Student Gen: The Educated Imagination: The Imagination in Our Lives

In The Educated Imagination Frye discusses the human imagination. Frye claims that the imagination plays a role throughout literature, as well as in everyday life. Where is the human imagination present in society?

Frye uses Nineteen-Eighty Four as an example to state that “the only way…to create a literal hell on earth, is deliberately to debase our language by turning our speech into automatic gabble.” (92) If successful this destruction of language will control the actions of humanity. If this is true, how does the imagination influence action?

Student Gen: The Educated Imagination: Why Study Literature?

In The Educated Imagination Frye argues, Wherever illiteracy is a problem, it's as fundamental a problem as getting enough to eat or a place to sleep. The native language takes precedence over every other subject of study: nothing else can compare with it in usefulness” . Frye also explains that without literature math and science would not be able to exist. If this is true then our society is built on literature and everything else is built on top of it. However one could counter this argument by explaining that literature is a tool used to explain the math and science’s.
Using Frye's The Educated Imagination and other research discuss:
What good is the study of literature?
Is the study of literature as important as math and science in constructing the society we live in?

Student Gen: 1984: Hope begins in the dark

Ostensibly there appears to be little in Nineteen Eighty-Four to suggest that ‘man is indestructible because of his simple will to freedom’. Winston Smith’s will to freedom can be seen, instead, to directly bring about his destruction. Little hope seems to be offered that this destruction is anything other than complete, an effect implied in part by a shift in the tone of the free indirect discourse which has established the narrative viewpoint of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The questioning, reflective language Winston employs throughout most of the text is replaced by the ideological cant of the Party: ‘it was alright, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother’

Taken from: http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-hopebegins.htm

It is mentioned in the novel that the hope of the society lies with in the proles, for they have boundless political liberty, proving that man is indestructible for he has the human spark and the simple will to freedom. Discuss how humanity can lead to its own downfall and how a prole-like environment can be the last potential hope to deliver its salvation.

Student Gen: 1984: "The Last Man in Europe"

Originally Orwell titled the book The Last Man in Europe, but his publisher, Frederic Warburg, suggested a change to assist in the book's marketing. Orwell did not object to this suggestion. The reasons for selection of this particular year are not known. Orwell may have only switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book - '1948' became the distant and yet not unimaginable '1984'. Alternatively, he may have been alluding to the centenary of the Fabian Society, a socialist organization founded in 1884. The allusion may have also been to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel (in which the power of a political movement reaches its height in 1984), to G. K. Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill (also set in that year), or to a poem by his wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy, called "End of the Century, 1984". A final supposed explanation is that his original re-titling was to be 1980; however, with his illness the book was taking a long time to write, so he felt obliged to push the story further and further into the future.

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

The original title for George Orwell's 1984 is "The Last Man in Europe". With this thought in mind, why do you think Orwell would want to go with this title? Use examples from the novel with at least one example from each part.

Student Gen: 1984: the Blank Slate Theory-" Tabula Rasa"

“How is it that human beings can know anything? And how should they try to live?” These were two outstanding questions, philosopher, John Locke addressed in his intellectual life. One of his theories, the Blank Slate Theory, is the theory in which an individual human being is born with no innate content. He even illustrates this theory by saying, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters; without any ideas… Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, for experience”. Do you believe that this theory is evident in 1984? If so, how does it relate to 1984? Is it that the Party tries to narrow the mind to only a blank slate?

Student Gen: 1984: Becoming Winston

In George Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith's fate is predetermined and he is well aware of the consequences of his actions against the Party. After reading 1984, you are also aware of how Big Brother works. Knowing what you know now...

Imagine yourself as Winston Smith, from the beginning of 1984 until its ending. What would you do to undermine the Party? What would you do similarly or differently than Winston? And lastly, how would you avoid the fate that awaits you?

Student Gen: 1984: Dislocation of Eloquence

George Orwell creates a ‘fictitious’ society, one that is under constant surveillance and ruled over by a totalitarian political regime called the Party. In this society, the English language is slowly diminishing and becoming Newspeak, a language that is constantly decreasing its vocabulary. In Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye, Frye mentions “Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four … Orwell even goes as far as to suggest the only way to make tyranny permanent…is [to] deliberately debase our language by turning our speech into automatic gabble.” (91-92). How does the Party use the Newspeak language as a control mechanism over the Inner and Outer Party members?

