VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How is resistance portrayed in the novel?
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Introduction: Often, individuals who display a spark of resistance can ignite hope against autocratic regimes. Yoko…
Introduction:
Often, individuals who display a spark of resistance can ignite hope against autocratic regimes. Yoko Ogawa’s novel The Memory Police is about an unnamed narrator stuck on an island where cherished things in life vanish without explanation. The novel, set in a dystopian world, is an allegory of the authoritarian Nazi regime, where erasure and control are enforced, and dissent is systematically removed. Throughout the novel, Ogawa portrays the power of art as a way of preserving memory and demonstrates it is an act of resistance. Ogawa illustrates preserving memory as a means of political defiance. Furthermore, Ogawa highlights that small acts of kindness in the novel serve as defiance and that human connection is a way of resisting oppression.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Rainbows End, Harrison suggests that it…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Harrison suggests that holding on to dreams of autonomy despite hardship can result in individuals remaining…
Harrison suggests that holding on to dreams of autonomy despite hardship can result in individuals remaining resilient. Nan Dear, the matriarch in the play, is devoted to resisting all types of paternalistic control to fulfil her dream of maintaining autonomy. In the prologue, the stage directions note that “Nan and Gladys are rebuilding their humpy after a flood has devastated their home”, immediately highlighting the harsh realities they endure. The inclusion of ‘Que Sera Sera’ as a non diegetic song reflects the broader experience of Indigenous Australians. The song translates to “whatever will be, will be”, which the lyrics propose passivity and acceptance to the belief that one’s future is predetermined and uncontrolled for. However, Nan refuses to surrender to this lack of power through her determination to live independently, rather than return to a government controlled settlement in Cummergunja. Harrison reinforces Nan’s commitment to autonomy through critiquing policies that dictated indigenous lives on reserves like Cummeragunja. Furthermore, she contrasts colonial fatalism with Indigenous self-determination. In Act one, Scene Eight ‘Washing Day Blues’, Dolly remarks “and yet we live like this”, referring to their humpy constantly being prone to floods. In response to this remark, Nan firmly responds “at least here we sink and swim on our own. Not like the Cummergunja days, always at the mercy of the manager. Harrison underscores Nan’s belief that freedom, even in poverty, is preferable to life under institutional control. The humpy, therefore, becomes a symbol of cultural pride, survival, and resistance. Nan’s repeated efforts to rebuild it, despite the floods, emphasises her dedication to her dream of independence. This dream and conceptualisation of autonomy from Nan is then echoed into Dolly, her granddaughter. In Act One, Scene Thirteen ‘Waters Rising’, Errol offers Dolly “a better life” with him in Melbourne. This offer reflects Errol’s paternalistic mindset - he assumes that leaving the flats and assimilating into white living standards would automatically improve Dolly’s life, revealing his ignorance and minimisation of Dolly’s lived experiences. Dolly robustly rejects this by asserting “this is my place. I’m staying here with my mum and my Nan”. Harrison conveys her refusal as a proud and conscious alignment with her family’s dream - one rooted not in material gain, but in identity, belonging, and autonomy. She powerfully rejects his worldview while affirming her own identity. When she adds “Our life isn't perfect, but like Nan says, its OURS”, Dolly reinforces the value of agency in an era where her people (indigenous people) were subject to systemic control. Through both Nan and Dolly, Harrison presents the idea that dreams are grounded in dignity and self determination and act as a conscious act of defiance in times of adversity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Desire is the most dangerous force in…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder is a 1950's noir melodrama that investigates how the popularity of the…
Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder is a 1950's noir melodrama that investigates how the popularity of the Hollywood film industry encouraged a social fixation on the glory of being a celebrity. Wilder presents desire as a dangerous force that drives people into destructive choices and illusions. The film shows how the craving for fame traps individuals in denial, how the pursuit of wealth leads to moral compromise, and how the wider culture of ambition in Hollywood exploits and discards people. In doing so, Wilder critiques the values of an industry that feeds on desire but rarely offers fulfilment.
Wilder depicts Norma Desmond as the clearest example of destructive desire. Norma’s obsessive longing for her past stardom blinds her to reality, as shown when she insists that “the cameras have got smaller” and the “audience is still out there.” Her desire traps her in denial, leading her to live in a decaying mansion surrounded by photos of her younger self, which symbolises her inability to accept aging. Wilder values authenticity and shows how Norma’s refusal to face the truth results in tragedy, most powerfully in the final scene where her delusion fully consumes her: “All right Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” This demonstrates how desire for eternal fame can destroy identity and ultimately lead to madness.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “You pray to the gods? Let me grant you…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus the King’ retells the famous ancient Greek story of the tragic hero, Oedipus, while…
Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus the King’ retells the famous ancient Greek story of the tragic hero, Oedipus, while exploring the conflict between the divine fate set on mortals by the gods and their supposed belief in free will. Whilst Sophocles presents Oedipus’ pride as a major flaw throughout the play, he also acknowledges that his unmoderated anger and stubbornness are equally impactful.
