met the poet Lord Byron , who was dodging an extramarital scandal of his own, at a mansion known as Villa Diodati in Cologny, Switzerland, during the summer of 1816. The season was atypical—cold, gloomy , and rife with storms—possibly because of the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia, and 1816 became known as the “year without a summer.”

On inclement evenings when forced indoors by the weather, the group regaled themselves with Fantasmagoriana , an anthology of German ghost stories translated into French in 1812. These tales had a profound impact on Godwin, who would, 15 years later, recall several of them with considerable clarity, including “The History of the Inconstant Lover” and “The Tale of the Sinful Founder of His Race.” One evening, for sport, Byron suggested that each person present attempt to write a story that could rival those in Fantasmagoriana . Byron’s physician John Polidori attained some success with “The Vampyre,” which he produced during his stay in Villa Diodati; it would later influence Bram Stoker ’s Dracula . Yet it was Godwin who pieced together an outline for what would be the most enduring work to come out of Byron’s contest—and out of her career. “I have found it!” she wrote in 1831, recalling the moment in 1816 when she realized what she was creating, “What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow”: a monster, created by a mad scientist blinded by ambition, that tortures its creator.

The months following that moment were full of challenges for Godwin, who was only 18 years old at the time. That same year, Shelley’s first wife took her own life, as did Godwin’s half sister. Godwin and Shelley married in December 1816. Mary Shelley, then living in Bath , England , became pregnant for a third time, although Percy Shelley was often absent . It was in these circumstances that she drafted the bulk of her novel .

On the first day of the year 1818, 500 copies of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus were printed anonymously on the cheapest paper available by a largely unknown London publisher. Mary Shelley was 20 years old. She did not immediately claim authorship because of the novel’s controversial contents, but Frankenstein quickly exploded in popularity. By August a family friend of the Shelleys was telling them that Frankenstein “seems to be universally read.” The edition included a preface written by Percy Shelley and a dedication to Mary’s father, William Godwin, leading many to believe that either man was the author. While Percy Shelley did have some influence on the novel, Mary Shelley’s manuscripts show his role to have been that of an editor, not a creator. Four years later, after a popular theatrical production based on the story was staged, Mary Shelley released a new edition of Frankenstein , under her name and with minor edits likely from her father.

In 1831 she published a third edition of Frankenstein , including an introduction describing her inspirations. She credited Fantasmagoriana , her childhood years spent in Scotland , contemporary theories of galvanism , discussions among the three men at Villa Diodati concerning the “principle of life,” the experiments on spontaneous vitality by Erasmus Darwin , and, finally, a waking nightmare she experienced that conjured a student horrified by the result of his own vivification of assembled human body parts. Other, possible connections between Mary Shelley’s life and her novel include a trip she and her husband-to-be took along the Rhine in 1814, where she may have spied Frankenstein Castle. There, during the 18th century, theologian and alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel was rumoured to have been studying artificial life —even, supposedly, engaging in grave robbing as part of his research. (How much Shelley actually knew of Dippel is unknown.) William Frankenstein, the monster’s first victim, is thought to have been based on William Shelley—the Shelleys’ beloved second child, who died of an illness at three years old in 1819. In Shelley’s text, Victor Frankenstein discusses at length his admiration for the mountains and lakes of his homeland in Switzerland —a sentiment perhaps born of the Shelleys’ 1816 vacation.

Much like its eponymous character, Frankenstein was followed by tragedy: Polidori committed suicide in 1821; Percy Shelley drowned in 1822; Byron died of fever in 1824. Of Mary Shelley’s four children, only one would survive. Shelley herself died in 1851 at 53 years old. In her 1831 introduction, she wrote of Frankenstein :

And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart. Its several pages speak of many a walk, many a drive, and many a conversation, when I was not alone.

Just in 2016, nearly 50,000 copies of Frankenstein were sold—a testament to the novel’s enduring popularity, considering that this figure is 100 times the number of copies produced in the novel’s first printing. One of the original 500 copies of Frankenstein sold at auction in 2021 for $1.17 million, breaking the record for a printed work by a woman.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus opens with a series of letters from Robert Walton to his sister Margaret Saville in England. Walton describes his preparations for, and embarkation on, an exploratory sea voyage toward the North Pole . The trip begins easily enough, but the ship and crew are soon bogged down by impassable ice. As they wait for more-favourable conditions, they spy a hulking man on a dogsled speeding across the ice. The next day, another dogsled appears, this time beside the ship, bearing a haggard but gentlemanly European. A lonely Walton takes in the freezing traveler and nurses him back to health, finding the newcomer to be an intelligent, welcome companion, despite his concerning bouts of gloom.

Encouraged by their growing friendship, the newcomer agrees to spill his tale of woe to Walton, who makes it his duty to record the story verbatim . The newcomer—Victor Frankenstein—goes on to tell his life story, beginning with his distinguished ancestry and the circumstances under which his father and mother came to be married. Victor is the firstborn of a wealthy Swiss family, and he describes an idyllic childhood. He had two brothers, Ernest and William, and a sister by adoption, Elizabeth, who was a dear friend to Victor and a natural choice for his future wife. His best friend, Henry Clerval, who spent nearly all his time with the Frankenstein family, was the son of a local merchant.

In his youth, Frankenstein was set to travel to Ingolstadt , Bavaria , to pursue an interest in natural science at the town’s university, but his departure was delayed by the death of his mother from scarlet fever . Once in Ingolstadt, Frankenstein impressed his professors with his intensive work ethic . During this unrelenting period of study, Frankenstein unraveled the mysteries of life and death . He then set his mind to animating a creature in a human likeness, albeit on a gargantuan scale. His frenetic pursuit of this goal left no room for thought of his family or even his own health. He plundered graves and morgues with a dispassionate eye, seeing only components for his future creation, and heartlessly employed vivisection for his experiments.

