VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “ Jane Eyre is more about personal…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, is a seminal work of…
Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, is a seminal work of Victorian literature that challenged the zeitgeist of 19th-century norms surrounding gender, class, and morality.
While Jane Eyre primarily explores womanhood and aspirations for growth in the cruel conditions of the Victorian era, Bronte also encapsulates the ability of love to prevail over injustice and oppression.
Bronte examines the ability of the rigid and oppressive state of social expectations to confine individuals of their deprived identities. Bronte highlights the power of defying the engrained social expectations within the Victorian epoch to provide characters with a sense of self. Although Bronte illustrates that personal integrity is essential to discovering one’s identity, she emulates that this identity can be found through genuine romantic relationships.
Ultimately, Bronte portrays growth and maturity as central to human flourishing and integrity, while also presenting love as an essential force that sustains and enriches true independence.
Bronte explores the authoritarian climate of the Victorian era to hinder individuals ability to explore notions of independence and authority within their own life. Bronte illustrates the cruel nature of the Victorian era through Jane's self-reflection that she was staring into the” forlorn regions of dreary space” of Gateshead's backyard. Here, Bronte transfigures the depicted landscape into a metaphysical realm that mirrors Jane's interiority. The accompaniment of the lexical words conjure a vast, cosmic like desolation, rendering the terrain as an externalization for Jane's sense of self, adrift in an interminable landscape that yearns for emotional connection and fulfillment within her own identity. Such imagery crystallizes Jane's existential dislocation from discovering her own identity and belonging. In crafting this alignment between Jane's spiritual emptiness and physical desolation,Brontë critiques the corrosive expectations placed on children to remain docile and conform to Victorian norms, thereby detaching them from the possibility of ever discovering their true selves.
To further reinforce the ability of the controlling nature of the Victorian era to stifle individuals ability to explore their own lives, Bronte describes Jane's internal attitude as yearning for “liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer”. Bronte utilizes the anaphoric repetition of liberty to magnify Jane’s unrelenting desire for authority and autonomy within a society that demands docility and conformity from women. By elevating liberty into a near personified and spiritual necessity, Bronte positions independence as central to Jane's very being, suggesting that without control within her own life, she cannot live and flourish authentically. Thus, Bronte’s proto-feminist grandeur exposes the desire for women's independence within the rigid patriarchal nature of the Victorian era, thus sparking wider calls for social reform, such as those expressed in Chartist movements.
Finally, Bronte seeks to further solidify the strict climate of the Victorian era through the Calvinistic description of Mr.Brocklhurst as “ take[ing] away” Jane's “heart of stone”, and “give[ing] you a heart of flesh”. Through this, Bronte symbolically expresses Jane's inherent emotions to be compared to that of an insentient object. Therefore, by illustrating Jane as incapable of feelings and understanding emotions, Bronte highlights the sense of alienation that Jane faces due to disobeying the cruel nature of the Reed household’s beliefs towards docility and submissiveness within children and women-alike. Furthermore, the biblical allusion of this phrase alludes to the Book of Ezekiel, which thus illustrates that Mr.Brocklehurst, whilst often presenting himself as pious and humble, compares his status to an omnipresent and god-like figure in order to forcefully spark Jane's repentance and moral awakening. Therefore, by alluding Mr.Brocklehurst as having all dominion over Jane, Bronte expresses the calvinist approaches to Christianity as a denying force to discover one’s identity. LINKING SENTENCE
Bronte emulates the ability of transcending over the rigid social expectations within the Victorian era to allow for individuals to flourish and discover their independence.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does High Ground depict the lasting…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Stephen Johnson’s film High Ground powerfully explores how the legacy of colonial violence continues to shape…
Stephen Johnson’s film High Ground powerfully explores how the legacy of colonial violence continues to shape lives, landscapes, and identities in Australia. Set in the aftermath of a brutal massacre, the film delves into the long-term emotional and moral consequences of colonisation for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous characters. Through its depiction of intergenerational trauma, moral conflict, and the struggle for justice, High Ground reveals that the wounds of colonial violence persist across generations and remain embedded in the Australian landscape.
High Ground portrays the intergenerational trauma of colonial violence through Gutjuk’s fractured identity and the haunting legacy of the massacre that defines his life. As a child survivor of the opening massacre, Gutjuk grows up disconnected from his culture, raised by missionaries yet unable to escape the violence that destroyed his family. His position between two worlds symbolises how colonisation severs ties to land, family, and identity. The film uses fragmented flashbacks and long silences to visualise Gutjuk’s recurring memories of the event, showing how trauma cannot be contained to the past. Through these techniques, the director conveys that colonial violence does not end with death; it echoes through generations, shaping how survivors perceive themselves and their world. In this way, Gutjuk’s story becomes a broader reflection of the enduring emotional and cultural scars left by colonisation on Indigenous communities.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “On the moon we have everything” Jackson’s…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 67.5%: In Shirley Jacksons gothic novel We Have Always Lived the Castle when Merricatt states 'On the moon we have…
In Shirley Jacksons gothic novel We Have Always Lived the Castle when Merricatt states 'On the moon we have everything' emphasizing that fantasies are extremely present in the novel. Jackson presents the idea that fantasies are preferable most of the time in the book as the constant fear of reality and desires of a perfect life. However fantasy is seen as unsustainable emphasizing that although majority of fantasies are preferable reality is still preferable for some. Jackson presents a world of desires being built of fear and greediness, those who aren't held to these desires emphasize the danger. Throughout the novel fear is a constant driver to escape the reality of the real world, from male dominance and patriarchal normalities. Merricat presents the desires as she is fearful of a life of societal normalities. When Charles enters into the household it instantly puts fear into Merricats head and causes her to act accordingly. When Charles arrives Merricat emphasizes he is 'bigger and bigger' as he 'comes closer' and Constance is quick to state 'he looks like father' as Merricat is fearful of Male power this causes her to prefer a life away from reality on the moon. Considering Merricat murdered her family and attempted to kill Rhoda with the fire (gold, yellow and orange) it demonstrates significance of her actions as they are out of fear. The burning of Charles room which was in the past the fathers room highlights the lengths Merricat will go to live in a fantasy as she is unable to live normally.
