VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Prompt: Sunset Boulevard Essay: How does…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Intro In his sardonic 1950s gothic-noir melodrama Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder exposes Hollywood’s glamorous yet…
Intro
In his sardonic 1950s gothic-noir melodrama Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder exposes Hollywood’s glamorous yet corrosive façade, compelling audiences to confront the tension between illusion and reality lurking beneath its glittering exterior. Produced at the apex of the studio system, which marketed itself as a 'Boulevard of Dreams' promising immortality, youth, and wealth, Wilder unmasks the exploitation of ageing stars, the commodification of ambition, and the moral complicity of those who sustain these fantasies. Drawing on the fatalism of film noir and the emotional intensity of melodrama, the director constructs a cinematic world where glamour is inseparable from decay, ambition from delusion, and illusion from reality. Thus, the auteur presents Hollywood as a largely destructive system where pervasive illusion collapses the boundaries between performance, identity, and reality, inviting audiences to reflect on the ethical, psychological, and societal consequences of its seductive allure.
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Wilder opens his film by presenting Hollywood as a deceptive milieu where dazzling façades conceal insidious decay. Situating his film within a post-war American context that celebrates the industry as a beacon of aspiration and prosperity, Wilder immediately critiques the “dream factory” as a system sustained by illusion. The opening shots of a cracked, weed-infested pavement, accompanied by Franz Waxman’s dissonant, uneasy score, immediately invite the viewer into a world of decline rather than triumph, foreshadowing the rotting reality beneath the glitter. This contrast between promised allure and visible desolation is developed further in his low angle, underwater shot of Joe Gillis’s corpse floating in Norma Desmond’s swimming pool. In 1950s American culture, pools symbolised wealth and success, yet Wilder subverts the symbol into a grotesque tableau of death, entwining glamour with mortality. Joe’s deadpan posthumous narration, “he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool”, heightens the irony of the scene, transforming what once symbolised aspiration into a site of fatality and underscoring how Hollywood’s seductive illusions ensnare and destroy their pursuers. Wilder extends his critique through his portrayal of Norma’s mansion, described by Joe as “a great big white elephant of a place.” Her house embodies both grandeur and decay, its opulence masking the rot beneath, symbolising Hollywood’s obsession with grandiose spectacle at the expense of humanity. Joe’s observation that it was “stricken with a kind of creeping paralysis…crumbling apart in slow motion” reinforces the mansion as a metaphor for Hollywood itself; a space frozen in a bygone era, clinging to a faded prestige while the consequences of illusion and ambition slowly consume it. This decay is intensified by the director’s chiaroscuro lighting, which fractures the interior with oppressive elongated shadows, visually encoding Hollywood’s moral rot. Even the “waxworks” of silent stars, such as Buster Keaton, are listless cameos who embody the brutal ephemerality of fame and serve as haunting reminders that Hollywood cruelly discards its pioneers, prompting audiences to reflect on the destructive consequences of idolising fleeting celebrity. For contemporary audiences, these figures symbolise the transient and manufactured nature of celebrity; for Wilder’s contemporaries, they would have carried an elegiac weight, acknowledging the collapse of silent-era stardom. Through this intricate interplay of cinematic techniques, Wilder accentuates how Hollywood’s glamorous façades conceal a destructive reality, inviting audiences to question the power of illusion.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “My desires, like fell and cruel hounds,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Love is a powerful force that can cause people to be suppressed or flourish. Shakespeare’s 1602 comedy, Twelfth…
Love is a powerful force that can cause people to be suppressed or flourish. Shakespeare’s 1602 comedy, Twelfth Night, revolves around how love can come in different forms and how these forms impact individuals, which in turn challenges heteronormative standards. The play presents love as “desires, like fell and cruel hounds” that can serve as a source of liberation and a cause of suffering for those who experience it. From the outset of the play, Shakespeare presents the struggles of those who have an excessive amount of love. Moreover, self-love can make people temporarily liberated, but it makes them vulnerable to manipulation and can lead to their own demise. Ultimately, heteronormative love that stays within class boundaries is rewarded and allows happiness for those that have conformed to societal expectations.
Shakespeare establishes how excess love can lead to suffering and emotional confinement. In Orsino’s opening monologue, he metaphorically describes that “if music be the food of love” he wants it to “play on”. This semantic field of excess implies that he wants to overindulge in the experience of love, which in relation to it being compared to “food”, he is consumed by his desire for it wants so badly of it that he feels sick and for it to end. Moreover, he later conveys that his pursuit for Olivia’s heart feels as though this love is hunting him “like fell and cruel hounds”, which is a painful situation for him. His unrequited love for Olivia is causing him great hardship and makes him feel trapped within this bestial chase. Similarly, Olivia has an abundance of love for her late brother and father and says she will grieve for seven years, which is causing her to suffer. For this reason, she is characterised as a “cloistress”, a nun secluded from the rest of the world, because her love for her family is unable to be reciprocated by them and she therefore doesn’t have much freedom. In comparison, excess love doesn’t always have to be a confining experience, which is illustrated in Viola’s “make me a willow cabin at your gate” monologue where she depicts her love for Orsino. She displays it in a simple and less performative fashion, in which she isn’t overindulge and consequently, her connection is more authentic and isn’t based on lust, like Orsino’s love for Olivia. Although it is still painful for her to have this yearning love, it doesn’t cause her to shut down like Orsino or Olivia, but rather lights her up and makes her passion genuine. Shakespeare uses the experience of love to demonstrate how it is a sufferable feeling when it is unreciprocated, but it doesn’t necessarily have to trap people.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: 'In Sunset Boulevard,' the line between…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 65%: In Sunset Boulevard, the line between reality and illusion is constantly blurred. Discuss. Exposing the…
In Sunset Boulevard, the line between reality and illusion is constantly blurred. Discuss.