Then, “on a dreary night of November” at one o’clock in the morning, Frankenstein imbued his humanlike creation with the spark of life. Frankenstein fled at the sight of the unnatural creature, wandering through the night before fortuitously running into his old friend Clerval, who had just arrived to attend the university. Not long afterward, Frankenstein suffered a nervous breakdown stemming from the horrible memories of his experiment. A fever incapacitated him for months. Frankenstein recuperated slowly, but then he received a letter from his father relating the murder of his youngest brother, William.

While on his journey back home, Frankenstein spotted the 8-foot- (2.4-metre-) tall monster on an inaccessible mountainside and became convinced that his creation was his brother’s killer. But when he arrived at home, he found that all evidence pointed to a family friend named Justine, who was soon executed for the murder. Frankenstein was wracked with guilt, knowing that he had created the true murderer but that no one would believe him. A couple of months later, Frankenstein once again came into contact with the monster. The scientist attempted to attack his creation before finally deciding to hear out the eloquent creature’s tale.

The monster, after his inception, had survived in the woods with little knowledge of the world. It took time for him to understand his own senses, much less his environment . Early on, he ventured toward villages for shelter, but people chased him away with fear and violence. He ended up hiding in a hovel by a small cottage inhabited by a poor family. This family was teaching a foreigner how to speak and read French, and the monster followed these lessons diligently. He grew in knowledge but also in love for the good-natured inhabitants of the cottage, although they did not know of his existence. Finally, the monster decided to reveal himself to them and appeal to their compassion; disgusted and shocked by his appearance, one of the family members attacked him.

The monster, enraged after such a rejection, made humanity his enemy and set his mind on revenge. Successive violent encounters with humans only deepened the monster’s misanthropy, all naivete and kindness leaving him. He sought out Frankenstein, his creator, to right the injustices he faced as an outcast. In a hiding place on the outskirts of Geneva , the monster noticed a child nearby. He believed he could kidnap the child and raise it not to fear him. As he grappled with the child, the monster learned that it was a Frankenstein. Consequently, he delighted in strangling the boy—William—and he planted evidence of the crime on Justine.

The monster finished telling his saga with a request: that Frankenstein would create a female counterpart to the monster so that he would no longer suffer alone. Frankenstein reluctantly agreed after the monster swore to leave Europe with his mate and never return.

It was supposedly to raise Frankenstein’s spirits that he and Clerval began a tour of England and Scotland, during which Frankenstein secretly gathered and prepared materials for his second creation. Frankenstein then separated from Clerval for some time, despite the latter’s protestations, so that he could hide in a hut on the remote Orkney Islands to complete the new creature. Finally, as the body of the monster’s intended companion lay before the scientist, fit for animation, Frankenstein had second thoughts. He considered the female monster’s autonomy , that she might not willingly follow her counterpart away from Europe, and the monsters’ possible proliferation, which could result in a race that threatened all of humanity. Then he saw the monster at the hut’s window, grinning devilishly. At this, Frankenstein tore apart the inanimate female body. The monster fled, swearing revenge.

Frankenstein dumped the remains in the ocean, and when he returned to land, the locals had him arrested for murder. Frankenstein was shown the cadaver of the victim: Clerval. Seeing the marks of the monster’s hands on Clerval’s throat threw Frankenstein into a period of suicidal madness. It was not until after Frankenstein’s father arrived that the court cleared his name. He was allowed to leave, his state of mind having only slightly improved during his three months in prison.

Frankenstein and his father returned to Geneva, where Frankenstein prepared to marry Elizabeth. The two were in love, despite Frankenstein’s deep sorrow and unrest. He feared that the monster would attempt to kill him on the night of the wedding, but he resolved to make such an encounter a worthwhile battle and an end to the exhausting clash of wills. The ceremony having concluded, the couple shared a moment of rare happiness during a peaceful boat ride to the inn where they would spend the night. Wishing to spare Elizabeth the distress of the oncoming battle, he then bid his new wife to retire but did not explain what he expected to happen. Then he heard Elizabeth scream. He rushed into their bedroom to find her also murdered by the monster. After Frankenstein’s father heard the news of Elizabeth’s death, the tragedy was too much for the elder man to bear, and he soon died. Frankenstein then plunged into a stretch of insanity so severe that later he could not recall any moment of it. He learned that he had been chained in solitary confinement .

Once recovered, Frankenstein focused on revenge. He tracked the monster to the sea of ice around the North Pole. The monster sometimes left hints and taunts to ensure Frankenstein’s pursuit. As Frankenstein drew closer, the ice beneath him suddenly ruptured and left him and his sledge adrift. It was then that he happened upon Walton’s ship, and it is here that he concludes his history with a plea: if he should die before realizing his revenge, Walton must take any opportunity to slay his enemy.

Walton’s letters to his sister resume. He tells of Frankenstein’s oratory and intelligence, which woo not only him but also his crew. Yet Frankenstein’s health continues to decline. After several days of danger at sea, the crew persuades Walton to turn the ship back south toward England. Frankenstein succumbs to his illness, reiterating his plea to Walton with his last words.

