VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Wilder use film noir to portray a…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: How does Wilder use film noir to portray a pessimistic view of Hollywood? ‘Sunset Boulevard’, directed by Billy…
How does Wilder use film noir to portray a pessimistic view of Hollywood?
‘Sunset Boulevard’, directed by Billy Wilder in 1950, is a dark Hollywood drama that exposes the corrupt reality of the film industry's golden age through its stylistic and thematic use of film noir. Throughout the film, Wilder employs shadowed cinematography, strategic camera angles and flashbacks to critique a system that elevates stars only to discard them, while also revealing the moral decay and desperation of those in the pursuit of success. However, it also portrays a nuanced perspective of those who navigate Hollywood with integrity and clarity, offering a more optimistic view of the industry.
Through the lens of film noir, Wilder exposes the destructive impact of the Hollywood star system, showing how it exploits actors and drives them toward obsession, instability, and decay. ‘Sunset Boulevard’s opening shot, with the camera looking down at ‘SUNSET BLVD’ written on the curb, immediately establishes Wilder's critical view of Hollywood. By literally positioning the audience above the scene, Wilder establishes a tone of cynicism and fatalism, inviting viewers to look down, both physically and morally on an industry that inflates stars' egos with promises of eternal success, only to abandon them when they are no longer profitable. The effects of the Hollywood star system can also be seen through one of the main protagonists, Norma Desmond, a silent film actress. As the industry shifts towards ‘talkies’, Norma is left in the background, sidelined in favour of younger, more glamorous performers driving her deeper into an obsession with her former fame and former self. Norma's house appears to be ‘crowded with Norma Desmonds’, in the form of countless framed photos of her from her silent film era. This mis-en-scene, accompanied by a panning camera shot, shows the photos surrounding her, creating a sense of claustrophobia and symbolising her deluded fantasy world she has constructed in an attempt to preserve her fading fame. Further, at Paramount Studios, Norma steps onto the set of a film and Hog-eye shines a spotlight on her, causing the crew to flock towards her. However, DeMille quickly commands that they “turn that light back where it belongs” and the crew immediately abandons her. This scene highlights not only Norma's obsession with fame but how the Hollywood star system feeds actors' egos while simultaneously reminding them of their expendability. Wilder uses this scene, alongside her home, to reinforce a cynical view of the executives and the industry as a whole, showing how they use their power to foster delusion and leave stars isolated despite their desire for recognition.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In SB, fame is temporary and people are…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Produced in an era plagued by insecurity and glory, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard offers the audience a dark,…
Produced in an era plagued by insecurity and glory, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard offers the audience a dark, satirical exploration of the temporary nature of fame, showing Hollywood’s power to dispose of its stars. Wilder critiques the fleeting nature of fame, showing how Hollywood discards its stars once they no longer meet its marketable standards. Additionally, Wilder demonstrates Hollywood’s ability to commodify its actors, critiquing Hollywood’s ruthless standards. In contrast, Sunset Boulevard showcases the everlasting effects of fame, demonstrating how fame can create legacies. Ultimately, Wilder critiques Hollywood commodification of its stars, signifying the conditional and fleeting nature of fame.
Wilder critiques the fleeting nature of fame, demonstrating how it discards actors once they no longer serve a marketable purpose. This is made evident through a wide shot that showcases Norma’s decision to confine herself with photographs and memorabilia of her past silent film career, revealing her refusal to accept her age. By clinging onto her commodified past, Norma seeks to maintain her worth as an actress for an industry that has rendered her identity obsolete. Wilder uses this to criticise Hollywood’s transactional approach to stardom, where it uses a system that leaves objectified stars like Norma in deluded cycles of denial once they come of age. Additionally, the Waxworks scene demonstrates that once actors age, they are forgotten and neglected by Hollywood, left as relics of a bygone era with no place in the modern industry. Wilder uses their faded presence to expose the ruthless disposability of fame, showing how stardom is entirely conditional and tied to youth and marketability. Furthermore, Norma’s insistence that her “return” to Hollywood is inevitable demonstrates her denial of reality and refusal to accept her obsolescence. This delusion is employed by Wilder to reveal how fame distorts self-perception, compelling stars to form elaborate fantasises to protect themselves from confronting the industry’s relentless and often merciless cycle of relevance and rejection. By unveiling the conditional nature of fame, Wilder critiques Hollywood’s cruel obsession with fame, showing how success can be both an intoxicating allure and a destructive trap designed to prey on the aspiration of the young.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Sunset Boulevard, fame is not a reward…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Produced in an era plagued by insecurity and glory, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard offers the audience a dark,…
Produced in an era plagued by insecurity and glory, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard offers the audience a dark, satirical exploration of fame’s intoxicating allure, showing how it is both a prize and a poison that corrodes an individual's identity. Wilde critiques the fleeting nature of fame, exposing Hollywood’s capacity to commodify its actors. Further, Wilder showcases fame’s ability to sever personal connections, leading to artificial and transactional relationships. Conversely, Wilder acknowledges that fame is not entirely transient, suggesting that certain figures can achieve lasting relevance within Hollywood’s hierarchy. Ultimately, Wilder reveals the corrosive nature of fame, exposing its intoxicating allure as a destructive trap that erodes a person’s identity.