Exposing the powerlessness of human morality against the foolish dream[s] which have seized [their] heart[s], Billy Wilders quintessentially American film, 'Sunset Boulevard' poignantly unveils how pursuing stardom under Hollywood's false promises of glamour is inevitable without delusion. Compounded by the skillful overlaying of a gothic lens, this noir mystery emerges as a powerful vivisection of the consequences of obtaining affluence and the ability to escape ones illusory fantasy. Thus, Wilders iconoclastic opus uses an intelligent blend of fiction and meta-cinema to expose how the industry's fabricated world traps individuals and disrupts their idea of a truthful glamorous lifestyle.
Initially contextualising Hollywoods illusory world as a dystopian nightmare, Wilder satirically demonstrates how newfound fantasys emerge from addiction to wealth and status produced by the industry's artificial allure. From the outset of this film, a failed scriptwriter, Joe Gillis becomes a "chimp dancing for pennies" as he navigates through the survival system. Indicated through a low angle shot, the audience is positioned below the consequences of his ambitions while his floating corpse covers the screen. Wilder consciously places Joes death in Normas' pool as an ironic symbol of how luxury and status is accompanied by tragic outcomes. However, individuals similar to Joe, resist escaping this destructive industry due to the persistent glamour it provides, therefore trapping its victims within the Hollywood fabricated facade. Furthermore, Joe is aware of this "creeping paralysis" but finds comfort in Norma's security she provides as she
makes him her gigaloo. Thus, Wilder shows how economic desperation leads to moral decay. The "poor dope" continues to convince himself he is "only taking what's offered" and falls into his own profound fantasy. Consequently, Joe's delusion mirrors Hollywood's own - the belief that success and luxury define self worth. Moreover, Joe's posthumous narration of "Miss Havisham in her rotting wedding dress" foreshadows Norma's psychological decay. Throughout the film as the allusion of Miss Havisham indicates that Norma's behaviour and attempts to relive her past are just as deluded as refusing to remove a rotting wedding dress. Therefore, Norma's fantasies completely erase her idea of reality and as the film progresses and she is "ready for [her] close up". A tracking shot of her descending down the staircase follows her expressionist figure as she moves closer to the same cameras that once deserted her. Moreover, the zooming in of her face symbolises the significance of facial expressions in the 1920's, thus connecting to her addiction of worshipping Hollywood as a religion which recognised her talents. Ultimately, Wilder deliberately focuses on the delusions when entering Hollywood's system to expose their deteriorating nature of providing affluence to mask their psychological impacts on their victims.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Brontë examine the hypocrisies of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Charlotte Brontë’s proto-feminist gothic bildungsroman Jane Eyre (1847) is set against the backdrop of a rapidly…
Charlotte Brontë’s proto-feminist gothic bildungsroman Jane Eyre (1847) is set against the backdrop of a rapidly industrialising Victorian England, in which the ruling classes anxiously surveyed the political upheavals of Europe and clung to the illusion of moral and social stability. From the outset, Brontë exposes the hypocrisies at the heart of English society - those that sanctify privilege, disguise moral corruption beneath religious piety, and suppress individuality in the name of virtue. Conjointly, through her nuanced portrayal of social hierarchy, spiritual authority and gender expectations, Brontë dismantles the veneer of civility and moral order that conceals deep inequities and contradictions, suggesting instead that personal integrity and self-awareness are the truest markers of worth.
From the outset, Victorian society’s obsession with class and appearance functions as a façade that conceals moral decay and vanity. The aristocracy’s apparent refinement is revealed as performative, its supposed purity ironically tainted by pride and materialism. Jane sees Blanche as being “dressed in pure white”, aligned with her name being french for white, Brontë layers the image with irony: the whiteness connotes not purity but a superficial display of superiority. Jane’s later description of her as possessing “the same low brow, the same high features, the same pride” as her mother dismantles the illusion of inherited nobility. The tricolon compresses Brontë’s critique of a hereditary elite fixated on breeding and display, implying that social ‘purity’ has devolved into inbreeding - moral and intellectual stagnation masked as grace. The fixation on “noble name” and the need to “obtain riches” exposes how women of the upper class are commodified, valued only as currency in an economic system disguised as propriety. Brontë thus presents the English class system as one that prizes appearance over substance, revealing the hypocrisy of a society that rewards birthright while scorning moral and emotional authenticity.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the King, all who deserve it…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Punishment for one’s crimes is the intended goal for any natural world order. In the world of “Oedipus the King”,…
Punishment for one’s crimes is the intended goal for any natural world order. In the world of “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles contends that, while objectively guilty individuals do deservingly receive retribution for their sins, the gods’ lack of alignment to human ethics delegitimises such judgement. Indeed, Sophocles highlights how those who self-impose blindness pertinently face the consequences of their actions. Moreover, individuals who commit crimes under the guise of subjective innocence are brought to justice as their prior infractions are not erased from history. However, the gods are not portrayed as abiding by human ideals of right and wrong, or any sense of morality at all. Thus, Sophocles reveals how it is up to humans, and their often clouded rationale, to decide whether an act truly warrants penalties.