Hearing a voice in Frankenstein’s quarters, Walton discovers none other than the monster hovering over the dead scientist, expressing his grief and remorse. Walton is horrified at the monster’s unnatural appearance and colossal proportions. However, he composes himself and chastises the monster for the violence and heartlessness of his actions. The monster responds by lamenting his wretched state of loneliness and the immense guilt he feels for the murders he committed in revenge. Yet he feels that the death of Frankenstein, his final victim, means his work is complete. He wants to end his mental anguish, and death is the only possible relief. He tells Walton that he will ride to the furthest point north and burn himself, so that no person could ever find his remains and possibly manufacture another monster. Then he disappears into the cold and darkness.

Frankenstein contains elements traditionally associated with both the Romantic and the Enlightenment eras. When Shelley’s novel was published, a Romantic sensibility was flourishing in Great Britain, and it was particularly apparent in the era’s poetry . Romanticism’s focus on subjectivity and the emotions of the individual are apparent in both Victor Frankenstein and his monster. Frankenstein is prone to intense bouts of despondency, his anxieties rendering him catatonic for months on end. Yet time spent with his loved ones or in the great expanse of European nature, which the novel describes with great vividness, induce feelings of elation in the young scientist. The monster, having lived outdoors for a significant period of his short lifetime, views nature more as an obstacle. However, he offers profound reflections on humanity from an outsider’s perspective, moved by people’s compassion and repulsed by their violence. Overflowing fits of rage, made fearsome by the monster’s physicality, belie his youth and naivete.

Another component of the Romantic movement was philhellenism. Many in Europe became enthralled with Greek culture and the aesthetic of classical antiquity during the early 19th century, and that admiration was intensified by the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence in 1821. Both Percy Shelley and Lord Byron were adamant philhellenes; Byron died in Greece after fighting in the war, and he was lauded as a Greek national hero. A philhellenic strand runs throughout Mary Shelley’s novel: its subtitle, The Modern Prometheus , invokes Greek mythology by referring to the Titan who created mortals out of clay and is associated with the divine power of fire. Frankenstein is first enraptured by the writings of St. Albertus Magnus , a German theologian who promoted the theories of the Greek philosopher Aristotle . Furthermore, the monster fits the archetype of the “ noble savage ,” a Romantic convention with roots in ancient Greek literature that portrays an inherent good nature in uncivilized characters. The monster begins life as innocent as a child but is quickly corrupted by the violence in society.

The Enlightenment was an era that belonged more to the generation preceding Shelley’s. It valued reason, freedom, and skepticism . Frankenstein and his friend Henry Clerval are both scholars who are committed to the pursuit of knowledge. Shelley could have been critiquing Enlightenment ideology , since it is Frankenstein’s unrestrained appetite for progress—a hallmark of Enlightenment beliefs—that ultimately results in his own destruction. Frankenstein’s monster is considered by some to be an allegory for the French Revolution of 1789, in which Enlightenment philosophy was a crucial influence on the revolution’s early leaders. French philosophes such as Montesquieu , Voltaire , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau spread the ideals of liberty and equality, envisioning a rational societal structure instead of what they condemned as the arbitrary rule of the monarchy and nobility. Although the revolution began with a desire to improve upon society by using reason, it quickly devolved into rampant bloodlust that consumed even some of its principal originators.

Frankenstein has also been interpreted as a metaphor for postpartum depression , especially in light of Shelley’s own struggles with motherhood. Although postpartum depression was not yet defined as such when Shelley was writing, its symptoms were explained by other means, and she would have been aware of contemporary theories that a pregnant woman’s lifestyle and even her state of mind could affect her baby. According to these theories, Frankenstein’s neglect of his own health during his “labours” in creating the monster would have influenced his creation. He also exhibits symptoms of postpartum depression immediately after the monster comes to life: he completely abandons his creation, sinking into a depression that includes suicidal thoughts or actions. The monster, in his own right, grows up without a parental figure and harbours a strong resentment toward his creator for having abandoned him, which in turn prompts the monster to question his own self-worth.

The manner in which Victor Frankenstein differs from the novel’s women sheds further light on Shelley’s complex representation of motherhood and female identity. He lacks Elizabeth’s delicacy and compassion as well as the selflessness of his mother, Caroline. He acknowledges that he is sometimes “selfish,” shortsighted, and infatuated with what he believes to be his greatness. Faced with these qualities in Victor, the monster says that he needs a nurturing presence, a companion, and for this reason he wants a female counterpart—a complicated mix, arguably, of wife and mother. In Shelley’s own life can be found meaningful echoes of the mothers and wives in her novel: Caroline, for example, dies of an illness contracted from her adopted daughter, Elizabeth, early in the novel, and Elizabeth’s birth mother also died in childbirth—a situation that resembles Shelley’s mother having died of complications stemming from her own birth. In addition, there was no shortage of contention between Shelley and her stepmother (also named Mary, whom Shelley’s father had married in 1801): Shelley described her as “a woman I shudder to think of.”

The characters in Shelley’s novel frequently debate the human condition, and traditional antithetical motifs are touted: male and female, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hate, companionship and loneliness. Another common theme is religion: both Frankenstein and his monster liken themselves to Satan , and the monster addresses a “prayer” to Frankenstein, whom he calls his “creator”—only a majuscule away from his name for God, “Creator.” References to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and to Paradise Lost by John Milton —which is among the books that the monster reads—appear repeatedly. Some early readers of Frankenstein condemned it as a radical, immoral book: by giving life to a new being, Frankenstein seizes and then corrupts a power previously thought to be reserved for God. That accusation would seem to be well-suited for Percy Shelley, who was an atheist, but it fits awkwardly on Mary Shelley, whose diary reveals her devout Christian beliefs.

