English Essay Problems

Piper

As many of you are probably aware, as I have been going on about it all this week, I have an english essay to do. I'm finally started to write it, and encounted a problem. So I have set up this page, not just for this essay but any other problem I may encounter.

My first problem: What is a simple explaination of Spirtualism and how is it relavent with in the Victorian period?

This is my essay title, which could be helpful: How is Victorian belief in the supernatural presented in ‘The Signalman’, ‘The Withered Arm’ ‘The Monkeys Paw’ and ‘The Red Room’?

Lolli

Probie, if you'd read those books/stories and listened to your teacher you'd have some insight into this. I have not read any of them so cannot help you - sorry.

Piper

I did and I have some notes on this but I can't make any sense of them.

Carol

Can't help with the last bit, but I do know that there was a lot of interest in spiritulism, as there were a number of well known believers- how it came about not too sure.

Start with this link

http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/spirit.html
There is so much on the Victorian web, but that short piece was all that appreared about the subject.

Piper

Thanks Carol, I can manage it, but I may need help now and then, here and there. I know you can help me somehow.

Stirling

Blimey! I've just done that in my first year of my Degree (Sarah Waters' Affinity).

If you need help; just ask.

It's quite complex Carol. Christianity was on the decline and Science was on the rise.

Piper

I know and the gothic genre was in it's forte, this will do my head in. So you say you have done this Stirling?

Stirling

March last year (I think!) It was Sarah Waters' Affinity. I still have my notes; so I'll try my best to help you!

Piper

OK thanks. That's nice to know if I have problems, which knowing me I will.

Stirling

Neph is big on Poe - she may be of help on that score. One of my lecturers is a world authority in Gothic.

That is a lot of texts. I would be tempted to give each text a paragraph (how long is the essay?) The word 'presented' is throwing a spanner in the works; I'm surprised it isn't 'represented.'

Piper

Very long, but I'm in a better position than others because I bothered to do a h/w over christmas that is the essay. I have to do five in total, the other is Frankenstien, but I only have to mention it, not write about it.

Stirling

I wish I had done Frankenstein at School; had to wait until I studied at The Open University for that.

Glennis Byron wrote one of those York Note type study guides on it.

Dwight

Hello Probie. This kind of title basically is a way of getting you to read the texts mentioned (mercifully all four are short stories) and a little about the genre/theme. I found all four texts for you:

http://www.twilightharbor.com/moonmistress/stories/RedRoom.html

http://www.scaryforkids.com/the-monkeys-paw/

http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mugbysgn.htm

http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/ghost-stories-hardy.html

and you can find three of them (not The Withered Arm) on Wikipedia with a little expansion on each and some links.

Then I thought: if these works are on the Internet in the full text, what about all others? So I tried 'Pride and Prejudice' through Wikipedia too. And whatdya know:

http://publicliterature.org/books/pride_and_prejudice/xaa.php

So get reading, girl. And good luck.

PS. You'll read all four this evening if you stay away from TB.

Piper

Thanks for that, ever so much Dwight, but I have copies of the stories and have gone into depth of all of them but thanks ever so much for taking out the time for me, appreciate it.

Carol

I will have a look at these tomorrow, as they sound good. Thanks for pointing the site out Dwight. :)

Stirling

I'm also chock full of helpful tips on essay writing and literary theory too (but I don't think you need to worry about that!)

Piper

Thanks, at least I know I'm at an advantage on TB. I got an A* for Macbeth, somehow, it's a tall order to follow, but I think I can do it, considering I thought I was getting a B for Macbeth. I mean, how hard can it be? (Now I have probably cursed myself. Typical.)

Dwight

Don't worry then, Probie. As you will know from The Play, Night's Black Agents confine their interest to those who have an inbuilt tendency towards evil. And Talkbackers could never be numbered amongst them :)

Piper

As for the links, Dwight, they will come in handy, because I prefer a page on the PC than the booklets on it so thanks for doing that for my last night, much appreciated.

Got a problem. I'm currently on The Signalman part of section three, question one, paragraph four.

Qu) Why did Dickens choose to set the story at the railway?

Paragraph 4) explain that Dicken's use of language and the creation of an eerie atmosphere in his descriptions help bring what seems an ordinary setting into a supernatural light.

Now, would that be the use of patheic fallacy or just some PQC on the language he uses?