Sophocles frames Oedipus’ sense of pride and arrogance as a highly significant flaw throughout the play ‘Oedipus the King’. Oedipus’ pride is initially foregrounded through his self-acclamation as being “Apollo’s champion” due to his success in defeating the sphinx that was terrorising the Thebans. This title implies that Oedipus believes that he has been gifted with strength and intelligence greater than the average mortal by the gods, specifically Apollo, and that Oedipus is valued by the gods more than his peers. Sophocles compounds this self-acclamation with Oedipus questioning why the Thebans “pray to gods” as he is capable of “grant[ing]” their “prayers. Thus, indicating that he has placed himself on a god-like status and believes he is able to complete tasks that only other gods can complete. Sophocles presents both these events in succession to build dramatic irony within the play, as his Athenian audience is aware that Oedipus’ power is not on the same level as the gods, and ultimately it will be his fate that was set by the divine gods that strips him of his power. Furthermore, Sophocles references the traditional beliefs of his Athenian audience through the chorus’s claim that “headlong pride crashes down the abyss” to emphasise the dangers of excessive pride. The personification of pride within this phrase symbolises Oedipus and his fatal flaw, whilst foreshadowing his inevitable peripeteia, with the imagery of an “abyss” and him “crash[ing] down’ into it, highlighting the pain and suffering involved in the fall. Sophocles frames Oedipus’ pride as a crucial factor in his tragic hero arc to convey the Ancient Athenian beliefs that excessive pride and arrogance are acts of impiety that will anger the gods.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Love in Twelfth Night is more foolish…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores love as both transformative and absurd. Set in Illyria — a world suspended…
In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores love as both transformative and absurd. Set in Illyria — a world suspended between dream and reality — the play exposes how desire blurs the line between sense and folly. Characters pursue love through disguise, self-delusion and chance, often mistaking appearance for truth. While Twelfth Night ends in comic marriage, Shakespeare’s portrayal of Orsino, Olivia, Viola and Malvolio suggests that love’s fulfilment is inseparable from its foolishness. In Illyria, to love is to lose control — and through that loss, to find some measure of truth.
At the outset, love in Twelfth Night is a performance driven by fantasy rather than feeling. Orsino’s opening plea — “If music be the food of love, play on” — reveals a man more enamoured with the idea of being in love than with Olivia herself. His indulgent imagery and hyperbole expose love as theatrical self-absorption: he delights in the “excess” of emotion rather than its authenticity. Similarly, Olivia’s vow to mourn her brother collapses the moment she meets Cesario, her sudden infatuation likened to “catching the plague.” Through metaphor and comic inversion, Shakespeare presents love as contagious and irrational. Both Orsino and Olivia are blinded by illusion, confusing projection for passion. In this early stage, love functions as folly — a self-made spectacle in which desire replaces reason.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the King, attempts to see…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the audience encounters a protagonist who embodies a wide range of character…
In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the audience encounters a protagonist who embodies a wide range of character traits, both admirable and lamentable. Sophocles presents a play confronting the limits of human agency and rationality. Despite Oedipus’ attempts to see things rationally, the play reveals that human understanding is ultimately limited. The play explores how attempts to view events calmly and rationally are ultimately unsuccessful. Sophocles presents divine powers as a catalyst for irrational thinking in the play. Human agency is often fuelled by individuals’ emotions in the play, leading to irrational decisions. Due to the tragic nature of events in the play, rational thinking may not have been possible. Through Oedipus, Sophocles presents a play that explores the limits of human understanding and power.
Sophocles presents divine agency and the gods as catalysts to many events in the play, leading to irrational behaviour. In the prelude to the play, it is known that Laius and Jocasta receive a prophecy that their son will “bring great shame to their family” by killing his father. This knowledge influences the decisions they make, hinging the motivations to the decisions. While they perceive Sophocles’ parents’ decision as irrational, it evidences that their decision is a response to the fear of prophecy. Jocasta is required to be convinced to have her son killed, including lines like she could have been making an emotionally rational decision. Thinking Jocasta wishes to see the situation calmly, but later was overruled. The irrational decision was made as a result of the works of a divine power, Lord Apollo. Furthermore, when Oedipus decides to run from his adoptive family, he does so as a result of a prophecy he received from an oracle, “you will kill your own father.” Sophocles presents divine agency as the catalyst again to condition the broad audience into believing the fates are the cause of irrational thinking. Oedipus makes no attempt to view the decision in a calm way and instead flees, where he finds himself at the three crossroads. “And with one blow of the staff” he commits patricide. The rational decision at the crossroads would have been to let the man keep pass, but due to his hubris and the path divine agency had led him on, Sophocles presents Oedipus making the irrational decision once again. The crossroads are symbolic as they illustrate the many different outcomes of his interactions. Sophocles presents divine power as a catalyst in the tragic events. The will of the gods and power of divine agency can be seen as a catalyst for the irrational behaviour demonstrated.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Chronicle of a death foretold…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold recounts the harrowing murder of Santiago Nasar, a crime…
Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold recounts the harrowing murder of Santiago Nasar, a crime “more foretold” than prevented, in a town paralysed by honour and tradition. The novella explores how the entire community becomes complicit through silence, passivity, and adherence to social mores. “Power” refers to an individual’s ability to act and influence events, while “defy” means to resist or challenge the authority and expectations of the group. Together, these terms imply a struggle between personal moral agency and the collective forces of tradition, religion, and honour, suggesting that defiance is possible but costly. The novella depicts a community governed by rigid codes of honour, gendered expectations, and Catholic tradition, where the collective becomes complicit in Santiago Nasar’s death. Yet Márquez also offers glimpses of resistance through characters such as Angela Vicario, Cristo Bedoya, and the narrator, hinting that the power to defy the group exists, even if its impact is limited. Ultimately, the text suggests that individual acts of rebellion illuminate society’s flaws, but rarely succeed in preventing tragedy.