Frankenstein has virtually limitless applicability, as one of its central messages is that excess, whether it be Frankenstein’s ambition or the monster’s rage, generates repercussions . The story of Frankenstein’s monster, for example, has been thought to represent the slave narrative , especially in the aftermath of the successful Haitian Revolution . (Both Shelleys were well-read on the emancipation debate and were staunch abolitionists .) The monster has also been identified as a metaphor for countless other people and developments, from Irish nationalists to the United Kingdom Independence Party to artificial intelligence to genetically modified “Frankenfood.” The novel can also be seen as summing up humanity’s relationship with the environment : ambition and progress have resulted in what many see as unsustainable production methods, and we may ultimately suffer from the machinations of our own hands.

Religion battles science, passion begets suffering, reason clashes with madness, all across Shelley’s pages.

In the centuries since his debut, Frankenstein’s monster has become one of the most recognizable characters in popular culture, spawning an extensive, ever-growing list of adaptations and spin-offs. As of 2017, characters from Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus had appeared in 177 television and film adaptations and in 58 plays listed in a comprehensive U.K. theatre database. These adaptations can diverge wildly from Shelley’s timeless tale: today the name Frankenstein is more often given to the scientist’s creation than to the scientist himself, and the monster is often depicted as a green, nearly inarticulate, bumbling brute with bolts in his neck rather than as a sallow eloquent giant imbued with supernatural speed and strength.

Frankenstein first made the jump to cinema in 1910, in a silent film produced by Thomas Edison . But it was not until the appearance of James Whale ’s 1931 classic , starring Boris Karloff as the monster, that Franken-mania spread through Anglo-American pop culture. The film was loved by critics, overperformed at the box office, and has been listed as one of the best movies of all time, although it has perhaps been outlived by just one line from it: “It’s alive! It’s alive!” Several sequels with Karloff followed, and numerous later variations and satires were strongly influenced by the series. Another notable group of film adaptations was launched in 1957 by Britain’s Hammer Films , which introduced a new focus on Victor Frankenstein’s character (played by Peter Cushing) in seven mostly nonserialized movies.

Comedic films based on Shelley’s novel include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and Mel Brooks ’s Young Frankenstein (1974). Children’s movies such as Igor (2008), Frankenweenie (2012), and the Hotel Transylvania series feature variations on Shelley’s characters. The cinematic retellings Frankenstein (2015) and Depraved (2019) have brought the novel to life in a modern setting. Frankenstein is beloved on screen as well as on the stage. Danny Boyle directed a theatrical adaptation of the novel at the Royal National Theatre , London, in 2011 starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, who alternated as Frankenstein and the creature from one show to the next. The two actors received an Olivier Award for their performances.

Numerous authors have creatively resurrected Frankenstein in fiction for a wide range of audiences. Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavor (2011) is a prequel to Shelley’s original, following a teenage Frankenstein and his first dive into alchemy. Theodore Roszak’s The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1995), Kris Waldherr’s Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women (2022), and Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2018) all put a spotlight on the female characters surrounding Frankenstein and his creation.

Other novels, such as Dr. Frankenstein’s Daughters by Suzanne Weyn (2013) and Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron (2013), envision a world where the offspring of Frankenstein or his monster, respectively, must navigate the legacies of their parents. Pieces of Shelley’s own history are infused, alongside those of her characters, into Peter Ackroyd ’s The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008). Dean Koontz wrote a five-novel Frankenstein series of supernatural mysteries, which are set in New Orleans . Frankenstein in Baghdad is a modern retelling by Ahmed Saadwadi; first published, in Arabic, in 2013, it repaints Shelley’s story in the context of the Iraq War and the lives destroyed in its wake.

Frankenstein ’s influence has not been limited to the media above: the General Mills cereal Franken Berry sports a pink steampunk monster on the box; Frankenstein & Bier Keller is a Frankenstein’s monster−themed bar in Edinburgh featuring an animatronic version of the fiend; the monster, who goes by his creator’s name, can be spotted alongside Batman in the colourful pages of DC Comics ; and Eddie Van Halen ’s quintessential homemade electric guitar was given the moniker “Frankenstrat.”

Mary Shelley’s Monster in Frankenstein Literature Analysis Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

A formalist review of frankenstein the monster, works cited, background information.

Writers of fictional works of art often come up with characters that are not real in a bid to convey a certain message to the audience. In most cases, the imaginary characters are given attributes that personify human beings in real life. In this paper, the author places emphasis on monsters as fictional characters.

Daragh (382) argues that certain character traits associated with monsters can be used to explain themes that relate to human society. To this end, the author of this paper examines Frankenstein, a monster. Details about the traits of this character are explained in a bid to draw parallels between him and human behaviors.

Whenever monsters are depicted in a text, the creators are often interested in bringing out the fears of the people in a given society. According to Daragh (382), monsters are presented as villains and as creatures whose purpose is to terrorize others.

However, there are cases where the characters harbor no ill intentions at all. In such situations, the monsters are used to illustrate the monstrous behavior of actual beings. An example of the same is presented in the character of Frankenstein. In the book, the author uses the monster to show how real people behave in society.

A number of specific characteristic features are discussed in this paper. They include, among others, appearance, emotions, and articulations associated with the character. Each of the traits addressed is essential in understanding the reasons why Frankenstein was created. More specifically, the role of the character as a monster helps to appreciate the place of such creatures and other fictional figures in a given literary piece of art. Daragh (383) suggests that monsters advance important themes in a story. In light of this, a closer look at the role played by Frankenstein reveals the irony of a creature that should elicit fear among people but ends up experiencing terror instead.

Statement of the Research

The underlying principle of this research undertaking is to examine the character traits of Frankenstein as a monster. The analysis is best realized in the context of a thesis statement that the arguments revolve around.