only present in the minds of the Blackwoods but also are instilled within the villagers, they desire a life without the Blackwoods as they are fearful of their powers giving the girls "Bacon, fruit" as a fearful act of not causing them to hate them apart from destroying the house. When Merricat goes to the village the villagers all come out and talk about the sugar used to kill the Blackwoods, they also desire the departure of the girls and fantasise about it due to being fearful that they are witches and they live outside of the normalities they are used to. The constant fear evident in We Have Always Lived in the Castle highlights the desires of reality are unpreferable.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Desire is the most dangerous force in…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Set in post-war America, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard explores the dangerous intersection between desire and…
Set in post-war America, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard explores the dangerous intersection between desire and delusion within Hollywood, a world where ambition promises glamour but delivers decay. While the film foregrounds desire as a strong force, whether for wealth, relevance or recognition. Wilder ultimately argues that desire itself is not the true danger. Rather, it becomes destructive only when corrupted by denial, exploitation and moral compromise. Through Joe Gillis descent into material dependence, Hollywood’s systemic manipulation of longing, and Norma Desmond’s spiral into madness, Wilder demonstrates that it is not desire but delusion, obsession and self-deception that prove fatal.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “The representation of human experiences…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: George Orwell’s 1949 Swiftian satire Nineteen Eighty-Four invites us to appreciate the intricate nature of…
George Orwell’s 1949 Swiftian satire Nineteen Eighty-Four invites us to appreciate the intricate nature of humanity by representing how the abuse of power by totalitarian governments degrades our individual and collective experiences. Orwell explores how oppressive authorities suppress the intricate societal pillars of culture, expression and freedom to maintain power. He then reveals how this suppression brutalises individual human behaviour and motivations because it undermines emotion and intricate thought. Ultimately, he argues that we must resist the political apathy that enables oppressive governments to maintain power and crush human intricacy. Therefore, his representation of human experiences not only challenges us to consider the intricate nature of humanity, but exhorts us to greater political vigilance so we can preserve it.
Orwell makes us aware of the intricate nature of humanity by representing how totalitarian authorities suppress intricate collective experiences of culture, expression and freedom in order to assert control. His bleak vision was informed by Stalin’s USSR: a regime built upon the fabrication of history in Stalin’s ‘cult of personality’, and ruthlessly enforced by the NKVD. The symbolic colourlessness and propaganda-poster motif he uses to describe London reflects the loss of human intricacy and culture under such leadership: “there seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere.” Orwell uses the telescreens, dramatically capitalised “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” posters and allusions to Stalin in Big Brother’s “black-moustachio’d face” as metonymy for how governmental surveillance dominates both physical and cultural collective experiences. Winston’s metatextual construction of the fictitious “Comrade Ogilvy” serves as a symbol for the vast, worthless masses of information produced by totalitarian governments to undermine the intricacy of real human history: “Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed…would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.” Similarly, Orwell’s satirical representation of Newspeak ignites the idea that political slovenliness causes self-expression to degrade, which in turn destroys our capacity for intricate thought and resistance: “we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” The political bitterness that marks Nineteen Eighty-Four as a Swiftian satire ultimately culminates in O’Brien’s monologue, where Orwell juxtaposes the politicised verb “abolish” to symbols of human intricacy, “we shall abolish the orgasm…there will be no art, no literature, no science…when we are omnipotent”, to express how totalitarian rulers suppress collective experiences to gain metaphoric omnipotence. Thus, Orwell makes us aware of the intricate nature of humanity by representing a future in which totalitarian governments suppress it.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Oedipus the King argues that true wisdom…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: The dichotomy between fate and free will has long been debated over the course of history, they can have the same…
The dichotomy between fate and free will has long been debated over the course of history, they can have the same results. Oedipus the King, Sophocles' dark and timeless play, explores how true wisdom can only be discovered through suffering. While he suggests that characters before they suffer are unaware of their true wisdom, he also advocates how characters can discover their true selves without suffering.
Sophocles depicts how people have a lack of self-knowledge prior to suffering forming a false perception of themself. During the prologos, Sophocles utilises an imperative sentence to show Apollo's authority over morals. Sophocles illustrates Oedipus's personality as Oedipus arrogantly declares himself 'Thebes avenger' and the 'champion of Apollo' . Through using 'champion of Apollo', it rushes straight past confidence into arrogance incorporating a theme of justice to be served to the murderer of King Lains. The vast number of 'I' statements and the repetition such as 'I'll start again', 'I'll bring it all to light' and I am the land's avenger is used to boastfully declare himself a saviour. As he is yet to realise he is the murderor, this created a false sense of power based on false beliefs feeding into the moral that true wisdom only comes from suffering. Characterising Oedipus as unaware of his actions, paired with the audience already knowing the outcome, Sophocles emphasis the ironic harm that not suffering can cause placing Oedipus into a false sense of security with his power. Furthermore, Sophocles expresses the harm it can cause through the actions Oedipus is willing to take to seek justice. Over the course of the play, Sophocles charts Oedipus's tyrannous behaviour as constantly getting worse and worse. This portrays how Oedipus's behaviour is getting the better of him, which is evident as Oedipus states that 'I plot and pay him back. Through using this, it highlights his impetuousness as a result of his hubristic personality. This causes a continuing in Oedipus's boastful promises to save Thebes as he believes he is rightfully serving justice on King Laius's murderer. This causes his initial good intentions to begin to shape his personality also causing an increase in tyrannical behaviour. Positioning Oedipus as hubristic and impetuous, Sophocles expresses Oedipus as a warning for the Athenian audience about the dangers of populist leaders and how Oedipus, unaware of his actions and future suffering has developed a different approach to decisions without the help of true knowledge as Oedipus is yet to realise who he truly is. By highlighting the lack of knowledge a populist leader has, Sophocles cautions how without suffering and with free will, characters can still make the wrong decisions.
Sophocles justifies how even though suffering is a leading factor to one developing true wisdom, there are also people who know who they truly are without suffering. Utilising irony during episode 4, Oedipus' emotions after blinding himself are strong acting as a contrast to when he expresses how "nothing I could see could bring me joy. " By using "nothing I could see", it is ironic as Oedipus has just blinded himself but now realises how he is truly
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the King, all who deserve it…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Sophocles' Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, set in 5th century CE, follows the story of Oedipus, whose tragic…
Sophocles' Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, set in 5th century CE, follows the story of Oedipus, whose tragic downfall was a result of his actions. The play worked to mimic pain Athenians felt during this era in history and through using mirrored ideas, Sophocles suggests the importance of fealty to the gods, the need for moral education and understanding of fate as inevitable. By defining punishment and exploring the causes of suffering, Sophcles rendition of this myth reveals human nature and the world's need for balance.
