VCE · Text Response
Text Response: write an introduction and body paragraph:…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between…
Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between opportunity and the lack of choices. Set against both a apartheid and post-apartheid backdrop, Noah examines the determination of fate based on one's race, tied to their inherent access to different parts of the system. Additionally, patriarchal constraints remove much of the choices for women, where men define what is socially acceptable for them to do or not to do. This is compounded by the many restrictions placed by stereotypes such as socio-economic and education status, where your position on this scale dictates your freedom of choice.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Twelfth Night shows the impacts of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night interrogates the performative nature of identity through its intricate exploration of…
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night interrogates the performative nature of identity through its intricate exploration of deception and disguise, revealing how social constraints necessitate various forms of masquerade. Through the parallel concealment strategies of Viola and Malvolio, Shakespeare examines how performance simultaneously enables social mobility and exposes the constructed nature of class and gender boundaries. While the play acknowledges the potentially destructive consequences of deception, as evidenced in the cruel manipulation of Malvolio, it ultimately validates strategic performance as a means of navigating rigid social hierarchies. Indeed, Shakespeare demonstrates how successful social integration requires an understanding of both conscious deception and unconscious self-deception.
Shakespeare foregrounds how social survival necessitates various forms of performance and disguise across class boundaries. In the play's opening scenes, Viola's adoption of male attire after her shipwreck exemplifieshow marginalised individuals must craft elaborate personas to gain social access. Her declaration that she will "serve this duke" establishes disguise as both protective shield and social ladder, while her choice of aeunuch's identity - neither fully masculine nor feminine - reveals the liminality of the performing self. The symbolism of her "masculine usurped attire" constructs gender as fundamentally performative, as reinforced by hersuccessful embodiment of masculine behaviors. The sea captain's complicity in her transformation demonstrates how social performance requires collaborative deception; his subsequent disappearance suggests theerasure of authentic origins necessitated by successful imposture. This dynamic of collaborative illusion extends to the aristocratic sphere, where Orsino's theatrical lovesickness represents another form of socialperformance. His melodramatic assertion that his love "give[s] no place, bows not the knee" reveals how even those in power must maintain carefully constructed personas. The artifice cultimates in Malvolio, whose socialclimbing through affected mannerisms is mocked by Maria's observation of how he "jets under his advanced plumes." Through Malvolio's exaggerated "puritan" bearing and practice of political "behavior," Shakespearereveals how upward mobility requires the studied performance of class markers. His reading of Maria's forged letter aloud while alone demonstrates how social performance becomes internalised, whereas his yellowstockings and cross-gartering represent the dangerous conflation of costume with identity. Yet Sir Toby's orchestration of this cruel deception introduces class warfare into this system of performance, as the aristocracyweaponises the very behaviours it demands from social climbers. Feste's professional role as fool further complicates this dynamic, as his licensed performance of folly allows him to speak truth and "wis[dom]" to powerSuggesting how sanctioned deception can serve subversive ends. The parallel between Viola's successful performance and Malvolio's failed one suggests that social mobility requires not just the adoption of disguise, but a sophisticated understanding of its limits and contexts.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘You can trust me. I am ready to help...’…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Honourable desires do equate to honourable outcomes. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, he posits that…
Honourable desires do equate to honourable outcomes. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, he posits that seeking to do good leads to significant pain for oneself and others. He concedes that one’s desire to do good assists in understanding themselves, an empowering consequence of their intent. However, Sophocles frames desire and reality as separate, showing how beneficent desire transforms into maleficent outcomes. Ultimately, Sophocles suggests that man’s kindhearted impulses are weak in comparison to divine malevolence, with the playwright implying that noble rebellion against man’s overlords will lead to destructive retribution.