Revealing the treacherous characteristics associated with the worst aspects of the human condition, Sophocles justifies the punishments that befall individuals who are blinded by their hubris. Immediately portraying Oedipus as the “first of men”, and hence purporting him as the closest mortal to god, Sophocles establishes the very notion that fosters arrogance within the hero. It is this confidence accumulated through constant praise that drives him to defy against Tiresias himself. Given an Athenian audience would be acclimated to the prophet’s god-given talents, Oedipus’ comparison of Tiresias’ abilities to “stone” hence reads as a defiance against the gods themselves, reducing their abilities to nothing demonstrable. Here, the protagonist’s belief in his own achievements supplements his desire to submit any who resist his authority, however it is this hubristic expectation itself that solidifies his status as a tyrant. Accordingly, Sophocles indicts those who invert the natural order, casting divine punishment as an inevitable reckoning. When Oedipus realises that Tiresias’ claims had indeed been true, he bemoans how while “[Apollo] ordained my fate, the hand that struck my eyes was…mine alone.” Though Sophocles does not discount the influence of fate in the protagonist’s downfall, he establishes Oedipus’ ability to alter his tragedy in one medium, being his arrogance. Indeed, the narration, “I’ll bring it all to light myself” depicts light—a visually perceived agent—as a metaphor for the truth. As vision is likened to knowledge in this way, the sight that was synonymous with power for Oedipus who relied precisely on his intellect is “[stripped] away” by “[his own] command”; Oedipus recognises his culpability in inhibiting the very skill that made him king, and in turn condemns the pride that blinded him so. To an Athenian audience, Oedipus’ downfall warns against concentrated power in one man, suggesting that blindness can extend when communal counsel is ignored. Moreover, it is only in blindness, Sophocles postulates, that Oedipus can finally face the truth he was too proud to acknowledge—an eternal reminder of the danger of hubris. Therefore, the playwright suggests to a devout Athenian audience that the belief a mortal could overcome their own predestination, even from the pinnacle of human power, is comparable to blasphemy; in Oedipus’ case, such a belief was only able to be maintained through prideful delusion. Ultimately, the dramatist depicts the capacity of hubristic tendencies to cloud rational judgement and accentuate impetuosity, warning the tragedy that may arise as a result of disregarding one’s mortality.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: In High Ground a desire of control is…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: Initially, Johnson depicts the colonisers to be brutal, blood-hungry animals, who resort to violence in order…
Initially, Johnson depicts the colonisers to be brutal, blood-hungry animals, who resort to violence in order to have control over the land. While this bloodthirst is underpinned by the coloniser's yearning for control over the land, Johnson suggests that their inure relationship with violence is also because a recently subsided war. In the opening scenes of the film, Johnson articulates a tragic massacre resulting in the deaths of many Aboriginal people. This massacre is the first glimpse, the audience sees of the British, where Johnson clearly articulates their brutal nature. He suggests that their actions weren’t merely accidental as one of the rivermen remarks ‘did I get her’, after killing the mother of Gutjuk. This Barbaric and infiltrating nature is accentuated through the use of fast camera movements, and harsh gunshots
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent do the characters of Sunset…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Billy Wilder’s gothic noir film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ set in the early 1950s exposes the dreamlike facade that…
Billy Wilder’s gothic noir film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ set in the early 1950s exposes the dreamlike facade that Hollywood portrays itself to be. Wilder accentuates the lack of judgement within Hollywood and their failure to adapt in their everchanging environments. Wilder portrays many of the characters to fail to adapt, especially through the advancement of cinematography, deluded by their own capabilities, individuals' moral compass being clouded, causing them to choose to live the life of comfort, and the success one can reap from being able to accept their circumstances.
Wilder utilises the advancement in technology for cinematography to stress individual's failure to adapt and Hollywood leaving those who originated from olden cinematography. In an industry like Hollywood, where beauty and youth stand above all, it is quintessential for Hollywood to abandon those who cannot keep up their beauty and youth; especially women. Norma Desmond, former star now lost to time is intently casted by Gloria Swanson, an actress that used to be a star, to highlight the prevalence of lookism within Hollywood. The switch from silent films to “talkies” leaves behind many of the old stars, such as Norma and the ‘waxworks’. This inability to transition successfully is reinforced when Norma enters Paramount Studio [Norma’s failure to adapt to Hollywood stems from her delusions, showcased in the scene] where she pushes the microphone away from her signifying something. This is further accompanied with Waxman’s music score [music directed by Franz Waxman, with the music] sounding fairytale-like until she pushes the microphone away. {technology} Moreover, Wilder uses [camera utilises] a close up shot in this scene to showcase the offended facial expressions Norma makes when the microphone comes, hinting the offence she has taken from the insistence of Hollywood that transition from silent movies to incorporate sound is the new direction that Hollywood is now pursuing [request to adapt to the new form of movies]. This is further evident with Norma’s stating that “it’s the pictures that got too small for me” highlighting Norma’s refusal to accept her failure to adapt to the new change. Wilder creates a montage of Norma’s beauty procedures for her return that is never coming, with painful looking procedures, subtly signalling the pain required for an older actor to come back to relevance. Ultimately, Wilder utilises the change in technology to accentuate Hollywood’s abandonment of former stars.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal journey - my life, my story
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: My life, my story This time the sound of the whistle to reassemble us to hear the coach's final words wasn't…
My life, my story
This time the sound of the whistle to reassemble us to hear the coach's final words wasn't welcoming. Normally after a training session for soccer I was ready to allow my body to relax again; to give it a reward for its strength and ability to improve my status in the team and feel healthy. Yet, this time the whistle acted like a lightning bolt through my body. Simultaneously the sound of the whistle and my body breaking down forced me to the ground. I had no control. The dampness of the grass and the freezing cold air were no match for the pain that engulfed my body. All I could manage was a primal scream. I knew it felt wrong. I knew I needed assistance immediately. I knew that the bright pitch lights would be shepherding me off the pitch to the path track rather than lighting the path track to the coach for one last pep talk.
The cliché that you don't know what you have until its gone is one that hits home the hardest. Who would have thought that my knee could in fact become the villain of my story. It seemed like any other day up until the point when my happiness was stripped from me. For once Melbourne's cold, grey and wet winter weather matched my mood. I struggled to draw breath and the fast pace of my heart made me feel as if I were about to explode. I knew it was bad, but until I managed to take off my tight soccer sock I still had some hope. Like blowing up a red balloon my knee expanded as the sock no longer held back the swelling. The MRI results reported the worst news - my ACL and minscus were torn, badly. Let my story begin...
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Speak up, the time is now
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: They say silence is neutrality. But in a world where bombs don't discriminate, silence is complicity. The olive…
They say silence is neutrality. But in a world where bombs don't discriminate, silence is complicity. The olive tree once whispered peace through the wind– now their branches lie broken, their ashes scattered on the battlefield. Amid the blazing sun, the crowd gathers in the heart of the city chanting in unison. Sweat dripped down my face as bodies slammed against each other. The sound of megaphones ricochetted of buildings, layering over the rising tide of chants that erupted like a rolling thunder, relentless, unyielding. "FREE FREE PALESTINE." I came here today not because of the headlines of views but because of the countless images of suffering children and families in Gaza portrayed in the media. I stand here today not just as an individual but as a voice – one among thousands, millions. A voice that refuses to be silent. Every second that passes is the death of another innocent Palestinian. I scan the long city road, taking in protestors holding signs and posters. Their eyes burned with determination, a shared cause uniting us all.