Sophocles underscores the meaning of punishment that is a tragic framework that Oedipus the King is built on. After the loss of the Peloponnesian War, Greece faced death and pain. Mirrored in the play, Sophocles calls his Athenian male audience to sympathise with characters that endure suffering by acknowledging tragedy is not a foreign concept. Proving to be a factor of relatability, Sophocles characterises punishment most painfully in Oedipus. The combined effect of dramatic irony to increase suspense and the following of the Aristotelian model of a tragedy functions to amplify the eventual catharsis felt in Oedipus' punishment. While not sentenced to death, Oedipus' emotional pain is transformed into physical pain when he gouges his eyes out, "bringing night down upon them". The symbolism of light versus darkness of Oedipus' blinding illuminates connections between morality and their respective consequences. However, the "man of agony" is not the only one who is punished. Jocasta's realisation that the pilot of the vessel has gone to pieces propels her fate due to anagnorisis. Sophocles portrays Jocasta as a victim of her own ignorance, and her lack of autonomy to instigate change in moments of peripeteia results in suicide. Death also permeates Lauis' story, in which the patricide he is subjected to is conveyed as just due to his violation of sacred laws of hospitality. Sophocles utilises tragedy to define punishment, which manifests as pain, exile and even death.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Oedipus the King demonstrates that there…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Many writers of ancient or modern times write to warn audiences about their behaviour and asks if they are morally…
Many writers of ancient or modern times write to warn audiences about their behaviour and asks if they are morally correct in society. Sophocles’ dark tragedy Oedipus the King explores how defying the gods decreed fate leads to loss of status. While committing sins against those of high-power leads to endless suffering.
Sophocles’ illustrates that broken oracles led to devastation, no matter who is involved. Utilising visceral imagery in the Prologos, Sophocles’ illustrates Thebes as a city laden with “merciless wails” for the dead and that the “city is dying” and is a “cortege”. Here the lexeme “cortege” depicts Thebes as a perpetual funeral procession and that the plague will continue to make the innocent suffer. By characterising Thebes as overrun by death, Sophocles appeals to the Athenian audience who are also victims of a plague for empathy. Employing dramatic irony, Sophocles portrays Oedipus as a “saviour” who can “grant” the citizens “prayers”. The priest also praises Oedipus as the “best of men”. Here, the phrase the “best of men” is ironic because the audience know that Oedipus is the cause of the plague, but this praise suggests he is a revered leader that already saved Thebes in the past. However, Sophocles exposes Oedipus’ arrogance by implying that he can “grant […] prayers”, which reinforces his thought that he has the power to become a saviour once again, but he is a mere man. Furthermore, by declaring that he is the “champion of Apollo” Oedipus shows that he is inwardly impetuous, while in contrast Creon is a man of respect and rationality, who holds respect for the gods. Establishing Oedipus as a relentless man of authority, Sophocles questions whether a man who compares himself to a divine power is really a true leader.
Sophocles also condemns those who plan to defy the decree of the gods. Employing imagery in episode 3, Sophocles depicts Jocasta as a scornful queen, who plans to destroy these “awful prophecies” are immoral. Through this Jocasta actively attempts to swoon in and stop the revelation of the truth, protecting her incestuous relationship with Oedipus. In her plans to commit sins against the gods, Sophocles contrasts it with her pleas to the Chorus to protect a “man of agony”, this illustrates that as the truth slowly starts
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Time to play!
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: Time to Play Parents, listen up! Are your little ones struggling to find time to play? Are their creative…
Time to Play
Parents, listen up! Are your little ones struggling to find time to play? Are their creative minds being constricted in what they can do in school? Do you wish there was a place where they were free to do whatever they want to do? Well you’re in luck! Here at ‘Little Bodies Big Minds’ we are aiming to provide kindergarten-primary school children a safe space in which they can think whatever they like to think and play whatever they like to play! Come on parents, it’s time to play!
We are strong believers in supporting creativity here at Little Bodies Big Minds. Your mind is a rocket ship, let your ideas soar! Think outside of the box! It is so important to support creative thinking while your children are still young. It is fundamental to their development and their skills to encourage them to think and play freely. We know that at school, it’s hard for kids to do whatever they want to do, which is just as important for them to learn rules and understand boundaries, but we believe there should be a balance. Children have such unique minds and abilities, why not celebrate them? If you still aren’t convinced, here’s how we work.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Framework for Section A Exam
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Jane Harrison’s play Rainbow’s End examines the daily negotiations of an Aboriginal family as they confront the…
Jane Harrison’s play Rainbow’s End examines the daily negotiations of an Aboriginal family as they confront the twin pressures of colonial power and their own desire for dignity. Harrison suggests that racism damages material conditions and belonging, but that agency forged in family, memory and a claim to country reasserts identity. Through authoritative stagecraft, pointed dialogue and public rhetoric, the play presents a nuanced view: oppression constrains, but culture and collective action contest and reclaim agency.
Harrison establishes the play’s moral axis through intimate domestic scenes that quietly register the stakes of colonial policy. The stage directions where Papa Dear appears in Gladys’s memory the hat, the dance and Gladys’s smile collapse past and present (Stage Direction), making private memory an act of cultural persistence. This memory foregrounds the play’s argument, personal belonging is a form of resistance. The juxtaposition of warm family ritual with later bureaucratic indignities intensifies the emotional cost of displacement.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "We killed him openly," Pedro Vicario…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Through the rigid gender hierarchies of the town, Márquez dismantles the moral boundary between guilt and…
Through the rigid gender hierarchies of the town, Márquez dismantles the moral boundary between guilt and innocence. Santiago Nasar’s “saintly” name contrasts sharply with his predatory behaviour toward women such as Divina Flor, whom he seizes “by the pussy.” In a society defined by machismo, such domination is excused as masculine entitlement rather than moral failure. Similarly, the Vicario brothers’ claim that their act of murder was a “matter of honour” transforms violence into duty. Within these gendered codes, morality is displaced by social obligation — guilt becomes virtue, and innocence is measured not by conscience but by conformity. Through this distortion, Márquez exposes how patriarchal ideology erases moral accountability and renders both victim and perpetrator complicit in sustaining collective delusion.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent do the characters in the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Sophocles’ 5th-century BC tragedy Oedipus the King serves as a poignant reminder of the inexorable cruelty of…
Sophocles’ 5th-century BC tragedy Oedipus the King serves as a poignant reminder of the inexorable cruelty of fate. Written for the Festival of Dionysus to honour the Greek pantheon, the play reflects key Athenian values necessary within Ancient Greece, endorsing the notion that only through suffering do individuals learn life’s lessons. Through Oedipus’ hubris, Sophocles exposes mankind’s ignorance towards acting modestly. Likewise, Jocasta’s profane dismissal of prophecy embodies humanity’s dangerous inclination to dismiss spiritual truths in favour of rational understanding. Ultimately, Sophocles potrays a society wavering between devotion and despair, revealing that only after enduring tragedy can one grasping life’s lessons.
