George Mitchell Book Group

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN PAUSED

2007-04-21T18:16:00.000Z

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN PAUSED, PENDING ANALYSIS OF THE RECENT WEB 2.0 SURVEY RESULTS.

IT WILL HOPEFULLY BE RESUMED IN SEPTEMBER, AT WHICH POINT IT MAY EVEN BE OPERATED AS A FULL COURSE IN GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE.

IN THE MEANTIME, YOU ARE WELCOME TO READ THE BOOK SCHEDULED FOR THIS TERM - DRACULA BY BRAM STOKER. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

ALL POSTS SO FAR ARE STILL ACTIVE, AND SO YOU CAN STILL USE THE BLOG TO HELP YOU WITH REGENERATION (AND YOU CAN STILL COMMENT TOO).

Chapters 19-23: Different cures

2007-04-04T19:12:00.000Z

The two sequels to Regeneration, the second of which won the prestigious BOOKER PRIZE when it was published in 1995.

In the final chapters to the novel, Barker tries to tie up various loose ends, and bring to the story some sense of closure, for each of the three main characters, and some of the minor ones too.

Goodbyes

Billy Prior's relationship with Sarah seems to be levelling out, and he is even due to meet her mother. Sassoon and Owen say their goodbyes to each other, and Rivers says his own goodbye to Craiglockhart. Towards the end of the novel, Sassoon passes his 'board' assessment, and is declared fit to go back and fight on the front line. Even Willard regains the use of his legs again, although this is not the 'miracle' he deems it to be.

Nightmares

Most significant in these final chapters, however, is Rivers' experiences in London, and, in particular, during his visit to the National Hospital in Queen's Square. Here, he spends the day with Dr Yealland, whose methods of curing a soldier's mutism are, at first sight, particularly brutal (imprisonment in a locked room whilst increasingly powerful electrical currents are placed on his mouth, neck and throat). But the nightmare Rivers has the following night make him wonder whether his own brand of 'healing' - his psychanalytic dialogue - is actually any different in the end, since that, too, attempts to cure the sick soldier and render them fit again for war.

The Trilogy Continues...

Finally, the novel does not really 'end', leaving itself wide open for the next two books in the trilogy, The Eye in the Door, and The Ghost Road. There is much more to find out about Dr Rivers, and his most damaged of patients, Billy Prior...

Some things to think about:

What do you think is going through Sassoon's mind when he gets passed fit for active duty again?
How did you respond when you read the scene in Yealland's hospital?
How do you account for Rivers' nightmares about the horse's bit?

* * * *

As for the useful quotations this week, I thought it might be useful for YOU to categorise each of them. (You are probably familiar with the different themes and topics which have recurred so far.) So read through these, and see if you can work out why each of them is significant. You could even use the COMMENTS facility to work out your own P.E.E. for some of them...

The darkness, the nervousness, the repeated unnecessary swallowing...He was back in France, waiting to go back out on patrol.
He told himself he was never going back, he was free, but the word 'free' rang hollow. Hurry up, Sarah, he thought.
He was glad to have the night shut out, with its memories of fear and worried sentries whispering.
Without warning, Prior saw again the shovel, the sack, the scattered lime. The eyeball lay in the palm of his hand.
He needed her ignorance to hide in. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to know and be known as deeply as possible. And the two desires were irreconcilable.
And yet he was writing, and he seemed to think he was writing well. All the anger and grief went into the poetry. He had given up hope of influencing events. Or perhaps he'd just given up hope.
Any explanation of war neurosis must account for the fact that this apparently intensely masculine life of war and danger and hardship produced in men the same disorders that women suffered from in peace.
...a creature - it hardly resembled a man - crawled through the door and began moving towards him...It seemed to Rivers that his expression was both sombre and malevolent.
...in a war nobody is a free agent. He and Yealland were both locked in, every bit as much as their patients were.
I think he's made up his mind to get killed.
Rivers felt there was a genuine and very deep desire for death.
And if death were to be denied? Then he might well break down. A real breakdown, this time.

Chapters 17-18: Ready to go back?

2007-03-18T09:25:00.000Z

A French trench at Verdun, 1916: this is the experience to which Prior and Sassoon would return, if they rejoined the war...

Yellow

Most of chapter 17 concerns Sarah Lumb, and her efforts to persuade her mother that she knows what she is doing with Billy Prior. Her mother has a view that hardly any men can be trusted, and that women need to know how to get all they can out of men - rather than the other way around. However, Sarah remains convinced that she is safe with Billy - so much so, in fact, that she turns down her mother's offer of a job in her tea room, in order to stay working at the munitions factory, stay 'yellow', and, therefore, stay close to Billy Prior.

Sassoon

Sassoon appears very unstable and 'on edge' in these chapters. It is almost time for the decision to be made - at the 'board' (or medical panel) - about whether or not he is fit to go back to fight in the war. Then he hears his friend, Graves, speaking with shame and prejudice about Sassoon's own homosexuality, which upsets him considerably: a friend of theirs is even being sent for psychiatric 'treatment', to 'cure' him of being gay! And, finally, when the board finally arrives, he gets impatient with being kept waiting in the waiting room - so much so that he even starts to consider whether he will continue his protest - and even take it to parliament...

Prior

Meanwhile, Prior has NOT been passed fit for battle, and is redeployed as a soldier on the 'Home Front' for the rest of the war. Many would be relieved - overjoyed, even - to have their life saved in this way. But Prior is too complex for that, and greets the news with tears, shame and ignominy...

Some things to think about:

Why does Sarah's mother want her to stop working at the munitions factory and to be careful of Billy Prior?
What upsets Sassoon so much about his conversation with Graves?
Why does Sassoon 'bunk' the medical panel?
Why isn't Prior happy at the news that he will not go back to the trenches?

* * * * * *

Some useful quotations:

Do you know, you never talk about the future any more? Yes, I know what you're going to say. How can you? Sass, we sat on a hill in France and we talked about the future. We made plans. The night before the Somme, we made plans. You couldn't do that now. A few shells, a few corpses, and you've lost heart. [The war takes everything away from the soldier - including, here, the future.]

...you've got this enormous emphasis on love between men - comradeship - and everybody approves. But at the same time there's always this little niggle of anxiety. Is it the right kind of love? Well, one of the ways you make sure it's the right kind of love is to make it crystal clear what the penalties for the other kind are. [This explains the 'double-standards' which existed towards male intimacy: i.e. it was OK to a point, but no further. Remember that, at this time, you could still be put in jail for being gay - and many men were.]

Like everybody else in the hospital, Sassoon's reflexes were conditioned by the facts of trench warfare. [Again, there is no escaping the ghosts of the war...]

Prior didn't answer. Rivers said gently, 'Everybody who survives feels guilty. Don't let it spoil everything.' [Just like in lots of the WW1 poems, so here it is made clear that 'surviving' the war is a complex experience, ridden with shame and guilt.]

Chapters 15-16: Progression or Suppression?

2007-03-11T09:36:00.000Z

One of the many Martello towers on the barren and wild Suffolk coast, very much like the one visited by Burns and Rivers, and in which Burns hides the night of his unstoppable nightmares.

Progress or Suppress?

What strikes me about these two chapters is the question they raise about PROGRESS, in relation to soldiers suffering from the psychological fallout of the war. If progress requires the soldier to suppress (or, in other words, to ignore and bury, deep within themselves) the pain and distress of their remembered experience - then is this, in fact, progress at all?

Keeping Up Appearances

Burns has, it appears, made immense 'progress'. He has managed to leave Craiglockhart, and then, having returned to London briefly, leave there too - to return to his childhood origins on the Suffolk coast. There he lives a simple life, mixing with the locals, breathing the sea air and going for long walks in the countryside. When Rivers visits him, Burns manages to go most of each day without even mentioning the war at all, and gives the appearance that he has simply 'forgotten' about it.

Trying to Escape

However, the screams and nightmares every night, and his one, nighttime 'escape' to the terrifying, half-submerged Martello tower - these all provide solid evidence that he has forgotten nothing. He is simply trying to suppress the memories - and not very effectively at that. Also, it seems interesting that he is returning to 'childhood' to help him with this - which suggests this is not only suppression, but also regression, neither of which has anything to do with true progress.

Certain Death

Meanwhile, Sassoon's 'progress' takes the form of his decision to go back and rejoin the war. Or, in other words, to go and fight and risk likely death, for King and Country! In the eyes of the government, this would certainly be regarded as 'progress'; but, if it basically means he is putting himself in the hands of death, I fail to see how progressive that can really be felt to be...

Some things to think about:

Why does Burns choose to go back to Suffolk to live?
What is the significance of the Martello tower?
Why has Sassoon decided to go back to fight?
How do you think Rivers feels when he hears this news?

* * * * *

Some useful quotations:

He looked like a child trying to remember what it was that grown-ups said to newly arrived guests. He also looked, for the first time, deranged. [Note how the war has stripped him of all social skills, leaving him no more socially adept than a little child.]

Obviously, however hard Burns tried to thrust memories of the war behind him, the nightmare followed. [In other words, for Burns, any attempt at 'suppression' didn't really work.]

Rivers thought how misleading it was to say that the war had 'matured' these young men. It wasn't true of his patients, and it certainly wasn't true of Burns, in whom a prematurely aged man and a fossilised schoolboy seemed to exist side by side. It did give him a curiously ageless quality, but 'maturity' was hardly the word. [This is more evidence of "the complete disintegration of personality' effected by the war: the way in which, in one way, they were made old 'before their time', when contrasted with the way in which they were taken, psychogically and for comfort, back to their childhood persona, simply created an 'ageless' mess of a human being.]

Corpses were everywhere in the trenches. Used to strengthen parapets, to prop up sagging doorways, to fill in gaps in the duckboards. [This goes to show how commonplace death was in the trenches, and how it almost became a 'way of life', to which soldiers necessarily became desensitised.]

A resemblance that had merely nagged at him before returned to his mind with greater force. This waste of mud, these sump-holes reflecting a dim light at the sky, even that tower. It was like France. Like the battlefields. A resemblance greater by night than by day, perhaps, because here, by day, you could see things grow, and there nothing grew. [Another example of the ghosts of the war which haunt those who had contact with it, wherever they go - and even, here, in the quiet, Suffolk countryside, where the tower is described as "like the bones of a skull".]