Through his scathing critique of Hollywood’s transactional system, Wilder critiques the fleeting nature of fame, exposing how Hollywood discards stars once they no longer meet its marketable standards. This is made evident through a wide shot that showcases Norma’s decision to confine herself with photographs and memorabilia from the past, revealing her refusal to acknowledge her age. By clinging onto the past, Norma seeks to maintain her worth as an actress for an industry that has rendered her obsolete, leaving her to appear glamorous even in private life. This delusion is employed by Wilder to criticise Hollywood’s transactional approach to stardom, where it adopts a system that leaves actors like Norma in deluded cycles of denial once they come of age. Additionally, the Waxwork stars scene demonstrates that once actors come of age, they are forgotten and neglected by Hollywood, left as relics of a bygone era with no place in the modern industry. Wilder uses their faded presence to expose the ruthless disposability of fame, showing how stardom is entirely conditional and tied to youth and marketability. Furthermore, Norma’s insistence that her “return” is inevitable demonstrates her denial of reality and refusal to acknowledge her obsolescence. Wilder utilises her refusal to reveal how fame distorts self-perception, compelling stars to form elaborate fantasies that protect them from the industry’s relentless and often merciless cycle of relevance and rejection, By unveiling the conditional nature of fame, Wilder critiques Hollywood’s cruel obsession with marketability, showing how fame can be both an intoxicating allure and a destructive trap that invades a person’s autonomy.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “In The Memory Police, Ogawa shows that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Yoko Ogawa's 1994 dystopian novel 'The Memory Police' critically examines a haunting world plagued by…
Yoko Ogawa's 1994 dystopian novel 'The Memory Police' critically examines a haunting world plagued by psychological decay and pervasive dictatorial surveillance, which threatens the very fundamentals of individual and collective identity. Set on an unnamed island where objects and their associated memories gradually disappear - Ogawa asserts that censorship and assimilation to the rule of oppressive entities predominantly imperil shared experiences; inevitably endangering both individual and collective humanity. Throughout the novel, Ogawa undermines the occurence of systematic information control as a mechanism of political dominion - in which 'forgetting' functions not only as personal loss but as an active control manoeuvre. Similarly, the author underscores how the loss of memories under ubiquitous authoritarian scrutiny diminishes the emotional depth and soulfulness of exposed individuals. Despite the overwhelming emotional and psychological perils of memory loss, in the face of hegemony, Ogawa champions the preservation of arts and creativity as a medium of endurance and protection of unique identities even in the face of imminent societal decline.
Forgetting functions not only as a potential for personal loss but also as a mechanism of political domination. Ogawa embodies this manipulation through the titular police force's unrelenting and menacing presence, whose "forceful, rhythmic boots," contrasted with "quicker, more uncertain steps" of civillians,
dominate the island's landscape. The auditory juxtaposition not only conveys the regime's physical control but also represents its psychological dominance - the rhythm of the boats becomes the significant rhythm that conditions the 'inhabitants' compliance to injustices. The repetitive, almost mechanical rhythm mirrors the process of forgetting enforced by the oppressive police force: just as the islanders' memories are systematically erased, their actions, reactions, and inner lives are gradually synchronised to the demands of power.
In this way, Ogawa links sensory experience with psychological manipulation, demonstrating that totalitarian control is not only external but internalised, aligning individuals as observers complicit in their own erasure. Furthermore, the citizens' passive acceptance - "they are just doing their job" to the pernicious actions of the police force - further illustrates how reverence sustains oppression, reflecting historical parallels with Japan's Meiji restoration period censorship and revisionist euphemism surrounding events like the Nanking massacre, where collective forgetting functioned as a means of national self-preservation at the cost of truth and accountability. By invoking such historical erasures, Ogawa critiques the human tendency to discredit uncomfortable histories in order to maintain social harmony, exposing how such suppression erodes a nation's moral identity just as surely as the island's disappearances erode individual selves.
Thus, Ogawa highlights that totalitarian power endures not through physical coercion, but through the quiet and systematic eradication of collective memory, ensuring that both resistance and selfhood are methodically dissolved.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Neap 2025 trial examination: Shame is the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: 'Oedipus the king', written by Athenian Tragedian Sophocles in the fifth century B.C, elucidates the tragic…
'Oedipus the king', written by Athenian Tragedian Sophocles in the fifth century B.C, elucidates the tragic peripeteia of characters who are driven to tragedy out of fear of shame. The playwright's rendition of the ancient Greek myth stands as a testament to the influence of honour and public perception within mortal actions. Thus, Sophocles invites audience members to explore the futility of reputation and anxiety amongst a society governed by divine rule.
Firstly, the desire to avert distasteful public perception fosters inevitable catastrophe amongst Thebes. Adhering to his duty of nobility as king of Thebes, Oedipus is compelled to pursue the truth to Laius' demise and bring "what's dark to light". This moral responsibility of the tragic protagonist is thus impressed upon him out of shame, in which Oedipus is fearful of the consequence of inadequate leadership. Whilst, the playwright validates the contemporary values of Greek audiences within the presence of the Chorus, to further exacerbate how excessive honour when exercising authority may also lament misery. The reverent views of audiences viewing this play at the festival of Dionysus are entwined within the Chorus's lionization of Oedipus upon his "triumph" over the "Riddling Sphinx". This pivotal event and rendering of process is therefore emblematic of a patron deity, in which the "greatest power" to Thebes amalgamated the city and delivered them from "misery". However, this reverent-like devotion from disciples rather subjects Oedipus to greater honour and orchestrates his vice of hubris "You all know my fame". Sophocles thereby projects that the nature that Oedipus ascends to kingship is fatal to his character, as his excess of honour and self - narcissism contradict the elusive principle of Sophrosyne and catalyse anguish.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘What will come will come.’ Does…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, explores the tension between fate and freewill as one of the central…
Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, explores the tension between fate and freewill as one of the central themes of the play. During the fifth century B.C.E., intellectuals within the Athenian society began to contradict the traditional view of the Gods power, and the legitimacy of the oracles. This created a tension between those who hold onto traditional beliefs and those who challenge them. Through the play, Sophocles examines how fate is an unavoidable force, how defying the prophecies is a fruitless endeavour, and the repercussions that occur to individuals when they attempt to avoid fate. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles reinforces the idea that fate is mostly an inescapable, almost divine power that cannot be overthrown by one’s free will.