Oedipus’ excessive pride exemplifies his failure to learn life’s lesson of acting in moderation. Whilst Athenian society championed the value of sophrosyne - the need for balance and moderation - his sheer disregard of the ideal demonstrates his inability to internalise the central societal expectation. Indeed, believing he can “equal the gods” by attempting to “grant [the Thebans] prayers” exemplifies the height of his ego, so mounting that he holds the fallacious belief that a mere human can equal the likes of the omnipresent beings. However, by elevating the audience to the ubiquitous viewpoint of the gods themselves, they are aware of the irony in Oedipus’ own hubristic actions, given that he is doomed to destruction, as his fate has been fulfilled prior to the play's opening. Juxtaposing his arrogance against the moderation of “noble Creon”, Sophocles accentuates Oedipus’ failure to learn life’s lessons as he scorns “the truth” from Tireseas that “[he is] the murderer [he] hunts” rather than accept culpability like Creon. Indeed, his brother-in-law, upon facing accusations of “scheming against [Oedipus]”, is immediately is left with “no desire to linger out [his] life”, accepting that his “reputation is in ruins” instead of pointing to conspiracy as Oedipus does, the action stemmed from his deeply-rooted insecurity of his authority. Nevertheless, Oedipus continuously demonstrates his failure to act in moderation as his hubris consumes his pursuits to “find the murderer”, compelling him to reject warnings and accept counsel from those around him, ignoring Jocasta’s dissuasion to “call off [the] search” out of his own arrogance. Indeed, his proclivity to “move quickly” instead of “calmly, rationally” as opposed to Creon further reinforces Oedipus’ failure to learn life’s lessons to act in moderation. Subsequently, Sopohcles warns against individuals' excessive tendencies through Oedipus’ eventual destruction, with his tragic peripeteia cautioning ancient and modern audiences alike of the danger in not learning to uphold sophrosyne. Yet in his very blinding, Sophocles symbolises Oedipus’ attainment of knowledge, as similarly to Tireasias, he is left physically blinded but granted with metaphorical sight, coherent of the truth, as well as the necessity to respect prophecy. Conceding that “Apollo, he ordained [his] agencies” highlights Oedipus’ acceptance of the supremacy of the gods, realising that their divine will will inevitably unfold regardless of any human attempts to evade prophecy. Thus, through his mutilation, Sophocles suggests that Oedipus finally learns life’s lessons, submitting to the gods.
Additionally, Jocasta’s dismissal of divine prophecy
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: how does Sunset Boulevard explore the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Wilder critiques how ambition is corrupted by Hollywood's ruthless system exposing how men and women are forced…
Wilder critiques how ambition is corrupted by Hollywood's ruthless system exposing how men and women are forced to pursue success through very different gendered roles. The film's opening shot depicts the iconic Paramount logos, only to pan down to the title 'SUNSET BLVD' painted on a grimy gutter strip. This subverts audience expectations and equates Hollywood 'trash' foreshadowing Hollywood's darker underbelly. Such corruption festers underneath Hollywood's idolised facade, exemplified by Joe's floating dead body splayed in a star like shape. Ironically, only in death does Joe achieve his ambition of stardom, bleakly revealing the dangers of trying to 'make it' in Hollywood. Yet Wilder highlights that Joe's ambition is tied to his masculinity. Unable to succeed as a screenwriter, he exploits Norma's wealth and affection becoming femenised as a 'kept man', his survival dependant on women. Conversely, Norma's individuality is relegated to merely an 'old time Star' demonstrating how women are discarded once their beauty fades and thus denied ambition altogether. The barrage of camera flashes capturing Joe's
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: Tales from the country…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: (reflective short story) I grew up believing the wind on the ridge belonged to no one. It ran wild through…
(reflective short story)
I grew up believing the wind on the ridge belonged to no one. It ran wild through the peppercorn trees and over Grandpa's tin roof, carrying the smell of dust and eucalyptus down to the creek. Back then, I thought the country was simply generous – always giving, never asking. It fed us, shaded us, and filled our stories with colour. That was the first of many tales from the country: how easy it is to love a place you never have to tend.
At dawn, Grandpa would take me out to the paddock. The dew caught on his boots as he knelt to scoop a handful of soil into my palm. “This is what keeps us,” he’d say. “Be good to it.” I only half listened, too busy watching the sunlight spread across the ridge. When he spoke of care, I heard comfort; when he meant duty, I heard affection. The country was good to us, and I believed that was enough – that gratitude certainly required no reply.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Master! How is he my master? Am I a…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Amongst the gothic landscapes and domestic spaces of the 18th century England, Charlotte Bronte's seminal…
Amongst the gothic landscapes and domestic spaces of the 18th century England, Charlotte Bronte's seminal bildungsroman 'Jane Eyre' published in 1847, interrogates oppressive forces of authority and exposes the struggle for female identity and independence within rigid social structures that positions women as a "servant" to their "master". Bronte contends that institutions of authority attempt to destruct personal identity, which can only exist through defiance or the breakdown of typical power structures. Initially, independent identity is seen to be gained from an enduring resistance to oppressive authority displayed through the symbolism of Jane's neglected early years. Additionally, powerful societal patriarchal structures attempt to destruct female identity through control seen in the relationship between Jane and Rochester. Moreover, identity can only be fostered once authority is deconstructed and a relationship is equal morally and financially as depicted in the novel's romantic denouement.