They call this conflict. They call this war. But I call it what it is: genocide. Grief. Torment. I am proud to be siding with the Palestinians as they continue to fight for their freedom. I have head too many pleas to be patient, to be calm. But how can one be patient when the olive tree that once stood tall, rooted in the soil of ancestry is being ripped to shreds from its roots by Israel colonists. How can one be calm, when my dear brothers and sisters are being labelled as terrorists for demanding the right to live, to breathe, to simply exist?
The crowd surges on like a roaring tide, each voice a wave crashing against the silence. The world watches, sometimes with sympathy, often with ignorance. The gaze upon this issue as if it would just fix itself. Treating people – human beings that bleed the same blood as them as if they were just a number. The government raises statements of concern. As if concern could stop missiles and bullets. As if concern could help rebuild a house reduced to rubble. As if concern could bring back the lives of innocent Palestinians. But we people are here. Our voices roar whilst their silence drowns the dying. To say nothing is the same as holding the oppressors hand, to let the suffering continue.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: High Ground Skeleton Essay
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Skeleton Essay Intro: Stephen Johnson’s High Ground (2020) explores the enduring tension between [main opposing…
Skeleton Essay
Intro:
Stephen Johnson’s High Ground (2020) explores the enduring tension between [main opposing ideas – e.g. justice and vengeance / power and morality / harmony and destruction] within the context of colonial Australia.
Through his portrayal of [key theme from prompt], Johnson suggests that [insert contention – what you agree/disagree with or believe the film reveals].
Using [techniques – e.g. cinematography, symbolism, and characterisation], he reveals how [insert big idea – e.g. colonisation distorts justice / reconciliation requires balance / power corrupts morality].
Embodied through [brief roadmap: massacre scene / Gutjuk’s inner conflict / final act of reconciliation].
BP1: Colonial Violence / Power / Hypocrisy
Johnson exposes the [injustice / hypocrisy / moral corruption] of colonial authority through the [scene or event – e.g. massacre / pursuit / burning settlement], establishing the imbalance between British and Yolngu worlds.
The [shot type / technique – e.g. cross-shots, sound, lighting] between [characters] symbolises [idea – e.g. power imbalance / chaos / moral decay].
By [describe director’s choice briefly], Johnson [verb – highlights / critiques / condemns] the way colonial “law” masks [injustice / violence / hypocrisy].
This scene demonstrates that [restate link to question – e.g. reconciliation cannot occur where justice is corrupted / those in power lose moral vision].
BP2: Gutjuk’s Inner Conflict / Law vs. Lore
Through Gutjuk’s divided loyalties between [Yolngu culture] and [colonial law / church], Johnson reveals the [psychological impact / identity crisis] caused by colonisation.
The [technique – e.g. high-angle shot / symbolism of church bell / sermon scene] represents
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Skeleton Essay
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Intro: Stephen Johnson’s High Ground (2020) explores the enduring tension between [main opposing ideas – e.g.…
Intro:
Stephen Johnson’s High Ground (2020) explores the enduring tension between [main opposing ideas – e.g. justice and vengeance / power and morality / harmony and destruction] within the context of colonial Australia.
Through his portrayal of [key theme from prompt], Johnson suggests that [insert contention – what you agree/disagree with or believe the film reveals].
Using [techniques – e.g. cinematography, symbolism, and characterisation], he reveals how [insert big idea – e.g. colonisation distorts justice / reconciliation requires balance / power corrupts morality].
Embodied through [brief roadmap: massacre scene / Gutjuk’s inner conflict / final act of reconciliation].
BP1: Colonial Violence / Power / Hypocrisy
Johnson exposes the [injustice / hypocrisy / moral corruption] of colonial authority through the [scene or event – e.g. massacre / pursuit / burning settlement], establishing the imbalance between British and Yolngu worlds.
The [shot type / technique – e.g. cross-shots, sound, lighting] between [characters] symbolises [idea – e.g. power imbalance / chaos / moral decay].
By [describe director’s choice briefly], Johnson [verb – highlights / critiques / condemns] the way colonial “law” masks [injustice / violence / hypocrisy].
This scene demonstrates that [restate link to question – e.g. reconciliation cannot occur where justice is corrupted / those in power lose moral vision].
BP2: Gutjuk’s Inner Conflict / Law vs. Lore
Through Gutjuk’s divided loyalties between [Yolngu culture] and [colonial law / church], Johnson reveals the [psychological impact / identity crisis] caused by colonisation.
The [technique – e.g. high-angle shot / symbolism of church bell / sermon scene] represents [idea –
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the King, there is nothing the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: In Oedipus the King, Sophocles underscores how characters are unable to change their fates. Amid Oedipus’ tragic…
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles underscores how characters are unable to change their fates. Amid
Oedipus’ tragic dilemmas, the playwright not only emphasises how personal flaws amplifies ones
downfall, but also the importance of humility and piety in shaping the plays tragic conclusion.
Through the inexorable trajectory of the play, Sophocles aligns hubris with ones hamartia,
presenting personal flaws as a catalyst for ones downfall. In addressing the plague stricken polis of
Thebes, Oedipus declares “you pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers.” Through the first
person “me”, Sophocles underscores Oedipus’ hubris as he presumptuously assumes the role of the
gods, blindly claiming authority to grant divine favour to the citizens. In doing so, the playwright
criticises the ignorance of those in power. The Athenian audience, aware of the divine retribution
that befalls those who overstep mortal limits can anticipate the inevitable downfall of Oedipus.
Moreover, this hubris culminates in his confrontation with Tiresias, the living embodiment of the
truth he refuses to see. His mockery of Tiresias’ eyes as “blind as stone” foreshadows his own
peripeteia. The metaphor “stone” evokes Oedipus’ intellectual blindness; his inability to perceive the
truth despite its nearness renders him as inert and unseeing as the very object he mocks. Thus
rejecting the truth, Sophocles prefigures Oedipus anagnorisis and ultimate self inflicted blinding.