Sophocles examines how fate is an inevitable force. To outwit fate and stop the prophecy that their son will kill his father and marry his mother from occurring, Queen Jocasta and King Laius send away their newborn son, Oedipus, to be killed by their servant. Despite their frivolous efforts, Oedipus still fulfilled the prophecy, as the Shepard goes against the wishes of King Laius and Jocasta to kill their child, as he “pitied the little baby” that was sent to death. Tiresias further exemplifies this as he points out that “what will come will come” as no matter what an individual may do to delay the prophecy, all choices that are made with the idea of doing them free willingly, is just fate changing the path that individuals will go down, all still falling victim to destiny’s unavoidable hand. The murder of King Laius also underlines how an individual can still unknowingly fulfill the prophecy due to the inevitable force of fate. Oedipus’ admission of killing them all and not knowing “if that stranger was Laius” as he feels that if it was true, no one “could have more miserable lives than [his]” underlines his ignorance towards murdering his father, or as he knew it, an unknown man, at the three crossroads symbolising him unknowingly stepping onto the path of his true discovery of his identity. The tragic irony between Oedipus unknowingly murdering his father and his frivolous efforts to avoid the prophecies from being fulfilled, highlights how regardless of if individuals are conscious of their actions, fate is omnipotent in all aspects of life.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Oedipus the King is as much about gain as…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 100%: Sophocles stages a world where every genuine gain arrives with a proportionate loss. Thebes gains health at the…
Sophocles stages a world where every genuine gain arrives with a proportionate loss. Thebes gains health at the cost of its king. Oedipus gains truth at the price of sight, status and family. The audience gains tragic wisdom by watching a good man break. From the first proclamation to the final maxim, the play links benefit to damage so tightly that to “bring it all to light” is always to spend something precious to get it.
From the outset Oedipus turns civic panic into procedural gain, and that gain immediately binds him to future loss. “I acted at once. I sent Creon to Delphi” compresses fear into method; the adverb “at once” marks duty rather than dread. “Let me grant your prayers… do what the plague demands” reframes prayer as administrative action, so the city stands to gain order through reasoned leadership. “I will speak out now as a stranger to the story” commits him to public, impartial inquiry, and “I’ll bring it all to light” names knowledge as his goal. Most telling is the self-curse, “I curse myself as well… if he proves to be an intimate of our house,” which shows integrity and self-trust so complete that he wagers his own body on the justice of his process. The gains are real, including authoritative procedure, a legal-ritual framework, and the promise of truth. The losses are foreshadowed in the oath that will return upon its speaker.
The play then shows how others chase false gains such as comfort and delay, and how these ripen into larger losses, which sharpens Oedipus’ different way of gaining. Tiresias warns that “The truth is only pain to him who sees” and attempts, “I will never reveal my dreadful secrets,” to withhold knowledge in order to limit harm. Jocasta dismisses the oracle with “So much for prophecy. It’s neither here nor there,” and later pleads, “Stop, in the name of god, if you love your own life, call off this search!” The shepherd begs, “Don’t torture me! … I’m right at the edge, the horrible truth.” These are bids for the gain of peace; they purchase only loss when revelation finally breaks. Jocasta’s comfort ends in silence and suicide. The shepherd’s secrecy collapses under questioning. By contrast, Oedipus’ “I’ll bring it all to light myself!” declares a gain of truth he is willing to pay for, and the play will take him at his word.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "The island will soon be nothing but…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: The island will soon be nothing but absences and holes.” Memories give life substance and meaning in The Memory…
The island will soon be nothing but absences and holes.” Memories give life substance and meaning in The Memory Police. Do you agree?
In Yoko Ogawa’s haunting dystopia, The Memory Police, memory is not simply forgotten but systematically erased, compelling individuals to confront the unsettling fragility of identity and autonomy. While Ogawa foregrounds memory as a vital source of substance and meaning for the island’s citizens, she also suggests that relationships and self-determination are equally essential in sustaining human value and existence. On the one hand, Ogawa elevates memory as the foundation that preserves identity and anchors human experience. At the same time, she portrays relationships as offering connection and reinforcing meaning even in the face of enforced absence and additionally presents autonomy as both resisting erasure and enabling individuals to preserve agency, ensuring that life retains value despite authoritarian control. Ultimately, though the text affirms that memories are central to humanity’s capacity for meaning, Ogawa presents them as intertwined with love, connection, and agency, implying that the erosion of any of these facets under authoritarian control risks reducing life to “nothing but absences and holes.”