Initially, Bronte fortifies that oppressive forces of authority can trigger the development of an independent identity through resistance of societal expectations. Throughout Jane's childhood she was continuously "termed naughty and tiresome" by her Aunt guardian and cousins, who falsely accuse her of being immoral and burdensome due to her poor orphan status in the 18th century. This encourages Jane's alienation and internalised shame as a child which leads to her formative denial of independence, envisioning herself as a "rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray." Bronte illustrates Jane's refusal to accept her dependence despite her youth and powerlessness though utilising symbolism, illustrating how she is hard and unmoving, like the rock, against the relentless physical and emotional abuse from her family. In this way, this early development of resilience forms the bedrock of Jane's later defiance against controlling institutions. Through doing this, Bronte exposes the unjust authority adults believed they had over minors in the Victorian era, and how the mistreatment of guardian-child power dynamics could lead to a child developing resistance to authoritarian figures. This mistreatment manifests into punitive punishment when Jane is crying "out, while suffocating with distress" in the Red Room. Bronte employs the gothic trope of the fainting woman to lend a sense of horror to Jane's situation and thus confront Victorian readers. This allows Bronte to express subversive ideas about childhood resistance through the acceptable frame of popular literary conventions. In this case, the Red Room also acts as a symbolic representation of the confinement of females and individuals of lower social status in society, displaying Jane's entrapment not only physically but in the care of the Reeds as a dependent child. Jane is resisting of this punishment, allowing Bronte to explore how when an authoritarian figure exerts unjust mistreatment upon a child, It doesn't condition them to be obedient, it instead acts as a catalyst for the development of a defiant identity for it is a natural instinct to uphold authority over oneself. Through the use of symbolism and metaphoric imagery, Bronte implores that an independent identity is formed through the resistance to immoral forces of authority.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Rainbow’s End reveal that…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Set in 1950s Victoria, a time period characterised by white hegemony and oppressive society, Jane Harrison…
Set in 1950s Victoria, a time period characterised by white hegemony and oppressive society, Jane Harrison reinvents how empowerment is earned through her play, “Rainbow’s End”, which follows the lives of three generations of Koori women as they navigate their own challenges in their lives, overcoming past disappointments, finding themselves in a racist society, and ties between family and country. The playwright suggests that empowerment does not come without the self-respect needed to conquer agency over one’s life. This begins with pushing societal barriers, challenging those who may feel they have control over your own self-worth, and understanding that you build this empowerment without the validation of others.
Harrison emphasises the importance of breaking down societal barriers to earn your own empowerment. Gladys is characterised as a fierce and hopeful woman when it comes to fighting for a progressive future for herself and her community. She is determined to challenge what is expected of Aboriginal women, doing so through her speech, “We demand to be heard”, as she challenges not only white values by refusing to condemn racist values and falling to an oppressive society, as she fights for her community’s rights. Gladys goes beyond the expectations of Aboriginal women by taking her stance on the podium in place of Papa Dear through the playwright's purposeful theatrical directions ----- “She marches up to the podium”, and asserts herself in taking what is considered to be a “man’s job”. This stage direction symbolises her destroying gender barriers as a Koori woman and asserting authority for her own beliefs and rights, as Harrison specifies she “marches”, indicating that her choice is an active and defiant one. Further empowering herself as she passes the societal expectations as an Aboriginal woman. The playwright culminates in the need to go beyond societal barriers to empower oneself.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Charlotte Brontë's iconoclastic bildungsroman Jane Eyre (1847) divulges the complex experience of the female…
Charlotte Brontë's iconoclastic bildungsroman Jane Eyre (1847) divulges the complex experience of the female psyche within 19th century Victorian England. Indelibly, Brontë elucidates that women are conscious, intellectual, human beings capable of forging independent paths not only as a possibility but the singular avenue to attaining happiness despite an oppressive Victorian Society. Brontë champions rebellion by portraying it as the catalyst for the intrinsic learnings necessary in transcendence against patriarchal convention. Forby, Brontë endorses the female pursuit of moral autonomy as just right rather than an extreme desperation. Collectively through the self-determination of female fate Brontë espouses the choice to return to love despite prejudiced Victorian society.
Both physically and emotionally, Brontë champions defiance by portraying it as the catalyst for intrinsic learnings and transcendence against patriarchal convention. Brontë imminently conceptualises this notion in the novels orientation within volume I, to establish patriarchal oppression as a systemic part of the bildungsroman; as an accurate reflection of the values within contemporaneous Victorian society. This notion is typified within Gateshead Hall etymologically symbolising the setting as a liminal threshold - a gate - promising entry but foreboding entrapment. Within this entrapment Jane Eyre, a nine-year-old orphan dependent is domestically "accustomed, to John reads abuse " - her tyrannical male cousin 14 years old. However, subverting proprietary Bronte orchestrates John's inflicting - "he struck suddenly and strongly "- alliteratively emphasising unjust, spontaneity and brutality, to induce Janes's indignant verbal retaliation "wicked and cruel boy-you are like a murderer ". Here, Bronte employs poignant vernacular to engender Jane's unrestrained feelings; emotions that should be suppressed due to her resistance as both a female and plebian dependent ", especially in relation to her "master reed". This emotional outburst is reinforced by the protagonists obscured recollection "I don't… know what I did with my hands, but…" Indicating the climax of Janes passion causing her to physically reprimand her 'superior' Master. Thus, testifying Jane's physical and emotional rebellion against patriarchal dictates. Through this rebellion, Bronte catalyses Jane's indelible learnings from her trauma in the red room; to evolve her resilience and morality. Moreover, Jane's retaliation at Gateshead Hall concurs her journey to Lowood. Here, Bronte utilises pathetic fallacy, making the "rain, wind and darkness" consistently explicit, to fortify Lowood in a mist of ubiquitous oppression. Despite this setting, Bronte employ's Miss Temple's characterisation, who's "friendship and society had been [Jane's] continual solace"; presenting her as a strong mother figure and guide assisting Jane's transcendence - "to Miss temple I owed the best of my acquirements" - thusly assisting Jane's elevation to "the first girl of the first class "and then to her position as a "governance". Therefore Brontë employs the intellectual rebellion of education as a vessel for Jane's transcendence above the conventional prejudice imminently bestowed on her from birth due to her social and gendered inferiority. Cumulativley, Bronte leverages Jane's characterisation as an emblem of the wider oppressed population within Victorian society; thus elucidating that transcendence against systemically entrenched patriarchal domination is only enabled through consistent rebellion.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “I wish to be a better man than I have…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Against the backdrop of Victorian England's strict class divisions and religious fervour, Charlotte Bronte's Jane…
Against the backdrop of Victorian England's strict class divisions and religious fervour, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre interrogates ideas of social inequality, personal integrity, and spiritual growth. The novel presents Jane Eyre as a journey of redemption through exposing oneself to experiences that ultimately guide ones character into reclamation. For it is Bronte's endorsement of authentic, compassionate, and personal spirituality that help to tailor and inform religious awakening. Furthermore, Bronte reveals that moral temptation proves as a time of religious doctrine, allowing for revival. Finally, Bronte discloses that one must endure downfall to gain reclamation, in which only then is the belief in spirituality earned. Ultimately, it is Bronte's shaping of spiritual values that paints true faith as part of moral strength and emotional honesty, and thus is reflective of the trajectory to salvation and renewal of self.
