We See Little of Sissy Jupe in the Novel Obsolete)
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Transcript of We See Little of Sissy Jupe in the Novel Obsolete)
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Year 12 English] VCE units 3 and 4
F SOMETHING IS HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW IT HAS ALREADY BE SENT FOR
MARKING OR IS IN A SEPARATE DOCUMENT!
Update: everything has been sent or separated! This document is obsolete!
Richard III
Not everyone in the play is as foolish as Richard believes him or her to be
how accurate are Richards judgements?
Richard, the cunning and critical protagonist of Shakespeares Richard IIIrellies on his
mental discernment for swift rise to the English throne. His ability to subdue his enemies
xemplifies his sagacity. The audience can assume that he takes those he can overcome
as a comparative fools. The soundness of this judgement reflects in his success in
emoving them from play. In the same way, the shortness of his reign as king reflects in
he inaccuracy of his judgement following his crowning. Mostly everyone in the play is
as foolish as Richard first considers them to before his kingship. His judgement evidently
oon degenerates though and members of the royal court are quick to trump his mind for
t. It is Richard who finally plays the fool in his namesake play.
The Duke of Buckingham acts as Richards co-conspirator as he ascends to the English
hrone. When his primary use has expired, Richard dismisses Buckinghams request for
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his earlier promised reward. He says: I am not in a giving mood. Richards
unconcerned and then ferocious mood indicates that he does not consider that
Buckingham may pose him a threat upon for insulting his hard work by denying his
equest. The text implies that the king has rationalised the situation and takes
Buckingham and as a fool in contrast with himself. As the play proceeds it is revealed
hat Buckingham has greeted Richmonds mobilised naval forces on Englands shores.
Because Buckingham has an intricate knowledge of Richards kingdom, he is particularly
dangerous ally of the sovereigns enemy. Richard took Buckingham as a harmless fool
only to have his judgement proven precariously wrong. We may speculate that his ascent
o the throne proved his undoing due to the comparison of his use of Buckingham before
and after the coronation. Until claiming the crown, Richard was consistently able to
mplicate and utilise Buckingham in his schemes. Afterwards, his failing was so great as
o lose Buckingham to the enemy. Richards judgement was sounds prior to becoming
king, whilst sketchy afterwards.
This proposition is further evidenced by Richards judgement of the foolishness of King
Edward IVs wifes family. Although Richard does not clearly consider them foolish, this
s implied by the minimal political attention he gives them. He does not consider them to
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be a threat and thus considers them foolish. He seems to prove correct in his judgement
his time. He is able to dispose of Rivers and Gray without much trouble. While Lady
Gray is identified as markedly intelligent, she is powerless to stop Richard III and
perhaps this reflects in atleast foolish relative to himself. Consistent with his dealings
with Buckingham, his judgement and insight prior to his rise to kingship is refined and
accurate.
The accuracy of Richards judgement wanes as the play progresses. As a scheming and
agacious contender for the throne he is successful in his ability to judge peoples
wisdom. This reflects in his success in manipulating them. During his reign he is far less
uccessful and this indicates that his judgement has taken a turn for the worse because of
t. The accuracy of Richards judgement of how foolish people are is realistically
variable.
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Richard III
For all its emphasis on power, much of the play is actually concerned with
powerlessness.
n what ways is powerlessness important in Richard III?
note: Ive double spaced my lines and left a margin on the right so that it will be easier
for you to comment if you print this out. You can also go to [Insert comment] and
omment in red if you are marking this on the computer. Would you be able to send me
back a copy of this with your comments via email or can I collect a printed copy with
omments from you when the school year starts? Thank you!
Powerless is important to Richard III in that it establishes setting, context, characters
haracter and acts as a narrative device. Shakespeares play concerns itself with
powerlessness in two ways being the minimal power allocated to woman and children
aswell as the powerlessness of all those subservient to their lords in the feudal political
ystem. This essay will explore how powerlessness is emphasized so much in Richard III.