Ogawa clearly demonstrates memory as a fundamental part of human meaning, reinforcing the idea that its preservation is crucial for maintaining identity and existence. This is illustrated in a conversation between the narrator and the old man, where Ogawa uses the metaphor that as “things got thinner”, the people’s “hearts got thinner” and “diluted” too, to show her view that as memories fade away, so does the inhabitants’ ability to feel and connect. In Japanese culture, the heart is a symbol of one’s mind, emotion, and spirit; through this metaphor, Ogawa also suggests the emotional numbing and adaptation to loss that citizens go through in a world where they can “forget almost anything.” The parallel between physical and emotional emptiness symbolises how loss of memories extends beyond the material world and into the substance of life. This is further supported through the rhetorical questions, where Ogawa reveals the narrator’s doubts, “What can the people create?” suggesting a bleak outlook on human creativity in the face of overwhelming loss, implying Ogawa’s view that without memory and history, the island’s inhabitants are doomed to mediocrity
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oliver's poetry, there is a balance…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Written during a time of civil and political unrest, Mary Oliver's writing offered a profound and introspective…
Written during a time of civil and political unrest, Mary Oliver's writing offered a profound and introspective respite from political discussion, exploring the interplay between humanity and its relationship with the natural world. In "New and Selected Poems Volume 1", that includes works from "American Primitive" and "Dream Works," Oliver retreats into the natural world to explore the balance between the dark and light elements of life, suggesting the need to experience both in order to grow. As such, Oliver teaches that the natural world reveals profound truths, such as light, often lost in modern human experiences.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: 'On the moon we have everything. Lettuce,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Introduction Published in 1962, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a gothic novella that…
Introduction
Published in 1962, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a gothic novella that examines the intense psychological and social consequences of exclusion, trauma, and fear. Set in a decaying family estate on the edge of a hostile village, the novel follows two sisters who retreat from the world and build a fragile system of control to keep danger—both emotional and physical—at bay. Jackson uses this claustrophobic setting, a deeply unreliable narrator, and a series of symbolic motifs to explore how power and control operate as coping mechanisms, especially for those who feel threatened by society or haunted by the past. The vision of the moon, where everything is “solid tight” and free of “ghosts,” becomes a chilling metaphor for a world where control is total, but at the cost of reality, connection, and freedom.
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Body Paragraph 1: Control is portrayed as a response to fear and instability, with psychological power used to construct personal safety in a world perceived as threatening.
Throughout the novel, control functions as a defence mechanism against trauma and disorder. One character constructs an elaborate system of magical rituals, believing that burying objects, speaking protective words, or avoiding certain places will maintain order. These compulsive behaviours, which seem irrational on the surface, serve to stabilise a deeply fractured internal world. The fantasy of the moon — a realm where danger and memory are excluded — encapsulates the yearning for absolute safety through total control. Even lethal elements such as “amanita phalloides” are included in this imagined paradise, suggesting a twisted sense of comfort in having power over life and death. Language and narration also become instruments of control: by manipulating what is revealed and what is concealed, the narrator imposes her own logic on reality. A key act of violence—the poisoning of an entire family—is withheld from the reader until late in the novel, demonstrating how power over narrative can mask guilt and reshape the truth. Jackson’s use of stripped-back prose and repetitive internal monologue enhances the sense of emotional rigidity, reinforcing the idea that psychological control, while protective, also leads to denial and delusion. This internalised power becomes a fortress, but also a prison, disconnecting the individual from truth and healing.
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Body Paragraph 2: Power within domestic spaces is shown to be fragile and easily disrupted, particularly when external forces challenge established boundaries.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘The real price of deception is to oneself…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 60%: Exposing the powerlessness of manufactured fantasy against the "wicked, foolish dream[s] which [have] seized…
Exposing the powerlessness of manufactured fantasy against the "wicked, foolish dream[s] which [have] seized [their] heart[s]," Billy Wilders quintessentially American film, 'Sunset Boulevard' poignantly unveils the corrosion of the self through delusion and the cumulative effects of deception to those who believe the false promises of fame. Compounded by the skilful overlaying of a gothic lens, this film noir performs a powerful vivisection of the impact of deception on all victims of Hollywood's facade, regardless of status quo. Through his intelligent blend of fiction and meta-cinema, Wilders iconoclastic opus aims to expose the destructive effects of Hollywood's illusory to ones internal autonomy as a price to pay for accompanied fame.
Initially contextualising Hollywood's illusory world as a dystopian nightmare, Wilder strategically exposes how fantasy consumes individuals to ultimate downfall. From the outset of this noir, a failed screenwriter, Joe Gillis falls victim to Hollywood's fraudulent promises of success, forced into sinfulness just to survive. However, the circular narrative highlights "the poor dope[s]" corpse in a low angle shot, symbolically placing the audience below the consequences of his delusions.
Joe's posthumous narration sets a sympathetic tone since he "always wanted a pool" but "the price turned out to be a little high" due to the cost of achieving a dream of luxury, blind to the consequences that would follow. Moreover, the cemented pool works as a symbol of the rich and synonymous with Hollywood mansions in the 1950's, ironically suggesting that the belief of success without consequence is a deadly enterprise. Moreover, as Joe enters Norma's "grim sunset mansion" he subtly foreshadows the destructive impacts of deception among movie stars through the correlation between "Miss Havisham that rotting wedding dress" with Norma's persona. The allusion of Miss Havisham details a character who was abandoned by her fiancé , refusing to change her clothing and lives secluded, pausing the time to be stuck in her days of glory. Similarly to Norma, Hence, Norma directly parallels Miss Havisham as she refuses to accept changing times and her aging exterior. This only amplifies her delusion to downfall as she descends into the cameras who deserted her in the end for financial benefit. A tracking shot follows Norma down the stairs as she melodramatically performs to an imagined cast and crew of her film, "Salome," using out of date expressions and gestures to fall into her crime scene. Thus, Wilder exposes how constant fantasy only leads to psychological malfunctions in the end, without reversible solutions. Wilder deliberately heightens this sense of unease through a dramatic musical score to intensify the scene but also to underscore how delusion consumes an individual's autonomy. Therefore, through Wilder's artistic approach to denounce how made up fantasy only causes damaging futures, he suggests fame is inevitable without compromised identity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent are the lives of the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Written in 1962, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle explores the limitations placed upon the…
Written in 1962, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle explores the limitations placed upon the aristocratic Blackwoods as a result of the patriarchal and formal society they live in. Narrated by the psychologically damaged mind of Merricat, Jackson explores how unrele nting gender roles and rigid social norms lead to a bleak society in which the identity of individuals are suppressed. Ultimately, Jackson works to not only condemn the harsh patriarchal norms societies are based upon, but also demonstrate that liberation and freedom can be achieved through a rejection of these conventional societal values.