His surrender, when it came, was almost shocking. Suddenly, his body had the rag-doll floppiness of the newborn. [Here, the REGRESSION is almost total...]

'I couldn't seem to get out of the dream. I woke up, I knew I was awake, I could move and yet... it was still there.' [See above: the nightmares never go away...]

He had missed his chance of being ordinary. [One inevitable consequence of the war was that those who fought in it, like Burns, would NEVER be the same again.]

And finally, if we need clarification of Sassoon's reasons for going back to fight, we need look no further than the poem he gives Rivers:

When I’m asleep, dreaming and drowsed and warm,
They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.
While the dim charging breakers of the storm
Rumble and drone and bellow overhead,
Out of the gloom they gather about my bed.
They whisper to my heart; their thoughts are mine.

‘Why are you here with all your watches ended?
‘From Ypres to Frise we sought you in the line.’
In bitter safety I awake, unfriended;
And while the dawn begins with slashing rain
I think of the Battalion in the mud.
‘When are you going back to them again?
‘Are they not still your brothers through our blood?’

Chapter 14: No Escape

2007-03-03T10:40:00.000Z

It is worth bearing in mind that, alongside all the horror and pain of the REALITY of war, the government propaganda machine was continuously churning out posters and fliers trying to use guilt and emotional blackmail to PERSUADE the young men of Britain to sign up and fight. This poster was perhaps the most famous of all, featuring a very bullying pose by Kitchener, the Minister for War.

Sick Leave

In this chapter, we follow Rivers on his 'sick leave'. He spends some time with his sister and her husband, reminiscing about his own childhood, and, in particular, about his fractious relationship with his father. Next he goes to stay with Henry Head and his wife in London, and Head makes an offer to Rivers of a job in a war hospital in Hampstead - but Rivers doesn't know if he can drag himself away from Craiglockhart.

No Escape

The other episodes in this long chapter concern Prior - who is humiliated by a new doctor with whom he lacks the closeness he has with Rivers - and Sassoon - who is immensely excited by the final draft Owen has produced of the poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. However, all of these episodes relate to the notion that one cannot escape the brutal reality of war: Rivers is supposedly on 'holiday', but the guns still keep him awake at night; Sarah discovers the room at the back of a hospital where all the disabled soldiers are 'stored', and wonders why society feels so ashamed of them; and Owen and Sassoon are only satisfied when their poetry admits the horror of war. There really is no escape...

Some things to think about:

Why does Rivers not want to accept Head's offer of a job in London?
Why did Rivers fall out with his father as a child?
What shocks Sarah SO much about the room at the back of the hospital she visits?
Why do you think Prior feels able to show warmth towards Sarah again?

* * * * * *

Some useful quotations:

... the two bloody bargains on which a civilization claims to be based. The bargain, Rivers thought, looking at Abraham and Isaac. The one on which all patriarchal societies are founded If you, who are young and strong, will obey me, who am old and weak, even to the extent of being prepared to sacrifice your life, then in the course of time you will peacefully inherit, and will be able to exact the same obedience from your sons. Only we're breaking the bargain, Rivers thought All over northern France, at this very moment, in trenches and dugouts and flooded shell-holes, the inheritors were dying, not one by one, while old men, and women of all ages, gathered together and sang hymns. [It might be worth comparing this to the poem in the Opening Lines GCSE anthology, Owen's 'Parable'. Both explore the hypocrisy and madness of sacrificing a whole generation for such tenuous goals.]

The congregation, having renounced reason, looked rather the happier for it and sat down to await the sermon. [Having seen what human beings can do to each other, and how horrid life can be, Rivers finds it impossible to keep a faith in some vague, mysterious 'god', because to do so would be to 'renounce reason'.]

...Genesis was no more than the creation myth of a Bronze Age people. [Like the previous quotation, Rivers lost his faith even as early as when he was a little boy.]

They would never come back, those times. [Before the war, it seems that all was happy, pure, safe. Now those happy days are gone forever. It might be worth reading an 1896 poem by Housman in this context.]

Now the same chicks were scruffy, bedraggled things running in the coops, and the only sound in the room was the roar of flame. [Just like the previous quotation, what once was innocent and beautiful, is now ruined and doomed. :(]

Faintly, over dark hedges and starlit fields, came the soft thud-thud of the guns. [There really is NO escape.]

She was still dazzled by the brightness of the light outside and the relative dimness of the interior, and so she had to blink several times before she saw them, a row of figures in wheelchairs, but figures that were no longer the size and shape of adult men. Trouser legs sewn short; empty sleeves pinned to jackets. One man had lost all his limbs, and his face was so drained, so pale, he seemed to have left his blood in France as well. [Compare this description with Owen's poem, 'Disabled'.]

They stared at her, but not as the men had stared on the other ward, smiling, trying to catch her eye. This was a totally blank stare. If it contained anything at all, it was fear. Fear of her looking at the empty trouser legs. Fear of her not looking at them. [Not only has war taken away much of their bodies, their youth, their hope, their life, but also their sexuality. They have, effectively, been desexualised, or even 'castrated' by the war. Here is a pretty girl, and they feel NOTHING.]

If the country demanded that price, then it should bloody well be prepared to look at the result. [Sarah, too, shares the anger of the likes of Prior and Sassoon about it all now.]

He thought he might buy himself...any little treat that might make him feel better. Less contaminated. [A little hint about another effect of the war on the soldier: it made them feel permanently dirty.]

I get this feeling that the...the crust of everything is starting to crack. [This hints at the complete destruction enacted on the whole world by the First World War, a world which would never be the same again. At A Level of university, you will probably read a poem called 'The Wasteland' by T.S.Eliot, which, written shortly after the end of the war, explores exactly the same idea.]

Chapters 12-13: Rivers cracks under the strain

2007-02-24T13:21:00.000Z

One of the later drafts by Owen of his poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. If you look closely, you can read, in the bottom left corner, where it says "These words were written by SS when W showed him this sonnet at Craiglockhart in Sept 1917".

Losing the Will to LOVE

Prior and Sarah escape to the seaside, and he keeps flitting between warmth and coldness towards her. The end up having sex, but any warmth he felt BEFORE they did so soon disappears AFTER they have finished. Prior is incapable of enjoying any simple affection with her, because of the psychological damage the war has done to him. As a result, he ends up treating her very cruelly and coldly, when, deep down, this is probably the last thing he wants to do. This shows ANOTHER effect of the war on the soldier: destruction of man's capacity for love and affection.

Patient Overload

During Chapter 13, we are given, effectively, a tour of Rivers' patient load, including:

Burns: on the verge of being discharged, but still vomiting at night;
Prior: desperate to go back to war, but still passing out, having nightmares etc.;
Willard: still convinced that he is paralysed, when there is no medical proof of this;
Anderson: so terrified of the sight of blood, that his roommate's shaving cut almost destroys him;
Lansdowne: overwhelmed by a claustrophobia which prevents him entering the trenches;
Fothersgill: "Basically, he was suffering from being too old for the war..."
Broadbent: delusional, to the extent that he is convinced (wrongly) his own mother is dead.

And Rivers becomes so overwhelmed himself by all this mental illness and decay, that he, too, finds himself falling ill, and ends up having to take three weeks' leave. It seems that mental illness, when this powerful and horrific, can almost be contagious...

Look at this!

N.B. There is also a fascinating passage where Sassoon helps Owen redraft his poem, "Anthem For Doomed Youth". Here are the actual drafts which Sassoon helped Owen to produce: draft 1; draft 2; draft 3; draft 4. Have a look at them, and especially at the notes both men have made.

Some things to think about:

Why does Prior turn so cold immediately after he and Sarah have had sex?
Why is he so desperate to return and fight in the war?
What is it that has finally made Rivers break down and need 3 weeks' leave?

* * * * * *

Some useful quotations:

‘There’s another reason I want to go back. Rather a nasty, selfish little reason, but since you clearly think I’m a nasty selfish little person that won’t come as a surprise. When all this is over, people who didn’t go to France, or didn’t do well in France—people of my generation, I mean—aren’t going to count for anything. This is the Club to end all Clubs.’ [Like so many of his fellow soldiers, war has given Prior a sense of belonging, and one which he does not want to lose.]
In his Khaki, Prior moved about them like a ghost. [Prior, like many soldiers, feels an enormous distance between him and those who stayed at home. He feels like a pariah in his own country.]
Yesterday, at the seaside, I felt as if I came from another planet. [More evidence of Prior's alienation from 'normal' society, as a result of his war experience.]

He both envied and despised her, and was quite coldly determined to get her. They owed him something, all of them, and she should pay. [Prior feels violently angry towards all civilians, and here can't help seeing Sarah as just 'one of them', so much so that he is almost talking about sex with her as if it were rape.]
The first time was almost always a disappointment. Either stuck at half mast or firing before you reached the target. He didn't want to think about Sarah like this. [Even when he is talking about sex, he can't help but use a MILITARY metaphor, which shows how big an effect the war has had on his mind.]
A few grains of sand in the pubic hair, a mingling of smells. Nothing that a prolonged soak in the tub wouldn't wash away. [War has MADE him desensitised to tender human emotion, like love. Although, in Sarah's mind, they have just 'made love', to Prior it is nothing more than how he describes it here.]

Prior became quite suddenly depressed... "Oh, I was remembering a man in my platoon." [He can't stop thinking about the war.]
He listened to the surge and rumble of the storm, and his mind filled with memories of his last few weeks in France. [He REALLY can't stop thinking about the war!]

‘You can’t talk to anybody here,’ Prior said. ‘Everybody’s either lost somebody, or knows somebody who has. They don’t want the truth. It’s like letters of condolence. “Dear Mrs Bloggs, Your son had the side of his head blown off by a shell and took five hours to die. We did manage to give him a decent Christian burial. Unfortunately that particular stretch of ground came under heavy bombardment the day after, so George has been back to see us five or six times since then.” They don’t want that. They want to be told that George—or Johnny—or whatever his name was, died a quick death and was given a decent send off.’ [Prior, like Sassoon, struggles with the conflict between civilians and soldiers. Here, he sees it as a conflict between lies and truth: civilians want comforting, cosy, clean lies; only the soldiers know the horrible truth.]
'Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death;/Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland -/Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand...' Precisely, Sassoon thought. And now we complain about the soup. Or rather, they do. [Sassoon is struck by the triviality and stupidity of people complaining about LITTLE things in life, when soldiers have to ensure SO much worse in the trenches.]