Márquez presents a town in which collective belief exerts a near-fatalistic control over events, leaving individuals with little room to manoeuvre. The Vicario brothers’ murder of Santiago is not driven by personal malice but by an overwhelming sense of duty to preserve family honour — “Before God and before men… it was a matter of honour.” This is not just a personal conviction but a reflection of the town’s deeply entrenched mores, which demand the restoration of female chastity through violent retribution. Even the law reflects this collective morality, with the court upholding the killing as “legitimate defence of honour.” The town’s Catholic faith, which should have offered a moral counterweight, instead deepens the hypocrisy while men frequent Maria Cervantes’ ‘apostolic’ bordello, they expect women like Angela to remain pure. Márquez’s non-linear narrative reinforces the suffocating inevitability of these customs: opening with “the day they were going to kill him,” the novel frames Santiago’s death as preordained by social convention. In this way, the group’s mores do not merely influence the action — they make Santiago’s murder seem unavoidable.
Despite the overpowering dominance of collective mores, Márquez shows that individuals still attempt to resist, revealing that defiance is possible even if ultimately
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘There are no villains in Oedipus the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 97.5%: Staged amidst the intellectual turbulence of fifth-century Athens — an era shaped by the rise of rational inquiry…
Staged amidst the intellectual turbulence of fifth-century Athens — an era shaped by the rise of rational inquiry and the questioning of divine authority — Sophocles’ Oedipus the King operates as a dramatic investigation into humanity’s attempt to reconcile moral order, reason, and fate.
The tragedy endures as a profound exploration of the human condition, revealing how the same qualities that elevate humankind — intellect, ambition, and moral conviction — also expose its deepest vulnerabilities.
Through the downfall of Oedipus, Sophocles dismantles the moral binaries of guilt and innocence, illustrating that in a world governed by divine inevitability and human limitation, there are no true villains, only victims of circumstance.
Employing dramatic irony, stichomythia, and the symbolic interplay of blindness and sight, the playwright constructs what Aristotle described as a tragedy that evokes pity and fear through recognition of human limitation.
For both Athenian and contemporary audiences, the drama becomes, in Bernard Knox’s words, a “drama of self-discovery,” through which Sophocles exposes the inescapable truths of moral responsibility and the futility of blame.
Sophocles reconstructs the Theban myth to critique humanity’s misplaced faith in reason and control, illustrating how moral failure arises not from malice but from ignorance and excess virtue.
The opening “plague that blights the city” functions as both a physical and moral manifestation of Thebes’ corruption, suggesting that collective suffering stems from unseen moral disorder rather than a single villain’s crime.
The imagery of infection mirrors Oedipus’ own inner blindness — a contamination born of his unknowing sins — transforming civic decay into a reflection of human fallibility rather than evil intent.
Oedipus’ proclamation, “I will bring it all to light,” encapsulates his noble determination to deliver justice, yet the ironic motif of illumination foreshadows how his pursuit of righteousness will reveal his own guilt.
Sophocles’ use of declarative tone and divine diction elevates Oedipus as an emblem of civic virtue, not tyranny, while irony ensures that his integrity becomes the mechanism of his ruin.
When Teiresias counters, “You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life,” the playwright subverts the expected hierarchy of knowledge.
The seer’s verbal chiasmus dramatizes the paradox that insight lies not in accusation but in acceptance of limitation.
Even Teiresias, the supposed prophet of truth, speaks with bitterness — “You are the land’s pollution” — exposing his own moral frustration.
Through this mirroring, Sophocles refuses to demonise either prophet or king, portraying both as instruments of an inescapable divine pattern.
The Chorus’ anxious appeal, “O Zeus, what are you preparing to do to me?” registers collective confusion, revealing that the entire polis participates in Oedipus’ blindness.
As such, guilt diffuses across the community; responsibility becomes shared, not singular.
Thus, through irony, foil, and the collective voice of the Chorus, Sophocles dismantles the illusion of moral villains, showing instead that ignorance — not evil — propels human catastrophe.
As the investigation unfolds, Sophocles transforms Oedipus’ pursuit of truth into a descent into moral ambiguity, revealing that suffering arises from intention colliding with inevitability.
The rapid stichomythia between Oedipus and Jocasta enacts his
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare suggests…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Illyria reflects a carnivalesque world shaped by illusion and desire, where the…
In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Illyria reflects a carnivalesque world shaped by illusion and desire, where the pursuit of greatness renders most appearances false to reality. Illyria is depicted as insular, compelling Viola to conceal her physical appearance in order to navigate its rigid social and gender boundaries. Most significantly, the performative nature of its two prominent leaders, Orsino and Olivia, exposes the artificial personas they adopt to satisfy their disordered emotional states. Although, amongst the prominent Illyrian notion of deception, Sir Toby Belch and Antonio reveal that appearance can reflect reality in those whose desires are sincere and genuine. Ultimately, Shakespeare contrasts chaotic and fickle desires with those of a natural state, reminding audiences that while deception may seem necessary to achieve one's goals, it is an unmasked lifestyle in which true satisfaction is found.