Jackson depicts both the women of the village and the Blackwood family as being restricted by expectations of conformity through their formal and rigid interactions with the world. During Mrs. Wright and Helen Clark’s ‘dutiful’ visit to the Blackwood house, Merricat notices Mrs. Wright’s ‘trembling’ hands and her ‘hesitat[ion] over the plate’ offered by Constance. The visibly fraught state of Mrs Wright highlights the social obligations she must fulfil, despite any legitimate concerns for her personal safety, for the sake of social formalities. Jackson expands on this in their mother’s portrait, which was ‘looking down’ on Constance, symbolising both the social duties she has inherited from her mother, despite her agoraphobia, while also highlighting the spirit that now lives on in Constance’s body, forcing her to embody her mother’s spirit. However, Jackson also explores the limitations of social duties through Mrs. Wright’s ‘timid’ demeanour when she is given the chance to take a ‘glance’ at the Blackwoods’ infamous dining room. Her morbid curiosity, only surfacing in the confines of the house, serves to emphasise the identity Mrs. Wright must hide in the face of general society, her meek demeanour highlighting her awareness of the fact the actions are deemed unacceptable to greater society. Therefore, through Mrs. Wright’s and Constance’s prevailing social duties, Jackson underscores the oppressive nature of social etiquette created by rigid societal norms.
As well as having a limited sense of individuality and identity, Jackson depicts the Blackwood women as being historically reduced to domestic roles through Charles’ imposed visit, furthering the limitations placed on them by gender norms in patriarchal societies. As his stay progresses the dynamic of the household can be seen shifting to imitate a traditional American nuclear family, with ‘little cousin Mary’ being reduced to a petulant child and Constance to a dutiful wife. Charles’ assertive nature in taking over Merricat’s ‘job’ restricts her from straying from the childish role he has imposed onto her, and highlights the domestic roles forced onto Constance by this traditional family dynamic. This is
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Sunset Boulevard, success does not…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Materialistic success, even when obtained, is shown to leave an individual dissatisfied and unfulfilled. Billy…
Materialistic success, even when obtained, is shown to leave an individual dissatisfied and unfulfilled. Billy Wilder’s, 1950s film noir ‘Sunset Boulevard’ condemns the Hollywood filmindustry exposing the dark aspects hidden behind it’s glitz and glamour. Hollywood is presented to define success as an achievement of fame, beauty and wealth. In the film Wilder criticises this as he portrays that it leaves one dissatisfied and unhappy, however when individuals strive for success through their own dreams rather than what society dictates to beas achievement they are left content. Despite reaching the pinnacle of wealth, beauty and fame, Wider illustrates that they are left discontent. In contrast to this Wilder exemplifies how when one pursues their own desires they feel satisfied.
Wilder explores how the accomplishment of success through wealth fails to fill one with joy. Despite Norma’s abundance of wealth, she is ultimately unhappy with her life without acting.Norma is illustrated in opulence expressing that “[she’s] rich” and has “millions of dollars”. She is also constantly illustrated wearing clothing symbolising her wealth such as leopard print and feathers. However, in spite of this she is also described to experience “moments of melancholy”. Wilder uses this contrast of wealth and unhappiness to express to the audience how monetary success does not bring one joy but leaves them empty. Wilder highlights this idea further through Joe emphasising how “he always wanted a pool” which acted as a symbol of wealth in the society of Sunset Boulevard. Even after obtaining this as well as “all [his] things”, Joe discovered that “the price turned out to be a little high”, he found himself trapped and getting more depressed as he remained in Norma’s “big mansion”. Close up shots of Joes face as the film progresses shows his downturned lips and downward gaze which exemplify to the audience Joe’s sadness despite his wealth and possessions. The audience is exposed to the lack of fulfilment brought upon by wealth and how it ultimately leads to discontent. Through this Wilder explores how success through wealth does not bring one happiness but ultimately leaves them empty and depressed.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Fate is inescapable. To what extent does…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Exploring the constructs of 5th century Athenian society Sophocles tells the story of a fated paricide and incest…
Exploring the constructs of 5th century Athenian society Sophocles tells the story of a fated paricide and incest in his play Oedipus the King. While characters in the play have some level of agency their lives are ultimately dictated by fate. As Oedipus uncovers the truth of his lineage he also discovers the power of the Gods and is ultimately redeemed when he comes to accept his fate and the power of Apollo.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "The magic of the movies creates a…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: In an era where the lucrative film industry flourished as a method of escapism for the denizens of post-WWII…
In an era where the lucrative film industry flourished as a method of escapism for the denizens of post-WWII America, Billy Wilder's acerbic film Sunset Boulevard emerges as a scathing exposé illuminating the dark underbelly of a typically romanticised industry. Wilder asserts that the discrepancy between the glorification of the "Dream Factory" and the bleak reality of the commercialised business, as well as society's moral degeneration breeds inevitable disenchantment. Yet, he posits there is a hopeful future for Hollywood, as a new wave of authentic "message kids" can lead it out of darkness.
To begin, Wilder demonstrates the tragic disillusionment that occurs when the romanticised, idyllic Hollywood storylines fail to deliver in America's morose reality.