Having shown the consequences of personal hubris, Sophocles emphasises how this flaw corrupts
leadership itself, suggesting that the mortal order is prone to collapse when power is consolidated in
the hands of a tyrant. The chorus reinforces this warning “pride breeds the tyrant that is overripe
and rich with ruin”. Symbolically linking pride with overripe fruit, Sophocles employs visceral imagery
through “gorging, crammed to bursting” to illustrate how pride, much like overripe fruit, swells
beyond its natural limits before succumbing to its own decay. Consequently, Oedipus’ arrogance,
much the pestilence infecting Thebes, grows unseen until it “crashes down the abyss”. This
catastrophic plunge from the “glittering heights” of power into ruin accentuates how pride not only
brings about blindness, but cultivates a peripeteia governed by natural order. Ultimately as Periclean
Athens endures fraught leadership amidst the Peloponnesian war and relentless plague, Sophocles’
tragedy warns that when hubris infects populist rule, collapse is not only likely, but inevitable.
While personal flaws may contribute to ones blindness and downfall, Sophocles condemns the pride
that denies divine authority, suggesting that true blindness lies in resisting a fate governed by the
gods. Towards the beginning of the play, Jocasta is presented as pious and reverent. She enters the
palace carrying a “suppliants branch wound in wool”, a traditional symbol of prayer in ancient
Greece and pleads with the gods “I beg you.. set us free of defilement”. Here, Sophocles employs
dramatic irony to emphasise the blindness underpinning Jocasta’s piety; while she prays for
deliverance from defilement, she is unknowingly married to the very source. Her actions reflect
conventional religious devotion. However, her faith proves conditional and fleeting. Upon hearing of
Polybus’ death seemingly disproving of the prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father, Jocasta
abruptly abandons her faith, proclaiming “it’s all chance, chance rules our lives”. By
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Perspective
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: I was standing in the middle of the crowd, people from all over the city gathered here today. United by a…
I was standing in the middle of the crowd, people from all over the city gathered here today. United by a shared vision to end the long shadow of racism against Black Australians, we filled the streets of Melbourne. For too long, silence had been the weapon used against us but today, that silence would break. True empowerment is not found in stillness, but in the courage to speak up.
Around me, countless posters rose above the crowd, words written in bold black marker: “Enough is Enough.” The air was thick with chants “We will not be silent!” echoing off the walls of city buildings. You would think after so many protests, and many lives unfairly taken, change would come. But our government system still fails us, pretending to listen but never acting. Our voices had to grow louder.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset boulevard shows that seeking fame…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: The allure of celebrity often conceals the moral, psychological, and social costs lurking beneath its polished…
The allure of celebrity often conceals the moral, psychological, and social costs lurking beneath its polished façade. Billy Wilder’s 1950s film noir, Sunset Boulevard, interrogates the destructive pursuit of fame, exposing the ways socially constructed success can erode ethics and identity, while also acknowledging humanity’s innate longing for validation. Set against the post-war Hollywood studio system—a period dominated by strict contractual control, image management, and the commodification of actors—the film critiques how ambition is manipulated by systemic pressures, creating moral and psychological peril. Through layered characterisation, symbolic mise-en-scène, and meticulously crafted cinematography, Wilder examines the ethical compromises, vulnerabilities, and delusions engendered by stardom, while also demonstrating that principled ambition remains possible.
The corrosive psychological impact of fame is epitomised in Norma Desmond, a former silent film star abandoned by Hollywood with the rise of sound cinema. Her assertion, “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small,” conveys her delusional detachment, masking profound grief and obsessive attachment to past glory. Norma’s character reflects the struggles of silent-era stars displaced by cultural and technological change, highlighting the human susceptibility to vanity and external validation. Wilder’s use of Gothic mise-en-scène—oppressive corridors, decaying chandeliers, and claustrophobic interiors—mirrors her psychological imprisonment, while dramatic chiaroscuro lighting frames Norma’s figure in deep shadow, visually encoding her moral and emotional decay. The audience experiences a mixture of pity, fascination, and foreboding, as Norma’s tragic obsession warns of the psychological hazards of conflating self-worth with celebrity, inviting reflection on both historical Hollywood and contemporary society’s idolisation of fame.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: At what cost?
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 65%: TITLE: AT WHAT COST? Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum. Today, we stand not just in front of the…
TITLE: AT WHAT COST?
Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum.
Today, we stand not just in front of the Presidential House, but at the heart of our nation’s democracy. We are gathered in this Aragalaya protest to continue the struggle that Sri Lankans have fought over generations. We are protesting government corruption, economic mismanagement, and policies that have pushed us into poverty. Because, if the decisions of the Rajapaksa government continue to harm every home, village, and community, at what cost are we willing to remain silent?
My brothers and sisters, my name is Ranil, and I am seventeen. I am not a politician, a propagandist or a puppet. I am the son of hardworking middle-class parents, preparing for my final year twelve exams. Yet how can I focus on my studies while my mother cries quietly, terrified of hunger, and my exhausted father stands for hours queuing for fuel? How can I concentrate when blackouts sweep our home into darkness robbing it of warmth and safety?
I cannot. And nor should you.
This darkness in my home is a shadow of a larger, man-made crisis engulfing our nation, beginning with the very soil we stand on. A couple of months ago, the government banned chemical fertilisers overnight. While they feasted, entire villages could not grow crops, leaving many of our already impoverished brothers and sisters without fresh food. But hunger is not our only worry. Hospitals across Sri Lanka have run out of essential medicines, antibiotics, insulin, even painkillers. Doctors are forced to reuse equipment or turn away patients they can no longer help. Children with fevers die because pharmacies have empty shelves. The suffering is ours; the deaths are ours. Yet the power to solve these problems is not.
This pain stretches far beyond our villages, reaching every corner of our nation. This year, Sri Lanka’s debt has swollen to eighty-six billion dollars, more than the value of everything our nation produces in a year. This is a debt that every child born today inherits, a cost imposed upon their future without their consent. Decades of corruption and reckless borrowing have left our economy in ruins. We have seen the rupee’s depreciation, soaring prices, and leaders feasting while hospitals, schools, and households starve. Every corrupt decision shatters our trust, breaks
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: At what cost?