Sophocles concedes that honourable actions often lead to the attainment of knowledge and self-discovery. Oedipus, in willing to ‘do anything’, devotes himself to a search which he views as ‘for his own sake’ due to an insatiable desire for knowledge. Sophocles explores Oedipus’ mathematical nature - with the king’s realisation that ‘one can’t equal many’ forms the basis of his innocence and guilt, demonstrating how Oedipus utilises his benevolent desires to mathematically solve a challenge to his intelligence. Through dramatic irony, Sophocles highlights Oedipus’ initial ignorance, by placing obviously misguided assertions of being a ‘stranger to the crime’ and vow to ‘fight for [Laius] as if he were [Oedipus’] own father’. The gradual erosion of dramatic irony within the narrative parallels Oedipus’ attainment of knowledge. Oedipus ultimately transitions from ‘blind to the corruption in [his] life’ to a man who ‘can see it all’, with his gradual attainment of metaphorical sight paralleling his attainment of knowledge. Through his desire to ‘raise up’ Thebes, Sophocles suggests that Oedipus is ultimately driven towards an understanding of self, with the playwright ultimately implying that when one is driven by beneficence, they will ultimately gain significant knowledge.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: write one intro and body paragraph: How…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between…
Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between opportunity and the lack of choices. Set against both a apartheid and post-apartheid backdrop, Noah examines the determination of fate based on one's race, tied to their inherent access to different parts of the system. Additionally, patriarchal constraints remove much of the choices for women, where men define what is socially acceptable for them to do or not to do. This is compounded by the many restrictions placed by stereotypes such as socio-economic and education status, where your position on this scale dictates your freedom of choice.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Born A Crime show the importance…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between…
Written as an autobiographical memoir, Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime" exhibits much of the constant strain between opportunity and the lack of choices. Set against a mostly post-apartheid backdrop, Noah examines the determination of fate based on one's race, tied to their inherent access to different parts of the system. Additionally, patriarchal constraints remove much of the choices for women, where men define what is socially acceptable for them to do or not to do. This is compounded by the many restrictions placed by stereotypes such as socio-economic and education status, where your position on this scale dictates your freedom of choice.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘You can trust me. I am ready to help...’…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Moreover, in exploring the conflict between beneficent intent and divine ordinance, Sophocles suggests that…
Moreover, in exploring the conflict between beneficent intent and divine ordinance, Sophocles suggests that honourable acts of transgression against the gods are ultimately punished with suffering. Sophocles portrays the gods as all powerful yet ill-intentioned, establishing their relationship with man in the parados. The chorus’ repeated use of thanatological language - mourning their ‘deaths on deaths’ - establishes the idea of divine cruelty, reinforced through the chorus ‘worship[ping] [Apollo] in dread’ and questioning his ‘price’ for alleviation of their suffering. The gods’ malevolence often contrasts with actions of noble intent. Oedipus' avoidance of ‘the shame of all those oracles come true’ and desire to ‘grant…[the] prayers’ of Thebes in lieu of the gods signal his interest in upholding the dignity of the city, yet subvert divine will. Additionally, Jocasta’s attempts to allow Oedipus to ‘have no fear’, in asserting that ‘chance rules our lives’, intends to stem the anxiety of her husband yet
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent do you agree?
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: However, Sophocles suggests that desire rarely leads to the alleviation of pain, with honourable intent…
However, Sophocles suggests that desire rarely leads to the alleviation of pain, with honourable intent transforming into torment. On hearing that he is ‘fated to couple with [his] mother’ and ‘kill [his] father’, Oedipus’ response is to ‘[abandon] Corinth’. However, his immediate attempts to protect his parents preclude him from contemplating the ‘slander [which] spread’ throughout the city of his status as ‘not [his] father’s son’. This action, although of noble intent, leads to Oedipus committing ‘crimes too huge for hanging’ against his actual parents. Sophocles uses Oedipus’ ankles to suggest the damage inflicted by his cluelessness, as in looking outward to conduct beneficent action, he dismisses the ‘old affliction’ as something ‘from the cradle’; a clue both in body and name that goes unnoticed and failing to aid Oedipus in avoiding his fate. Following the plague, Oedipus later falls victim to his ‘sick[ness]’ due to the disparity in his desire to ‘help’ Thebes and the city’s ‘dying’, reacting to Tiresias’ suggestion of his culpability by labelling him a ‘scheming quack’, and Creon a ‘mastermind’ of a ‘witch hunt’. The ‘terrible accusations’
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How is trickery and deceit shown in ‘Much…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Essay: Introduction: Whether it is Beatrice’s ascetic disdain of overly romance, Claudio’s fickle romantic…
Essay:
Introduction:
Whether it is Beatrice’s ascetic disdain of overly romance, Claudio’s fickle romantic affections or even Don John’s brazen malevolence, Shakespeare 16th century tragicomedy, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, illuminates the importance of trickery and deceit, is a powerful force that can either strengthen or destroy human bonds, whether it is wield with kindness or malice. Set in the sunny, witty world of Messina, the play explores that benign trickery-undertaken with good intentions- can strip away psychological defences and reveal characters’ love and growth. Conversely, Shakespeare juxtaposes how malicious deceit-born from spite and selfishness-can only triumph temporarily before the truth emerges. Lastly, the playwright emphasises that while trickery may intimate love, its external destruction can shatter ones’ honour and reputation. Shakespeare reveals that true measures of a character lie not in their initial resistance of love, but in their moral character when faced with deception.
Paragraph 1:
Shakespeare presents how the concept of deception is a necessary tool, often symbolised through staged performance and overheard conversations. As the play’s complications develop, Benedick hides in the garden, and becomes both an observer and target of manipulation. The garden itself symbolises a space of growth and transformation. Reflecting benedick’s attitude towards love begin to change as he ‘notes’ the state dialogue “This can be no trick; / They have the truth of this from Hero”. Emphasising how easily deception can be mistaken for truth when supporting by convincing ‘evidence’, making himself a “fowl”. Benedick’s psychological defences crumble up as he realises that love may not be the weakness he once believed it to be. Similarly, Beatrice in Act 3, Scene 3 relies on the symbolic use of eavesdropping in the corresponding scene orchestrated by Ursula and Hero ‘tricking’ Beatrice. Beatrice in the garden symbolises the dramatic staging by the loss of control; hiding herself and listening to the speaker. Yet paradoxically, this loss of control enables her genuine transformation. Beatrice, stripped of her greatest weapon-her voice-is forced to listen passively. The garden symbolises a cage; Beatrice is trapped in the physical space of the garden, as the narrative is spinning around her. As her attitude changes, love shifts into her mood saying, ‘Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, aiden!”, exemplifying how their “merry war” of wit dissolves into vulnerability. Through these moments, Shakespeare emphasises that deception is not the opposite of truth, but how evidence is structured and displayed by characters’, as other characters essentially force them to step out of their “bachelor” and “maid” identity.