Thesis statement

The following is the thesis statement of this research paper:

An assessment of the Frankenstein character reveals that monsters are a creation of society.

The author of this paper draws most of the arguments from the opinions made about monsters in peer-reviewed articles. For example, the Master’s thesis by Story (1) seeks to outline the background of monsters in a bid to illustrate their nature. Such arguments are important as they inform the reader why these characters are created. The analysis made in this paper will borrow from Story and other relevant sources.

Characteristics of Frankenstein

In many narratives, monsters are depicted as creatures that are larger than human beings. Most of the times, these characters are given abilities that are superior to those of humans. Works of art that rely on the technique of appearance suggest that monsters are creatures whose sole purpose is to harm humans.

That is the underlying principle in the majority of these narratives. In their research paper, Story (1) advances the idea that giants and ogres are best understood as villains. One way of depicting a villain is by giving them features that would allow them to terrorize people. The same includes anatomical and morphological features associated with the creatures.

Frankenstein is depicted as a relatively large creature. Estimates of the monster’s height suggest that he is about 8 feet tall. Story (1) argues that a reader will only identify a giant as a towering figure. If a storyteller fails to exaggerate the height of this character, the reader may have problems identifying with it.

A case in point is a scenario where a 5 feet character encounters one who is 17 feet taller. The first reaction from the shorter one may be outright intimidation. In most cases, humans are intimidated by anything that is larger than them. They will do anything to try and overcome that thing. The towering height is used to ensure that Frankenstein attains the much needed intimidating attributes associated with a villain.

In terms of physical attributes, the monster is depicted as a human who has had all their organs stitched together. The terror sought from a villain is often amplified by ensuring that their physical looks are not very appealing to the reader. Daragh (383) makes a similar assertion by insisting that monsters are essentially creatures that seek to instill maximum fear among people. To achieve this objective, the character that takes the role of the monster must be made as unappealing as possible.

At this juncture, the appearance of Frankenstein is symbolic of a typical scary monster. A tall figure of a man who is made up of body parts sewn together is already scary enough. According to Story (1), most humans associate body organs with death. As such, the monster that is Frankenstein is given a character that symbolizes death. Essentially, the physical appearance of the ‘creature’ is made horrid to ensure that the reader is intimidated and terrorized to the point of believing that nothing good can come out of it.

The physical appearance of Frankenstein connotes the various opinions held by a human with regards to real and imagined monsters. To illustrate this point, Story provides a comparative analysis of monsters and humans with defects. Story (2) suggests that the horror associated with ogres is a reflection of the thoughts held by individuals in relation to their counterparts who are afflicted by various disabilities.

In the thesis, Story (2) argues that dwarfs and giants are often characterized as monsters in various narratives. The towering figure of Frankenstein is used to illustrate gigantism. The condition often exhibits itself through distortions of the hormones responsible for growth. As such, humans who are afflicted by such conditions are regarded as strange apparitions by their peers. The same applies to monsters.

Frankenstein’s body, as mentioned earlier, is a series of organs and limbs that have been loosely bound together. Such kind of an appearance is symbolic, given the fact that the monster is created by a human being. His appearance is the imagination of a person keen on creating life (Story 3). In this case, the symbolic gesture is that Frankenstein personifies all the horrors created by human beings in the name of science.

An appearance like the one suggested above is an example of how monsters are depicted by individuals. Daragh (383) argues that grotesque characters derive their horrid attributes from their paranormal nature.

Frankenstein is an example of such a paranormal creature. The same explains why his interactions with people in the Story elicit fear. However, it is important to note that appearances can be deceiving. A look at the personality of the ‘monster’ will illustrate whether they are misunderstood creatures or not.

Emotional attributes of the giant

Many scholars and critics pose the question of whether monsters have emotions or not. Such individuals seek to understand whether or not the actions of these characters are driven by some form of the emotional deficit. Daragh (383) poses these questions as they try to make sense of the various themes illustrated in monster-related narratives.

Frankenstein, on his part, is depicted as a character capable of expressing emotions. Right after his ‘birth,’ he is keen on interacting with other people. The ‘monster’ gets emotional when he realizes that he cannot live alone. His desire for friendship drives him to seek the companionship of other people. However, his appearances scare everyone off. He is even branded as an evil person.

In most cases, monsters are highly misunderstood, creatures. In The Beauty and the Beast, a similar fate befalls the beastly character (Weaver 290). The monster in this narrative is a beast that was put under a spell to appear hideous. In spite of these various attempts to make friends with other people, his appearances relegate him to a life of loneliness.

At times, the character gets emotional owing to his lack of friends. The same situation befalls Frankenstein. His interactions with the rest of the society are likened to the manner in which a wild animal escapes a sanctuary. He is viewed as an outsider. People work on the assumptions that he is a giant who has escaped from ‘monster land.’

Perhaps it is the feeling of loneliness on his part that drives Frankenstein to seek friendship. Upon his creation, he clamors for companionship. However, the behavior of his maker shocks him even more. In what would be a classic case of a man creating life, the birth of Frankenstein should have heralded joy on the part of his creator.

However, the maker rejects him, setting into motion a series of events that would suggest sadness on the persona of the ‘monster’s.’ Story (3) uses the same analogy of emotional distress to explain the interaction between monsters and humans.

All forms of interactions result from the desire for emotional fulfillment. The only way one can have emotional satisfaction is through participation in societal activities. Frankenstein’s rejection by his own creator forces him to seek companionship elsewhere. However, due to his appearances, nobody wants to interact with him.

If anything, he only instills fear and terror among the people. Story (5) argues that classical monsters are creations of elements that desire companionship. When this companionship is absent, the characters tend to sink into an emotional abyss and sometimes engage in horrible acts.