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: TITLE: AT WHAT COST? Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum. Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential…
TITLE: AT WHAT COST?
Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum.
Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential House, but at the heart of our nation’s democracy, gathered in this Aragalaya protest to continue the struggle that Sri Lankans have fought over generations. We are protesting government corruption, economic mismanagement, and policies that have pushed us into poverty. Because, if the decisions of the Rajapaksa government continue to harm every home, village, and community, at what cost are we willing to remain silent?
My brothers and sisters, my name is Ranil, and I am seventeen. I am not a politician, a propagandist or a puppet. I am the son of hardworking middle-class parents, preparing for my final year twelve exams. Yet how can I focus on my studies while my mother cries quietly, terrified of hunger, and my exhausted father stands for hours queuing for fuel? How can I concentrate when blackouts sweep our home into darkness robbing it of warmth and safety?
I cannot. And nor should you.
This darkness in my home is a shadow of a larger, man-made crisis engulfing our nation, beginning with the very soil we stand on. A couple of months ago, the government banned chemical fertilisers overnight. While they feasted, entire villages could not grow crops, leaving many of our already impoverished brothers and sisters without fresh food. But hunger is not our only worry. Hospitals across Sri Lanka have run out of essential medicines, antibiotics, insulin, even painkillers. Doctors are forced to reuse equipment or turn away patients they can no longer help. Children with fevers die because pharmacies have empty shelves. The suffering is ours; the deaths are ours. Yet the power to solve these problems is not.
This pain stretches far beyond our villages, reaching every corner of our nation. This year, Sri Lanka’s debt has swollen to eighty-six billion dollars, more than the value of everything our nation produces in a year. This is a debt that every child born today inherits, a cost imposed upon their future without their consent. Decades of corruption and reckless borrowing have left our economy in ruins. We have seen the rupee’s depreciation, soaring prices, and leaders feasting while hospitals, schools, and households starve. Every corrupt decision shatters our trust, breaks our faith and silences another voice.
Such struggles are not new to Sri Lanka. In 1953, the labouring class rose in the Hartal to protest rice subsidy cuts.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "People of the village have always hated…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: In Shirley Jackson’s *We Have Always Lived in the Castle*, fear functions as both a symptom and a catalyst of…
In Shirley Jackson’s *We Have Always Lived in the Castle*, fear functions as both a symptom and a catalyst of social division. Through the hostility of the villagers and the defensive rituals of the Blackwood sisters, Jackson explores how fear transforms from a rational emotion into a governing force that dictates behaviour and identity. While initially a response to trauma and difference, fear evolves into a self-perpetuating cycle of hatred and isolation. Jackson ultimately portrays fear as the origin of both conflict and containment — a force that sustains power but also imprisons those who rely on it for protection.
From the outset, Jackson positions fear as a socially ingrained response that structures the villagers’ relationship with the Blackwoods. Merricat’s observation that “the people of the village have always hated us” captures the generational nature of this fear, one rooted more in inherited superstition than reason. The villagers’ fear is intertwined with resentment and envy — “they’re afraid of anything that’s different” — reflecting a broader critique of conformity and collective insecurity. The women in the grocery store who “move away quickly” when Merricat enters exemplify how fear manifests as social exclusion, reinforcing the sisters’ otherness. Yet, Jackson complicates this by revealing moments of fascination within fear: the villagers “looked at the house as though it might strike them,” their dread mingling with a voyeuristic curiosity. Through such imagery, Jackson presents fear as performative — an emotion that both alienates and unites the villagers under a shared moral code. This social fear becomes the foundation upon which violence and prejudice are legitimised, exposing Jackson’s warning that communal fear can easily devolve into cruelty masquerading as moral order.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: At what cost?
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 90%: TITLE: AT WHAT COST? Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum. Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential…
TITLE: AT WHAT COST?
Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum.
Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential House, but at the heart of our nation’s democracy, gathered in this Aragalaya protest to continue the struggle that Sri Lankans have fought over generations. We are protesting government corruption, economic mismanagement, and policies that have pushed us into poverty. Because, if the decisions of the Rajapaksa government continue to harm every home, village, and community, at what cost are we willing to remain silent?
My brothers and sisters, my name is Ranil, and I am seventeen. I am not a politician, a propagandist or a puppet. I am the son of hardworking middle-class parents, preparing for my final year twelve exams. Yet how can I focus on my studies while my mother cries quietly, terrified of hunger, and my exhausted father stands for hours queuing for fuel? How can I concentrate when blackouts sweep our home into darkness robbing it of warmth and safety?
I cannot. And nor should you.
A couple of months ago, the government banned chemical fertilisers overnight. While they feasted, entire villages could not grow crops, leaving many of our already impoverished brothers and sisters without fresh food. But hunger is not our only worry. Hospitals across Sri Lanka have run out of essential medicines, antibiotics, insulin, even painkillers. Doctors are forced to reuse equipment or turn away patients they can no longer help. Children with fevers die because pharmacies have empty shelves. The suffering is ours; the deaths are ours. Yet the power to solve these problems is not.
This pain stretches far beyond our villages, reaching every corner of our nation. This year, Sri Lanka’s debt has swollen to eighty-six billion dollars, more than the value of everything our nation produces in a year. Decades of corruption and reckless borrowing have left our economy in ruins. We have seen the rupee’s depreciation, soaring prices, and leaders feasting while hospitals, schools, and households starve. Every corrupt decision shatters our trust, breaks our faith and silences another voice.
Such struggles are not new to Sri Lanka. In 1953, the labouring class rose in the Hartal to protest rice subsidy cuts. Their success lay not in confrontation alone, but in strategic unity and the moral clarity of their
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: At what cost?
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 87.5%: TITLE: AT WHAT COST? Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum. Today we stand not just in front of the…
TITLE: AT WHAT COST?
Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum.
Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential House, but at the heart of our nation’s democracy, gathered in this Aragalaya protest to continue the struggle that Sri Lankans have fought over generations. We are protesting government corruption, economic mismanagement, and policies that have pushed us into poverty. Because, if the decisions of the Rajapaksa government continue to harm every home, village, and community, at what cost are we willing to remain silent?