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VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, love has…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Named in the spirit of the Feast of Epiphany celebrations, the suspension of reality present in William…
Named in the spirit of the Feast of Epiphany celebrations, the suspension of reality present in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is orchestrated and resolved by love. Shakespeare's blend of love and comedic feature of disguise in Twelfth Night initially acts as a disruptor of the social hierarchy, challenging traditional boundaries of gender and sexuality. Shakespeare poses that ambition and love for power obstructs individuals’ ability to conform to conventions within a disillusioned Illyria. However, upon the final reveal of truth and the reassembly of class structures, love acts as a resolving force, thus exposing how revelry and disorder are temporary.
When love is complicated by deception, conventions of gender and love are disrupted to demonstrate the lack of agency individuals have to choose who they love. Shakespeare imbues his play with homoerotic undertones as a response to the disguise of Viola as Cesario, who exists "in standing water, between boy and man". This reference to the motif of water and its shifting nature depicts how Viola's disguise contrasts the traditionally binary operation of gender and creates a liminal space in which Viola can embody the perspectives of both man and woman. This disrupts the intention of characters admissions of love for her, for when Olivia admits that "by the roses of spring," "I love thee" she is unknowingly opposing the assumption of love to be an act between a man and a woman. Shakespeare expands this, by exploring Olivia's lack of agency in this disordered reality as she acknowledges "how much the better to fall before the lion than the wolf". By admitting her socially assumed expectation to love someone noble like Orsino rather than the deceptive “wolf" of Cesario, Shakespeare depicts how character cannot choose to love only who society deems correct. This is further instilled through Olivia's likening of her sudden onset infatuation for Cesario to "the plague", portraying how it does not follow rules of society and can infect anyone regardless of their class or desire to love. Shakespeare mirrors this with Orsino by implying that when Orsino admits "by heaven I swear I tender [Cesario] dearly", his love may match the romantic intensity of Olivia's love, challenging the conventions of who he may love. When love occurs for characters engaging in disguise, traditional Elizabethan expectations of gender and sexuality are blurred.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sophocles explore the flawed…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Leaders may hold power, yet they never attain perfection. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles posits that…
Leaders may hold power, yet they never attain perfection. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles posits that leaders are inherently imperfect, never shielded from the flaws that unite humanity. He explores their vulnerability to tyranny, exposing the superficiality of their benevolent veneers and their internally corrupted state. Additionally, he explores their rebellion against the gods, and cautions against the destructive consequences for both themselves and their subjects. Finally, he dismisses the notion of exceptionalism within leaders, demonstrating how they are vulnerable to the same flaws as the rest of men, and often descend below.
Sophocles portrays leaders as vulnerable to tyranny, with the rulers of Thebes all pursuing repression to maintain power. Laius’ ‘wildest fear’ is the removal of his power through murder ‘at the hands of a son’, leading Laius to ‘[fasten] [Oedipus] ankles and [have] a henchman fling him’ to die. In describing the act as an attempted ‘destr[uction]’, Sophocles implies that Laius’ act is political in nature. Sophocles explores the insidious nature of repression through Oedipus, with the king initially concealed behind a veneer of ‘trust’. Sophocles gradually erodes this facade, as Oedipus rejects Creon’s suggestion of being ‘wholly wrong’, reasoning that he ‘must rule’. Oedipus’ ultimate descent into tyranny is driven by his ‘torture’ of the shepherd, using his royal authority to force him to ‘talk with pain’. The ‘double doors [which] dominate the facade’ of the palace are symbolic of Oedipus’ internal authoritarianism, representing the king’s initial benevolent presentation to his people. With each opening of the doors, they reveal more about the autocratic nature the king cannot avoid. The destruction of Oedipus’ heroic facade is revealed through nautical imagery, with Sophocles paralleling Oedipus with a ‘good helmsman’, tasked to ‘steer [Thebes] through the storm’ of the plague. The ‘pilot of the vessel’ eventually ‘go[es] to pieces’, ultimately ‘drowning’ in a ‘black sea of terror’. Sophocles suggests that a leader can never truly be ‘ready to help’, and outside suggestions of benevolence are merely superficial. This is reinforced through Oedipus’ successor, who appears to be a man of ‘self-control’, embodying ‘calm[ness]’ and ‘ration[ality]’ in his argument with Oedipus. However, Sophocles challenges the notion of Creon’s goodhearted exercise of power, as, in ‘directing Oedipus towards the palace’ to discuss the oracle’s prophecy, Creon signals a desire to act outside the will of the people. Upon attaining the throne, he is rapidly corrupted by newfound rule, using force to ensure Oedipus ‘let[s] go of the children’, and mocking the former ruler for ‘none of [his] power…follow[ing] [him] through life’. Ultimately, Sophocles suggests that leadership is inherently corrupting, with external veneers unable to fully hide the despotic core imbued within individuals upon attaining power.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “In Oedipus The King, the individuals’…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Set in the golden age of Ancient Greece, individuals have to live amidst the consequences of their peers and the…
Set in the golden age of Ancient Greece, individuals have to live amidst the consequences of their peers and the ones above . In his magnum opus, Oedipus The King, Sophocles contends that, while individuals can fall victim to the poor choices of others, it is ultimately the combination between the choices of self, others and divine fate that determines suffering. The playwright outlines how fate can be a force that conquers and dictates the sufferings of individuals. Furthermore, he explores the sufferings of individuals to often be catalysed by their own individual poor choices. However, Sophocles extends that the poor choice of others is undoubtedly a potent force that can spark the suffering of peers.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "Love is a creative act. When you love…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 92.5%: Set in a society built on violent acts, Trevor Noah’s memoir ‘Born a crime’ undermines the power of violence with…
Set in a society built on violent acts, Trevor Noah’s memoir ‘Born a crime’ undermines the power of violence with the power of love and demonstrates how acts of love can have astounding effects on an individual. In an apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa the need for love as a method of negating violence is necessary in order to overcome prevalence of violence in society. Noah also argues that while violent acts can have detrimental effects, sometimes, violence coming from places of love are crucial to the protection and development of an individual. Moreover, love and belonging within the females of the community, is essential to escape and combat the violent men who uphold virulent, patriarchal standards.
