VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “...count no man happy till he dies, free…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Additionally, Sophocles endorses deterministic ideas, while revealing a lack of moral definitiveness, highlighting…
Additionally, Sophocles endorses deterministic ideas, while revealing a lack of moral definitiveness, highlighting pessimistic philosophical truths. Free will is portrayed as largely an illusion, with man having little control over their destiny. The ‘awful prophecies of the gods’ subjected upon Laius and Oedipus are fulfilled, despite their best efforts, suggesting that ‘the truth with all its power’ lies in prophecy. Sophocles reinforces this through the use of dramatic irony. Oedipus’ misguided assertions that he ‘speak[s]...as a stranger to the story [and] a stranger to the crime’ imbue within the play a sense of divine awareness not shared by the characters, creating an undercurrent of inevitability. Despite the overwhelming power of fate, man indeed holds some agency, observed through Oedipus’ declaration that ‘the hand that struck [his] eyes was [his]’ and ‘[his] alone’. Sophocles suggests that some optimism may be gleaned from an ability to exercise limited free will, however presents it as heavily neutered through the overwhelming power of fate. Indeed, Oedipus is fated to endure ‘darkness shrouding [his] eyes’, proving that despite his self-blinding being an act of choice, it is confined heavily within deterministic frameworks of reality. Sophocles suggests an adoption of fatalism over optimism, endorsing a resolve to ‘watch and wait the final day’ as man is ultimately powerless to make meaningful choice. Morality in Oedipus the King is also presented as deprived of optimism, being
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “...count no man happy till he dies, free…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Oedipus the King explores pessimistic political truths, with Sophocles portraying the forces controlling the world…
Oedipus the King explores pessimistic political truths, with Sophocles portraying the forces controlling the world as deeply corrupted by the power they possess. Laius is portrayed as a tyrannical ruler thirsty for the maintenance of his power, with his ‘wildest fear’ being deposition through murder. His act of ‘fastening [Oedipus] ankles [and] [having] a henchman fling him away’ is described as an attempted ‘[destruction]’ imbuing within the act a political motive. Oedipus’ arrival in Thebes drives significant political optimism, with the city hoping to be ‘put…straight on course’. Oedipus crafts a facade of ‘trust’ that is gradually destroyed by the king’s attempts to maintain power. His rejection of Creon’s suggestion of his being ‘wholly wrong’ is met with a dismissal, reasoning that he ‘must rule’, demonstrating the corruption of the leader. Oedipus ultimately resorts to ‘torture’, forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’ to achieve a goal which ‘defend[s] [him]self’. Sophocles uses nautical imagery to symbolise the unravelling of Oedipus’ leadership, the king mirroring a ‘great helmsman’ tasked to ‘steer…through the storm’. The captain is ultimately engulfed in a ‘black sea of terror’, paralleling the destruction of Oedipus’ benevolent facade. Despite an undercurrent of cruelty, Oedipus’ facade
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “They’re free, they've been taught how to…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Throughout his memoir, Noah mocks the absurdity of the institutionalized racism which was created through…
Throughout his memoir, Noah mocks the absurdity of the institutionalized racism which was created through apartheid, exploring ways which the disenfranchised endured through these hardships. Noah first begins his memoir with the dedication to “[his] mother” who made “[him] a man”, which is subsequently followed with the Immorality Act of 1927, which “prohibit[ed] illicit carnal intercorse” between the black and white racial groups classified under the Population Registration Act of 1950. Noah utilises these two conflicting statements in his epigraph, alongside a photograph of both him and his mother as a preface to the struggles of those subjugated by these laws, with the clear difference between skin colour within the photograph as evidence to Patricia’s opposition to this law. Consequently, Noah mocks the irony of this apartheid legislation by highlighting that “[races], in a lot of cases, want to mix” simply because “humans being humans and sex being sex”, proving it to be part of the innate human nature. Noah discerns this simple fact to underscore not just the absurdity of the Immorality Act of 1927, but the architecture of apartheid as a whole. Noah’s own life, being “born a crime”, provides stark evidence to this defiance of the law, with his mother outrightly defying the prohibition without any “consider[ation of] any ramifications” of birthing Noah due to her rebellious wit and fearlessness, which led to her “figur[ing] out a way to do it”. Observing his mother’s strength in opposition to the white supremasist regime, Noah highlights the characteristics of his mother, alongside the multitude of other parents of “mixed kids in South Africa”, who were able to find “the cracks in the system” and subsequently, exploit them. He outlines how, despite their child’s birth being “proof of their criminality”, they used the subjective categorisation imposed by the government against itself, and
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “This is my place. I’m staying right here…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: The contemporary play, “Rainbows End” written by playwright Jane Harrison explores the lives of Indigenous…
The contemporary play, “Rainbows End” written by playwright Jane Harrison explores the lives of Indigenous Australians during the 1950s where Anglo Australians heavily oppressed Indigenous families. Harrison endorses the crucial need of home for Aboriginal Australians as it promotes a sense of belonging establishing deeper connections with one’s culture.