Shakespeare demonstrates that physical appearances can be misleading, as characters often hide their true identities behind disguises and outward appearances. Upon arrival in Illyria, Viola declares, “conceal me what I am,” so she can survive in the foreign land as a servant to Count Orsino. This theatrical convention of crossdressing provokes confusion in the already chaotic landscape, as Viola states that she “is not what [she] is”, exposing her deceiving persona of Cesario, and revealing the instability curated by a false identity. Such deceit is reinforced as Viola, in suspecting that Olivia may have developed feelings for ‘Cesario’, exclaims, “fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her”. By characterising her ‘outside’ as having ‘charmed’ Olivia, Shakespeare exposes the dangers of fraudulent appearances, suggesting that identities that impersonate reality can lead to confusion, misinterpretation, and unintended emotional consequences. The confusion of mistaken identity is accentuated by Feste, in believing that Sebastian is Viola, states, “nothing that is so, is so”. In this way, Feste highlights the inverted world of Illyria, where appearances cannot be trusted and reality is constantly obscured, reinforcing the play’s exploration of deception and disguise. This disorder develops when Sebastian himself is mistaken for Cesario, as Orsino exclaims that he sees “One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons, a natural perspective that is and is not!”. This exclamation underscores how, in the chaotic world of Illyria, appearance and reality are torn apart, highlighting Shakespeare’s portrayal of mistaken identity as a source of confusion and misunderstanding.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard warns against living in a…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) exposes Hollywood as an industry consumed by illusion, where beauty and…
Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) exposes Hollywood as an industry consumed by illusion, where beauty and fame are valued above authenticity and truth. Through his use of film noir conventions, visual symbolism, and irony, Wilder critiques how the pursuit of fame distorts identity and destroys those who depend on it. Yet despite his cynical portrayal of the film industry, Wilder allows glimpses of hope and authenticity to survive. Through these tensions, Sunset Boulevard becomes both a condemnation of Hollywood’s superficiality and a reflection on the enduring human need for truth and connection.
Wilder presents Hollywood’s obsession with youth and beauty as deeply destructive, using performance, mise-en-scène, and lighting to expose the cost of this illusion. Norma Desmond’s “heavy makeup” and glamorous costumes, framed in “dramatic lighting,” reveal her desperate attempts to preserve her fading image. Her crumbling mansion, filled with “old photographs” and decaying grandeur, mirrors her psychological decline. When Norma declares, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small,” she reveals her denial of irrelevance, while Joe’s cruel remark that she is a “has-been” shows Hollywood’s brutal rejection of ageing stars. Through these contrasts, Wilder critiques a system that prizes image over humanity. His authorial intent is clear: by showing Norma’s isolation and delusion, he exposes how the industry’s worship of appearance strips people of dignity and traps them in nostalgia.
Wilder also critiques the illusion of success that Hollywood promises but never delivers. Through Joe Gillis’s cynical voiceover and
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sophocles show the tension…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: How does Sophocles show the tension between fate and free will in Oedipus the King? Sophocles’ play “Oedipus the…
How does Sophocles show the tension between fate and free will in Oedipus the King?
Sophocles’ play “Oedipus the King” stages one of literature’s most famous moral paradoxes: a man who fiercely exercises reason and choice discovers he has lived out a destiny proclaimed before his birth. Written for performance at Athenian festivals (where drama functioned as civic moral drama), the play deploys prophecy, symbolic objects, dramatic irony and the chorus to make fate seem both inexorable and ethically porous. Sophocles does not present fate and free will as mutually exclusive; rather he dramatizes a compatibilist argument in which the gods establish circumstances while human choices determine moral responsibility. Through ritual language (oracles, curses), physical tokens (swollen foot, brooch), motifs (sight / blindness, ship/storm, plague), and tragic structure (hamartia → peripeteia → anagnorisis), the poet teaches an Athenian audience about the limits of human knowledge, the dangers of hubris, and the civic need for accountable leadership.
Paragraph 1 - Fate as an inescapable framework
Sophocles makes destiny feel pre-written by saturating the stage with oracular authority and physical traces that point back to origin. The oracle’s prophecy and repeated references to birth, culminating in the shepherd’s warning that the child was “born for pain”,frame identity as ordained. Tangible objects function as evidence of an already-written past: the hero’s name (swollen foot), the crossroads where Laius dies, and Jocasta’s brooches that link past to present; these items transform recognition into recovery rather than invention. Public ritual language intensifies inevitability—the communal curse, “Curse on the murderer… a lone man unknown,” is pronounced before the audience learns that the curse lands on the very man they honour. Dramatic irony (the audience’s superior knowledge) increases the sense that events are the working-out of a divine script. Historically, Athenians regarded oracles (notably Delphi and Apollo’s pronouncements) as social truths; Sophocles exploits that belief to make the courtroom of the stage feel like a theatre of divine law. The poet’s authorial intent here is to produce pity and fear by showing a cosmos in which human life is entangled with forces beyond comprehension—a moral architecture that stresses the limits of human control.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ...and Apollo commands us now– he could…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the relentless power of divine fate and its inevitable impact on mortal…
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the relentless power of divine fate and its inevitable impact on mortal lives. The tragedy highlights how individuals, despite their choices, remain bound by the will of the gods. The text contends that human attempts to resist or control destiny are futile, as divine prophecy governs both personal actions and their consequences. This is shown through Oedipus’ fate being predetermined from birth, his own actions and hubris ironically leading him to fulfil the prophecy he seeks to avoid, and his eventual realisation of divine control, which comes too late to change his tragic destiny.