Noah explores how love between individuals and families can overrule the mass inhumanities and violence that arose from apartheid. Apartheid fuelled an already segregated South Africa and imposed violent subjugation on innocent Black and other Coloured individuals, which was mitigated through varying acts of love. Despite Abels domineering abuse and tyranny, the love that Patrica shared with Trevor enabled her to resile from being shot and escape his oppression. The moments shared with Trevor after Patricia was shot demonstrated that no matter the situation or external environment, their mother-son love and connection counteracted the violence forces present through society. In the beginning of the memoir, Trevor and Patricia share a moment after being thrown out of the van “on the side of the road in the light of a gas station” where they both “laugh[ed] together through the pain”, which was juxtaposed in the very final sentences “laughing through the pain…on a bright and sunny day”. This juxtaposition in setting clearly demonstrates how the mother-son duo’s love for each other rejected adverse effects of violent acts imposed by the normalisation of domestic abuse, and the brutality from the broader oppression towards black families. This love, in conjunction with her own ability to be “unwavering in the face of danger” enabled Patricia to resile from being shot and be “out of the hospital in four days”, demonstrating the significance that love holds in overcoming violence. Moreover, the familial love shared between Trevor, Patrica and Robert highlighted that the mixing of races challenges a system built on institutionalised racism and the violence that arises from that. Patricia and Robert’s willingness to commit a crime “worse than treason” showed that despite the sheer force and hegemony elicited by the White colonisers, the love that both of them shared towards Trevor invalidates the ‘immorality act’ placed upon South Africa. Noah’s inclusion of the “immorality act” at the very beginning of the memoir not only introduces the bildungsroman nature of the text and provides context to his struggled upbringing, but it also grounds the memoir as an expression of love, rather than violence. Opening with this act enabled Noah to highlight how his very existence is proof of “rebuke to the logic of the system”, and how Robert had the opportunity to leave Patricia and Trevor alone, but instead he chose to evade apartheid’s control to love and support him as his son. Ultimately, the inhumanities and domestic violence that arose from the hatred and oppression of apartheid were combated through the love present in this memoir.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In his play, Sophocles portrays both the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Grief motivates a man to achieve anything, yet can never cure itself. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King,…
Grief motivates a man to achieve anything, yet can never cure itself. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, grief is portrayed as a deeply empowering experience that is hopeless in removing man’s suffering. Through grief motivating the journey towards intellectual enlightenment, Sophocles shows one’s ability to achieve greater knowledge that ultimately will only worsen mental state. He frames grief as a tool for repentance, bringing man to closer moral alignment with the gods yet not allowing them to avoid punishment. Moreover, he explores the destructive impact of grief, exhibiting how its powers of annihilation never translate to positive change, with grief ultimately being both powerful and futile.