My brothers and sisters, my name is Ranil, and I am seventeen. I am not a politician, a propagandist or a puppet. I am the son of hardworking middle-class parents, preparing for my final year twelve exams. Yet how can I focus on my studies while my mother cries quietly, terrified of hunger, and my exhausted father stands for hours queuing for fuel? How can I concentrate when blackouts sweep our home into darkness robbing it of warmth and safety?
I cannot. And nor should you.
A couple of months ago, the government banned chemical fertilisers overnight. While they feasted, entire villages could not grow crops, leaving many of our already impoverished brothers and sisters without fresh food. But hunger is not our only worry. Hospitals across Sri Lanka have run out of essential medicines, antibiotics, insulin, even painkillers. Doctors are forced to reuse equipment or turn away patients they can no longer help. Children with fevers die because pharmacies have empty shelves. The suffering is ours; the deaths are ours. Yet the power to solve these problems is not.
This pain stretches far beyond our villages, reaching every corner of our nation. This year, Sri Lanka’s debt has swollen to eighty-six billion dollars, more than the value of everything our nation produces in a year. Decades of corruption and reckless borrowing have left our economy in ruins. We have seen the rupee’s depreciation, soaring prices, and leaders feasting while hospitals, schools, and households starve. Every corrupt decision our government acts upon breaks our trust, our faith and convinces more people that their voices no longer matter.
Such
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: At what cost?
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 90%: TITLE: AT WHAT COST? Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum. Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential…
TITLE: AT WHAT COST?
Ayubowan, Vannakum, Assalamu Alaikum.
Today we stand not just in front of the Presidential House, but at the heart of our nation’s democracy, gathered in this Aragalaya protest to continue the struggle that Sri Lankans have fought over generations. We are protesting government corruption, economic mismanagement, and policies that have pushed us into poverty. Because, if the decisions of the Rajapaksa government continue to harm every home, village, and community, at what cost are we willing to remain silent?
My brothers and sisters, my name is Ranil, and I am seventeen. I am not a politician, a propagandist or a puppet. I am the son of hardworking middle-class parents, preparing for my final year twelve exams. Yet how can I focus on my studies while my mother cries quietly, terrified of hunger, and my exhausted father stands for hours queuing for fuel? How can I concentrate when blackouts sweep our home into darkness robbing it of warmth and safety?
I cannot. And nor should you.
A couple of months ago, the government banned chemical fertilisers overnight. While they feasted, entire villages could not grow crops, leaving many of our already impoverished brothers and sisters without fresh food. But hunger is not our only worry. Hospitals across Sri Lanka have run out of essential medicines, antibiotics, insulin, even painkillers. Doctors are forced to reuse equipment or turn away patients they can no longer help. Children with fevers die because pharmacies have empty shelves. The suffering is ours; the deaths are ours. Yet the power to solve these problems is not.
This pain stretches far beyond our villages, reaching every corner of our nation. This year, Sri Lanka’s debt has swollen to eighty-six billion dollars, more than the value of everything our nation produces in a year. Decades of corruption and reckless borrowing have left our economy in ruins. We have seen the depreciation of the rupee, soaring prices and leaders, who feast while hospitals, schools, and households are left to starve. And it’s ordinary citizens like us who are forced to bear the cost. Every corrupt decision our government makes breaks our trust, our faith and convinces
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: The Creative Space Stimulus 1:…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: I always dreaded nine o’clock on Sunday mornings. Nine o’clock meant the end of ABC TV. Nine o’clock meant…
I always dreaded nine o’clock on Sunday mornings.
Nine o’clock meant the end of ABC TV.
Nine o’clock meant replacing creativity with mediocrity.
Nine o’clock meant Dad’s bellowing voice.
Nine o’clock meant Indian school.
As the short hand hits nine, the mighty roar -divine like Hanuman waking the mountains- from Dad to “Utho! Wake the hell up!” echoed through the house, bypassing the plaster-thin walls and to my ringing ears, stomping on my girly dream of meeting Glenn Maxwell. In a hurry, Dad rushed my sister and I to pack our bags and get into the car by nine-thirty. With my half-closed eyes, still covered with eye boogers, the ten-minute rideg felt like a splatter of art unfinished drained of its beauty and left colourless. The rhythm colours occurred once we arrive; my Dad gives us a small speech of motivation to always “look on the brightside and prepare for the unexpected ahead” as he never forgets to wave us goodbye. My elder sister Naomi and I, adjusting our thongs to the blazing asphalt, fixing our poorly worn dupattas, would troop unwillingly to the iron gates of the Indian school.
I was always seated at the back of the class, either with my head on the desk or my eyes wandering to the big window on my left, observing the gum trees expressing themselves freely, thinking about what surprise Mum packed me for lunch or what show would be on TV right now. I remember Miss Priya making us sound out sentences and practising which symbols to use when writing. We all had our own books with different colourful images of happy children playing games secretly in the artifice of mundane writing tasks in it, and mine remained empty for the entirety of the year, apart from a sentence or two (those were probably forced). I just wanted to stretch, break and abandon the confinement I was trapped in. So when the bell rang for recess, the only game I played was escape.
For me, the repeated, laborious lessons started when I was in Year Two. For my Indian father, these lessons probably started when Naomi was born. They were a way of ensuring his script of cultural heritage would remain for future generations. As much as he lost along his journey by boat to Australia, something of the Indian boy could stay in us. Perhaps this training of our culture could be inculcated within us so deeply that one day we would become a a greater Indian than him. In the man remained the boy who helped his parents cook dosas before opening shop, who had to collect buckets of water from dirty wells, who had to wake up three hours earlier to travel the long distance to school. Who tried and tried and failed to set himself free of his limitations so eventually transferring them to us in hope we’d break them.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the king there is nothing the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: In Oedipus the King, Sophocles presents fate as an inescapable force dictated by the divine, reflecting Athenian…
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles presents fate as an inescapable force dictated by the divine, reflecting Athenian reverence for the Gods’ authority. While the characters cannot alter their destined outcomes, Sophocles reveals that they retain limited agency in how their fates unfold. Through his use of symbolism, dramatic irony, and suffering, the playwright explores humanity’s struggle within divine boundaries, suggesting that though fate is fixed, one’s response to it remains a matter of choice.