The emotional conduct of Frankenstein is an illustration of human behavior. There are instances where people exhibit shortcomings in their appearances and personality traits.

When they are rejected by others due to circumstances beyond their control, their emotions are shattered. As a result, such individuals may end up confining themselves to their lonesome states (Weaver 291). The argument that monsters are a misunderstood lot is supported by the perception that their hideous appearances depict their attempts to attack human beings. However, this is not always the case.

Frankenstein represents the idea that monsters seek emotional satisfaction, just like human beings. The two forms of creatures share the same need for social and emotional company. Story (5) makes a similar assertion by arguing that the interaction between monsters and human beings should not always be seen as the former’s intent to cause terror.

Perhaps, ogres and giants are driven out of their world by the absence of emotional satisfaction, as was the case between Frankenstein and his creator. As such, it is prudent to be realistic when analyzing monsters in a narrative. To this end, attention should be given to their emotional status before passing judgment on their actions.

Frankenstein: The Articulate Monster

One of the most common traits of monsters is their inability to communicate. Daragh (384) suggests that most of these characters produce very intimidating sounds, such as roars and growls. It is very rare to find a monster that is depicted as articulated in speech. Interestingly, Frankenstein is quite capable of communicating, as illustrated in the novel.

He is capable of making coherent speech both with himself and with other people. The ‘monster’ is depicted as having traits similar to a civilized gentleman. He is able to engage in conversation in an action that goes against all the stereotypes of a monster.

As already mentioned in earlier sections of this paper, monsters are imaginary beings. In essence, they do not exist. However, their depiction in literary works of art has evolved over time. Story (2) supports this position by arguing that the phenomenal traits of these characters are changing ‘periodically.’

The thesis by Story (2) introduces the reader to monsters in different categories. The traditional giant is depicted as a brute. Such actions as eloquent speech and ‘gentlemanly’ behavior were not common among monstrous characters in novels.

Frankenstein belongs to the category of monsters that can be regarded as traditional. According to Story (2), such creatures are, at best, meant to inspire fright and terror. Everything about them is designed to scare away the reader. However, the case is different for Frankenstein. Regardless of his hideous looks, the monster’s ability to express himself is derived from his interest in literature.

The attribute is illustrated in the character’s ability to make reference to other narratives. The grammatical correctness with which Frankenstein articulates his issues is an example of the divergence of the character from traditional monsters.

There are other instances where monsters are depicted as having some grasp of a language. Story (2) suggests that most traditional monsters are unable to enunciate their words properly. An improvement in the roaring and growling of monsters is seen in the manner in which other horrid creatures are depicted as having incoherent speech.

However, the fluency and coherence of Frankenstein set him apart from other traditional monsters. Perhaps, he is not a monster after all, given his gentlemanly behavior. Frankenstein’s title of an ogre must have resulted from people’s reaction towards his appearance.

His articulate nature is also evident in the way he presents himself. Regardless of his intimidating looks, Frankenstein acquires a taste for the formal presentation. The development is evident in the manner in which the character learns the art of grooming as a measure of presentation.

While making reference to Frankenstein’s narrative, Story (2) suggests that the man learns all about grooming in less than one year. At the time, reading was considered to be the preserve of the elegant. Frankenstein demonstrates his cultural aptitude when he proves that he has the ability to read in French and German.

The eloquent nature of Frankenstein is a character trait that enables him to adopt an almost human persona. Such an attribute can be used to support the argument that monsters can turn out to be like humans if they are provided with the right environment to thrive.

Frankenstein: the determined monster character

When an individual is said to be determined, the first thing that comes to the mind of the audience is the resolute ability to achieve a certain objective. Frankenstein comes out as an individual intent on making friends with others. However, his monster personality discourages the formation of social bonds. Alker (110) suggests that most monsters are determined to fit into the human world. Frankenstein’s intention of seeking companionship from his MMaster and other people is an example of his determination.

Under many circumstances, monsters are depicted as a face of chaos whenever they are introduced in a narrative. According to Story (3), traditional monsters are often determined to perpetuate terror in society. However, Frankenstein deviates from this form of traditional desire. In his quest to fit into society, he goes to great lengths to develop the necessary behaviors. The same is evident in the way he teaches himself such habits as reading and grooming.

Determination can also be seen in the manner in which he decides to become vengeful. Frankenstein’s initial interactions with people are genuine and sincere. However, after facing rejection, he becomes spiteful. In their study, Weaver (287) describes rage as a characteristic that is largely associated with monsters.

It is apparent that vengeance is fuelled by the negativities the characters experience from people. In Frankenstein’s case, even his maker rejects him. The said rejection inspires his determination to “extract his pound of flesh” from people who demonstrate open hostility towards him (Weaver 287). The determination is an affirmation of the fact that all monsters draw their behavior from certain factors. As a result of their resolve, they are able to realize their objective, whether evil or good.

Desire for companionship

In the previous sections, it was determined that Frankenstein is not existing for the mere reason of causing terror like traditional monsters. As illustrated by his grooming abilities, it is evident that the character is interested in finding a person to comfort him. However, it is unfortunate that he cannot find friendship and companionship even in his own creator.

Alker (113) argues that most monsters find something worth attachment themselves to in the human world. As such, it is common to find a monster looking for friendship in humans, as was the case with Beast in “Beauty and the Beast.”

Companionship is one of the priceless aspects of life. Even among human beings, the absence of this element is known to bring out the worst in people. Frankenstein represents the many individuals whose desire for the company is endless.