By utilising characterisation, Harrison promotes the significance of home for Aboriginal Australians, where home is not always a physical place but can be established through communal connections. During a dispute between Dolly and Errol, where Errol proposes to they move together for “ a better life” when she says she is “staying right here”. By using characterisation Harrison emphasises the differing perspectives Dolly and Errol have where he embodies the ‘white saviour’ complex without understanding the needs of Dolly and what she truly values as home causing a clash in dynamics. Therefore Harrison critiques the eurocentric ideals that dismiss Indigenous values of family where she argues Anglo-Australians value the materialism of home while Indigenous Australians value the connections and community to establish importance of home due to the constant displacement and dispossession they faced in the 1950s. During the play, Dolly expresses how “a real home is where people look out for each other”. Harrison highlights what Dolly considered as home, where despite their living circumstances at the humpy Dolly valued the community she lived with and how the people she surrounds provides her a sense of home. Harrison celebrates Indigenous Australians for their strong values of community that allowed them to feel belonging within a society which constantly deprived them of resources. Thus, Harrison praises Indigenous families for recognising home does not necessarily need to be a physical place but the community and family can make a place feel at home.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In the Memory Police, interpersonal…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: In Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, interpersonal connections emerge as a crucial form of resistance, but not as a…
In Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, interpersonal connections emerge as a crucial form of resistance, but not as a simple or triumphant answer to authoritarian control. In a world where collective political opposition has been hollowed out by systematic erasure, bonds of care, memory and collaboration become some of the only remaining spaces where individual humanity can be asserted. Yet Ogawa also underscores the fragility, limitations and potential distortions of these relationships, suggesting that while they may be the strongest resistance available, they are also precarious, ethically complex and ultimately unable to overturn the regime’s power. Overall, the novel invites readers to recognise interpersonal connection as a powerful, if deeply constrained, mode of resisting obliteration.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘What should a man fear? It’s all chance,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Chance is an illusion, yet it controls the life of man. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles frames…
Chance is an illusion, yet it controls the life of man. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles frames uncaused events and man’s opportunity for action as merely an illusion, with believing in its existence being highly detrimental. He explores the deterministic metaphysics of the universe, demonstrating how fate conspires to render chance false. He portrays a belief in the falsehood as deeply embedded into society, with negative intellectual and moral repercussions. He ultimately explores the loss of faith in chance, demonstrating why this shift in values is both deeply traumatic and important for the individual.
Chance as a reality is presented by Sophocles as false, rendered largely incompatible with the divine cause of events. The events in Oedipus the King all occur within a largely deterministic lens, highlighted by the gradual revelation of prophecy. In revealing the truth of Laius’ ‘doom [that] would strike him down at the hands of a son’, and Oedipus’ fate ‘to couple with [his] mother…[and] kill [his] father’, Sophocles implies a predetermined cause of events that serves as the mechanism for the prophecies. This implication is made more evident through dramatic irony, in which Oedipus’ obviously misguided assertions that he ‘never saw the man’ and is a ‘stranger to the crime’ repeatedly highlight the existence of pre-established action and therefore imbuing within them a sense of inevitability. Indeed, Sophocles suggests that fate does not entirely preclude uncaused actions, as one may still act with free will. Oedipus’ recognition that ‘the hand that struck [his] eyes was [his]’; a decision belonging to ‘no one else’, reaffirms the protagonist’s punishment as an exercise of internal desire, yet only consummates his preordained downfall of ‘darkness shrouding [his] eyes that now can see the light’. Sophocles adopts a position of soft determinism, in which man does possess individual choice that is heavily restricted by their overarching fate, expanded through the symbol of the ‘place where three roads meet’. The ‘triple crossroad’ simultaneously represents a point of decision and the fulfilment of Delphi’s prophecy, with Oedipus’ choice to ‘[pay] [Laius] back with interest’ trapping him within an inescapable outcome. Ultimately, Sophocles’ deterministic assertions are largely incompatible with chance, with the role of metaphysical randomness rendered largely minute through the overarching power of fate.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘What should a man fear? It’s all chance,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: However, the human belief in chance has a significant impact on the life of man, driving detrimental ignorant…