Chapters 10-11

2007-02-11T12:36:00.000Z

This photograph shows a group of female munitions workers involved in the production of shell cases in a Glasgow munitions factory during the first world war.

Willard's Wheelchair

We are introduced to another patient at Craiglockhart: Willard. Further evidence of the 'protopathic' to which Rivers refers earlier in the book, Willard is showing all the signs of paralysis (and, indeed, needs to be pushed around in a wheelchair by his wife), but no doctor can find any actual damage to his spine itself. He has clearly suffered a similar level of trauma - both physical and emotional - to his fellow patients, having had a bomb explode beneath him in a graveyard, causing fragments of tombstone to embed themselves in his buttocks; and Rivers would not blame him for not wanting to go back to that 'hell'. But the thought of 'cowardice' is just not an option to him, and so his body has found another way of staying 'safe'.

Owen's Poetry

An especially fascinating part of the book, here, is when Owen and Sassoon (semi-fictionalised versions of the actual soldier-poets themselves) are discussing their poems. Sassoon - a much more experienced and famous poet at this point, is giving Owen some brutal but sincere advice on the poems Owen shows him, and, effectively, asks Owen to do some 'homework' on them and bring them back to him soon. This 'redrafting' of the poems carries on throughout the novel, and mirrors the actual redrafting that Owen did at Craiglockhart, under the tutorage of Sassoon, over a period of a couple of years. If you are interested in finding out more about this, you can view the actual transcripts, with Sassoon's and Owen's notes and suggestions scribbled over them, by clicking here, and then clicking on the blue links at the bottom of each poem.

And we also continue to follow the development of Prior's relationship with Sarah; but more on that in Chapter 12...

Some things to think about:

Can you explain, in your own words, why Rivers wishes Sassoon had never been sent to Craiglockhart?
What do you understand to be Sassoon's criticisms of Owen's poems and his approach to poetry in general?
What was your response to Willard's predicament?

* * * * *

Some useful quotations:

Willard is an example of how the war can physically destroy its combatants, leaving them totally helpless and humiliated:

By heaving and twisting, he could just manage to drag the wasted legs over, though they followed the bulk of his body passively, like slime trails after a snail.

The young men who fought and the old men who didn't shared a mutual distrust and animosity:

Old men were often ambivalent about young men in uniform, and rightly so, when you considered how very ambivalent the young men felt about them.

Sassoon's overwhelming misanthropy also rears its head a lot here, for example:

He looked at the cloth straining across their broad backs, at the folds of beef-pink skin that overlapped their collars, and thought, with uncharacteristic crudity, When did you two last get it up?

We are also given an insight into the significance of mental illness, as a consequence of the war:

The vast majority of his patients had no record of any mental trouble. And as soon as you accepted that the man's breakdown was a consequence of his war experience rather than of his own innate weakness, then inevitably the war became the issue.

As before, Sassoon (like the other patients) is repeatedly haunted by ghostly reminders of his war experience:

I was reminded [of the bayonet] because that boy was doing so well with the carving knife.

Lastly, not only do we find out how war strips soldiers of their physical power and capability, it also strips them of their youth, making them prematurely aged men:

In some ways the experience of these young men paralleled the experience of the very old. They looked back on intense memories and felt lonely because there was nobody left alive who'd been there.

* * * * *

You have got an extra week now (as I explained at the start of term) so that you can use half term to CATCH UP if you are behind, and also to re-read all the notes so far, and visit any links I've given you... :)

Chapters 8-9: Love and Sex

2007-02-03T10:14:00.000Z

Although images of dead bodies on the battlefield were often withheld from the public during the First World War, ordinary soldiers and official photographers on both sides did not shy away from taking such pictures. The six dead German soldiers shown here were killed in the fight for Pilckem Ridge (31 July-2 August 1917), a British offensive that gained two miles of enemy ground. It marked the first action in the Battle of Passchendaele (or the 3rd Battle of Ypres), which lasted until 10 November.

Love and Sex

These are two very difficult chapters, which explore love and sex in an uncomfortable and challenging way. On the one hand, we have Billy Prior failing to have sex with Sarah, a girl who shares his doubt about whether love is really possible at all. And, on the other hand, Prior admits to feeling an almost sexual excitement when faced with the danger and panic of the battlefield. What is increasingly clear is that the mind of a soldier is a scary and messed up place, and Prior is no exception. On the other hand, there is a far more natural, warmer affection that grows instantly between Sassoon and his new visitor (and fellow patient AND poet), Wilfred Owen.

Gore and Gobstoppers

We also read of some details about the reality of combat, for example:

going 'over the top' invariably consisted of walking, slowly and in full view of the enemy, over 'no man's land', facing a shower of machine gun fire as you did so!
death was so commonplace that soldiers were expected to think nothing of routinely cleaning up the trenches by digging up and throwing away any mess (including body parts, charred bone and burnt flesh).

And we read something of the final straw which led to Prior's eventual breakdown, when he found a human eye resting, solitary, between the makeshift floorboards in his trench. His disbelief and shock are so intense that he pretends it is a gobstopper, because the alternative is simply too horrible for his mind to deal with.

Some things to think about:

Why does Prior insist on going out into the city on his own, and without his Hospital Badge on?
What do you find interesting about Rivers' opinions about mutism, and the different effects the war seems to have on officers and on privates?
What do you think are Prior's motives with Sarah, and what is she trying to achieve too?

* * * * *

Some useful quotations:

The military strategy of the war seems ludicrous to Prior:

"You're describing this attack as if it were a - a slightly ridiculous event in -"
"Not 'slightly'. Slightly, I did not say."

It seemed hard to believe in a 'god' amid such slaughter and carnage, and one soldier takes this anger (and sense of betrayal) out in a very dramatic way:

Whenever he saw an undamaged crucifix, he used it for target practice. You could hear him for miles. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, Bastard on the Cross, FIRE!"

There is something 'ancient' about the war - something too powerful to withstand. No wonder they called it 'The Great War':

It's as if all other wars had somehow... distilled themselves into this war, and that makes it something you... almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice saying, Run along, little man. Be thankful if you survive.

Like many soldiers, Prior just wanted to 'escape':

It was worth it, though, just to sit quietly, to listen to voices that didn't stammer, to have his eyes freed from the ache of khaki.

One of the more subtle effects of the way was the destruction of language, and linguistic communication:

Language ran out on you, in the end, the names were left to say it all. Mons, Loos, Ypres, the Somme. Arras.

One way to avoid the closeness of 'love' was to treat SEX as just sex. The women talk about using it to get pregnant, and, thereby, benefit from the man's war pension if they are killed:

"You should have fixed him while you had the chance..."

Whereas Prior talks about sex as something more primal, almost just a physical release from all the pain:

He would have preferred not even to know her name. Just flesh against flesh in the darkness and then nothing.

This is how Prior describes his first attack of mutism:

All present and correct, but how they combined together to make sounds he had no idea.

Prior also explains how EMPTY the war has left him feeling - how NUMB to physical and emotional feeling:

Like the speechlessness, it seemed natural. He sat on the bench, his clasped hands dangling between his legs, and thought of nothing.

Like in some of the war poems we are studying, this moment shows how the war can make men into little more than animals, stripped of their humanity by the pain of it all:

This was not an attack, Rivers realised, though it felt like one. It was the closest Prior could come to asking for physical contact. Rivers was reminded of a nanny goat on his brother's farm, being lifted almost off her feet by the suckling kid.

We also learn a great deal more about the way the war has EMASCULATED men, stripping them of what made them 'male' before the war complicated everything:

He didn’t know what to make of her, but then he was out of touch with women. They seemed to have changed so much during the war, to have expanded in all kinds of ways, whereas men over the same period had shrunk into a smaller and smaller space.
One of the paradoxes of the war - one of the many - was that this most brutal of conflicts should set up a relationship between officers and men that was...domestic. Caring. As Layard [a traumatised soldier Rivers hadn't been able to help] would undoubtedly have said, maternal.
The war that promised so much in the way of 'manly' activity had actually delivered 'feminine' passivity, and on a scale that their mothers and sisters had scarcely known. No wonder they broke down.a traumatised soldier Rivers hadn't been able to help] would undoubtedly have said, maternal.

And, finally, we learn just how damaged Rivers himself is by the whole experience, so much so that, at times, he would dearly love to be dead in a trench somewhere too:

Rivers pulled the curtains to, and settled down to sleep, wishing, not for the first time, that he was young enough for France.

Chapters 6-7: Prior starts to talk

2007-01-27T10:52:00.000Z

A patient being loaded onto a hospital train at a Casualty Clearing Station, for transport to a larger Stationary or General Hospital farther back the Somme, October 1916. Casualty Clearing Stations were usually located next to railway lines to allow patients to be evacuated by train.

Prior starts to talk (a bit)

Prior's ability to speak comes back, but he still finds it almost impossible to 'open up' in his sessions with his psychiatrist, Rivers. He is suspicious of Rivers, and resents the impersonal nature of the sessions, referring to talking to Rivers being like talking to 'empathic wallpaper'. He wants Rivers to open up too, so that they can interact as human beings; he also wants to undergo hypnosis, to unearth and discover the horrid memories which are causing him such unbearable nightmares every night - but Rivers believes that, if Prior will only admit it, he knows what those memories are already.

Empathy, sympathy and cruelty

We are also introduced to some of the other characters with influence over the lives of Prior and the other patients. Firstly, we meet Prior's father, a tough, bully of a man, who is embarrassed by the emotional wreck his son appears to have become; and Prior's mother, who is just as embarrassed by her husband! And we sit in on a meeting of the psychiatrists, when Brock, Bryce, Ruggles and Rivers chat about their different cases, but, especially, about Sassoon. Rivers sees it as his duty to get Sassoon back to the front - but the others question whether or not this is actually the right thing to do.