Bronte's endorses the authentic, compassionate, and personal religious doctrine by shaping them as elements that help to tailor religious awakening. Indeed, Bronte structures her bildungsroman to mirror the spiritual pilgrimage of her protofeminist protagonist; Jane Eyre; from moral neglect to spiritual and emotional reconciliation. The ignition of this journey is situated in Volume 1, the rising action, whereby Jane finds herself at Lowood Institution. The gothic representation of the "blighted shrubs", symbiotic to the sibilant phrase, "scanty supply of food" pervades Lowood as both an austere, oppressive milieu and a time of religious oppression and testament. During this neglective period is Jane's embryonic development of her own spiritual awakening, which is informed by female figures, of such the characterization of Helen Burns. Candidly, Helen offers her religious advice through her direct manner and imperial sentencing, "observe what He says, how He acts, make his word your rule, and His conduct your example." Here, the repetitious phrase of "He" prevail Helen's passive submission to God, by which she is representative of the ideals and notions of Christian stoicism, embodying a great degree of forgiveness. It is here where Bronte seeks to illuminate that compassion and a submission to evangelicalism can provide religious guidance for oneself, in which furthers Jane's spiritual pilgrimage and religious awakening. While Helen submits passively to injustice, Jane begins to form her own moral framework, supporting her trajectory for self-autonomy. This notion is pervaded through the critiquing nature of the Church through the characterization of Mr. Brocklehurst, the owner of the oppressive Lowood institution. Upon first meeting, Brocklehurst attempts to instil religious ideals into Jane through weaponizing his religion; "you have a wicked heart. And you must pray to God to change it." It is here where the defamatory language of "wicked" seeks to illuminate the Church's unjust use of religion against another. This religious hypocrisy is prevalent through the observational commentary of Jane using the Brothers Grim 'Little Red Riding Hood', executing exclamatory sentences of "great nose! And what a mouth! And large prominent teeth!" This seeks to portray the Church as predatorial, in which Jane is able to deflect, and rather formulates her own spiritual awakening through those whom are of utmost importance – Helen. To overrule, Jane is tailored by the experiences surrounding her, in which allows herself to shape an early understanding of religion and undergo spiritual awakening, guiding her to redemption. Ultimately, Bronte prioritizes Christian authenticity over religious hypocrisy, in which both are crucial for shaping the journey of spiritual inclination and later redemption.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Johnson portrays the injustices/violence/rev…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Asked to summarise the motive behind his 2020 revisionist western film, ‘High Ground’, Stephen Maxwell Johnson…
Asked to summarise the motive behind his 2020 revisionist western film, ‘High Ground’, Stephen Maxwell Johnson states, “It’s a story about redemption hope and love”, exploring the harsh realities of the dispossession of Yolngu people’s Arnhem Land, through the systemic oppression brought about by the ethnocentric colonisers. Contention (specific) While the film exposes the violence caused by the injustices towards the Yolngu people, it persists to hint at hope. Points (flow)The colonisers are portrayed as the instigators of the lack of justice, their perverted view of truth resulting in bloodshed, causing the Yolngu people to respond out of their pursuit of justice. big point=Ultimately, Johnson aims to provide an unfiltered, darker truth of Australian history, prompting the viewership to rethink the Australian story.
Johnson depicts colonial forces as the cause of the cyclical violence during the Frontier Wars. Their immorality is due to their ethnocentric views of white superiority, fuelling their actions to rule over the land.
Chunk 1
Johnson opens his film with an empty dark screen, nothing but the diegetic sounds of birds peacefully chirping can be heard in the soundscore, immediately encouraging viewers to envision the natural landscape and connect with the country. Through an aerial drone shot, circling around the Nimbauwah Rock, the sun emerging over the horizon marking a new day, coupled with traditional music, a low hum accompanied with a didgeridoo, Johnson cinematically illustrates the glamorous beauty of the natural landscape of Arnhem land, evoking a palpable reverence for land and its caretakers.
However, this breathtaking scenery is starkly juxtaposed with violence, bloodshed and gore when Johnson cuts to the scene of the initial massacre. A point of view shot depicts Travis’ watchful gaze as he pans the scenery below him, illustrated through the cross hairs of his gun as he observes the peaceful actions of the Yolngu women and children playing. Here, the motif of the gun is first introduced, a tool used by colonial figures to assert power and gain physical highground, “gaining control” over the predator and prey relationship. Moreover, Travis’ panning of his crosshair onto his comrades, elucidates his viewing of them as potential threats, prey, foreshadowing his unbiased motives and actions, regardless of race.
Braddock “you let em know we don’t want any trouble”--Robbed with fear, braddock sits by a tree, frothing in the mouth, framed as a powerless individual. Indeed, Johnson paints colonial religion as impotent, devoid of power, only emblemised by colonial forces to exert their control.
-trigger happy, blood thirsty
-Johnon condemns the avaricious desire to expand colonial control which reflects the greed that underpinned much of the systemic violence as they prioritised land over Indigenous lives.
Diegetic sounds of birds chirping morph into high pitched squawks as handheld camera and fast paced editing accentuates the havoc caused. A low angle, close up encapsulates a Yolngu lady’s terrified face, her fearful facial expressions conveying her helplessness and vulnerability.After the massacre, Johnson employs a longshot fo the red sky, smoke rising into the air, symbolising the destruction caused by the violence of the colonisers and the polluting effect it has on nature, FORESHADOWING THE DESTRUCTION THAT COLONIALISM WILL BRING TO NATURE AND THE CARETAKERS OF THE LAND shown later in the film.
Chunk 2-church
With the use of mise en scene, Johnson illuminates colonial assimilation of the Yolngu people, particularly exemplified in the scene of the church. Through a fullshot, Johnson encapsulates a hollow makeshift church, dilapidated, nothing but a wooden frame. Gutjuk, dressed in European clothes, rings the church bell — a gesture emblematic of his forced assimilation. Braddock’s sermon, quoting Isaiah 5:8 — “What sorrow for you who buy up house after house...” — drips with irony as the colonisers embody the very greed they condemn. A close-up of a gum leaf bookmarking Braddock’s Bible symbolises the fragility of Indigenous identity under colonial influence. The leaf, out of place and destined to wither, reflects how Indigenous culture is suffocated under foreign religious and political systems. Thus, Johnson exposes assimilation not as a gesture of benevolence, but as a quiet violence.