Hollywood's archetypes are manifested in Joe and Betty's budding romance, as the pair of writers flirt at Artie's party with filmic romance tropes and share a melodramatic promenade through the curated sets of Paramount Studios. Fulfilling the cinematic archetypes of the romance between a jaded cynical anti-hero and a hopeful, innocent woman, Betty and Joe's relationship is imbued with Hollywood cliche. Yet ultimately - perhaps consequently - it is unable to be sustained. Notably, their romance plays out on an artificial street, "all cardboard, all phony, all done up with mirrors", highlighting its utopian disconnect from reality. As their romance departs from the sanctuary of the film set and is placed in the grim reality of Norma's mansion, the Hollywood-esque drama and intimacy of the relationships fades in a cold, stilted conflict as Betty's vulnerable pleads for Joe to "go with [her]" are met with his patronising resistance. Disenchanted and heavily disappointed by the real identity of a man she once perceived as independent and clever, Betty "can't look at [Joe]" and their eventual separation signals a tragic end to the "untitled love story" that thrives in the space of a constructed Hollywood but is fatefully ruined by the ugly truth. The culmination of these subverted filmic storylines that eventually result in tragedy reveals the inevitable disenchantment of a society that believes the glamourised lives of Hollywood fiction is applicable to reality. Wilder demystifies the romanticised filmic tropes not just for his characters but for his audience, and in doing so, contends that disillusionment is inexorable.
The allure and magic of Hollywood comes not only from its idyllic fairytales but also its reputation as a "Dream Factory", with the industry's alleged abilities to promote ordinary citizens to glorified "picture folk". Yet Wilder asserts that this too creates disenchantment, as the ruthless business ultimately mistreats and discards their works.
The "star of yesterday" Norma Desmond is indelibly marked by her years of facing "a dozen press agents
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In High Ground, the characters regard…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Stephen Maxwell Johnson's film, "High around' (2021) explores the brutal colonisation of indigenous people and…
Stephen Maxwell Johnson's film, "High around' (2021) explores the brutal colonisation of indigenous people and the methods used by the colonisers to reinforce set in the 1930's,
and maintain power. Johnson depicts the consequences of colonisation
including its impact on Indigenous communities causing them to seek retribution as well as the colonial mentality to hold power over the Yolgnu people. However Johnson also comments on the importance of peace and justifies the significance of reaching peace through reconciliation with indigenous Australians.
Johnson condemns the actions of colonisers in dividing indigenous communities causing many Indigenous Australians to use violence as a means of revenge. The coloniser's violent actions are immideately shown in the opening massacre scene where the colonisers on horseback arrive at an Indigenous village, killing 17 people, including children and women. In this scene, the colonsiers on horseback are unable to be identified when riding, only their guns and bright uniforms showcasing to the audience the overwhelming presence of the colonisers as harbingers of chaos. The massacre "blinds" Baywara with anger resorting to him to use guerilla tactics such as lighting missions on fire. Dharppa advises that Gutjuk does not follow his Uncle's path as he could've been "[their] greatest teacher." Here Johnson draws attention to the futility of violence and the harmful path of retribution. Johnson incorporates the history of Indigeinous resistance and the voices that were denied in Australia's history. Gulwirri, an INdigenous woman who was in Baywara's mob also shows disagreeance with Grandfather Dharppa in negotiating with the colonisers. Dharppa, Gutjuk and the other Indigenous men travel to the East Alligator Mission, she calls them "cowards who talk when they should fight" connoting her belief that only armed resistance is effective in response to colonialism. Johnson alludes to Indigenous rage and autonomy to showcase the division within Indigenous communites whilst many took revenge, which resulted in further conflict.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ii) Sunset Boulevard shows that in a town…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Centering on Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, Wilder seeks to convey Hollywood's ideals of the…
Centering on Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir Sunset Boulevard, Wilder seeks to convey Hollywood's ideals of the ‘dream machine', and the lengths of which writers and film stars will go to in maintaining their dreams. Wilder portrays Sunset Boulevard as an obituary in exposing the deceitful nature of the Hollywood film industry beneath it's image of glitz and glamour, forging the idea that stories are neglected in an industry of commerce & demonstrating the inevitable onset of delusion when faded stars are no longer relevant to Hollywood's ideas of success.
BP 1: How dreams can overshadow reality in Hollywood
Wilder criticizes the Nature of Hollywood's glittering facade of the dream machine, an industry which tempts witless writers and artists with the promise of fulfillment, only to discard them when they no longer align with the ideal of perpetual youth - leaving them with mere fragments of a lIfe once lived.
Joe Gillis' cynical narration throughout sunset Boulevard perpetuates his characterisation as the 'starving artist' trope, a man who no longer finds joy in the craft of film making.
Joe humbly refers to himself as a "B-list screenwriter with a couple pictures to his credit." often circling this back to his refrain of giving up his dream to move back to his typing job in Ohio. He quotes "This year I'm trying to make a living", supporting the idea of the loss of his passions beyond a means of a paycheck, that is, until he begins writing under Norma Desmond after losing his car.
As Joe ghostwrites for Norma’s Salome screenplay, he becomes victim to the allure of Norma's mansion & the fortune that her liestyle provides, relinquishing his personal agency & artistic passions in favour of a new dream - the fleeting security of Norma's lavish lifestyle, chasing the pursuit of the ‘easy life'.