Some things to think about:

Why is Prior so reluctant to open up to Rivers and confide in him?
Why is Prior's father so ashamed of his son?
Why do you think Rivers sees it as so important to get Sassoon 'fit' for battle again?

* * * * * *

Some quotations:

The lack of sympathy in people like Prior's father in response to the psychological damage of warfare:

He's get a damn sight more sympathy from me if he had a bullet up his arse...

The naive and romantic view of war shared by many people on the home front or in power:

...they really do believe the whole thing's going to end in one big glorious cavalry charge... [This is in reference to the 19th Century poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', to which Prior cynically refers in this chapter himself.]

We see two different views on the 'camaraderie' of soldiers on the front. Firstly, Prior, in his extreme misanthropy, hates it all:

The men are pack animals.

Whereas Sassoon quietly admits his own homosexuality, a sign of the warmth which grows between men in such circumstances:

Probably just as well. My intimate details disqualify me for military service.

And lastly, we learn more about the indifference of the folks back home to the horrors being played out on the Western Front:

He wasn't even old enough to enlist. And nobody gives a damn.
...it doesn't even put them off their sausages! Have you ever sat in a club room and watched people read the casualty list?

And what does 'protopathic' mean?
Feeling or sensing pain that has no specific cause (i.e. emotional, psychological); primitive; primary...
The psychiatrists are debating how seriously to take EMOTIONAL wounds as opposed to PHYSICAL wounds. Their very profession demands that they take them with the utmost seriousness, but the pressure from the government and the army is to 'cure' soldiers of such weaknesses as soon as they possibly can...

Chapters 4-5: Four Damaged Men

2007-01-20T20:16:00.000Z

An Army surgeon operating on a wounder soldier in the trenches

Anderson

Anderson, another patient, confides in Rivers about a recurrent nightmare where he is tied up with ladies' corsets, locked in a coffin, and then encounters Rivers dressed in his post-mortem apron - a nightmare from which Anderson always wakes up vomiting. Anderson was a medical doctor before he came to Craiglockhart, and he is haunted by his memories of the war, including one where a dying man simply wouldn't stop bleeding. But now he is afraid that he is becoming less of a man because of what has happened to him.

Burns

We also follow Burns on a trip out of Craiglockhart. (Hardly any of the patients are kept there against their will.) Burns takes a bus into the countryside, and runs through the fields until he finds a tree which is being used by hunters to hang and dry out dead animals. He is drawn to this tree, as he is drawn to the idea of death, and strips naked to lie on the ground in the middle of the animal corpses. However, he is still drawn, irresistibly, back to the comfort of the hospital at the end of the day.

Prior

Prior is a particularly angry and difficult patient, who, for whatever reason, is not able (or willing) to communicate through speech. So, instead, he uses paper and pen to utter his short outbursts. He reveals very little about what he is feeling, and appears very hostile to everyone else. BUT we are given a clue as to the torment beneath his antisocial behaviour when we find out that his nightmares are SO disturbing that they are trying to find a way for him NOT to have to share a room with anyone else.

Rivers

Finally, we learn of Rivers' experience as a younger doctor, experimenting with the boundaries of pain alongside a fellow doctor/medical student, Henry Head. Rivers, too, like the patients, is not immune to nightmares - and the one he describes harks back to experiments he and Head undertook on each other, cutting open nerve endings on their own bodies, applying pain and other stimuli, and then studying the nerves' own process of REGENERATION (i.e. healing). He is troubled by the fact that, in trying to 'heal' his own patients, he ends up pushing them to new levels of emotional pain beforehand.

Some things to think about:

Lots of the men seemed to be concerned about the idea of 'emasculation' (i.e. having their maleness taken away by the war). Why do you think this is? And what evidence are we given of this?
What are your first impressions of Prior? He is to become very important in the book as a whole, and so his first appearance is even more crucial.
Why do you think Rivers is SO troubled by his own nightmare? What does it show us about how he is feeling?
How do you account for Burns' trip into the countryside? Why do you think he behaves in this way?

* * * * *

Some quotations:

Ghosts and Nightmares - the mind keeps taking them back:

A branch rattled along the windows with a sound like machine-gun fire, and he had to bite his lips to stop himself crying out.
Every step was a separate effort, hauling his mud-clogged boots out of the sucking earth. His mind was incapable of making comparisons, but his aching thighs remembered, and he listened for the whine of shells.
And for a second he was back there, Armageddon, Golgotha, there were no words, a place of desolation so complete no imagination could have invented it.

Death - they have come so close that it is all they can think about:

...there was nothing I could do. I just stood there and watched him bleed to death.
When all the corpses were on the ground, he arranged them in a circle round the tree and sat down within it, his back against the trunk. He felt the roughness of the bark against his knobbly spine. He pressed his hands between his knees and looked around the circle of his companions.
This was the right place. This was where he had wanted to be.

Misanthropy - especially towards those who have never fought:

Nobody else in this stinking country seems to find it difficult.
He threaded his way through the crowds on Princes Street. Now that Robert was gone, he hated everybody, giggling girls, portly middle-aged men, women whose eyes settled on his wound stripe like flies. Only the young soldier home on leave, staggering out of a pub, dazed and vacant-eyed, escaped his disgust.

Emasculation - the effect of war seems to steal from them their 'maleness':

A pair of lady's corsets. They fastened them round my arms and tied the laces. [Anderson's nightmare]
If this is leading up to a joke about ladies' choirs, forget it. I've heard them all.
The boy - he couldn't have been more than nineteen - had a neat little hole too. Only his was between his legs.
The change he demanded of them - and by implication of himself - was not trivial. Fear, tenderness - these emotions were so despised that they could be admitted into consciousness only at the cost of redefining what it meant to be a man.

Camaraderie - the army provides a sense of belonging:

I think the army's probably the only place I've ever really belonged.
Now, waking up to find Rivers sitting by his bed, unaware of being observed, tired and patient, he realized he'd come back for this.

The reality of war - as Rivers is trying to present it to his patients:

...that breakdown was nothing to be ashamed of, that horror and fear were inevitable responses to the trauma of war and were better acknowledged than suppressed, that feelings of tenderness for other men were natural and right, that tears were an acceptable and helpful part of grieving...

Chapters 1-3: Arriving at Craiglockhart

2007-01-13T11:34:00.000Z

This is an original photograph of the actual Rivers in front of the actual Craiglockhart hospital

Sassoon is introduced

In these chapters, Sassoon arrives at Craiglockhart hospital, where he meets his psychiatrist, Rivers. We learn how he ended up as a patient here: he had written a letter against the war and thrown his medal into the river, and so the government had to do something about him. A friend of his, Robert Graves, persuaded them to admit him into a psychiatric hospital rather than imprison him - although the book makes it clear that he is perfectly sane.

The other inpatients

We see Sassoon's delicate mental state, and learn about his nightmares and hallucinations; and we also encounter some of the other inpatients, including Burns - who vomits whenever he eats, because it reminds him of when a bomb sent him through the air to land, head first, in the exploded intestines of another soldier. Criaglockhart hospital clearly contains lots of living examples of the damage the war has done.

Sassoon's poetry

We also read a few of Sassoon's own poems, which he sends to Rivers as evidence of how he feels and why he has behaved the way he has. This will happen throughout the novel, and Barker allows us to study the character of Sassoon just as much through his poetry as through her own narrative.

Some things to think about:

Why do you think Sassoon decided to write the letter and throw away his medal?
What do you think Rivers thinks of Sassoon, and how has this changed since he actually met him?
What was your response to the other inpatients, especially Burns?

* * * * * * * *

For those of you who want to study the novel in more depth (especially those of you doing your GCSE this year), here are some of the important quotations from these chapters, organised under different thematic headings:

Ghosts and Nightmares

Immediately, he saw lines of men with grey muttering faces clambering up the ladders to face the guns. He blinked them away.

'You can't put people in lunatic asylums just like that. You have to have reasons.'
'They've got reasons.'
'Yes, the Declaration. Well, that doesn't prove me insane.'
'And the hallucinations? The corpses in Piccadilly?'

'It was just that when I woke up, the nightmares didn't always stop. So I used to see...' A deep breath. 'Corpses. Men with half their faces shot off, crawling across the floor.'

'When I woke up, the pavement was covered in corpses. Old ones, new ones, black, green.' His mouth twisted. 'People were treading on their faces.'

Pipes lined the walls, twisting with the turning of the stair, gurgling from time to time like lengths of human intestine.

Nightly, he relived the experience, and from every nightmare he awoke vomiting. Burns on his knees, as Rivers had often seen him, retching up the last ounce of bile, hardly looked like a human being at all. His body seemed to have become merely the skin-and-bone casing for a tormented alimentary canal. His suffering was without purpose or dignity...

Reminiscing about life before the war

He shifted in his seat and sighed, looking out over fields of wheat bending to the wind. He remembered the silvery sound of shaken wheat, the shimmer of light on the stalks.

How Sassoon got his nickname, 'Mad Jack'

'...In the end I didn't know whether I was trying to kill them or just giving them plenty of opportunities to kill me.'

Sassoon's misanthropy and hatred of civilians and people who haven't seen the war first-hand

His voice became a vicious parody of an old man's voice. '"Lost heavily in that last scrap." You don't talk like that if you've watched them die.'

'...The point is you hate civilians, don't you? The "callous", the "complacent", the "unimaginative".'

'You must've been in agony when you did that.'
Sassoon lowered his hand. 'No-o. Agony's lying in a shell-hole with your legs shot off. I was upset.'

Seeing death up close

He remembered...passing the same corpses time after time, until their twisted and blackened shapes began to seem like old friends.

NEW TEXT: Regeneration

2007-01-01T15:46:00.000Z

This term, we will be reading REGENERATION by Pat Barker. Although this is part of a trilogy of novels about the First World War (The Regeneration Trilogy), we will only be reading the first one as part of the Book Group. Not only is it a pretty extraordinary book, but it will also give invaluable context to your GCSE study of First World War poetry.