As a tool for self-discovery, grief is a motive for intellectual enlightenment, yet is unable to change its status. Oedipus’ quest is driven by ‘his spirit griev[ing] for the city’ in the throes of the plague, viewing it as an opportunity to ‘defend [him]self’ from his torment by ‘avenging Laius’. Oedipus’ initial status as ‘the ignorant’ is made clear through Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony in the prologos. Oedipus’ misguided proclamations of being a ‘stranger to the crime’ and ‘stranger to the story’, and commitment to ‘fight for [Laius] as if he were [Oedipus’] father’, establish the lack of knowledge he possesses about himself. The gradual cessation of dramatic irony mirrors the character ‘solving the mystery of [his] birth’ and the murder of Laius. This attainment of understanding cements himself as an intellectual hero, with Sophocles portraying his grief for Thebes as empowering him to achieve this status. However, Oedipus’ attempts for relief are futile, with the achievement of his anagnorisis only exacerbating his grief. Oedipus’ imploring of ‘god’ for ‘all burst[ing] to light highlights the profound and devastating shock of the attainment of knowledge, resulting in an ultimate assertion that ‘no grief can crown’ his worsened despair. Through exploring Oedipus’ ‘precious eyes’ and eventual blindness, Sophocles portrays the duality of grief as both empowering yet destructive. Oedipus transforms from ‘blind to the corruption of [his] life’ to ‘see[ing] it all, clear as day’, yet the attainment of knowledge destroys his ‘precious eyes’; the ‘blood spurt[ing] from the roots’ mirroring the violence of his exacerbated torment. Ultimately, Sophocles posits that one can draw upon their grief to attain self-discovery, yet this exercise is futile in alleviating their emotional pain.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In his play, Sophocles portrays both the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Additionally, grief drives individuals towards atonement for immorality, yet does not excuse them for their…
Additionally, grief drives individuals towards atonement for immorality, yet does not excuse them for their transgressions. In uncovering their cardinal sins, ‘griefs…burst upon’ the ill-fated couple, marked by Jocasta ‘[weeping]...the marriage bed’ and Oedipus ‘giving a low, wrenching sob’. Their grief is met with acts of flagellation, with Jocasta ‘swinging back and forth’ on a ‘woven noose’ and Oedipus imploring Creon to ‘drive [him] out of Thebes, in exile’. Sophocles utilises agricultural imagery to highlight the beneficent power of their actions, the ‘raging plague in all its vengeance’ symbolising the destructive consequences of their transgressions with implications far beyond their own. Sophocles posits that, in accordance with notions of divine inflexibility, the ‘blight’ must be ‘root[ed]...out’, accomplished by the grief-stricken self-destruction of the couple. However, Sophocles suggests that their actions are ‘past all cure’, as the ‘great laws [which] tower above us’ from ‘the
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "Love is a creative act. When you love…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Set in a society built on violent acts, Trevor Noah’s memoir ‘Born a crime’ undermines the power of violence with…
Set in a society built on violent acts, Trevor Noah’s memoir ‘Born a crime’ undermines the power of violence with the power of love and demonstrates how acts of love can have astounding effects on an individual. In an apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa the need for love as a method of negating violence is necessary in order to overcome prevalence of violence in society. Noah also argues that while violent acts can have detrimental effects, sometimes, violence coming from places of love are crucial to the protection and development of an individual. Moreover, love and belonging within the females of the community, is essential to escape and combat the violent men who uphold virulent, patriarchal standards.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Systemic racism is a daily reality for…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Historical injustices have continually marginalised Indigenous populations, forcing them to endure the daily…
Historical injustices have continually marginalised Indigenous populations, forcing them to endure the daily impacts of a colonial society. Set on the backdrop of the Mooroopna Flats in 1950s Australia, Jane Harrison’s 2007 play ‘Rainbow’s End’ explores the prevalence of systemic racism and how this has limited the hopes and opportunities of Indigenous communities. Utilising the characterisation of the Dear women, Harrison celebrates the resilience of First Nations people while condemning oppressive institutions that imposed daily struggle.
Harrison examines how government policies limited the autonomy of Indigenous families on a daily basis. From the onset of the play, Harrison comments on the everyday struggles and hardships of living on the Flats, as she introduces the Dear women while they are [rebuilding after a flood]. This flood motif both literally and physically demonstrates the inadequate housing left to Indigenous families, and also suggests that the cycle of trauma and injustice is ongoing. This is supported by Dolly’s [resigned] sighs, highlighting how hardship and physical obstacles resulting from systemic oppression is accepted and normalised amongst Indigenous communities. Building on this theme of daily struggle, Harrison utilises figures such as the Inspector to epitomise systemic oppression, stereotypes, and intergenerational racism. The Inspector’s assertion that the “Aborigine must be absorbed in the community” and that he would "recommend assimilation in [his] report” brings attention to the blatant racism that is interwoven into colonial society. This confronting dialogue forces non-Indigenous and Indigenous audiences to recognise how latent discrimination pervades western society, and further illustrates how families endured the surveillance of white authorities, limiting their freedom and autonomy over their own lives. Furthermore, Harrison amplifies the denigrating ramifications of government policies through Ester, a minor character whose “boys” were “[taken]” by government authorities and later seen at the “cork trees.” The depiction of forceful removal from family and the Stolen Generation laments on the pernicious and destructive consequences of systemic oppression and assimilationist ideologies. Additionally, the motif of the cork trees is repeated frequently throughout the play, acting as a symbol for the everpresent impacts of colonisation, injustice, and trauma that Indigenous communities experience daily. In addition, Harrison strategically constructs a bookend structure with frequent references to the song ‘Que sera, sera.’ The repeated refrain “whatever will be will be” initially seems to offer a sense of hope. However, the implementation of the second verse after Dolly is raped questions “will there be rainbows day after day.” This cultivates irony as Harrison satirises hope and presents a sense of fatalism that dictates the power and control of Indigenous populations. The inclusion of this song in the Prologue, end of Act One, and in the final scene deliberately presents the crux of the play, raising the question as to whether Indigenous communities can truly escape the harsh vicissitudes of an oppressive society that aims to marginalise them on a daily basis.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Oedipus the King, there are no right…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Written and first performed in Athens, 429 BCE, at a time of political upheaval and plague, Sophocles' Oedipus the…
Written and first performed in Athens, 429 BCE, at a time of political upheaval and plague, Sophocles' Oedipus the King explores the difficulty of establishing moral choices. Through the play, Sophocles illustrates the troubles of categorising choices as simply right or wrong, as the reasoning behind them can be much more complex. He explores that since fate has pre-determined the course of people’s lives, choices cannot truly be considered correct or incorrect. However, the play also depicts that even though there may not be inherently 'right' choices, there are still righteous ones. As the play unfolds, questions emerge regarding whether individuals can be held accountable for choices that were made when the truth was withheld from them.