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Woman and children are subservient to the men of Richard III. They exert only a passive
nfluence with woman coercing those close to them in positions of power and children
xerting only political influence on royal statesmen. Richard exploits the vulnerability
Lady Grays female stereotype for using her power to weave malicious words into the ear
of the king. This allows him to label them as villains. The underlying concern of the court
hat the queen may exert such a diplomatic force on their king implies that this is usually
he domain of female counterparts of those in power. As such, even though Lady Gray
holds such a theoretically powerful position as queen, her power is really filtered through
her husband. She is indeed powerless on our own. This is further emphasised by her
weakness at countering Richard once he has checked the his frail brother. The
powerlessness of females in Richard III is important to establishing the diplomatic setting
of the court and for allowing for Richards deceptions and his enemies responses to be
more realistic and dramatic.Just like Lady Gray the princes who are children and also
elatively powerless. Their power is derived from the courts political use of them aswell
as genuine care for them as family members. Richard fakes kindness and playfully teases
he two princes during their stay in the castle. When the youngest prince says: give me
your dagger Richard is initially taken back, revealing his natural distaste for the prince
and his unwillingness to give up his possession. He is quick to compensate for this by
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esting and offering his sword to the boy instead. Shakespeare tries to make the audience
aware that Richard is trying to demonstrate that he is good uncle in the presence of the
oyal court. In contrast, other members of the court appear jolly and genuinely intrigued
by their visit. However, the only power the princes exert over their extended family is of
patronising value. Just like with the females of the play, the princes power is not their
own. They are powerless, with the emphasis on power being that exerted on others for
heir own inclinations.
The powerlessness of the political prisoner Clarence is important in establishing the
dominating power of the king. His imprisonment and sanctioned death at the mere
ignature and inclination of the king shows that the kings power is almighty and
unmatched by even the next highest ranking individual. His brothers, the once powerful
prince, became powerless at the Kings stead. This feature made Richards assent to the
hrone even more impressive. It was shown that it would be exceedingly difficult for
anyone, no matter how high in rank, to claim kingship out of the natural order. If the king
at any time suspected that Richard was so evilly natured he could easily have had him
xecuted. This is important to Richard III as Shakespeare set out to highlight Richards
deceptive cunning which is central to the play.
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Woman and children were importantly powerless in their own right since it allowed
Richards exploits story to be told in impressionable way that was realistic for the times.
Under the Tudor regime, Shakespeare was expected to conform to the ruling Elizabethan
ulers version of history. By putting Richard in a bad light, the Tudors would be seen in
a better one. It was important therefore that Richards brilliantly evil mind was
accentuated by his own implied powerless by comparison to his brother by his other
brother Clarence being locked up by the authoritative king. The impression we have of
Richard is relevant to this construct and thus very important to the play. Powerlessness, in
Richard III compliments power and it allowed Shakespeare to establish the play that he
ntended.
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Whos Reality
We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are
note: Ive double spaced my lines and left a margin on the right so that it will be easier
for you to comment if you print this out. You can also go to [Insert comment] and
omment in red if you are marking this on the computer. Would you be able to send me
back a copy of this with your comments via email or can I collect a printed copy with
omments from you when the school year starts? Thank you!
Authors are in the business of creating convincing fictional realities. They themselves are
nterwoven into the reality that they critique. They perceive, interpret, comprehend and
finally communicate their messageswithin the same illusionary confines that they
nvestigate in their fictional worlds. Furthermore, their readers interpret these constructed
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ealities differently. This is the heart of the Whos Reality? context as implied by the
question posed to students. This discussion is particularly relevant to Robert Drewes
memoir The Shark Net. The indiscriminate tragedies that take place in the authors
hildhood community form the basis of his writing. Drewes book suggests that we do
not see things as they are, but rather that we them as we are.
The faculties of perception are restricted by biological limits. Assuming that there is an
xternal objective reality, we only can sense this partially because our eyes, ears, nose,
ongue and skin can only tell whats there to the best of their ability. If a person has been
blind their whole life they will not be able to comprehend that there might be a world
more than their own four senses perceive in their immediate time and space. In contrast, a
person with full eye sight will be able to tell that there is a much fuller world to be
perceived. Similarly, there are an infinite number of elements of perception which are
naccessible to humans. Reality is certainly far more complicated than we can even
perceive, let alone make sense of. We do not see things as they are, we see things as we
are. We see things as much as we are able to perceive them.