A Summary

Regeneration is the fictionalization of Siegfried Sassoon's stay in a mental hospital, Craiglockheart, in 1917 after he'd written a letter to Parliament protesting that the war was being needlessly extended. His psychiatrist, Rivers, is given the task of getting Sassoon to 'see sense and return to the front'. Rivers, a gentle, perceptive, humanitarian, attempts to save Sassoon and the other inmates from the demons that have come to haunt them. His burden is to share their grim experiences as they become able to articulate the horrors that have rendered them psychologically paralysed .

But how do you help people make sense of a world that has possibly gone mad itself? Whilst at Craiglockheart Sassoon meets a young man called Wilfred Owen and gives him valuable advice on his poem 'Anthem For Doomed Youth'. Meanwhile, the reader and Rivers become aquainted with a working class officer, a rarity in itself, named Prior who has lost his ability to speak, through shock or possibly even by choice.

Buying the Book

If you are to take part in the Book Group this term, you will need to get hold of a copy of the book. The quickest among you will get hold of a copy from your local library; the rest of you will need to purchase a copy. Although you can buy it from Waterstones in Walthamstow, this will not be the cheapest way to do so - and you may have to wait to order it from them anyway. The cheapest way to buy a copy is online, by following one of the following links:

N.B. I have purchased 20 copies of the novel, and they will be on sale from me - for £5 each - on a first come first served basis from Friday 5th January.

Reading Schedule

I will expect you to read approximately 20 pages (or two chapters) each week. This should be MUCH easier than last term, as the prose is much more modern and accessible. I suggest you choose a couple of evenings a week, and read a chapter on each one, every week.

You should read:

by Sunday 14th January: Chapters 1-3
by Sunday 21st January: Chapters 4-5
by Sunday 28th January: Chapters 6-7
by Sunday 4th February: Chapters 8-9
by Sunday 11th February: Chapters 10-11

HALF TERM: Catch-up

by Sunday 25th February: Chapters 12-13
by Sunday 4th March: Chapter 14
by Sunday 11th March: Chapters 15-16
by Sunday 18th March: Chapters 17-18
by Sunday 25th March: Chapters 19-21
by Sunday 1st April: Chapters 22-23

Any questions on any of this, just email me...

Mr Savage

Chapters 51-53: Happily Ever After

2006-12-17T11:48:00.000Z

Gilbert's Panic

I don't know about you, but however many times I read this book I still start panicking when it looks like Gilbert is going to have to burst into the church and stop Helen marrying Hargrave. My heat beats fast as I read about his lightning journey to Grassdale in order to rescue Helen (or himself) from a life apart from each other. And the moment when he watches the bride and groom come from the church, and finally realises that the bride is NOT Helen, and then that the groom is NOT Hargrave - the relief is palpable, and the reader's excitement almost as great as Arthur's himself. It is not an original or unique scenario (indeed, we see similar set-ups on TV all the time - be it in drama or soap opera) - but Bronte relates it perfectly.

Will They? Won't They?

Just as exciting is the final reconciliation of Gilbert and Helen. The "will they/won't they" tension has been going on for SO long that it is almost unbearable when Gilbert's pride takes over at Staningley and he almost ruins everything. When he rejects the rose, and even starts to leave altogether, I almost want to shout at the book, "Don't be so STUPID, Gilbert! She LOVES you! Can't you see?!!!" However, like all the best romances, he finally realises that she loves him too, and at that moment, as he is "printing a kiss upon her lips, and another, and another", his 'daring and impetuousness' infect the reader as well.

Happily Ever After

For a book so FULL of heartache, misery and misfortune, the ending could not be HAPPIER. Bronte even goes so far as to demonstrate that the new, younger generation is proving happier and more successful as the older one - as young Arthur marries Hattersley's daughter, having realised his "mother's brightest expectations". So, all the bad characters have died, and all the good characters have won - and harmony, love and happiness have returned to Planet Bronte. However, these seem wholly deserved and, therefore, realistic too - because few could have suffered as much as poor Helen...

* * * *

I hope you have enjoyed reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Please feel free also to read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights - both of which are totally different but equally compelling - and do not hesitate to post your own responses on this blog. I would love to read some extended responses to the Tenant of Wildfell Hall on here too, if you get a chance.

Next term, we will have a change, and move on to Regeneration by Pat Barker. So see if you can track it down as soon as possible - either in the library or in your local bookshop. I will set the first reading task on 7th January 2007.

Chapters 47-50: The Death of Arthur Huntingdon

2006-12-09T16:31:00.000Z

Gilbert's Point of View

What seems most interesting to me about these chapters is how powerfully we, the reader, are manipulated by the narrative of Gilbert Markham. It is easy to forget that this is NOT a third-person, anonymous narrator, because each narrator in this novel tends to have long stints ‘in charge of’ the story; but the fact remains that we are being told the story by a first-person narrator, and are therefore subjected to all his bias and personal experience. In other words, as I read this, I felt extremely disappointed when I found it Helen had gone back to Arthur; I, too, wished Arthur would die so that she could be freed from his tyranny; and I would have done anything to assist Gilbert and rescuing her.

Helen's Point of View

But then, reading Helen's letters, we see a totally different side to this story. She went there of her own will. She looked after him out of choice. She stayed by his death bed by her own volition. Nobody forced her to do any of this. In fact, reading her letters, I realised that her decision ACTUALLY empowered her; she was far stronger a person in CHOOSING to stay than in being FORCED to flee. And she took no chances either, forcing Arthur to sign a contract to protect her and her son. So what I am saying is that no situation is simple: I ended up sympathising with Gilbert AND Helen - at the same time.

Will they or won't they?

Now he is dead, however, I do hope that Gilbert finds a way to win her love for good, and her hand in marriage too. Perhaps I am too caught up in his own desires, through the power of his narrative, but I REALLY want him and Helen to get together. When we hear descriptions of marriage like the one Gilbert's mother gave near the start (do you remember? the one about the husband not complaining about his wife TOO much?); or like the description of Lowborough's second wife as sensible, pious (i.e. religious), kind and happy (like those are somehow the only important things in a wife/husband); I wish even more strongly for a couple like Gilbert and Helen to make it work. Because, whilst Helen might be all those things herself, their relationship also has its right share of passion, attraction and genuine, consuming love as well. And also, in these chapters, we have seen all the pure villains getting exactly what they deserve: Grimsby, Arthur, Annabella - all dying before their time. So why shouldn't the good characters get what they deserve too? i.e. something GOOD!

But will they manage to get married, against all the odds? Or will society, and all its expectations, get in their way? Only three chapters left in which to find out...

An EXTRA week

2006-12-02T18:37:00.000Z

I am worried that lots of you have fallen behind and are struggling to keep up with my pace. For this reason, I will give you all an EXTRA WEEK to try to catch up, and so I will not post on the most recent chapters until NEXT weekend. I hope that suits you all. I am determined we don't lose the momentum, and so if there are any of you who are up to the same point as me, feel free EITHER to email me your thoughts about what you have read AND/OR read ahead anyway. We are SO close to the finish...

Also, only 3 of you have voiced any interest in the Bronte residential trip in the summer. It would obviously be impossible to run a trip with only THREE people, so can I ask the rest of you to give this some serious thought. There is no reason we HAVE to run that trip (just as there is no reason we HAVE to keep focusing on the Brontes this year - in fact, I have some other suggestions if you would prefer) - but I need to know what is down to a lack of interest, and what is down to a lack of TIME.

Basically, I would like to hear from ALL of you over the next week or so, BY EMAIL, in response to the following questions:

1. How have you found it trying to keep up with the speed at which I have expected you to read this novel?
2. How have you enjoyed the novel itself so far? Please give me detailed reasons why or why not.
3. Are you interested enough in the Bronte residential for me to start organising it?
4. Which of the following options would you prefer for the Book Group for the next two terms:
a) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) and Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)? OR
b) Regeneration (Pat Barker) and Dracula (Bram Stoker)?
They are all FANTASTIC books (brilliantly written and VERY important for your growing appreciation of the best literature out there), but I need to know what is going to provide the most enjoyment to you all. I am happy to continue with the Brontes, but I am equally excited at the prospect of introducing you all to and exploring the other two.

I hope to hear from you all BY EMAIL (or as a signed comment on the BLOG) over the next few days.

Mr Savage

Broken-hearted: your opinions please...

2006-11-26T12:29:00.000Z

Gilbert and Helen

Gilbert has now finished reading Helen's journal, and, if possible, he now loves her even more than he did before. She, too, loves him with a passion and depth she can hardly control. They can think of little else, and can barely keep their hands off each other!

So why do they agree never to meet again?

I would be very interested to read all your comments on this question. Read Chapters 45 and 46 carefully, and see if you can figure out why they both agree to this enormous sacrifice. What would you have done in their situation? Do you think they have made the right decision? Do you think they will manage to stick to it? How convinced are you by the arguments and reasons they find to support their decision?

Lots of comments on this one please...
______________________________
And, this week, I would like you to read Chapters 47-50. After that, we've only got one week left before we finish the book! :)

Chapters 42-44: Breaking Free...!

2006-11-25T11:02:00.000Z

Hattersley versus Huntingdon

Juxtaposition is a technique whereby two contrasting things are placed side by side for effect. In this chapter, Bronte uses the description of Hattersley's 'reformation' (or, really, the way in which Helen RESCUES Hattersley) to emphasise just how beyond rescue is her own husband. As we see Hattersley wipe tears from his own face, and run to embrace his long-suffering wife, we realise that this is NEVER going to happen between Helen and Arthur. Helen must realise this too, hence her decision shortly afterwards to cut her losses and finally run away. A bit like the bible story where one of the thieves on the crosses next to Christ was SAVED and the other was DAMNED, so we have a similar situation here. (And Anne Bronte, religious as she was, would have known this story VERY well...) Hattersley, by the christ-like Helen, has, indeed, been SAVED; meanwhile, Arthur is, in the eyes of Helen (and, I think, Bronte herself) most definitely damned.