There are certain narratives where the absence of companionship has the potential to give rise to retaliation, as was the case with Frankenstein. Once he realized that people were repulsed by his person, he resorted vengeance. Weaver (113) argues that such issues as a lack of social company among monsters are a trigger to their acts of terror.

Frankenstein’s monstrosity is highlighted in the manner through which he tortures and kills his victims. As illustrated by Story (3), traditional monsters are known to inflict harm upon their prey. When the reasons behind their acts are unearthed, it becomes apparent that they are vengeful. The monster that is Frankenstein can be said to be a creation of the rejection he faces in his attempts to find companionship.

Frankenstein the Lone Ranger

The moment this character comes to life, he realizes that he is a species on his own. At one point, he suggests to his MMaster that he would prefer to get a mate. However, his requests fall on deaf ears. Sloggett (126) makes reference to Frankenstein by suggesting that his loneliness is one of the reasons behind his need for companionship. However, the rejection he faces from other people isolates and drives him to loneliness.

The biggest blow as far as rejection is concerned is the hostility directed towards Frankenstein by the womenfolk. At one point in the passage, the monster appeals to the audience to empathize with his situation. He argues that humans have mates, while his heart remains shunned. He goes on to lament about his unfortunate situation, wondering why people reject him, while even animals have partners (Story 24).

The lone ranger in the monster becomes apparent when he resorts to his vengeance against humans. Even in his terror escapades, Frankenstein operates like a one-man army of assassins. Such habits suggest that he is a lone ranger. In addition, it is possible to determine his character as a loner by looking at the kind of food he eats.

Story (24) points out that Frankenstein was the only monster who does not eat meat. The comparison is made with reference to traditional ogres. Most conventional monsters are known to be flesh-eating beasts. Frankenstein’s habit of eating vegetables puts him in a league of his own as a lone ranger.

There are various instances where a monster is seen as the savior of people in a given situation. For instance, when Frankenstein ponders about his build, he illustrates to the audience that he does not have the normal characteristics of a man. According to Daragh (387), in classical times, superheroes were viewed as beings with extraordinary body features. Frankenstein, in a monologue, suggests that he has capabilities that are not possessed by normal men. The abilities include agility, build, and tolerance to weather, and a unique diet.

The bodies of most heroes are structured to respond to the demands of carrying out extraordinary tasks. Frankenstein is depicted as a character who is trying to come to terms with his body features. In the process, he asks himself fundamental questions as to why he exists with such an overly large and hideous body.

Story (34) argues in spite of their unpleasant looks; some monsters use their super-human abilities to benefit mankind. The same explains why Frankenstein is thinking very hard about his intended role, given that he has features that are lacking in mere mortals.

Frankenstein’s heroic nature may not have come out clearly in the narrative. However, his attempts to conform to the requirements of a normal life make him carry out extraordinary tasks.

For instance, his abilities to groom himself and learn how to read and write are examples of extraordinary tasks. Such an undertaking can be seen as a heroic act to a reader who is full of despair owing to certain shortcomings in their life. Daragh (390) introduces an aspect that would explain the benign superhero status of the monster. Daragh suggests that human negativity killed the hero and turned him into a villain.

Frankenstein describes himself as a character who presents both hope and despair. According to Alker (114), most monsters are capable of caring about others. However, the ability is hidden by the vile nature of their appearances.

In relation to his affection towards women, Frankenstein demonstrates how he will use the opportunity to provide love and care. In his monologues, he describes how he will be romantic to any lady who agrees to enter into a relationship with him. He argues out this point as if to suggest that ordinary men lack the care and affection capabilities he possesses.

At one point, Frankenstein decides to perform a heroic act by rescuing a dying girl. He does this regardless of the hatred directed towards him by the ordinary folk. The character uses his energy and time to rescue someone he has no ties with. Unfortunately, his caring nature does not endear him to the public. On the one hand, the spectators overlook the kind gesture and assume that he is about to kill the girl. Elsewhere, the girl’s father scampers for safety fearing that the monster intends to inflict harm on him (Story 7).

The argument that Frankenstein is caring transcends his heroic gestures. At the heart of the matter is a man who has been branded as a monster by members of society. He is regarded negatively in spite of his attempts to be a gentleman to these people. A wicked being would rejoice at the misfortunes of the people who have caused him harm.

However, help comes from unlikely quarters in the name of Frankenstein, “the monster.” Only a caring person would overlook societal hate and negativity and continue to engage in good deeds without expecting rewards in return (Daragh 388).

Many behavior patterns that connote terror are derived from people’s bitterness. Evidently, Frankenstein’s attempts to blend into the society are met with hostility from the members of the public. His own creator despises him.

The major reason behind this rejection and hostility is his appearance. According to Alker (114), unlike human beings, monsters do not have control over their appearances. As such, discriminative treatment results in bitterness. As illustrated, Frankenstein’s only desire was companionship with others. Instead, society treats him with a lot of hate. His only response is vengeance.

His vengeful behavior embodies his ruthless nature. As already indicated in this paper, Frankenstein engages in ruthless killings in spite of his earlier kind and caring nature. According to Story (2), the ruthlessness of monsters results from a direct provocation of their person. The same is true even in cases where the provocation was done in the past.

In the case of Frankenstein, the hate and spite he receives from society are seen as an irritant. By assuming that his appearances are intimidating, the society fails to understand that his looks are beyond his control. The actual trigger to the provocation is evident in the manner his own creator joins the hate bandwagon. The agony appears to be too much for him to bear. He fails to win over his own creator.

In this paper, the author highlighted a number of issues in relation to Frankenstein, the monster. Story (2) was used to introduce an element of traditional monsters. The author of this paper highlighted the characteristics of such monsters.