Joe's loss of personal agency plays into Wilder's ideas of moral decay that can occur in pursuing dreams. The subjective idea of Joe's entrapment within the mansion furthers the idea of Hollywood's commerce of dreams, falsifying artists’ beliefs that they, too, can make it in the film industry, when in fact they exist only as a cog in the machine of Hollywood's mass production.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard represents a condemnation…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Billy Wilder’s film noir Sunset Boulevard (1950) critiques the contemporary film industry in its dehumanisation of…
Billy Wilder’s film noir Sunset Boulevard (1950) critiques the contemporary film industry in its dehumanisation of actors through its promises of “dreams” and success. Motivated by the idealism of the American Dream promoted by Hollywood cinema, Wilder’s tragedy aims to warn those about the industry’s ruthlessness of producing young and naïve actors’ dreams of success and stardom, only to discard them once they no longer serve a purpose for the industry. Yes, Wilder effectively rejects Hollywood’s reputation as the “dream factory”, as it creates ambition and desire, but results in individual decay for the sake of materialistic gain. However, Wilder also strategically presents a silver lining to the “dream” through the idea of sustained, happy delusion and optimism residing in wilful delusion. Therefore, Wilder uses mimetic characters; femme fatale and the opportunist protagonists to serve as allegories for the ultimate destruction of “dreams” within a shared a delusion, despite the alternative optimism provided by some characters.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "in a town ful of stories, it can be…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 62.5%: Ultimately, the entire film, Sunset Boulevard, is a powerful commentary that exposes sunset Boulevard confusing…
Ultimately, the entire film, Sunset Boulevard, is a powerful commentary that exposes sunset Boulevard confusing illusion with reality. Wilder does not just merely criticize the Hollywood industry, but he uses it as a mirror to reflect the American culture of that prefers to neglect the truth and create falsehood through storytelling to suit their own needs, and the seductive nature, the drive of illusion drives people in pursuit of ambition. By blending satire with tropes and realism with artifice, Wilder suggests that the world of Sunset Boulevard is sustained by performance where truth is not cared and chosen to be neglected.
from Joe, which is portrayed when Joe comments Norma's script 'fascinating', which further implicates the readers to believe in and distinguish the truth from the narration. Wilder therefore creates, narration and storytelling as devices blurs the line between truth and reality.
Ultimately, Wilder present the facade of Hollywood as a world built on entirely by illusion and where moral values and truth consistently blurred. Through Joes cynical narration describes the Hollywood industry to be all 'phony' a place that manufactures fantasies and for public consumption while concealing the emptiness and decay beneath the glamorous industry. Wilder employs stark lightning to contrast between Norma Desmond's decaying, aggrandising manner and the gleaming precent studios often shown in bright lightning symbolising the facade of glamour that obscures the moral and emotional rot of the industry. Wilder's use of film noir aesthetics, of dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, constructs an atmosphere of pervasive corruption, where honesty and authenticity do not play a part in the industry. Portrayed through Joe who views Hollywood made from 'cardboard and old props', becomes part of the illusion, through his own downfall turns into entertainment, suggesting that illusion is not just what Hollywood produces but a system where people survives by pretending. Thus Wilder, provides a poignant commentary on the world of Sunset Boulevard where image replaces the truth and the difference between real life and performance fades away.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The Limits of Power in Oedipus the King
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Introduction Sophocles’ Oedipus the King presents a harrowing meditation on the fragility and boundaries of human…
Introduction
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King presents a harrowing meditation on the fragility and boundaries of human power. Through Oedipus’ rise as a revered ruler and his catastrophic downfall, Sophocles interrogates humanity’s illusion of control within a cosmos ruled by divine will. The tragedy demonstrates that no matter how brilliant or virtuous a man may be, he cannot transcend the constraints imposed by fate, ignorance, and pride. Ultimately, Sophocles suggests that power without humility blinds individuals to truth and to the moral and existential limits of their authority. In Oedipus the King, the quest for mastery—over destiny, knowledge, or oneself—culminates not in triumph, but in ruin.
Paragraph 1 – The limits of human power before divine will
Sophocles situates human power within the boundaries of divine sovereignty, eluding to the fact that the God’s reign supreme. In the prologue of the play Oedipus is deemed “the first of men” and a majestic ruler, illustrating his well respected authority in the early stahes of the play. Howver, his rashness and temper accompanied with his suspicision of conspiracies underpin his miasma. (spiritual pollution). The plague that ravages Thebes is a divine punishment, signalling that mortal rule operates under the gaze of the gods. Sophcoles [postulates that the truth becomes destructive, signifying that this very knowledge seals Oedipus fate. When Oedipus vows to “bring everything to light,” his determination to act as both king and moral arbiter collides with Apollo’s inscrutable will. In an attempt to suppress Oedpius past the sheaprd states “Damn you, shut your mouth,quiet” demonstrates the limits of human understanding as well as Oedpius metaphorical blidness. Paradoxically. Once blind Oedpius gains a moral vision, finally understanding the power of prophercy and the weight of his fulfilment stating “what man alive, more miserable than I”, serving as a stark reminder of the moral responsibility in Greek tragedy extending beyond intent. Sophocles’ endoreses hubris as a moral warning, suggesting that equalising divine will only seal ones fate.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: to what extent do yo agree that rainbows…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Set in the 1950s, Jane Harrison’s Rainbow’s End highlights the hardships faced by three generations of vulnerable…
Set in the 1950s, Jane Harrison’s Rainbow’s End highlights the hardships faced by three generations of vulnerable Aboriginal women during a time of assimilation. Rainbow’s End underscores that, in order to overcome barriers such as racism, oppression, and sexism—which ultimately create social and cultural obstacles—vulnerable characters must show toughness and ambition. Harrison demonstrates that without collective resistance to oppression, individuals will continue to feel neglected and powerless. Furthermore, the play emphasizes that knowledge acts as a key symbol of hope that enables characters to overcome these barriers. Ultimately, relationships are also vital in addressing systemic racism and overcoming cultural divisions.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: High Ground suggests that resolving…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Stephen Maxwell Johnson's, 2020, revisionist Western film, "High Ground" explores the deep and enduring power…
Stephen Maxwell Johnson's, 2020, revisionist Western film, "High Ground" explores the deep and enduring power imbalance, oppression, violence and brutality experienced by First Nations people at the hands of colonial settlers. Set in the Northern Territory during the early 20th century, the film follows characters Gutjuk (young adult Yolngu man) and Travis (ex solider turned officer) as they navigate through tensions between the First Nations people and colonial settlers. Matt Johnson contends that conflict resolution is not possible with an oppressive colonial context. It's are depicted in the film that a system built on oppression and bias limits resolving conflicts, differences in culture and traditions causes divisions between groups, preventing resolution of conflict, and the use of violence and brutality against the oppressed, leads to vegenence and retalliation, preventing resolution of conflict.