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At another level, what we do perceive may very well be raw illusion. We are not simply
onfined in perception by incomplete sensory information, but also by the potential for
hat sensory information may be illusionary. While it may be considered that intangible
oncepts such as an false belief about something is a something and thus constitutes
eality, it is more useful to consider that this is merely an illusion an impression of
eality which very well may implicate that illusion into as a sort of part reality. The
parable of the "blind men and an elephant" may help to explain this. In this story, each
blind man felt a different part of an elephant (trunk, leg, ear, etc.). All the men claimed to
understand and explain the true appearance of the elephant, but could only partly
ucceed, due to their limited perspectives. In this way, they perceive may both be
onsidered reality or illusionary. For the purposes of this essay such a will be considered
an illusionary fragment of reality. We may also consider the allegory of Platos cave, an
analogy used in the Republic to discuss the validity of the reality we perceive. The Greek
philosopher imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their
ives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things
passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows.
According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He
hen explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and
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omes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as
he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the
prisoners. Similarly, we may see something and believe it to be what is, when really, it is
ust a shadow of its true self. We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
We see things as well as we are able perceive them.
The way we make sense of our perception is governed by our prejudices and the meaning
we illicit from this raw data. Assuming that a beings perception of reality is perfect, they
must still contend with the limits of mortal insight. The weaknesses in the rational of
mortal humans is often brought to light and highlighted when the powers of an
ndividuals objective rational and logical deduction are compared. In the fictional
adventures of Sir Arthur Connell Doyles famous detective Sherlock Holmes, the
brilliance of the protagonist reflects is unequal to those he shares his perceptional data
with prior to forming a conclusion. Whilst he may be able to conclude a case based on the
vidence presented to him, another person cannot. Since the abilities of the mind are
perfectly relative and multi-faceted and as long as there is conflict of any sort (assuming
again an objective, singularly perspected and deterministic reality) it may not be said that
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humanity has reached the truth on any afore ascribed issue. We do not see things as they
are, we see things as we are. We see things as well as we are able to draw insight them
Ungovernable feelings, emotions and memories predicate how we interpret sensor
nformation. Although this subjectivity may skew the accuracy of our interpretations, it is
vitally important our humanity. We can use such subjectivity to make assumptions and to
predict and extrapolate trends for which we have incomplete detail. This distinguishes us
from machines. We are more adaptable at the cost of inaccuracy. If you were to be told
hat a former murderous criminal was to service your car at a repair shop, you might feel
a negative bias towards him. By implicating his criminal nature into your judgment, you
might believe that he will do a poor job in fixing your car; Although mechanical skill and
riminality have no direct bearing on one another, a chain of assumptions means that you
may make a subjective decision. This self determined illusion is inseparable from our
human nature. We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. We see things as
accurately we are able to negate out subjectivity in relation to them.
Shared realities that are both perceived and understood in the same way may yet be
ommunicated differently. This may be overlooked as it may be assumed to be a limit
detached by the assumption of perfect perception and insight. However, differences in
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ommunication are established due to physical rather than mental impairments and
personal idiosyncrasies. Another related problem also lies in the dependency of the
ecipient of the information to follow through the process of perfect perception and
nsight themselves. Imagine the eloquent Barrack Obama making the very same speech
as Jesse Jackson . Even if they apply the very same perception and insight into the same
ask as one another and follow through with a speech of the same content, a powerful
distinction will emerge. Jesse Jacksons has the physical impairment of a cleft lip and
palate which affects the clarity of his speech. He may not be able to communicate reality
as well as Obama. These limitations in communications are relevant at higher levels of
understanding as well. The capacity for an entity to comprehend reality as it is, is
estricted due to the tie between communication and perception. If a sentient plant is
aware of physics behind quantum mechanics, whatever knowledge that plant has is
presumable inaccessible to all other forms of life who cannot harvest that knowledge. If
eality by its components, then it is beyond even ideal perception as the information is not
being transmitted to be received.. We do not see things as they are, we see things as we
are. We see things as fully as we are receptive of it.