Chunk 3
Moreso, through his meta referential use of Moran’s camera, Johnson sheds light on colonial power’s attempts to contort history when he captures a photo of Travis and two Yolngu men beside a crocodile. Johnson recruits a point of view shot of Moran peering into the camera, an upside down image with sides darkened, denoting the twisting of reality as he commands the Yolngu men to “get down” while Travis remains standing underscoring the power imbalance and racial divide between coloniser and colonised. Moran’s racist remarks, commanding the Yolngu men to kneel down, almost at the same height level of the deceased crocodile, mirror the decadence, moral decay and dehumanizing effect brought about by colonialism, alluding to the historical Australian census where Indigenous Australians were identified as fauna. As he takes the photo, Moran mutters that “it is the responsibility of those who make history to record it” before he exits out of his dark cloak covering him up from the sunlight, drawing parallels with how colonial powers attempted to conceal their brutality with visual propaganda to rewrite historical narratives, creating a facade of the truth.
Johnson depicts the response from the Yolngu tribe. Some react in violence while the morally upright seek justice through peace.
Chunk 1
Through the framed narrative of the “burning station”, Baywara is characterised as engrossed with violence, keen on forcing justice through retribution. In real time, Moran is seated around a campfire at night, telling Eddy and Travis of the “[killing] of a white woman” by the “wild mob”, cutting to a close up of the campfire, Johnson cleverly transitions to a flashback of the wild mob “burning stations, killing livestock and wreaking havoc”. Baywara is framed, atop an elevated rock, flames dancing around him in the dark night sky as a station man escapes shouting that “the black bastards will pay for this”. With the clever use of mise en
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sunset Boulevard challenge…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Through the fabulous and glamorous set of 1950’s Hollywood, Billy Wilder vividly depicts the horrific beauty…
Through the fabulous and glamorous set of 1950’s Hollywood, Billy Wilder vividly depicts the horrific beauty standards and idolisation of youth through Sunset Boulevard. This is demonstrated through the brutal Hollywood’s star factory’s grotesque standards in order for individuals to achieve success and fame in the industry. Additionally, the horrendous appeal to gender expectations regarding women and their duty to uphold their beauty and youth, Furthermore, how the relentless standards of success lead to characters in Sunset Boulevard’s ultimate downfall and inevitable destruction. Thus, Wilder’s devastating film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ highlights the relentless standards of 1950’s American society, and the inevitable harm and destruction of characters due to their attempts of upholding them.
From the outset, Wilder demonstrates the horrendous standards and expectations set by the Hollywood star factory for individuals desperate for success in the film industry. Joe's visual composition of Norma's house evokesit being illustrated as “neglected” and “decaying.” The gothic undertone and the high shot of the haunted house highlights the relentless standards of Hollywood being portrayed through Joe, preferring beauty and youth and discarding people once they lose these preferred qualities. Additionally, the ill health of Shelldrake, having a “set of ulcers” due to the toll and stress brought upon him maintaining Hollywood’s unrealistic standards of success. Depicted in chiaroscuro lighting, with shadows casted over half of his face, Shelldrake's silloutte is swallowed by a shadow, represented as a grotesque product of the Hollywood industry, half corrupted by the horrific standards but still grasping onto the last string of humanity. Furthermore, the high angle shot of Norma at Paramount studios demonstrates the power imblanace of success and fast moving nature of Hollywood. With Demille’s unrevoking comment to Hogseye through “Turn that camera to where it really belongs,” after being shone on Norma represents the disposal nature of the Hollywood star factory, metaphorically contrasts wanting beautiful and youthful individuals striving for success over aging products of the film industry, desperate to return to fame like Norma. Thus, the harmful standards of Hollywood can be juxtaposed through the treatment of individuals yearning for success and fame to uphold the brutal standards of the Hollywood film industry.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Protest - Courage
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 92.5%: "Write about protest" you say. "Be roused by and caught up in saying and feeling something about it", because…
"Write about protest" you say. "Be roused by and caught up in saying and feeling something about it", because as a student, not a human being, but a student, I'm required to "explore the perspectives of those that are disenfranchised", and to "find myself intertwined with those who are voiceless"
Don't make me laugh.
When the COVID accusations were thrown around in school and the blame for a pandemic was placed on my face - I wasn't given a space to speak.
When slurs and stereotypes were made jokes by my own teacher who said that my kind of people had small eyes and were bad drivers - I was expected to be silent.
When my voice came to you; raw, broken, and soaked in tears because a boy in my P.E class said that my face looked like a joke and that my family didn't belong here, I was told to "ignore him". That "he didn't know what he was saying". To "not let it get to me"
But sure. Let's "explore perspectives". Let's write about the voiceless like I haven't spent years having to swallow every scream and every cry just so I wouldn't be torn apart for being too difficult, too loud;
Too much of a reminder that I'd only ever be welcomed here if I stayed quiet.
So don't ask me for perspective when you only want a token of inclusivity that folds seamlessly into something you think is a "diverse curriculum".
Don't demand my 'creative writing' when you only want the type of 'creativity' that will give you just enough credit to make it seem like you're on the right side of history.
Don't tell me to "find myself intertwined with those who are voiceless", because I have found myself voiceless in the face of your excuses, your silence, and your neglection of the pain and struggles that myself and every single coloured student has had to endure because you haven't done anything to help us.
You wanted protest?
Then brace yourself for the sound of it.
Because it's not a piece of writing that's formulated using a planning template and an editing checklist
It’s not fiction that's spoken through creative metaphors or a well-structured reflective essay
It's not an assessment that can be warped and washed so it fits your criteria, and it's not something that's graded and ranked and "goes towards your study score"
It's confrontation - because you've been running a system that thinks its politically engaged enough to have your students write about social injustice when you don't even do anything about the injustices occuring in your own schools
It's fearlessness - because saying something about it means risking the grade, the praise, the tick in the
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In High Ground, it is impossible for…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: An individual's past experiences shape the subsequent trajectory of their life. Stephen Maxwell Johnson's 2020…
An individual's past experiences shape the subsequent trajectory of their life.
Stephen Maxwell Johnson's 2020 revisionist western film, High Ground, operates as a confronting historical drama that interrogates the ideological ramifications of Australia's frontier wars. Set in 1930s Arnhem land, the film reframes the frontier saga through a post-colonial lens, revealing how settler colonialism fractures identity and erases First Nation sovereignty. Through the coming of age of the protagonist, Gutjuk - a young Yolngu man caught between competing worldviews, Johnson explores the extent to which individuals remain inextricably bound to the past. This notion is exemplified through Johnson's critique of how colonial brutality persists as an enduring force that perpetuates histories of injustices and binds individuals to cycles of violence. Similarly, Johnson espouses that the inescapability of the past manifests through inherited frameworks, whereby Yolngu continuity is anchored in cyclical ties to country while European settlers remain bound to the Crown and imperial law. Nevertheless, Johnson postulates that the weight of the past can be resisted through self-realisation and reclamation of cultural identity which transcends imposed identities.