However, the human belief in chance has a significant impact on the life of man, driving detrimental ignorant action and immorality. Laius and Oedipus both attempt to subvert prophecy, ultimately ensuring they are victims of their misguided beliefs. Laius attempts to nullify his prophetic demise through ‘[destroying]’ Oedipus, and the son’s ‘[doom] to couple with [his] mother and cut [his] father down’ is met with fleeing to ‘never see the shame of all those oracles come true’. Both believe they have a chance to avert their fate, however these resulting actions eventually drive their downfall. When hinted at the truth of prophecy by Tiresias, Oedipus is presented as ignorant, telling the ‘insufferable’ seer to ‘vanish’ and accusing Creon of ‘mov[ing] against [him]’. The tensions created by Oedipus with Tiresias and Creon highlight the king’s foolish defence of chance, rejecting Creon’s encouragement to ‘see things calmly [and] rationally’. Sophocles presents concerns
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘What should a man fear? It’s all chance,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: However, the human belief in chance has a significant impact on the life of man, driving detrimental ignorant…
However, the human belief in chance has a significant impact on the life of man, driving detrimental ignorant action and immorality. Laius and Oedipus both attempt to subvert prophecy, ultimately ensuring they are victims of their misguided beliefs. Laius attempts to nullify his prophetic demise through ‘[destroying]’ Oedipus, and the son’s ‘[doom] to couple with [his] mother and cut [his] father down’ is met with fleeing to ‘never see the shame of all those oracles come true’. Both believe they have a chance to avert their fate, however these resulting actions eventually drive their downfall. When hinted at the truth of prophecy by Tiresias, Oedipus is presented as ignorant, telling the ‘insufferable’ seer to ‘vanish’ and accusing Creon for ‘mov[ing] against [him]’. The tensions created by Oedipus with Tiresias and Creon highlight the king’s foolish defence of chance, rejecting Creon’s encouragement to ‘see things calmly [and] rationally’. Sophocles presents concerns regarding the increasingly-popular
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Analyse how Stephen Johnson uses cinematic…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: History has romanticised the great qualities which colonialism entails being noble and courageous, whilst…
History has romanticised the great qualities which colonialism entails being noble and courageous, whilst forgetting of the dark past which follows it. Stephen Johnsons film 'High Ground' breaks the myth, as being a revisionist western it critiques the un-just colonial oppression on Arnhem land which Indigenous people faced, striving away from the balance of 'Makarrata'. Johnson is able to use characters like Moran to be the pinnicle of immoral actions and behaviour to the Yolngu people, following Travis's belief of the 'hero' through his paternalism, and Gutjuk reclaiming his identity. Ultimately Johnson strives for a post colonial Australia to acknowledge their problematic actions to begin a journey to genuine reconciliation
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: 1.How is the Blackwood estate both refuge…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Written against the resurgence of traditionalism, Shirley Jacksons proto-feminist 1962 novella “we have always…
Written against the resurgence of traditionalism, Shirley Jacksons proto-feminist 1962 novella “we have always lived in the castle” presents isolation as both a destructive and protective force. Jackson initially presents domesticity as a refuge from patriarchal persecution, While domesticity simultaneously isolating individuals from societal livelihood. Only when domesticity is destroyed does the reader experience the vulnerability and freedom that come from the absence of isolation and safety. Moreover, Jackson suggests that protection and stability come with isolation and an absence of self-autonomy. Through her exploration of the gothic genre Jackson critiques the restricting nature of the 1960s American patriarchy.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There are no heroes in Oedipus the King,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: The nature of the human and the divine is complex, rendering nobody capable of attaining moral quantification. In…
The nature of the human and the divine is complex, rendering nobody capable of attaining moral quantification. In his tragedy, Oedipus the King, Sophocles leaves the play absent of the perfectly beneficent, evil or victimised, instead portraying the three as profoundly interrelated. Through exploring the corruption of power behind benevolent façades, Sophocles asserts that the benevolent dictator is a man of both heroism and villainy. He examines the moral qualities of divinity and their imposition of moral duality on both the gods and man. He ultimately examines how good and evil both lead to ultimate victimhood, demonstrating their interrelated nature.