With regards to hideous appearances, Frankenstein fits into this profile. However, the actions of this monster are reactions to the hostile treatment he receives from people. Initially, Frankenstein expresses the desire to fit into human society. The aspirations are made apparent by his grooming and literacy skills. To this end, he defies most of the stereotypes associated with monsters, such as being chaotic.

In spite of his caring nature towards members of society, Frankenstein is not treated nicely. When it dawns on him that his own creator does not like him, his ruthless nature is revealed. Daragh (388) suggests that the behavior of individuals towards monsters is responsible for the latter’s character. The monstrosity associated with Frankenstein can be attributed to the hate and discrimination in society. As such, it is logical to conclude that monsters are a creation of people’s attitudes and behaviors.

Alker, Zoe. “The Monster Evil: Policing and Violence in Victorian Liverpool.” Social History 37.1 (2012): 113-114. Print.

Daragh, Downes. “‘Excellent Monsters’: The Railway Theme in Dickens’s Novels.” English : Journal of the English Association 61.235 (2012): 382-393. Print.

Sloggett, Maria. “‘Delirious Monologues’: Christina Stead’s ‘Egotistical Monsters’.” Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (2013): 121-128. Print.

Storoy, Ina Helen. The Evolution of Monsters in the Romantic and Victorian Eras, Seen through Frankenstein and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Diss. University of Tromso, 2013. Print.

Weaver, Harlan. “Monster Trans: Diffracting Affect, Reading Rage.” Somatechnics 3.2 (2013): 287. Print.

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Sample details

• Mary Shelley,

Frankenstein

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Frankenstein – Physical Appearance

            The reaction of people to the appearance of Frankenstein’s monster reflects the importance of physical appearance both in Mary Shelly’s day and our own.  It is a sad fact that many people have an immediate judgment about others based solely on that person’s physical appearance.  We see it in all facts of life, especially in our own society.  Importance of physical appearance varies considerably between cultures and societies.  Our society is one of the worst offenders.  There is a definite discrimination between people judged as beautiful and those that are not.  At its most extreme, if one is not beautiful enough, they are seen as almost less of a person.

Or at least a person who’s feelings or opinions do not matter as much.  Mary Shelly recognized this and put this principle to work in her novel.  Frankenstein’s creation was born a sensitive, emotional and caring type.  But because of the way people judged him, he began to fit into the role he thought he was supposed to, that of a violent monster who cares nothing for the people that he hurts.

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            As Victor Frankenstein begins telling his tale of the creation of his monster, we learn that he never intended his creation to be so hideous.  It was to be the chief accomplishment of his career.  But when he was finished, and he looked upon his creation for the first time, he was disgusted by its appearance and flees the moment he has realized what he has done.  His monster, who is portrayed as a loving, compassionate “son” is confused by this and disappears.  Although he does not know it at the time, Frankenstein sentenced his creation to a life time of torment.

            As his monster roams the countryside, he comes upon various sorts of people, most of whom judge him on his looks.  He eventually comes across the home of a large family and finds residence in their shed.  While remaining unnoticed and observing the family, the monster learns how to use the language.  His caring nature persuades him to perform beneficial acts for the family and he decides to make his presence known.

            I find it interesting that Shelly wrote the story in such a way that the first person in the family whom the monster went to was the blind grandfather.  For the first time in his life, Frankenstein fells acceptance and kindness, but when the family sees him, frightened by his appearance, they chase him away.  This has a dramatic impact on the monster and at that point he decides that he must have revenge upon Victor and he sets off to find him.  Although not to this extreme, this scene represents much of what happens in real life.  If all people were blind, we would not judge people based on their physical appearance.  There are a multitude of stories about women who did not get a certain job because they are not attractive enough, or because they are heavier than average.  And although not acknowledged nearly as often, there are many pressures being put on men to fit a certain profile too, much more than in the past.

When Victor and his creation finally come face to face, there is not a violent battle for one another’s lives.  To the contrary, the monster gets Victor to understand all that he has gone through, and asks that Victor create someone with whom he can share his life.  He explains the hardship of a life in which people will not accept you because of your appearance.  Since it is apparent that the monster will not find love in the human realm, Victor agrees to create a new monster for Frankenstein to be with.

            Unlike Frankenstein, many people are able to shrug off comments about their weight and not worry so much about other people’s opinion of attractive they are.  Psychologically, it may be more beneficial to feel attractive and believe that you are, than it is to worry about how other people view you.  These people tend to succeed much more and by not allowing people’s opinions to get them down, are able to move on to greater things, and change people’s minds along the way.  If constantly worried about how other people view your attractiveness, you will dig yourself into a hole that it will be hard to get out of.  All people have different ideas of what beauty is, and one is bound to fail if their goal is to be beautiful for all people.

But there are also scientific reasons why physical appearance is important.  There are numerous studies that explore what role physical appearances play in the development of personality.  The idea is that, much like what is illustrated in the Mary Shelly’s work, that people form opinions about by what they see in a person physically, and respond to that person according to those opinions.  These people, who know they are being judged a certain way, tend to fulfill the expectations set upon them by the people judging their appearance.  Much like Frankenstein who, although born a compassionate individual, turned into a murderer because of the expectations put on him by his appearance.

Frankenstein illustrates many of the problems with judging people based on how they look.  Although it is impossible not to do so, certain segments of our society put too much emphasis on physical appearance.  This leads to many diet related illnesses and feelings of shame as people wonder why they can not fit a physical profile.  Individuals would be better to realize that their own attitude toward themselves is much more important than how others view them.

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