The Final Straw

By this point Helen has completely had enough. With the arrival of the new 'governess' (who seems to be far 'closer' to Helen's husband than to her child!), Helen decides that she simply has to leave. I don't know if any of you have seen a Julia Roberts film from 1991 called Sleeping With The Enemy, but this part of the novel reminds me massively of that film. In both of them, there is a wife so terrified and fed up of their marriage and their abusive, tyrannical husband that they will do anything to escape from it. In both of them, the wife secretly escapes and then assumes a new, fake identity and a totally new life somewhere far away from her evil spouse. In both of them, the marriage used to be OK - and, at the start, was positively tender - but then quickly decays and passes the point of no return. In the film, however, Julia Roberts' husband manages to track her down, and finally arrives at her new home to try to kill her: I wonder of Arthur will go that far himself too???...

If you want to find out more about the film I have been talking about, click below:

Chapters 38-41: A bid for freedom

2006-11-21T20:39:00.000Z

The ignominy of divorce

So Helen has finally had enough! After years of neglect, abuse and humiliation at the hands of her deceitful and philandering husband, she has finally resolved to set herself free. This might seem strange to some of you: after all, if she no longer wants to be married to him, why does she not simply seek a separation or a divorce. However, unfortunately, marriage laws were so very different back then, and, as you have probably gathered, the wife was very much seen as the 'possession' of the husband. Therefore, effectively, for Helen to leave Huntingdon, she would be stealing from him his wife and son - and neither society, nor Huntingdon, would allow this.

The final straw

So why has she finally reached the end of her tolerance? What has changed so much? Well, she is greatly affected by the destruction of Lord Lowborough. Watching him disintegrate under the knowledge of his wife's infidelity is particularly painful to her, and, I suppose, awakens in her a desire not to be destroyed too. Also, she has had to simply look on as her husband begins to corrupt their child with alcohol, swearing and whatever other behaviour in which he indulges with his rowdy friends: imagine how painful that must be for her! And, to add insult to injury, the one 'decent' man she knows, Hargrave, decides to profess his undying love (and, I suspect, lust) for her, even though she neither can nor wants to accept it - all of which is compounded by her husband's veiled accusations that she is having an affair with Hargrave!

No more secrets

Little wonder, then, that Helen wants out! But, no sooner than she has decided to plan for her escape, than her husband catches on to the idea and effectively CONFISCATES all her personal belongings; reads all her personal journals; takes away all her personal finances (apart from a small 'allowance'); and even throws all her paintings and painting equipment into the fire. She is then left completely bereft - of happiness and of any hope of escape. These chapters conclude with a visit by her brother, Frederick, and mention of him preparing some rooms in the now vacant family home for her, should a disaster necessitate her fleeing anyway (a house we immediately recognise as Wildfell Hall!). So all the threads of the story (and this LONG flashback) are starting to fit into place...

Scarred for life

Meanwhile, Esther Hargrave visits Helen for some advice about the arranged marriages her own mother is trying to sort out for her. She is NOT impressed, still harbouring youthful ideals about marrying for love. It is a sign of just how DAMAGED Helen has become, that, totally contrary to her own ideas about marriage which she held before she first met Huntingdon, she now gives much more cynical, sober and pessimistic advice: 'If such are your expectations of matrimony, Esther, you must indeed be careful whom you marry - or rather, you must avoid it altogether.' Little wonder, then, that Helen finds it so difficult to warm to Gilbert's advances in the first section of the novel...
______

This week, please read Chapters 42-46...

I thought you could all have a turn...!

2006-11-19T23:01:00.000Z

I have deliberately not submitted a post today, in the hope that one of you would notice and submit something yourself. If no one has done so by tomorrow evening, I shall submit one anyway - I just wanted to give you lot a chance to take control of the blog to some extent... :)

Mr Savage

Chapters 33-37: Arthur shows his true colours

2006-11-12T19:21:00.000Z

What a lot of questions have been raised by these chapters: so much for you all to think about! Arthur finally appears to have shown his true colours to poor Helen, and how she responds to this is crucial to our understanding of the whole book. So reflect on some of these questions as you endeavour to come to terms with these unpleasant developments:

Why had Arthur decided to have this affair? Why has Arthur decided to jeopardise everything he has got by beginning an affair with the odious Lady Lowborough? What does he see in her? What does she provide for him that he does not get from his wife? How does Lady Lowborough manage to stop Arthur drinking heavily, when Helen, despite her best efforts, had failed in this respect? Why does he not feel guilty having an affair with the wife of his best friend?
Why does Helen respond to the news of the affair in this way? Why is she not more angry with Arthur? Why does she not threaten to expose the affair and her husband's deceit? Why does she not wreak revenge on Arthur and his mistress? Why does she stay with him, as if they were husband and wife, when she cannot stand the sight of him and feels only misery in his company?
Why is Arthur so adamant that Helen not leave him? If he truly loves Lady Lowborough, why does he insist that Helen stays with him, whilst he continues his affair? Wouldn't he be happier if he and Lady Lowborough moved in together and both left their spouses? Why does he prefer to keep up the pretence/semblance of a happy marriage, when the reality is anything but?
And what about Hargrave? Why does he persist in trying to begin a relationship with Helen? Is he looking out for her out of the goodness of his own heart? Or does he just want to find a way into her heart (and her bed!)? Are his motives honourable? And what do you think about Helen's persistent rebuttal of his advances? Is she cutting off her nose to spite her face (as the saying goes)? What do you think she should do?

Perhaps you could all use the COMMENTS tool on this blog to explore these questions together... In the meantime, I think it is crucial, as best you can, to EMPATHISE with Helen in her current situation. This book was written at a time when the oppression of women was at its height, and Anne Bronte is forcing her reader to confront the question of women's equality head-on. Should she lie down and just 'take' all the abuse and mistreatment her husband throws at her? Or should she fight back? Many critics have argued that Helen Huntingdon is one of literature's first feminist heroes: do you think she is showing herself to be a woman of independence and STRENGTH?
_________

As for next week, please read Chapters 38-41.

Bronte Residential: A Weekend in Haworth

2006-11-04T18:15:00.000Z

I am about to start organising the residential trip to Bronte Country - the rugged moorland surrounding Haworth in West Yorkshire. The trip will take place in June/July next year, but, before I begin to plan it, I need to know HOW MANY of you will definitely be interested in coming.

We will be away for TWO nights and THREE days.
We will stay in the YHA Youth Hostel in Haworth, with all students in single-sex dorms.
We will eat our main meals in the hostel, with a packed lunch provided by the hostel as well.
Activities are likely to include:

Evening workshops on the novels in the hostel itself;
A seminar at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, with the museum's education officer;
A tour of the Parsonage, and the nearby Bronte library;
A hike across the moors to find the various buildings and landmarks which inspired parts of each of the novels;
A poetry writing masterclass in the middle of the moors, where Emily Bronte used to write her poems.

We will travel to Yorkshire by school minibus, and you will make the final journey to Haworth by steam train, just as the Brontes would have done themselves.
I do not yet know the cost of the trip, although I will ensure the English department subsidises it to some extent. The cost to your parents is likely to be approx £30 per student.

I ran this exact trip with a group of 6th Form Students back in 1999, and they had a fantastic time. I fully expect that you will all have a great time too.

However, if I am to be able to run this trip, I need to know A.S.A.P. how many of you would like to come. So have a chat with your parents, and email me by Friday 10th November if you are interested. You are not committing yourself at this stage, but, if not enough people are interested, it will not be economical to run the trip in the first place.

If you know of any members of the book group who are NOT accessing the blog at the moment for some reason, please pass this message on to them...

Thanks

Mr Savage

Chapters 29-32: Arthur's descent into alcoholism

2006-11-04T17:33:00.000Z

Men Behaving Badly

The description in these chapters of Arthur's drunken behaviour with his friends is shocking for a 21st Century readership - so just think how it would have been received 150 years ago, especially as this was written by a woman (albeit one under a male pseudonym). You must not allow the sometimes old-fashioned language to detract from the fact that this is controversial, disturbing stuff. Arthur's growing dependency on drink is taking over his very existence - dragging him away from his home, his child, his wife, and all the good qualities he once possessed. And it is not just Arthur: what we witness when Hattersley loses his temper with Millicent, his wife, is nothing less than domestic violence - and in public too. All of this is made even worse by the fact that these drunken men invariably laugh at such behaviour, even as they are indulging in it themselves. And they are all as bad as each other: even Mr Grimsby, who claims he can hold his drink better than the others, ends up pouring half his tea into his saucer, and putting six cubes of sugar into his cup of tea.

How the other characters respond

And then we see the different responses of the other characters to this drunkenness and abusive, violent behaviour. Annabella seems almost to celebrate it, and wishes her husband would also indulge, so that she can die an early death and she can benefit from his will. Millicent just accepts it, and meekly takes whatever is thrown her way. Helen swings between trying to ignore it, and upbraiding and criticising the men for their despicable behaviour. Lowborough, so scarred by his past, refuses to have anything to do with the other men, however violently they try to force him. And Hargrave, who seems to be growing closer and closer to Helen herself, seems to be willing to do anything to protect her from the abuse and neglect of her alcoholic husband.

Some questions for you to ponder though...

Why does Helen continue to endure and put up with Arthur's behaviour, regardless of how horrifically he treats her?
Why does Arthur refuse to remedy his behaviour, and why is he unable to learn from his mistakes?
AND WHAT IS THE SECRET INFORMATION THAT HARGRAVE WANTS TO REVEAL TO HELEN???????

Chapter 25-29: Absence and Misdemeanours

2006-10-29T10:10:00.000Z

"...he knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness..."

Male Behaviour?

I don't think we can doubt Arthur's enduring love for Helen in these chapters. He may behave despicably, and treat her shamefully, but he appears to remain completely in love with her. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is more than one type of love, and Arthur argues that it is a case of gender: "The cases are different...It is a woman's nature to be constant - to love one and one only, blindly, tenderly, and for ever...but you must have some commiseration for us, Helen; you must give us a little more licence..." He would have her believe that all his behaviour - disappearing indefinitely to London, flirting with Lady Lowborough, resenting his newborn child, overindulging with his friends etc. - all of this is simply MALE behaviour.