Student Gen: The Greater Meaning

Consider the following concept used when studying Renaissance Literature:

“Art as Mirror: The idea that one function of a work of art is to hold a mirror up to the world and to the audience of the work. The work should reflect the beauty and/or the unattractive aspects of the world and of human behavior. If a work dwells on beauty, it inspires us to make that beauty a part of our own lives and outlook. If the work concentrates on unattractive aspects of the natural or social world, it teaches us that this world cannot be relied upon, or it shows us the kind of behavior and attitudes to avoid. Art is a mirror in the sense that it gives us a chance to ask ourselves if we see reflections of our own faults and sins in the characters or actions depicted, it helps motivate us to change for the better.”
Frost, Jeff. "Some Concepts for Analyzing Renaissance Literature." Fedora Core Test Page. 01jan1996. Fedora Project website. 20 Apr 2007 .

The complexity of the persona that is Hamlet allows him to transcend the play and become human. This is proven when he ponders the question of the ties between existence and action, “To be or not to be”(3.1.56), which bridge the turmoil within his mind to become that which can be our own. The ultimate point of Hamlet is to relate it to your life; it is a play about what it means to be human.

Your task is to:

a) Apply Hamlet to your life by reflecting on how you can relate to him.
OR

b) Relate Hamlet to another character(s) from a previously studied text, incorporating emotional parallels and touching upon the greater theme of the human condition.

Student Gen: Hamlet and the Fishmonger

Irony is a special use of double meaning, as when someone makes a remark which, while clearly saying one thing, hints at a further and different meaning which only certain hearers would understand. The effect of such speech is often bitter and a bit sinister, always concentrated and full of suggestion. Irony maybe of situation as well as of speech, as when Hamlet spares Claudius at his prayers (Act 4, Scene 3), thinking that Claudius is making his peace with God, while in fact, Claudius is merely discovering that he cannot repent and that to continue in villainous intrigue is his only course. The whole bent of Hamlet’s mind, especially in his riddling speeches, is ironical. The device is very effective because of the note of grim humour, the sharp twist it can administer.

Dramatic irony is a special type. It depend on the fact that some characters in the play know more than others and that the audience can see more than any of them. Thus quite innocent remark will have a by no means innocent meaning to the audience. One example o this is Claudius’ speech to Laertes (Act 4, Scene 7). He has diverted Laertes’ revengeful energy onto Hamlet; then he says, “You shortly shall hear more,” (4.7.33) meaning the news of Hamlet’s death in England. But we know from Act 4, Scene 6 that Hamlet has returned and Claudius will hear more in a sense very different from his own meaning.

Using above as a reference to irony and dramatic irony, please discuss how the theme of irony and/or dramatic irony has affected Act 5 of Hamlet.

Student Gen: The Grave Loss of Innocence

In the catastrophe of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the audience witnesses a transformation in Hamlet’s character as he progresses towards his obligation.

In Act 5, Scene 1 when Hamlet leaps into Ophelia’s grave grappling Laertes he screams “I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, / For though I am not splenative and rash, / Yet have in me something dangerous, / Which let thy wiseness fear.” (5. 1. 253-256)

In this impulsive moment what do you feel is Hamlet’s rationale behind his action? What would enrage Hamlet to target Laertes or what would provoke Hamlet to act without discretion? Could there possibly be another motive…?

Take Note of:

• Parallelism
• Theme of repressed emotions
• Hamlet’s growth as a character throughout the play

Student Gen: True Intentions

"Some critics have concentrated on Hamlet's revenge for his father's death—which directly and indirectly leads to the demise of nearly all of the major characters in the drama, including Hamlet himself—asserting that it raises the moral question of whether or not the prince is basically good or evil in his intentions."

You can read more and the full critical response at http://www.enotes.com/shakespearean-criticism/hamlet-vol-35

Please respond to this statement, whether you believe that Hamlet had good or evil intentions? Provide textual evidence and DO NOT SIT ON THE FENCE

Student Gen: Loosing Hamlet in Time

"Shakespeare meant . . . to represent the effects of great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. . . . A lovely, pure, noble and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden which it cannot bear and must not cast away. All duties are too holy for him; the present is too hard. Impossibilities have been required of him; not in themselves impossibilities, but such for him. He winds and turns, and torments himself; he advances and recoils; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself in mind; at last does all but lose his purpose from his thoughts; yet still without recovering his peace of mind."

(Johnston, Ian. “English 366: Studies in Shakespeare.” Introduction Lecture on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. 2001. Malaspina-University. February 27, 2001
<http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/eng366/lectures/hamlet.htm>.)

Throughout reading the play Hamlet, Shakespeare has the reader question their thoughts about Hamlet and his mental sanity. Do you believe Hamlet was ever at any point of the play actually insane, or was he just putting on an antic disposition?