Oedipus the King illustrates fate to be a largely significant factor in people’s lives. This too is seen in the choices that are made throughout the course of character’s lives, asserting that there are no specifically 'correct' choices because one’s fate cannot be escaped, no matter what choices are made. King Laius's order to "throw him out on a mountain rock" depicts this, as his attempt to get rid of Oedipus was futile and he survived to fulfill his fate regardless of the decision Oedipus's parents made. This leads to the question of whether making the right choices is truly important if the outcome cannot be avoided regardless of what action is taken. As such, the Athenian audience is encouraged to reflect on the role of fate and prophecy, as well as marvel at the power that the divine have over their lives too. The concept of no right choices is further reinforced by Oedipus’s attempt to "flee" from his home in Corinth in order to spare himself and his family from the prophecy. This demonstrates that despite having the right intentions, there is no escaping one's fate. This is done to strike fear in the Athenian audience upon realisation of how little control they truly have over their lives, further reinforcing their respect for the gods in order to avoid their wrath.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In The Complete Stories, how is the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Self-interest is a prevalent issue in the human experience. In his realist fiction The Complete Stories, Malouf…
Self-interest is a prevalent issue in the human experience. In his realist fiction The Complete Stories, Malouf contends that self-interest can be self-destructive, driven by a yearning for individuality and stability, which can culminate in individuals becoming physically and emotionally disconnected, struggling to be vulnerable with their emotions. Malouf explores how a self-seeking persona is birthed from a desire for identity and control. Additionally, Malouf investigates the detrimental consequences of selfishness, where individuals risk becoming outsiders, unable to be sensitive with others. Ultimately, Malouf employs selflessness as a contrast to self-interest, exposing its destructive consequences and challenging its impact on human relationships.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘... how terrible – to see the truth when…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy, Oedipus…
The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that understanding reality is a highly unpleasant experience for man, yet can aid man’s growth. He frames the benevolent dictator as ineffective, shattering comfort in the ideal while allowing man to attain political change. He exhibits how deterministic truths elicit fatalism and the destruction of hope, yet allow man to attain greater understanding. In exploring the proscriptive nature of morality, Sophocles suggests that significant suffering will be imposed upon any transgression, highlighting the imperative of avoidance.
Through critiquing the benevolent dictator, Sophocles explores how realisations of their ineptness lead to the breakdown of political comfort. Oedipus is initially portrayed through a restrictive facade; a ruler to ‘trust’ and a leader ‘ready to help’, with his benevolent yet assertive leadership style ‘[giving] [Thebes] life’. The truth about his leadership is unravelled by Sophocles through the progression of the play, dismissing Creon’s suggestions in being ‘wholly wrong’, stating that he ‘must rule’. Through this, Sophocles frames the tension fundamentally around Oedipus’ use of a scapegoat to maintain political power. Oedipus ultimately resorts to cruelty in forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’ to achieve a closure which ‘defend[s] [him]self’. Sophocles uses the double doors which ‘dominate the facade’ to illustrate Oedipus’ nature as a ruler, with the king projecting an image of benevolence outside the palace, hiding the corruption within. The doors serve to gradually reveal the truth, each opening withering away the heroic notion of the benevolent dictator. Ultimately, Sophocles reveals a truth about the style of leadership; that it is inherently corrupted yet a source of comfort for constituents. The erosion of their comfort is explored through the portrayal of Oedipus as a ‘good helmsman’ tasked with ‘steer[ing] [Thebes] through the storm’’. Through the association of the fate of the helmsman with the fate of Thebes as confined to the same ‘ship’ which ‘cannot lift her head from…the red waves of death’, Sophocles implies his submersion in ‘a black sea of terror’ as a collective ‘drowning’. This mirrors their significant emotional suffering, in the destruction of a connection in which their ‘breath leapt up in’ the leader. Their ‘weep[ing] like a man who wails the dead’ through their ideals of leadership ‘com[ing] to nothing’ signifies the emotional heartache that accompanies discovering the truth surrounding the pitfalls of absolute leadership. However, Sophocles suggests that this revelation is necessary to attain political progress. Sophocles presents Creon as a ‘[calm] and [rational]’ alternative to Oedipus’ charisma, a man of ‘self-control’ who is wary of absolutism as containing ‘painful duties’. His eventual attainment of power is presented as both a consequence of the emergence of the truth and the promise of positive political replacement. However, despite the revelation of the truth offering Thebes promise for political reform, Sophocles ultimately portrays the destruction of comfort in benevolent dictatorship as a deeply distressing experience.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘... how terrible – to see the truth when…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy,…
The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that understanding reality is a highly unpleasant experience for man, yet can aid man’s growth. He frames the benevolent dictator as ineffective, shattering comfort in the ideal yet liberating man to attain political improvement. He exhibits how deterministic truths elicit fatalism and the destruction of hope, yet allow man to attain greater understanding. In exploring the proscriptive nature of morality, Sophocles suggests that significant suffering will be imposed upon any transgression, highlighting the imperative of avoidance.