Double Standards

But there is a clear case of double standards here. For example, when Helen asks what Arthur would do if, for instance, Lord Lowborough were to flirt with her and kiss her hand, in full view of everyone, he replies that he would "blow his brains out". He also argues, "If you had not seen me...it would have done no harm", suggesting that he can do what he likes, provided that his wife does not find out. And he even goes so far as to suggest, in his attempt to divert the focus away from his own misdemeanours, that she is breaking her own marriage vows herself by not honouring and obeying him at all times.

Victorian Society

Now it is easy for us to condemn his behaviour, reading about it in 2006. But could it, perhaps, have been more 'acceptable' 150 years ago. Remember how different was women's role in society back then; think how fewer rights women had, and how many more restrictions were placed on their lives. Victorian men frequented alehouses and brothels at will, but their wives were expected to remain beacons of piousness and domesticity regardless. That was just the way things were.

* * * *

Or perhaps you think that it doesn't matter when the book is set: Arthur's behaviour is still completely wrong and totally unacceptable. If so, what do you think is the most unforgiveable of the things he does? What upsets you most about the way he treats his wife and child? I would be very interested to hear your opinions on this.

And what about the other plot developments? What exactly do you think Arthur is getting up to during his long sojourns in London? What is Mr Hargrave playing it, and are his intentions completely honourable? Do you think Arthur and Helen's marriage is beyond hope and help, or could they still turn things around?

NEXT WEEK: Only three chapters to read this week - Chapters 30, 31 and 32. But PLEASE can you all try to contribute more to this BLOG (either through COMMENTS about my entries, or, better still, through your OWN POSTS). I feel like I am doing all the work here... :(

Chapters 20-24: So was her Aunt right after all?

2006-10-22T09:54:00.000Z

The Newlyweds

This week, I would like you to think carefully about the relationship between Helen and Arthur. Is it starting to fall apart, or perhaps these are just problems that all couples face at one time or another? And whose fault do you think it all is? Is Helen being too PIOUS and intolerant of her new husband? Is she trying to push and force him into being somebody he is NOT? Or is Arthur ignoring his new wife's feelings? Is he deliberately winding her up, and gaining pleasure from teasing and joking with her? What, precisely, do YOU think is starting to happen to their still young marriage?

Who's afraid of the big, bad Arthur?

Also, I would be interested to hear your thoughts about Arthur's behaviour with his friends - and, in particular, with Lord Lowborough. What do you think about the way that Arthur treated Lowborough over the years? Should Arthur be showing more REMORSE about it all? Do you think Arthur is as IMMUNE to and safe from the worst consequences of this 'wild life' as he claims to be? Basically, are any of you starting to think that Helen's aunt might have been right when she warned Helen against men like this? Or is Arthur just a passionate, red-blooded male with an equal share, like all of us, of good and bad points?

Helen - and, indeed, her aunt - are quick to judge the likes of Arthur; but then they exist in a fervently religious world where their faith has more power over them than anything else. Does the 21st Century reader respond with similar condemnation to this most complicated of 'heroes'?
___

N.B. PLEASE can I start to see some of you post a proper, extended BLOG entry on this site? I've given you guidance and exemplars etc., and I really need to see that you are all TRYING to engage with the discussion as fully as you can. Also, it would be GREAT if you all tried to keep the Book Group part of the WIKI up to date too... :)

It's YOUR turn now: Chapters 11-19

2006-10-15T08:25:00.000Z

I am not going to create long, detailed posts this weekend, as I think that it is high time that some of YOU did so instead. I have 'modelled' posts over the past couple of weeks, and I have given you lots of guidance as to how LONG they should be; HOW they should be written; and WHAT they should be about.

I would like to see what some of you can come up with this week. However, to help you, here is a selection of topics you might like to post about. So choose one of these topics (or one of your own, based on ideas in your reading journal) and remember that you need to write a minimum of approx 250 words. Then sit back and enjoy the discussion you have sparked between other members of the group in the COMMENTS. Be brave - don't leave the BLOG to other people:

Shocking and Taboo?:

What evidence can you find of why this book was so shocking to its contemporary audience?
What happens during these chapters that Victorian society might have so objected to?
What social rules do characters like Helen and Gilbert break, and how might we respond differently from the Victorian reader?

Gilbert in Love

How does Gilbert change and develop during these chapters?
Why does he behave this way towards the woman he says he loves/loved?
How do we respond to/feel about his behaviour towards Helen?

Helen's Diary Entry:

What is the narrative function of Helen's diary entry?
Or, in other words, what effect does the use of this device have on the reader?
Why does Bronte use it?
What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of writing a novel in the form of LETTERS and DIARIES?

Helen's Big Mistake:

What do you think of Helen's refusal to follow her Aunt's choice of husband for her?
What is your opinion of the men she turns down?
What do you think should influence a woman's choice of husband (or, indeed, a man's choice of wife)?
Is Helen wrong to fight against her aunt's attempts at an 'arranged marriage'?

Mr Huntingdon

Can you sense any foolishness or error in her attraction towards Mr Huntingdon?
Is there any evidence, at this stage, of him being the sort of man Helen's aunt warned her against?
What do you think of Mr Huntingdon? Consider:

His behaviour with other women;
His response to the secret drawings;
His physical advances towards Helen;
Anything else you notice about him...

NEXT WEEK: Please read Chapters 20-24

Society and Setting

2006-10-08T12:54:00.000Z

(This is a photo of the entrance to Ponden Hall, near the Bronte's home town of Haworth, which is thought to have provided the inspiration for both Wildfell Hall, and Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights. It is one of the places we will seek out on the Bronte residential trip next summer.)

The setting (physical and social) of the story is also developed a lot in Chapters 5-10.

Wildfell Hall

The hall itself continues to exert a serious and mysterious presence over the characters - "Silent and grim it frowned before us" - but it clearly suits serious and mysterious Mrs Graham perfectly, as we can see, for example, from her following words:

"I cannot be too thankful for such an asylum"
"I am not sure the loneliness of the place was not one of its chief recommendations"
"I take no pleasure in watching people pass the windows; and I like to be quiet"

Pathetic Fallacy

Coined by the writer and artist, John Ruskin, in the 19th Century, PATHETIC FALLACY is the term to describe when the physical environment or setting reflects in some way the lives or circumstances of the people or characters themselves (or, indeed, the plot or narrative). There is an example here: "the young primroses were peeping from among their moist, dark foliage, and the lark above was singing of summer, and hope, and love, and every heavenly thing". The changing seasons are almost sending out a message of hope and happiness, and the reader is curious as to whether the plot will, indeed, follow a similarly positive path.

Husbands and Wives

One thing I found interesting in these chapters is the discussion of what makes a good husband, and I would be interested to hear what you all think of these views. Gilbert, very much the 'modern man', is clear about his views: "I shall expect to find more pleasure in making my wife happy and comfortable, than in being made so by her: I would rather give than receive". But his mother's description of her, late husband shows a very different point of view: "he was steady and punctual, seldom found fault without a reason, always did justice to my good dinners, and hardly ever spoiled my cookery by delay – and that’s as much as any woman can expect of any man". What do you think about such opinions? Have roles changed between then and now? What do you regard to be a 'good husband'?

Smalltalk

Personally, I have never quite 'got' smalltalk, and I have always felt uncomfortable and awkward in situations when I have been expected to chat with other people just for the sake of it. It seems false to me - although I know that it is a common social routine. Mrs Graham, who hates "talking where there is no exchange of ideas or sentiments, and no good given or received", seems to hold a similar opinion, as can be seen from the following extract:

"'It is I who have left them,' was the smiling rejoinder. 'I was wearied to death with small talk - nothing wears me out like that. I cannot imagine how they can go on as they do.'
I could not help smiling at the serious depth of her wonderment.
'Is it that they think it a duty to be continually talking,' pursued she: 'and so never pause to think, but fill up with aimless trifles and vain repetitions when subjects of real interest fail to present themselves, or do they really take a pleasure in such discourse?'
'Very likely they do,' said I; 'their shallow minds can hold no great ideas, and their light heads are carried away by trivialities that would not move a better-furnished skull; and their only alternative to such discourse is to plunge over head and ears into the slough of scandal - which is their chief delight.'"

And finally...

I found this bit really funny, and quite unlike the sort of writing you find in most, stereotypical Victorian fiction: "I deposited the book in one of its pockets, and then put it on (i.e. the coat)". :)

I rather liked to see Mrs Graham...

2006-10-08T12:40:00.000Z

Fair Hermit

In these chapters, we see Gilbert's growing affection for Mrs Graham, whom he calls variously his "fair hermit" and his "wonderful stranger". Both these descriptions (almost oxymorons) capture her double-edged nature, and the fact that she is alluring and repellant, warm and cold - all at the same time. Indeed, Gilbert recognises "so changeable was she", and is constantly frustrated by the way her emotional thermometer changes so much. Nonetheless, he still prefers "mature" and "earnest" Mrs Graham to "frivolous" and "insipid" Eliza Millward: "I was too happy in the company of Mrs Graham, to regret the absence of Eliza Millward... after all, it would, perhaps, be better to spend one’s days with such a woman than with Eliza Millward".

Enchanted

He is now growing almost to hero-worship Mrs Graham - "she, in intellect, in purity and elevation of soul, was immeasurably superior to any of her detractors" - and, after most visits, "went home enchanted". He is certainly under her spell! And it is not just her personality which appeals to him so much; her physical appearance has an equally powerful effect on her. This is shown, for example, when he admits he "could not help stealing a glance… [at] the elegant white hand that held the pencil, and the graceful neck and glossy raven curls that drooped over the paper", and confesses "it was a pleasure to behold it so dextrously guided by those fair and graceful fingers". I think those of you eagerly wanting the two of them to have an affair certainly have Gilbert himself on your side!

Challenge

But we also see, in these chapters, Mrs Graham become increasingly mysterious: "I am not disposed to answer any more questions at present". The village reaches their own conclusions, but Gilbert decides it all has something to do with her previous husband - "she had had enough of him and the matrimonial state altogether" - and he assumes that this has made her determined to fall in love with nobody ever again, "relentlessly nipping off bud by bud as they ventured to appear". Perhaps this is why he becomes even stronger in her attempts to win her heart? Because he realises what a challenge it is going to be. He even uses military imagery to describe "another invasion of Wildfell Hall", and, at one point, even declares, "I thought my hour of victory was come".