From the moment of his birth, Oedipus’ destiny is already sealed by the gods, illustrating that no individual can escape a fate that has been divinely decreed. Upon hearing the prophecy via the Oracle of Delphi that Oedipus will “kill [his] father” and “couple with [his] mother,” he was abandoned and pierced at the ankles. Oedipus’ biological parents commit this in an attempt to counteract the prophecy. Thus, Sophocles denotes this through Oedipus’ etymology, that “Oedipus” translates to “swollen foot.” This name, given to him by a shepherd in Corinth, as the piercings had led to red and swollen feet, symbolising that through human intervention, the God’s prophecy is inescapable. Sophocles connotes the very mark on his own lower body to be a reminder of intentions to defy his fate and how it is impossible. Sophocles further intends to connect his Athenian audience to the values of divine rule, and any attempt to overrule this leads to a constant reminder of lifelong physical discomfort. Furthermore, Sophocles reiterates the inevitability of fate through the use of crossroads. The symbolism of the crossroads grants Oedipus numerous paths to go down, but by choosing to kill a stranger unknowingly fulfills the prophecy. Oedipus believes he made this choice himself without realising the stranger was his father, Laius. Thus, Sophocles aims to reinforce his Athenian audience on the values of divine rule, conveying that attempts to overrule God and make your own choices are futile as God rules and decides for all.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: 'Now smear us with insults - Creon, myself…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles about the fated downfall of Oedipus, who was prophesied to…
Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles about the fated downfall of Oedipus, who was prophesied to murder his father and marry his mother. Throughout the tragedy, Oedipus the King is driven by conflict, both internal and external. 'Now smear us with insults - Creon, myself and every word I've said. No man will ever be rooted from the earth as brutally as you.' Highlights the destructive nature of confrontation and foreshadows Oedipus’ downfall. Through clashes with others, struggles with fate, and his own inner turmoil, conflict arises, making it central to the play.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: 'The ending of We Have Always Lived in the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: The resolution of We Have Always Lived in the Castle represents a triumph for Merricat and Constance, but in…
The resolution of We Have Always Lived in the Castle represents a triumph for Merricat and Constance, but in different ways for each character. Their house is ruined and their family is dead but the sisters have gained the freedom to live as they choose, not as they are directed to do. At the end of the novel the Blackwood sisters can claim a victory over the parties who opposed them: their domineering family, Cousin Charles, and the villagers who tried to destroy them. However, it is a victory in a battle that Merricat has designed and waged almost singlehandedly, with Constance's wavering support. For Merricat, victory is not a matter of perseverance and self-reliance; she actively fights her enemies and overcomes them. Constance's victory, by contrast, is over her own naivety and malleability. She develops resilience and a growth in understanding through the turmoil she endures.
Merricat and Constance have reason to be aggrieved by their patriarchal and neglectful family. Both sisters suffer oppression from the elder Blackwoods, who live by the precept that 'our wives always did as they were told', and who harshly rebuked any aberrant behaviour. Merricat was 'always in disgrace' and 'a wicked, disobedient child', and this independent spirit led to her parents punishing her with the withdrawal of food and affection. Constance, too, suffers the particularly female punishment of being relegated to the kitchen to cook the family's meals and having to clean the house. In retaliating against the strictures the family imposes on them, Merricat, with Constance's help, wrests power from them by poisoning the whole family, including their younger brother - the male heir, Thomas Blackwood, who would have inherited the house, property and wealth of their father. Consequently, Merricat enables herself and Constance to inherit the house by default, in the absence of any male claim.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: According to ‘High Ground’ reconciliation…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Stephen Johson’s 2020 revisionist historical drama High Ground reflects on the challenge of reconciling a past…
Stephen Johson’s 2020 revisionist historical drama High Ground reflects on the challenge of reconciling a past where the massacre of a mob of Yolngu tribespeople establishes the deep divisions between white interlopers and traditional land owners. Rupturing the continuity of Yolngu life, the 1919 massacre elicits a violent response from the survivor Baywarra whose retaliatory campaign against the perpetrators twelve years after the atrocity is motivated by vengeance. The paradoxical response counters Grandfather Darrpa’s adherence to the system of Makarrata and its enshrined practices of consistency and balance. Appropriating a form of justice more in keeping with the values of his adversaries, Baywarra’s quest for justice suggests that vindication is the means through which reconciliation can be achieved. The violence that follows exemplifies the transformative impact of colonisation on Yolngu culture. Symbolising the broader narrative of colonial conquest, the frontier setting of East Arnhem Land becomes the site where seemingly incompatible cultures clash. Observing the conflict play out as the quest to silence Baywarra intensifies, Gutjuk’s allegiances are torn. Subscribing in the end, to the philosophy of a grandfather whose wisdom is reflected in his deference to the natural world, Gutjuk’s decision to reject the violence associated with British justice and in turn his uncle, and to adopt the practice of Makarrata offers a way forward where healing perhaps, suggests Samuel Johnson, can lead to understanding and in turn, reconciliation.