Through critiquing the benevolent dictator, Sophocles explores how realisations of their ineptness lead to the breakdown of political comfort. Oedipus is initially portrayed through a restrictive facade; a ruler to ‘trust’ and a leader ‘ready to help’, with his benevolent yet assertive leadership style ‘[giving] [Thebes] life’. The truth about his leadership is unravelled by Sophocles through the progression of the play, dismissing Creon’s suggestions in being ‘wholly wrong’, stating that he ‘must rule’. Through this, Sophocles frames the tension fundamentally around Oedipus’ use of a scapegoat to maintain political power. Oedipus ultimately resorts to cruelty in forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’ to achieve a closure which ‘defend[s] [him]self’. Sophocles uses the double doors which ‘dominate the facade’ to illustrate Oedipus’ nature as a ruler, with the king projecting an image of benevolence outside the palace, hiding the corruption within. The doors serve to gradually reveal the truth, each opening withering away the heroic notion of the benevolent dictator. Ultimately, Sophocles reveals a truth about the style of leadership; that it is inherently corrupted yet a source of comfort for constituents. The erosion of their comfort is explored through the portrayal of Oedipus as a ‘good helmsman’ tasked with ‘steer[ing] [Thebes] through the storm’’. Through the association of the fate of the helmsman with the fate of Thebes as confined to the same ‘ship’ which ‘cannot lift her head from…the red waves of death’, Sophocles implies his submersion in ‘a black sea of terror’ as a collective ‘drowning’. This mirrors their significant emotional suffering, in the destruction of a connection in which their ‘breath leapt up in’ the leader. Their ‘weep[ing] like a man who wails the dead’ through their ideals of leadership ‘com[ing] to nothing’ signifies the emotional heartache that accompanies discovering the truth surrounding the pitfalls of absolute leadership. However, Sophocles suggests that this revelation is necessary to attain political progress. Sophocles presents Creon as a ‘[calm] and [rational]’ alternative to Oedipus’ charisma, a man of ‘self-control’ who is wary of absolutism as containing ‘painful duties’. His eventual attainment of power is presented as both a consequence of the emergence of the truth and the promise of positive political replacement. However, despite the revelation of the truth offering Thebes promise for political reform, Sophocles ultimately portrays the destruction of comfort in benevolent dictatorship as a deeply distressing experience.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘... how terrible – to see the truth when…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy,…
The facts of the universe are difficult to accept, and often lead to internal destruction. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that understanding reality is a highly unpleasant experience for man, yet can aid man’s growth. He explores the
frames the benevolent dictator as ineffective, shattering comfort in the ideal yet liberating man to attain political improvement. He exhibits how deterministic truths elicit fatalism and the destruction of hope, yet allow man to attain greater understanding. In exploring the proscriptive nature of morality, Sophocles suggests that significant suffering will be imposed upon any transgression, highlighting the imperative of avoidance.
Through critiquing the benevolent dictator, Sophocles explores how realisations of their ineptness lead to the breakdown of political comfort. Oedipus is initially portrayed through a restrictive facade; a ruler to ‘trust’ and a leader ‘ready to help’, with his benevolent yet assertive leadership style ‘[giving] [Thebes] life’. The truth about his leadership is unravelled by Sophocles through the progression of the play, dismissing Creon’s suggestions in being ‘wholly wrong’, stating that he ‘must rule’. Through this, Sophocles frames the tension fundamentally around Oedipus’ use of a scapegoat to maintain political power. Oedipus ultimately resorts to cruelty in forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’ to achieve a closure which ‘defend[s] [him]self’. Sophocles uses the double doors which ‘dominate the facade’ to illustrate Oedipus’ nature as a ruler, with the king projecting an image of benevolence outside the palace, hiding the corruption within. The doors serve to gradually reveal the truth, each opening withering away the heroic notion of the benevolent dictator. Ultimately, Sophocles reveals a truth about the style of leadership; that it is inherently corrupted yet a source of comfort for constituents. The erosion of their comfort is explored through the portrayal of Oedipus as a ‘good helmsman’ tasked with ‘steer[ing] [Thebes] through the storm’’. Through the association of the fate of the helmsman with the fate of Thebes as confined to the same ‘ship’ which ‘cannot lift her head from…the red waves of death’, Sophocles implies his submersion in ‘a black sea of terror’ as a collective ‘drowning’. This mirrors their significant emotional suffering, in the destruction of a connection in which their ‘breath leapt up in’ the leader. Their ‘weep[ing] like a man who wails the dead’ through their ideals of leadership ‘com[ing] to nothing’ signifies the emotional heartache that accompanies discovering the truth surrounding the pitfalls of absolute leadership. However, Sophocles suggests that this revelation is necessary to attain political progress. Sophocles presents Creon as a ‘[calm] and [rational]’ alternative to Oedipus’ charisma, a man of ‘self-control’ who is wary of absolutism as containing ‘painful duties’. His eventual attainment of power is presented as both a consequence of the emergence of the truth and the promise of positive political replacement. However, despite the revelation of the truth offering Thebes promise for political reform, Sophocles ultimately portrays the destruction of comfort in benevolent dictatorship as a deeply distressing experience.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘... how terrible – to see the truth when…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: In Oedipus the King, determinism is portrayed as the overpowering truth of the universe, driving emotional anguish…