Sophocles critiques the notion of the benevolent dictator, examining their moral complexity and challenging their heroic status. Laius, Oedipus and Creon all cultivate a persona of ‘first of men’, however each is deeply corrupted by their power. In trying to neutralise his ‘wildest fear’ of dethronement, he ‘fastened his [son’s] ankles [and] had a henchman fling him away’ to die. In labelling Laius’ attempted filicide a ‘[destruction]’, Sophocles politicises ruler’s actions; an attempt to remove an adversary to maintain dominance. Oedipus’ power ensures the cultivation of a reputation of a man who will ‘do anything’ for Thebes, while simultaneously being consumed by hubris. The gradual unravelling of Oedipus’ internal nature, from the ‘land’s avenger’ to a man who believes he ‘must rule’ at any cost, reveals moral complexity within the benevolent dictator, with Sophocles expressing the dual nature of hero and villain within the leader. This duality is represented through the ‘double doors [which] dominate the façade’. Outside the doors, Oedipus projects a heroic image, allowing the doors to hide his hubris within unflinching physical and metaphorical barriers. Ultimately, Oedipus’ reign is represented through Sophocles’ use of nautical imagery, drawing a parallel between Oedipus and a ‘helmsman’ tasked to ‘steer [Thebes] through the storm’. The sailor’s ‘drowning’ in a ‘black sea of terror’ mirrors the dismantling of the king’s heroic façade and replacement with a duality between champion and villain. Creon’s ascent to power does not afford him heroic status, instead it marks a departure from pure ‘rationality’, with his hegemonic treatment of Oedipus demonstrating immediate moral corruption. Creon’s ‘draw[ing] back’ from Oedipus’ reach represents a realisation of the power held above a newly-subordinated figure, and his forceful order to ‘let go of the children’ demonstrates an exercise of dominance over his nephew. Ultimately, Creon abandons mercy in responding to Oedipus’ pleas to not ‘take them away from me’ through mocking Oedipus’ removal of his ‘master[y] of all things’; the ‘man of sense’ evolving into a tyrant, and challenging his rational heroism. Through exploring the moral duality of benevolent dictators, Sophocles expresses a notion of their inability to attain complete heroic status, and their operation between saviour and malefactor.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "In We Have Always Lived in the Castle,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: In Shirley Jackson’s 1962 gothic novella, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (WHALITC), she examines family…
In Shirley Jackson’s 1962 gothic novella, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (WHALITC), she examines family structures and their systemic deprival of female agency in favour of traditional domesticity and servitude. The novel explores how patriarchal expectations of family roles shape individuals in a way that forms a cycle of perpetually reinforcing normative ideologies. Further, Jackson navigates the tensions that arise when these paradigms are challenged, and their potential for destruction. Despite this, the plot’s ambiguous conclusion concedes that it is not specifically family that precedes all these outcomes, but the oppressive structures which families are so often made to abide - and thus Jackson posits that under alternative frameworks, family can in actuality become a beacon of safety and comfort.
Jackson’s novel immediately forms a criticism of traditional gender roles and family institutions, focusing specifically on how their conventions oppress and domesticate women. Merricat’s lack of femininity is established by her self introduction in which she states that “with any luck at all [she] could have been born a werewolf”. The fact that Merricat’s own description of herself entails the animalistic nature of her person highlights the extent to which she seeks to remove herself from humanity. The Blackwood family’s value system is embodied within their treatment of Merricat - “Always in disgrace”, Merricat represents the unfeminine abscess that pollutes the otherwise normative structure of the Blackwood household, and the constant conflict between her and the rest of the family underscore how patriarchal frameworks restrict female agency. Charles’ visit serves as a rekindling of traditional family structure in the Blackwood home, and Constance’s immediate reform beneath his intrusion foregrounds the mechanisms of family which ensnare women to domesticity. Constance chastises Merricat and says that “[she] thinks [she is] going to have to forbid [her] wandering”. Jackson’s use of the verb “wandering” makes a reference to Merricat’s desire to explore, and the punishment of stopping this parallels how orthodox family order subjugates women’s agency. Constance’s newfound willingness to punish Merricat highlights how Charles’ arrival has upset the power balance between the sisters, instead reframing Merricat as daughter, and Charles and Constance as father and mother. When Merricat responds “By we, do you mean you and Charles?”, Jackson highlights how Charles’ patriarchal presence has removed Constance’s presence as an individual, further suggesting that the traditional family structures the patriarchy seeks to instill oppress and shape female agency. Therefore Jackson illuminates the conventions of family which entrap women and suppress their freedoms.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘You’ll see no countries, just a rolling…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Samantha Harvey’s 2023 philosophical novella Orbital showcases a 24-hour day period of the lives of astronauts on…
Samantha Harvey’s 2023 philosophical novella Orbital showcases a 24-hour day period of the lives of astronauts on the ISS, displaying the complexities and uncertainties of humanity and the Earth through a new lens. In Orbital, Harvey presents how humanity, when viewed from a new perspective, allows for a greater understanding of Earth, our purpose, and our responsibilities. Firstly, Harvey showcases how distance can deepen understanding of human nature and the reliance it has on Earth. Secondly, Harvey enforces a paradox, presenting humanity’s need for Earth while simultaneously destroying it. Finally, Harvey employs the insignificance of humanity at a cosmic scale, implying that humility is required in humanity to understand both our importance and our reliance on Earth.