The inconsistency of laws that purport to enforce order and protect both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples is evident in the brutal massacre scene that interrupts the daily rituals and practices of the Yolngu clan. Stephen Maxwell Johnson exposes the fraught nature of justice as the pursuit of two First Nations men wanted for killing a station owner’s cattle results in the brutal massacre of a tribe of seventeen men, women, and children. The indiscriminate murder of the clanspeople is initiated by Eddy’s first shot. Believing that Baywarra is about to attack, his undisciplined actions result in the impulsive shooting of Baywarra. The contrasting midshot of Baywarra, spear in hand, and the cross-shot of Eddy, rifle cocked, highlight the power imbalance that exists as the young hunter attempts to protect his nephew Gutjuk. The barrage of shots that follow generates mayhem and disorder, and the carefully planned mission to bring in the two assailants is exposed as a failure. Not only does Johnson expose the arbitrary application of justice at the hands of those who do not value the lives of the Yolngu people, but he also examines how those who initiate violence can exist with impunity, protected by the laws that they have violated. Confronting viewers with a revisionist interpretation of Australia’s colonial history Johnson challenges the myth of settlement, and in telling this truth, initiates the reconciliation process. Recasting the narrative, scenes of brutality invoke discomfort. Close-up shots of carnage reveal the damage done by indiscriminate and erratic gunfire. Johnson presents the white settlers as debased and uncivilized and in turn, represents the humanity of the Yolngu clan. The familial and cultural dynamic that is shown at the billabong depicts the kinship practices that unite the Yolngu as a community. Shattering the continuity of a way of life that is ritualistic and highly organised, the crime results in the manufacturing of an alibi. The pact between Moran, Eddy, and a reluctant Travis, exemplifies a resistance to speaking the truth, articulating, all the more urgently the importance of reconciliation for an audience of contemporary viewers unfamiliar with a narrative that counters the story of peaceful settlement.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Animal Farm reflect Orwell’s idea…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: George Orwell once stated that “in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. Through his…
George Orwell once stated that “in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. Through his novella, Animal Farm, Orwell paints a picture of a dystopian society where reality is distorted and power is corrupted. Through the animals’ lack of education, constant violence and threats from the pigs, and the weaponisation of language, Orwell critiques the rise of totalitarianism in Stalinist Russia. His fable anthropomorphises key figures from the Russian Revolution, highlighting their shortcomings. Animal Farm serves as a cautionary tale illustrating to readers the often deceitful and cyclical nature of revolutions leading to a dystopia.
In Animal Farm, Orwell exposes how the lack of education of the proletariat led to a rise of a dystopian society allowing tyrants to maintain power. Throughout the rebellion, the writer portrays the animals’ incapacity to think critically through the animals’ failure to engage in suggesting ideas, Boxer’s blind loyalty and Clover’s reflection on the rebellion. In the early stages of the rebellion when the animals begin to pass new ideas, it was noted that “it was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions” and the other animals “could never think of any resolutions of their own.” Orwell illustrates how even when the idea of the rebellion was fresh, there was clear inequality between the pigs and the other animals. The animals’ ability to vote created an illusion of democracy where their lack of education handicapped them from questioning leadership, under the guise of equality. Orwell critiques the withholding of education from the proletariat, leading to the rise of a dystopian regime. Following Snowball’s expulsion from the farm and Napoleon’s rise to power, Boxer, a hard-working horse symbolic of the proletariat, adopts a new maxim. Whenever he, or others doubt the pigs, Boxer states, “Napoleon is always right”. This highlights Boxer’s blind loyalty where his lack of education results in his failure to reflect on the manipulation from the pigs, empowering their dictatorship. This serves as a parallel to how the proletariat was often incapacitated to recognise their indoctrination where they viewed those in power as infallible. Orwell warns readers of the significance of education as a lack of it can lead to overlooking the flaws of tyrants. Later on in the novella after Napoleon slaughters a series of ‘traitors’, Clover looks down on the farm at the knoll, beginning to reconsider whether Major’s prophecy of a “golden future time” was living on. Clover realises that “this is not what [the animals] had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago for the overthrow of the human race”. She dichotomises the promise that they would be “free from hunger and the whip, all equal” and how they had come to a time where “no one dared speak his mind”. However, near the conclusion of her reflection, it is noted that she “lacked the words to express them”. This highlights how when the working class began to question the flaws of those in power, their deficiency of education prevented them from expressing their feelings. Through Clover’s reflection and inability to share her thoughts, Orwell cautions readers of how education is necessary to be able to share ideas with others. His novella, Animal Farm clearly depicts a dystopian society where the masses are deliberately denied education leaving them powerless to resist oppression.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There is an atmosphere of both glamour and…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Wilder then contradicts this notion, examining the hope and realism exuberated within the community. Through the…
Wilder then contradicts this notion, examining the hope and realism exuberated within the community. Through the utilisation of a microcosm of the wider population, Wilder critiques the serenity of the industry and its stars, portraying that true hope and joy is found in the absence of glamour. Introduced through the mise en scene of Artie's New Years Eve party, Wilder creates an initial insight into the microcosm of those pursuing success in Hollywood. As the collective party are aware that "Hollywood ain't been so good" for them, and that they only earn "buttons and bows", Wilder displays the experience of the industry in its most common form. Despite not having a "swimming pool", Wilder shares to the viewership the idea of hope being a product of realism, whilst further alluding that a ghoulish and creepy environment is at consequence of an absence of realism. Moreover, Wilder's evident characterisation of buoyant Betty Schaffer further symbolises the hope of the industry, fuelled by ambition
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There is an atmosphere of both glamour and…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Initially, Wilder portrays the clear connection between the disturbing environment and those with instated wealth…
Initially, Wilder portrays the clear connection between the disturbing environment and those with instated wealth and status. In doing this, Wilder establishes Hollywood's success as a façade, critiquing the fame and upper-class within the society. Introducing this notion, the close establishing shot of the gutter at the beginning of the film symbolises and foreshadows to the viewers the hidden and disturbing setting of the seemingly renowned "Sunset Boulevard". Utilising rubbish and waste scattered around the iconic and famous street, paired with the bold incorporation of diegetic police sirens allows Wilder to subtly foreshadow to the audience the creepy and dark nature of the seemingly illusive society. Building upon this stance, Joe's narration of Norma's "great white elephant" of a house provides the sense of glamour expected of those within the industry. However, Wilder forms a connection between the wealth of individuals and their
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘In High Ground, it is impossible for…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Set against the backdrop of Australia’s colonial frontier, Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s revisionist film High Ground…
Set against the backdrop of Australia’s colonial frontier, Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s revisionist film High Ground interrogates the violent clash between indigenous custodianship and European domination. Throughout the film, Johnson suggests that despite an individual’s attempt to amends, it is ultimately their past that heavily influences their decisions and fate, leaving them unable to escape their past actions. Johnson explores this notion by illustrating the consequences of colonial brutality, the aftermath of Travis’ actions despite his attempt to make amends and how the past murder of the Yolngu people lead to the rebellion against colonial forces.