In Sophocles' lamentable expose of Greek mythology, the playwright champions fate as an unavoidable consequence of the divine. In his attempt to construct the Gods as an unparalleled force with ancient Greek society the playwright underpins the stage direction depiction of a “stone altar dominating the facade”, employing its sacred connotations to symbolize the omnipresence of the divine throughout the play. This notion is exacerbated by Sophocles through the Aristotelian unity of place, ensuring that the altar is present throughout the duration of the play. In conjunction with the playwright's placement of the altar at the “center” of the stage is physically and metaphorically representative of the omnipotence and influence of the divine authorities throughout the play, serving as an ever present reminder to the audience of this notion. In a similar manner, the playwright attributes “Apollos” miasma of the polis as isolating the “wailing miseries” of Theban suffering with “no sword of thought to save them”. Sophocles' interweaving of lyricism with metaphor elevates the plight of the polis beyond a localised “plague” and into a spectacle of devastation, imbuing their suffering with a divine resonance. Given the Athenian society's value of the intelligence of their leadership, the playwright underpins the chorus’ perceived inability of this value to save them as indicative of the unyielding authority of the divine. In this way the playwright criticizes an overzealous approach to one's intelligence in its fallibility before the Gods and their plague. Continuing in this way, the playwright's portrayal of Sophocles internalized struggle with the “unspeakable, irresistible headwind” of his “prophecy” as it “guides” him to his “fatal harbour” acts to illustrate the inexorable force of the divine. As in the playwright's utilization of nautical imagery as a metaphorical representation of the unyielding force of divine fate Sophocles champions the uncontrollable aspect of the outcomes of fate. Given the pride of Athens in their naval supremacy at the height of the Peloponnesian war, Sophocles attributes fate to being akin to the uncontrollable natural forces that dictate the seas. Thus resonating with Athenians in their understanding of the seas, confronting them with their fallibility in the face of prophecy.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: The Weight of Change
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: What have I become? Loose threads, tarnished sequins, and dirty, torn lace is all that is left of my once…
What have I become? Loose threads, tarnished sequins, and dirty, torn lace is all that is left of my once beautiful self. I now spend my remaining days amongst scraps, just like myself, dreading the days until we are incinerated in this miserable landfill.
I remember my early days on this earth. The small room filled with the sounds of scissors gliding through rough polyester and needles piercing through milky white, floral lace as young hands rushed to piece together thousands of tops like myself. Within hours I was wrapped up in shiny plastic, boxed, taped, and labelled by postcode, ready to be shipped across the world.
New York is where I found myself. A city bustling with life and flashing with bright lights; I couldn't be more ready for my sequins to sparkle under the enormous street lights. As the delivery man dropped me off onto to a cherry red welcome mat, my heart raced in excitement; eager to see my new home. the door opened and I observed the cozy apartment, noticing every corner of the place to be filled to the brim with towers of attire, just like me, preparing themselves for the day they'd be worn.
"I can't wait to wear this new top!" I heard the young woman squeal into the phone. Hurriedly, I was ripped out of my zip lock bag, sparing only a few moments for inspection before putting me up on a metallic silver hanger amongst a crowded wardrobe. I was fortunate enough to be worn that very same night alongside dark, denim jeans, a buttery smooth hazel leather jacket, and black patent kitten heels that glistened under the bright moonlight.
As I walked into the club, all eyes were on me. I embraced how my sequins reflected the flickering rainbow lights.
"How vintage!" Shouted one girl.
"On trend, I see," exclaimed another.
Every compliment warmed my heart.
"I can't wait to be worn again," I thought as the night had come to an end.
Oh how wrong I was.
That night I was taken off and thrown into a dark, unfortunate little corner of the wardrobe. Six months. I had waited patiently for six whole months, hoping to be at least hung up again, yet I was left unshaken by the silence of the abandoned room. I wasn't even moved an inch. I was left heartbroken. A wave of sadness had taken over my heart as I yearned to be worn at least once more. I just couldn't understand why I was being so blatantly ignored.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ",Oedipus the King' suggests that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Sophocles' Greek tragedy, 'Oedipus the King' serves as a cautionary tale of the moral conduct one should be guided…
Sophocles' Greek tragedy, 'Oedipus the King' serves as a cautionary tale of the moral conduct one should be guided by through life. Originally performed during the golden age of Greece around 430 BCE, this didactic play suggests that humility will be rewarded and hubris is sinful, however ultimately, the worst sin is to defy the gods. Sophocles explores how excessive pride is shameful and the impacts on people's status from displaying pride rather than being humble, but above all, Sophocles argues that faith should be placed in the gods and to reject this notion is the worst flaw.
Sophocles portrays hubris as being shameful and a punishable force. In alignment with Greek theatrical conventions, Sophocles uses the chorus as a device to communicate the view of the common person, and depicts the chorus as a reflection of the play's traditional Athenian audience. The chorus describe pride as being "breakneck" and "ruinous". This suggests that the common person was intended to look down on pride and consider it shameful. Likewise, the chorus believe that "pride breeds the tyrant," which indicates how hubris is the cause of a person becoming oppressive and cruel and further establishes pride as being negative. Moreover, Sophocles explores how pride should be punished, as the chorus declare that they will reject anyone who comes into Thebes "high and mighty". This suggests that carrying oneself with pride will cause them to be outcasted by the common people. This is evident through Oedipus, as once succumbing to his fate, the chorus "shrink away" from him, displaying the people's rejection of him which was brought on by his hubris. Likewise, Oedipus being "drive[n] out of Thebes" further demonstrates the punishment that repays pride, as Oedipus is met with exile after previously "out [ranging] all men". This serves as a message for the traditional Athenian audience that excessive pride is sinful and will cause a person to become outcasted, a moral which extends to today's contemporary audience and suggests that hubris is shameful.