Throughout the film, Johnson highlights that a system built on oppression and bias limits solving conflicts. Moran is a character that is the captain of the colonial police, enforcing law and "justice" amongst the First Nations people and the colonial settlers. However, Moran has to enforce the "law when Baywara committed the crime of killing a white woman in retaliation against the colonial police for the massacre against the killings of his family. Darrpa came on behalf of his son, to make peace and resolve the tensions and conflicts between the two groups, this is when Moran states "I'm not here to negotiate." This moment reveals the colonial polices' unwillingness to come to a resolution, believing the only way to resolve the issue is through their law and traditions. Here, Johnson shows the viewers that the colonial police/settlers have a restricted -
perspective and viewpoint and refuse to stand the First Nations point of view and approaches. Later in the scene Moran states "...This crown represents the King... the law I am duty-bound to uphold." This moment demonstrates the hypocrisy of the colonial police. In the ruling of a white woman' requires justice and consequences, but they're not held to the same standard when "seventeen dead" due to the brutal massacre against First Nations people. Through the use of Moran's badge, it symbolises the abuse of power and superiority, using "the law" to justify violence and injustice against the First Nations people. Here, Johnson reveals that a system that is built on oppression & bias limits resolving conflicts.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Essay Prompt: Oedipus only achieves true…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the tension between knowledge and ignorance through the recurring motif of…
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the tension between knowledge and ignorance through the recurring motif of sight and blindness. While Oedipus begins the play physically sighted and intellectually confident, his understanding of himself and his world is clouded by pride and denial. It is only after he blinds himself—literally removing his physical vision—that he finally perceives the truth of his origins, actions, and fate. Sophocles uses this tragic reversal to suggest that genuine insight comes not through the senses, but through painful self-awareness and moral recognition. Thus, Oedipus only achieves true vision once he loses his physical sight.
At the start of the tragedy, Oedipus appears to embody both intelligence and leadership, yet his understanding of truth is deeply flawed. As the saviour of Thebes who once solved the riddle of the Sphinx, he believes his intellect makes him capable of uncovering all mysteries. When confronting the city’s plague, he declares himself “Oedipus, whom all men call the Great,” displaying both confidence and arrogance. However, this certainty blinds him to the limitations of human understanding and the role of fate in shaping events. His obsession with uncovering Laius’s murderer, though seemingly noble, is ironically the path to his own ruin. Sophocles uses Oedipus’s investigative zeal to highlight the paradox of sight: those who think they see most clearly are often those most blinded by pride and assumption.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard shows that the pursuit of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: The 1950s classic Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, provides a critical inquisition of the influence of…
The 1950s classic Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, provides a critical inquisition of the influence of the Hollywood industry, and its glorification of fame and success that ultimately leads to the fatal downfall of those who seek it. Through his exploration of the disconnect between delusion and reality, Wilder highlights the short-lived nature of success in the eye of the industry and the effect this has on those deemed no longer fit for the spotlight. Furthermore, he demonstrates the inevitable dangers associated with the sacrifices that the fame-seeking must compromise in order perpetuate their position in the industry. However, Wilder ultimately articulates the harsh reality of this system, emphasising on the ruthless price of this calamitous quest. As such, Wilder’s film serves as a cautionary tale, warning audiences against the Hollywood industry’s irreversible influence in conjunction with their seductive allure that proves dangerous to those enamoured and entangled in the dream.
Wilder initially presents the fleeting and fading nature of fame within the Hollywood industry through the willingness of the industry to discard its former stars from the spotlight. This is primarily shown through the characterisation of the faded “old time star”, Norma Desmond. As a reminiscent figure of what Hollywood used to be, Norma has become a stagnant figure in time since her glory days, with her inability to adjust to reality preventing her from accepting a change in status, to which she protests that “[she is] big, it the pictures that got small.” This comment in conjunction with a shift in her body language to create a more dominating presence as she attempts to make herself physically bigger in the frame showcases her efforts to manifest the status she believes she holds, regardless to resembling the shell of the woman she once was. Despite her governing spirit, Norma showcases her lack of control of her fame, with her current lifestyle no longer aligning with the social glamour and glitz she once exuded, with her own alluring mansion now standing in the shadows of the ostentatious life she once possessed. Wilder highlights this slipping grasp through the exterior of her home, where the “ghost” of a tennis court stands detached, with ‘faded markings” reflecting abandonment and neglect from not only her social life, but her career additionally. Norma is also described to be frequently accompanied by her old friends from the silent film days, with mere “dim figures you may still remember.” dressed to the nines, dissociated from the current era. As lifeless reminders of her past glory, Wilder puts emphasis on these discrepancies in order to show the division between the life Norma believes she lives, and the true reality, where she stands in the wings, casted off of the central stage. Wilder highlights these juxtapositions in order to display the Hollywood industry’s unrelenting character towards those who no longer meet their standard, and how this ordeal enforces individuals to become disconnected from not only society, but from reality.