Johnson foregrounds the brutality of colonial forces against the first nations people, condemning how their past actions later resulted in their downfall. This is first portrayed through the opening massacre of the film, with the camera unflinchingly depicting fast paced shots of the soldiers murdering the Yolngu people accompanied with digenic sound, to enhance the rawness of the violence being depicted. By emphasising the brutality of the massacre, Johnson shines the actions of colonial forces in a negative light to later foreshadow the consequences that arise from their past actions. It is through this foreshadowing that Johnson foregrounds the violent actions taken by colonial forces to set up the aftermath that the colonial troops will face. This foreshadowing is later manifested during the final scenes of the film, with Gutjuk holding a gun to Morane’s head, with Moran pleading for his life for Gutjuk to “[not] do this son” before being murdered by Gutjuk in an act of revenge. Through this, Johnson illustrates the detrimental consequences that Morane and his troops suffer from because of their previous crimes, proving the notion that they were unable to escape their past despite the control they had over the first nations people. It is through this that Johnson illustrates how controlling forces experience the repercussions because of their sins of the past. Johnson highlights how the colonial forces are unable to escape their past crimes against the first nations people.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “You can’t share a country” High Ground…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Johnson communicates the clear distinction between living harmoniously on the land as compared to live off it. The…
Johnson communicates the clear distinction between living harmoniously on the land as compared to live off it. The audience is introduced to the film via an establishing shot coupled with a pan of the vast Australian outback, centring Shot Rock positioned behind a sun rise. The serene stretches of green nature, along with diegetic caws of birds, personifies the landscape as itself breathing – in that the scale of characters appear insignificant from its view – and carries on untouched and timeless. In the same way, Gutjuk’s education alongside Baywara, learning to eat “bush plums” subtly highlights how culture and tradition are built around the preservation of the land for the next generations. Johnson then juxtaposes the unassuming scenes with chaotic cuts to galloping colonist horsemen. The provoked dust that obscures their faces, that are also omitted from frame, foreshadow their ever–present disturbance to Country. Culminating in a comfortable quiet that is abruptly interrupted to by the shock of massacre, as chaos follows the point of view of a rifle’s scope that distantly watches – similarly warping the scale and significance of the individual death of each Indigenous person, woman, or child as the establishing shot. The abuse of the land, for the sole utilitarian purpose of “high ground” to “control everything” speaks to the detached stance taken by colonialism to take without giving. In this way, tradition is nearly wiped into extinction, if not for a young Gutjuk’s usage of fauna to allow him
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "the island will soon be nothing but…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 67.5%: Ogawa's cautionary tale, "The Memory Police," uses the dehumanising effects of oppressive regimes on society and…
Ogawa's cautionary tale, "The Memory Police," uses the dehumanising effects of oppressive regimes on society and highlights the nature of authoritarian power and oppression. Ogawa further explores the unique way that authoritarian power and oppression excavates hope, leaving society in a "desolate place." Ogawa connects the orchestrated disappearances to a loss of purpose in society, and identifies memory as a key to connection between characters, maintaining their hope and purpose.
Ogawa exposes through the dehumanising nature of oppressive regimes and their stoic, apathetic characteristics, isolating those who resist, placing fear in the eyes of them who watch and influence retaliation in society. Ogawa's parrallel to Anne Frank, who was living in a hidden room, to escape danger. Similarly to Anne Frank, R's "soul withered away," as days were bland and sustenance was at a bare minimum. R knew that because he could remember, the Memory Police were likely looking for him, and would be in danger to go into the public eye. Ogawa composes this parrallel to highlight the ways in which oppressive regimes isolates their target victims, and silences those who resist. Like wise as disappearances intensified and authoritarian control inclined, the old man who involved himself in small acts of resistance, such as keeping the music box, was suddenly taken away. The mysterious ways of the memory police and their dehumanising punishment, made revolution to be considered "impossible," as escaping such a "desolate place," would result in extreme punishment and isolation. The disappearance of novels symbolises how resistance in society was controlled by the authoritarian regime.