In Oedipus the King, determinism is portrayed as the overpowering truth of the universe, driving emotional anguish and fatalistic surrender. Sophocles presents a thesis of ultimate control of fate, proven through the completion of prophecy. Despite their attempts at avoidance, Laius’ and Oedipus’ ‘awful prophecies’ are ultimately fulfilled, with ‘doom…strik[ing] [Laius] down at the hands of a son’, and Oedipus ‘coupl[ing] with [his] mother’ and ‘kill[ing] his father’. Although Oedipus claims that ‘the hand that struck [his] eyes was [his]’ and ‘[his] alone’, Sophocles forbids any acceptance of compatibilism, due to his fulfilment of Tiresias’ prophecy of ‘darkness shrouding [his] eyes’. Eventual realisations of deterministic truths result in great suffering, with Oedipus lamenting being ‘cursed to heaven’ and who ‘the deathless gods hate most of all’ due to his divine fate. Thebes’ realisation destroys their belief in the power of mortal ‘brilliance’ and
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘... how terrible – to see the truth when…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Through critiquing the benevolent dictator, Sophocles explores how realisations of their ineptness lead to the…
Through critiquing the benevolent dictator, Sophocles explores how realisations of their ineptness lead to the breakdown of political comfort. Oedipus is initially portrayed through a restrictive facade; a ruler to ‘trust’ and a leader ‘ready to help’, with his benevolent yet assertive leadership style ‘[giving] [Thebes] life’. The truth about his leadership is unravelled by Sophocles through the progression of the play, dismissing Creon’s suggestions in being ‘wholly wrong’, stating that he ‘must rule’. Through this, Sophocles frames the tension fundamentally around Oedipus’ use of a scapegoat to maintain political power. Oedipus ultimately resorts to cruelty in forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’ to achieve a closure which ‘defend[s] [him]self’. Sophocles uses the double doors which ‘dominate the facade’ to illustrate Oedipus’ nature as a ruler, with the king projecting an image of benevolence outside the palace, hiding the corruption within. The doors serve to gradually reveal the truth, each opening withering away the heroic notion of the benevolent dictator. Ultimately, Sophocles reveals a truth about the style of leadership; that it is inherently
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The novel argues that true regeneration is…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: In an epoch defined by brutal conflict, life in the trenches dramatically alters one’s psyche. In her anti-war…
In an epoch defined by brutal conflict, life in the trenches dramatically alters one’s psyche. In her anti-war novel Regeneration, Pat Barker contends that the experience of the trenches fundamentally destroys any possibility for true regeneration. Through illustrating the brutal realities of warfare, Barker reveals the depth of physical and psychological harm. The profound harms are framed as lifelong through Barker’s exploration of the ineffectiveness of psychotherapeutic healing. This is amplified by her depiction of early 20th century British society as one hell-bent on internally-damaging ostracisation.
By illustrating the brutal harm inflicted by warfare on combatants, Barker portrays the trauma imbued upon them as profound. Barker’s presentation of the trenches as akin to ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Golgotha’ serves as the basis for her discussion on its impact on combatants, encapsulating the ‘place of desolation’ and reinforcing the idea of its power to create profoundly damaging experiences. War leaves neither the physical nor the mental unscathed, with the use of bodies and wounds as a motif emphasising this. Their recurrence symbolises both physical destruction by an institution built to inflict harm, as well as their embeddedness in one’s psyche. Barker uses dehumanising language to describe the wounded, such as ‘creatures’, ‘figure’, and ‘deformed pseudo-dwarf’, a lexical decision emphasising the depth of their injuries to mirror the dehumanising nature of their trauma. Barker utilises sardonic humour in her description of bodies, such as ‘gob-stopper’, implying their desensitising prevalence in the trenches. Nonetheless, they have a parasitic psychological effect, with Prior’s internal repetition of ‘gob-stopper’ a constant reminder of graphic imagery encountered in the trenches. Throughout the novel, the mental and physical aftermath of war remains intertwined, emphasising Barker’s portrayal of war as an institution that destroys all aspects of oneself. Burns’s physical wastage is a product of his trauma leaving him unable to eat, turning him into a ‘scarecrow’, demonstrating the physical destruction experienced by the character in response to his trauma. The ‘totally blank stare’ of the wounded witnessed by Prior, as well as the ‘sombre and malevolent’ face of the injured seen by Rivers, are representatives of the opposite, where physical destruction leads to hopelessness and mental collapse. Through exploring the interplay between the physical and mental destruction of war, Barker presents the nature of wartime experiences as total and all-consuming to the individual. In Regeneration, the trenches are portrayed as synthesisers of deeply destructive experiences, leading to profound effects to the entire being.