Johnson underscores how colonial brutality endures beyond generations, sustained through hegemonic institutions that distort truth and perpetuate cycles of domination. Johnson exemplifies this notion through exposing the hypocrisy of colonial religion, highlighting how the weaponisation of Christianity legitimises violence while masking its brutality in a veneer of moral authority. During the massacre, Braddock deliberately places his Bible away, as if shielding the sacred text from the atrocities to come - a gesture that crystallises the ethical rupture between Christian teachings and the colonial expansion they are used to justify. This foreshadows the hollowness of his later sermon delivered with the cross visually aligned behind his head, conflating his personal with divine authority. He begins with the verse, "what sorrow for those who buy house after house and field after field", which in its biblical context, condemns greed and land accumulation. In doing so, Johnson foregrounds the irony of such hollow words spoken by a man complicit in the very dispossession the verse condemns. This selective, self-serving application of scripture that is stripped of ethical substance and repurposed to reinforce authority, amplifies the hypocrisy Johnson seeks to expose, suggesting the rhetoric that such rhetoric not only fails to protect the oppressed, but actively sanctifies their oppression. The unattended, closed Bible in the foreground of the bench further symbolises how holy scripture has become a performative prop rather than a lived philosophy. Johnson extends this critique to the myth through colonial photographs, exposing how violence endures in archives that sanctify erasure under the
guise of "civilisation" and a "duty to uphold" the law. The predator-prey motif is visually elucidated through point of view rifle shots, which unsettlingly position the First Nations people in the same visual field as flora and fauna. This alignment dehumanises them, rendering them as prey to be hunted, while simultaneously positioning the European settlers as predators who monopolise the "high ground". This motif is amplified through the inversion of photography, which embodies the moral inversion of colonial logic as what is sacred becomes criminalised and what is violent is rationalised as law. Moreover, commander Myan's imperious assertion that "it's the responsibility of those who create history to record it", encapsulates the Eurocentric convention that history begins only once inscribed by the colonizer, ensuring that colonial domination endures beyond the immediacy of violence. Such logic renders the past as unescapable through the systematic erasure of over 60,000 years of First Nations law, culture and traditions, perpetuating the myth of terra nullius which falsely declared the land empty and devoid of sovereignty prior to European arrival. In this way, Johnson reveals that colonial brutality endures through entrenched institutions, ensuring that the past remains an indelible burden.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “There’s nothing tragic about being fifty.…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Hollywood sells dreams of glamour and eternal youth, but Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard exposes the destructive…
Hollywood sells dreams of glamour and eternal youth, but Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard exposes the destructive illusions beneath its glittering surface. Through voiceover narration, film noir conventions, and Gothic imagery, the film critiques the culture of obsession with fame, youth, and reinvention. Wilder reveals Hollywood’s hidden side by exposing its indifference to human dignity, its entrapment of individuals in cycles of deception, and its commodification of love and identity.
Hollywood’s hidden indifference to truth is revealed from the opening moments of the film. Joe’s voiceover insists, “But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe you’d like to hear the facts. The whole truth.” This sets the stage for a world where stories are distorted for publicity and scandal. Norma’s apparent popularity is similarly fabricated, as Max forges her fan letters to maintain the illusion that she is still adored. This deception is reinforced when Norma visits DeMille at Paramount Studios, convinced her screenplay is being seriously considered. Rather than telling her outright that she is obsolete, DeMille allows her to linger in her fantasy, softly addressing her as “little fella” and instructing his staff not to disturb her illusions. His refusal to confront Norma’s obsolescence illustrates how Hollywood shields its stars from the brutal truth, preferring to indulge in their delusions rather than acknowledge the industry’s ruthless disposability. Betty’s discovery of Joe’s compromised life and her obvious heartbreak illustrates that even those who strive for authenticity cannot escape Hollywood’s culture of deception in exposing this culture of silence. Wilder highlights the industry’s complicity in sustaining lies for the sake of appearances, a world where truth has no value if it undermines the Hollywood dream.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sunset Boulevard challenge…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Through the fabulous and glamorous set of 1950’s Hollywood, Billy Wilder vividly depicts the horrific beauty…
Through the fabulous and glamorous set of 1950’s Hollywood, Billy Wilder vividly depicts the horrific beauty standards and idolisation of youth through Sunset Boulevard. This is demonstrated through the brutal Hollywood’s star factory’s grotesque standards in order for individuals to achieve success and fame in the industry. Additionally, the horrendous appeal to gender expectations regarding women and their duty to uphold their beauty and youth, Furthermore, how the relentless standards of success lead to characters in Sunset Boulevard’s ultimate downfall and inevitable destruction. Thus, Wilder’s devastating film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ highlights the relentless standards of 1950’s American society, and the inevitable harm and destruction of characters due to their attempts of upholding them.
From the outset, Wilder demonstrates the horrendous standards and expectations set by the Hollywood star factory for individuals desperate for success in the film industry. This can be demonstrated through Joe’s vivid depiction of Norma’s house, being illustrated as “neglected” and “decaying.” The gothic undertone and the high shot of the haunted house highlights the relentless standards of Hollywood being portrayed through Joe, preferring beauty and youth and discarding people once they lose these preferred qualities. Additionally, the ill health of Shelldrake, having a “set of ulcers” due to the toll and stress brought upon him maintaining Hollywood’s unrealistic standards of success. Depicted in chiaroscuro lighting, with shadows casted over half of his face, Shelldrake is represented as a grotesque product of the Hollywood industry, half corrupted by the horrific standards but still grasping onto the last string of humanity. Furthermore, the high angle shot of Norma at Paramount studios demonstrates the power imblanace of success and fast moving nature of Hollywood. With Demille’s unrevoking comment to Hogseye through “Turn that camera to where it really belongs,” after being shone on Norma represents the disposal nature of the Hollywood star factory, metaphorically contrasts wanting beautiful and youthful individuals striving for success over aging products of the film industry, desperate to return to fame like Norma. Thus, the harmful standards of Hollywood can be juxtaposed through the treatment of individuals yearning for success and fame to uphold the brutal standards of the Hollywood film industry.