Carol

The Victorians were very big on the railways- it would surely be a recognisable location to many- but whether that is his reason, who knows.

Piper

I want to know what to write about paragraph four...

Neph

Probie, as Carol said they were big on the new railways, but I think it is the isolation of the Signal-man and the fear of those great machines speeding through the night that might have something to do with it.

Piper

Yeah, but it's the "Use of language" that's confusing me, does it mean to write about the language, eg. pathetic fallacy. Or PQC on the setting of the railway?

Neph

PQC?

Piper

Point, Quote, Comment.

Neph

Ahh sorry it's a while since I had to write an essay (I'm not saying how long, but you are making me feel old).

Piper

I'm sorry, but I don't intend to make you feel old, you lot make me feel young on the "What Music Do You Like" thread.

Carol

I think the problem is we never had all these acronyms for things, so we don't know what they mean. :)

Neph

I know you don't, and it's only natural that our music tastes are different. Mine at your age were very different from what they are now, I like a lot more than I used to. I think if you are going to be the sort of person who really gets into music it starts at about your age and then just snowballs, just have fun discovering new stuff, most of my peers seem to be stuck in the eighties, and it really irritates me when they say all modern stuff is rubbish - makes them sound like my parents. I don't think you should ever stop listening to new stuff, finding new artists. I'm taking my son (who is a year younger than you) off to see Alkaline Trio at our local venue, not because he needs someone to take him but because we both love the same band!

Anyway back to that essay!!

Piper

Sorry, anyway but, "Use of language" does it mean to write about the language, eg. pathetic fallacy. Or Point, Quote, Comment, on the setting of the railway?

Neph

[quote=Carol]I think the problem is we never had all these acronyms for things, so we don't know what they mean[/quote]

I agree I also think that a lot of the stuff we know we taught ourselves, so the terminology gets lost on us.

To me it means about the language, how he shows the worry of the signalman, the loneliness of his post and how the narrator speaks to us rather than the setting.

Piper

I think, I shall have to see my teacher. The last three stories are confusing me, or it might be that I'm not concentrating because I'm trying to socialise with my grandparents.

Neph

Confusing you how?

Carol

I'm assuming the PQC is what we did in a level English, you have an idea, you give a quote as an example them comment on the pros and cons, presumably.

How does he use language to describe, create atmosphere, etc. Surely that is relevent to the subject.

Can some helpful person explain pathetic fallacy? It sounds like it is being very critical of the writing in a nasty way using those words.

Piper

OK thank for your help, but I have english monday, I'll ask him then. I'm going to leave it until I get home. I can't concentrate.

Certainly I'll find the definition in my book, I can't remember of the top of my head.

Presentation of unanimate object in nature possessing human feelings

eg. the angry sunset, the cruel wind.

Jay Mandal

I think it's often used to mirror the character's feelings. A sad person might feel the rain was fitting/in sympathy with how he felt.

Piper

Well thats the definition my teacher gave to me.

Carol

Thanks, I understand what it's saying now, but pathetic fallacy to mean that...!!!!(?)

Stan2

How's that essay doing? Finished it yet?

Piper

I'm on section three, story 2.

Stan2

When is the deadline for handing in the essay?

Piper

Friday.

Stan2

A week yet but it will soon go.

Piper

I know. Tell me about it. I MUST get it done monday. I need to talk to my teacher. The guide sheet doesn't make sense.

Stirling

Can you elaborate more on use of language? I may be able to help.

Are you looking for poetic techniques like metaphor and similie? Or are you saying something like this use of language backs up my argument about character A?

Piper

I don't know, that's why I'm asking him on monday.

Stirling

I'm trying to remember; my problem is there is such a leap between GCSE and Undergraduate - it get's quite sophisticated. I've just done an essay on the language on realism and it's all about linguistic theory: the signified and the signifier; artifice; sentence construction. I still struggle with it; basically it is that language can never truly represent the real world because it is flawed through it's own construction.

But that is second year Undergraduate work.

Piper

Could you send the Girls Aloud thread to the top please.

Thanks :)

Stirling

And I'm told it will only get harder . . .

Piper

Aaaaaaw.

Stirling

Truth is I love it!!! (maybe that makes me sadistic!!!)

I'm thinking of doing postgraduate work in literary stylistics in the future.