If we thought their relationship was complicated at first, what is it like now?!

Week Two: Reading task

2006-10-03T16:54:00.000Z

Please make sure you have read up to the end of Chapter 10 by next Sunday. The following week, I may double this to 10 chapters in a week, but I want to give EVERYONE a chance to catch up first.

Can I also suggest that it can be a good idea to get yourself a little notebook, and just jot down your thoughts and ideas at the end of each chapter, whilst they're still fresh in your mind. A reading journal, really. Give it a try if you can...

Social Pressure

2006-10-01T18:48:00.000Z

From the beginning of the novel, one of the most powerful forces is that of SOCIETY. Gossip is everywhere, and the main inhabitants of this community don't seem happy unless they are gossiping about someone else. It's a gossip's dream come true when a mysterious woman arrives to live nearby, and so, predictably, they gossip about her too. Very few characters are immune to this, and most of them quickly join in when there is a chance to exchange some snippets of gossip with the others.

More sinister than this, however, is the pressure society seems to exert on those who would be different. Mrs Graham chooses to live 'differently' and she is criticised endlessly for doing so. She is criticised (either to her face or behind her back) for her attitudes on childrearing; her standards of cleanliness and housekeeping; her opinions on alcohol and intemperance. It seems that this is a remarkably petty and insecure society that gets so much satisfaction from having a go at people who do not fit in with the 'proper' way of doing things. But, cleverly, this seems to be another technique by Anne Bronte to lure us into choosing our 'ally' in the novel: we are drawn to be on the side of the pariah (or social outcast), rather than the crowd.

Sexual Tension

2006-10-01T18:47:00.000Z

Sexual Tension

To fully understand how DARING this novel is from the outset, you need to remember two things:

It was written in 1848, 11 years into the reign of Queen Victoria. The Victorian era is famous for its prudishness , and society regarded anything sexual as completely TABOO. This would have included any outward displays of sexual attraction.
It was written by a WOMAN, who was completely aware of the anger she would incur from society for daring to do what should only be done by a man (i.e. write novels) - so much so that, like her sisters, she wrote under a pseudonym, Acton Bell.

So imagine how brave she was to write about a community rife with sexual tension. Gilbert quite clearly finds Eliza incredibly attractive, and can't get enough of her company. He even steals a kiss from her, very publically, to the anger and shock of his mother. On a day to day basis, he is forced to observe the social convention of 'polite conversation' with the girl he fancies beyond belief - to add to which his mother doesn't approve of her anyway! But he can't help but kiss her that evening, even though he knows he 'shouldn't'.

And then there is his fascination with the widow, Mrs Graham. From the very first moment he hears about her, he is captivated. He goes, effectively, to spy on her in her new home as he rides on the moor. He stares at her quite blatantly, trying to flirt with her in church - in church, of all places! It seems to me that, on the one hand, Gilbert is trying his hardest to 'behave himself' with two, separate, young women; but, on the other hand, he can only just about control himself with either of them.

Suspense

2006-10-01T18:46:00.000Z

I have read this novel several times, but I never fail to be drawn into the suspense and mystery of the story. Gilbert Markham and the others are pretty straightforward, at least at first, but Mrs Graham is an enigma from the outset. One thing I like is how we hear about her from other people before we actually see her 'in the flesh' - and hearing about anyone 'second hand' like this is bound to make them even more intriguing. [When I say 'we' here, I basically mean Gilbert, because it is he who guides us throughout this part of the novel, and so we witness things through him.]

Even when Gilbert finally meets her for the first time, no words are actually exchanged - purely awkward glances across the church. And even when characters actually speak to her, she doesn't reveal very much about herself at all. Her stroppiness when Gilbert rescues her son from the tree seems strange - and we don't quite know why. Her strong views on alcohol seem out of place - and we don't quite know why. Her sensitivity about the hidden portrait (and indeed the strange habit of ensuring none of her paintings are traceable to where she is now) seems to come from nowhere - and, still, we don't know quite why. Anne Bronte is cleverly dropping little clues into our imagination, but keeps enough back to keep us guessing and keen to read on and find out more.

Chapter 1-5 - You MUST read this!

2006-10-01T15:28:00.000Z

BEFORE I start, two simple rules for this BLOG:

Posts must be AT LEAST 250 words long. Anything shorter is probably best put on the Message Board.
You can post about ANYTHING to do with the weekly chapters - as long as it interests you (and therefore might also spark some discussion).

If you are stuck what to write, have a look at each of the THREE sections I have written below, and think of these as EXEMPLARS for the sort of thing you might want to write, either this week or in the future. And remember, students with the most posts over the year will qualify for the trip at the end of the year.

So... You've all read the first FIVE chapters I hope. I know some of you have read much more than this, but it is important that we all move at the same speed as far as this BLOG is concerned - otherwise it will get really confusing, for everyone.

Firstly, I know lots of you have found it a struggle at first to 'adjust' to what is a very different style of writing to what you are used to reading. But I agree with those of you who say it is just a question of persevering, and then you soon get used to it. I find it the same with B&W films: when I first start watching one I am really disappointed at the lack of colour, but, if I persevere, before too long I have adjusted completely, and totally forgotten that it is Black and White at all. The same is true of fiction like this. DON'T be put off if you don't understand the odd word either - as long as the sentence still makes sense, then just ignore it (or look it up if you're really curious).

Anyway, back to the book - and, specifically, the first FIVE chapters. There are three things I would like to talk about in particular, and, to help you all out, I shall post separately for each one...

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

2006-09-19T16:22:00.000Z

To any of you who have not yet started the book, i'm warning you now, the language in which it is written is quite difficult. The more you read on the more you will understand it but if you did'nt quite understand what happened on the page you just read, read it again! I had to read the same page about 3 times.

happy reading!

One week extra!

2006-09-18T18:56:00.000Z

I know that several of you are having trouble getting hold of the book quickly. I also know that some of you are still in the process of registering with the site.

I want us to get off to an impressive start with this Book Group, and so I have decided to give you an extra week to complete the first task.

The deadline for JOINING the blog is now Friday 22nd September.
The deadline for READING the first 5 chapters is now Friday 29th September.

I will not change these deadlines again. Any problems, let me know a.s.a.p.

And remember: if you're joining this group, I will EXPECT complete commitment, and regular posts. Only those who show they are FULLY taking part will be considered for the residential next summer.

Lastly, I am happy to help students purchase the three books if necessary. However, if you need financial assistance, you need to contact me as soon as possible.

Mr Savage

Week One

2006-09-16T13:19:00.000Z

We will begin our journey through the literary world of the Bronte sisters with THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL by Anne Bronte. As I said on my previous post, until you manage to get hold of your own copy of the book (and please hurry up and do so - the edition pictured here is only £1!), you can access the whole text online by clicking on the book title above. Then just scroll down past all the publishing info etc. and past the 'Author's Preface' until you find the beginning of Chapter 1.

Anyway, by NEXT weekend (i.e. 23rd September), I would like us all to have read the first 5 chapters (that's Chapters 1-5), and we can discuss them next Saturday and Sunday online.

Just a tip: you might find it useful to get yourself a little notebook too, in which to jot down your thoughts/ideas/questions whilst you are reading: this might make it easier for you when you come to the BLOG at the end of the week, and is often a good idea anyway.

Happy reading!

Getting started...

2006-09-16T12:40:00.000Z

Firstly, welcome to the Book Group BLOG. If you are reading this, the chances are you have registered with the BLOG (or at least tried to do so) and want to be a part of the Book Group this year.

And what is the Book Group? Well, it is, as the name suggests, a group of people who will get together this year to chat about books - THREE books in particular - which they will read in the SAME order, at the SAME speed, by the SAME deadlines. The difference with this Book Group, however, (unlike hundreds of similar groups which meet on evenings and weekends in libraries across the land), is that this group takes place entirely ONLINE.

Every week, I will set you the chapters I would like you to read, together with the date by which you must have read them. Then I will post my own response to what we read during that week, and the rest of you are free EITHER to respond to mine OR simply write your own (or both!). It's completely up to you.

Blog entries here give you an opportunity to talk about anything you like to do with the book we are reading, and to ask questions of the other members about the book too. You might want to think about:

Plot/storyline: what has happened? is there anything you don't understand? what is interesting about how the author has created the narrative? what do you think might happen next? what was your 'best bit'? etc.
Setting: what are your impressions of the places where the book is set? how are they described? what effect are they supposed to have on the reader? how do they differ from each other? what do we learn about the social/cultural setting? how were things different when the story was set?etc.
Characters: which characters have you most enjoyed? which are the most important characters? do any of the characters fit any of Propp's archetypes? with whom do you sympathise? what have we learnt about the characters so far?
Themes: what is the novel ABOUT? what are the key themes explored by the author? does the novel offer us any morals or messages about life? what does it appear to be saying about life/love/relationships/society? etc.
Style: what do you notice about the way in which the story is written? what do you find difficult about the writer's style? what sort of narrator is used? what do you like about the way the author writes? etc.
Quotations: are there any words or phrases from the novel you found particularly memorable/important/entertaining/effective etc.? what quotations strike you as especially useful for discussing the novel in more depth? etc.
or ANYTHING ELSE YOU FIND INTERESTING about the novel, and the chapters you have read.

When I come to select those students who will come on the Bronte Weekend in West Yorkshire next summer, the main criterion I will use will be how often you have published a post or a comment on this site - so use it prolifically if you want to come.

Lastly, you will need to get hold of your own copies of the three books we will be reading this year:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
All of these are available for FREE from your local library, or from around £1 from your local bookshop. If you want to buy your own copy, but you or your family has financial difficulties, please come and speak to me in confidence and I will arrange for the school to buy them for you.

In the meantime, if you want to get started reading BEFORE you have got hold of the books, click on the book title above, and you will be directed to an online version of each one: very awkward on which to read the whole book, but just about OK for the first few chapters...

Follow this link as you go to find out useful web resources for the Brontes in general.

Look out for the next post for details of your first reading task...

Mr Savage