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The Shark Net illustrates the nature of human reality after the family has moved away
from Melbourne. When Dorothy Drewe has arrived safely in Perth with her children and
perked up she is able to recount the incident involving the one-legged drunken man
p.28) with some humor. She waves round an imaginary crutch and makes the story
amusing so that her husband and friends laugh (p.31). The impression she gives of the
ncident now is quite different from the way she experienced it at the time when [her]
mouth tightened and she looked like she was going to cry again (p.28). Now, Dorothy
presents herself as a woman who is composed and happy and who was equal to the
ituation she faced in Kalgoorlie.
The members of her family would have perceived the event in alternative ways. Each of
hem had independently interpreted the event and finally, she communicated a subjective
ecollection of the encounter. The reality of the event became a highly subjective
xperience as she progressed through the stages of perception, insight and
ommunication and attempted to make sense of her reality. She did not see things as they
are, she saw things as she is. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.
Written Explanation
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The Shark Net helped me develop my arguments and idea relevant to the Whos Reality
ontexts. The idea that reality is subjective as implied by the context will be the focus of
my piece in response to prompt that We do not see things as they are. We see them as
we are. My position, as inferred by my essay is on the affirmative and that that this is the
product of the limits of our perception, insight and communication/communicability. I
have incorporated outside material into my response including drawing on idea from
philosophy, psychology and literature.
The language and English choices of the Shark Net were not taken into account when
forming my expository piece. The casual narrative style though was not appropriate to an
xpository piece written.
made informed decisions on language and context-related thematic choices removed
from the texts. This included emulating the writing patterns of 18th century German
Emmanuel Kant whose writing style I find more accessible than alternatives. The content
of my essay met my purpose which was to further develop my own understanding of
eality and to have it reviewed and critiqued by an established professional.
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Hard Times
We see little of Sissy Jupe in the novel, yet she is powerfully significant
note: Ive double spaced my lines and left a margin on the right so that it will be easier
for you to comment
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Sissy Jupe is not only an individual in Hard Times, but also a virtue. Dickens intends her
o represent the embodiment of innocent fancy and resilient humanity. Although we see
ittle of Sissy in the novel, she plays very important roles that are vital to the books
hematic development and narrative progression. That would be the picture of what was
very pretty and pleasant, and I wouldfancy... said Girl number 20.
Dickens emphasis on the importance of fancy is Sissys invitation to the forefront of the
novel. She is firmly entrenched in the fertile soil of Slearys belief that. People must be
amuthed, Thquire, thomehow... They cant be alwayth a working, nor yet they cant be
alwayth a learning. Make the betht of uth; not the wurtht. Says Sleary. Sissy studied
under Gradgrinds rationalist educational system and was given particularly educational
attention by the Imminently Practical. Even though she does not successfully complete
her education, she becomes a happy and successful adult. She is more fulfilled and
motionally developed than her counterpart Louisa who suffers from an emotional
breakdown in her adulthood. Sissy is integral to the narrators stance on the issue of fact
and fancy. She is powerfully significant in the way that she illustrates the validity of the
Slearly philosophy and the invalidity of the Gradgrind alternative.
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Dickens uses Sissy to pronounce the contrast between Louisa and her youngest sister
ane Gradgrind. Because Sissy raised her, Jane is a happier little girl than her older sister.
Oh what a beaming face you have Jane cries Louisa to which she replies It must be
Sissys doing This comment is clearly great in significance. This represents a critical hit
o the foundation block of Gradgrinds philosophy of fact and. Sissies influence allows
he narrative to progress and facilitates Dickenss criticism of the inadequacy of a
utilitarian society. Dickens is indebted to Sissy as a tool for which he achieves his
narrative aims.
Sissy Jupe is an important character in Hard Times. Irrespective of how much she
features in the book, the effect she has over the general story, other characters and the
narrators message makes her a central character. Dickens allocates a great deal of value
o her person and the resulting literary value is significantly powerful.