moreover, as society came together in a group where a majority of people consented to this dehumanisation and loss in their life by throwing their roses into the pile. A small act of resistance by the woman wearing a hat which had disappeared, was composed. The woman screamed "no one can erase the stories", she was soon taken away." Ogawa successfully highlights the ruthless repercussions of an entirely apathetic society, emphasizing the need for togetherness and protest, to prevent authoritarian control, and danger, from intensifying.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: my prompt is: sunset boulevard explores…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: :througuhout sunset boulevard, wilder undescores teh lurking omnipresence of death. death breeds within hollywood…
:througuhout sunset boulevard, wilder undescores teh lurking omnipresence of death. death breeds within hollywood serving as a constant reminder that death is innevitable in the film industry, to reafe for fame is to ask for a death wish. Normas dilapadated mansion resembles a mausolem, at joes first arrival at norma's mansion , he describes it as "out of beat with the rest if the world" and 'creeping with paralysis', Wildernhighlights how Norma is seculdued from reality, insighting that Norma is entrapped in the golden bygeon era of hollywood, entangled in her own fantasy and her delusions taht she is still prevalent. 'Paralysis', is suggestive of how norma is unable to break the bonds of her delusions, this is reinfrocde at the final scene, trhough norma's monolouge to the crowd, "this is my life, it always will be". Declarative statement signifies how Norma is aware and content with her little fantasy world, she is aware that
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘Even those who hate them can’t escape the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Set on the backdrop of an unnamed island in a dystopian-like world, the presence of freedom becomes challenged.…
Set on the backdrop of an unnamed island in a dystopian-like world, the presence of freedom becomes challenged. Yoko Ogawa's 2019 novel The Memory Police delves into how fear thrives on silence, but that silence isn’t always equivalent to fear. Ogawa unveils this idea through the dangers of complacency, how silence could be loneliness or happiness, as well as how the inability to speak up causes pain. Therefore, Ogawa condemns fear but encourages silence in moments of emotion.
Ogawa condemns the silent complacency in the face of a totalitarian regime. The island can only be described as “enveloped in an empty sea” outlining the isolation set on the island's people from the early onset. The narrator continues by mentioning how quickly “people soon adjusted to things disappearing” after multiple of the island's population lost and switched jobs without caring, as “Life was perfectly possible without them.” Here, Ogawa has done this to demonstrate the control that the memory police have on people's lives and how their acceptance of living like this lets the memory police resume authority. To further substantiate this, Ogawa highlights the fear that characters have for the memory police; she attempts to utilise the Inui family to instil a sense of panic in the reader, as it is unknown what the memory police are capable of doing. Through this the Ogawa creates a distraught dynamic that is brought upon by the complacency of the island's people. Ogawa also implements meta-fiction through the narrator, as in her novel, there is a submissive woman who obliges and lets her teacher do as he likes to her; this is used to create a parallel between the narrator's texts and her life. Subsequently, this was created by Ogawa to warn against passivity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: A dozen press agents working overtime can…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Set within the post-war period of 1950’s America, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard explores the toxic inner workings…
Set within the post-war period of 1950’s America, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard explores the toxic inner workings of the Hollywood industry. From the outset, Wilder presents Hollywood as a fundamentally shallow and superficial culture, exposing how it cultivates a corrosive society that dehumanises those within it. Furthermore, Wilder critiques the extreme measures that individuals will go to in order to uphold an image endorsed by Hollywood, often at the cost of their own morality. Cautioning his audience that Hollywood’s degrading nature enables an infatuation with success, Wilder exposes how this leads to unavoidable tragedy. Ultimately, Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard highlights Hollywood as an immoral industry which promotes a damaging culture, exploits individuals, and ends in ruin.
Wilder portrays the culture within Hollywood as inherently shallow and superficial, leading to a degrading society which dehumanises individuals and selfishly exploits talent before swiftly discarding individuals it deems obsolete. Wilder utilizes the studio spotlight as a symbol for fame and Hollywood validation; when Norma is bathed under the light in De Mille’s studio, an overhead shot accentuates the large crowd of admirers that surround her. Moments later, when the spotlight is turned ‘back where it belongs,’ the crowd scatters, now disinterested. Wilder underscores the normalised culture fostered by Hollywood which values one's fame over their character, leaving Norma abandoned once her stardom fades. Emphasising the forgotten state of Norma, as she was ‘thought [to be] dead,’ Wilder’s use of the symbolic spotlight portrays the transience of Hollywood fame, and its inevitable decline. Ultimately, Wilder depicts Hollywood as a dehumanising force which places value upon an individual's utility for the system of Hollywood, leaving those deemed useless isolated and discarded. Further emphasising the shallow nature of Hollywood, Wilder showcases the insecurity projected upon individuals such as Betty, reflecting the relentless pressure experienced by women to adhere to societal standards of beauty. Despite the ‘10 years of dramatic lessons, diction, and dancing,’ that Betty underwent hoping to ‘make it big.’ Hollywood disregarded her skill and instead criticised her nose which ‘slanted … a little.’ This shows how Hollywood’s toxic standards magnify the smallest imperfections in one's appearance, disregarding their talent and character. Wilder showcases that although now Hollywood was “crazy about her nose,” following Betty's nose job, they ‘didn't like her acting.’ This furthers his point that Hollywood’s expectations are impossible to meet, forcing women to mould themselves to the industry's ideal in order to succeed. Thus, Wilder critiques the culture within Hollywood that dehumanises individuals, reducing them to commodities judged by their beauty and utility. Excellent! Try add more film techniques (sound, lighting, camera) just to be safe with the rubric, but overall great analysis.