Harvey presents how viewing Earth from a new perspective reveals humanity’s intense and inescapable dependence on it. While the astronauts are physically unbound from Earth's physical boundaries, they are no less connected; instead they are more dependent on it as a source of comfort. This paradox is displayed through the omniscient narration, which describes Earth as a ‘mother’, revealing the astronauts’ maternal bond with the Earth; a protector that gives and supports their lives. This presents that, although the astronauts are physically absent from their home planet, they are paradoxically closer to it mentally. Their orbital view ‘two hundred and fifty miles’ above presents to these astronauts their total reliance on their planet. Similarly, the omniscient narrator describes the station as a ‘dayless freak zone’, where time is ‘shred... to pieces’ as the astronauts cannot rely on routinely natural occurrences on Earth, particularly sunrise and sunset. This forces Roman to ‘tether his time spent to something countable’ through his tally of days in orbit, revealing humanity's deep psychological need for earthly routines. This presents how the astronauts depend and yearn for the orderly systems and processes given to them on Earth, which is only able to be realized when they are taken away from them at their ‘godly view’ in space.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Prompt: How does Jackson critique…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Introduction Introduction Shirley Jackson's Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, composed within a…
Introduction
Introduction
Shirley Jackson's Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, composed within a post-war American culture that idealised the nuclear family and enforced rigid conformity to gendered domestic roles, mounts a sustained critique of the very societal expectations that culture held sacred. Set within a small New England village whose "unchangingly grey" conformism is set in stark contrast to the Blackwoods' isolated non-conformity, the novel exposes the hollowness of expectations surrounding femininity, family, and communal belonging by revealing the damage each inflicts upon those who either submit to or resist them. Jackson interrogates the expectation that women exist to nurture within a domestic sphere, revealing this role instead to be a mechanism of confinement disguised as virtue; she dismantles the mid-century mythology of the nuclear family as a site of safety, exposing it instead as an oppressive structure organised around masculine entitlement; and she indicts the village's demand for conformity, suggesting that a community's insistence on sameness breeds a cruelty as destructive as anything it claims to guard against. Writing against the backdrop of a McCarthyist suspicion of the "Other" and an American Dream premised on wealth, homeownership and social belonging, Jackson positions the Blackwood sisters' eventual retreat into isolation not as failure but as a scathing indictment of a society whose expectations offer neither the safety nor the fulfilment they promise. Ultimately, Jackson suggests that traditional societal expectations, far from providing structure and protection, function as instruments of erasure — and that genuine autonomy, however fragile, can only be found in their rejection.
Body Paragraph 1 — Critiquing domestic/gendered femininity
Jackson first critiques the societal expectation that women exist primarily to nurture, revealing the domestic sphere assigned to them as a site of confinement rather than fulfilment. The description of the sisters' domestic labour as "dust[ing] and sweep[ing] under the chair and beds," rendered inescapable through Jackson's use of the collective pronoun "we," universalises domesticity as an obligation imposed upon all Blackwood women regardless of individual desire, transforming what convention frames as feminine virtue into monotonous, unrewarded labour. This critique intensifies through Constance's transformation into the household's caretaker following Lucy Blackwood's refusal to "cook" and perform "womanly" duties, a role Constance did not choose so much as inherit by default, suggesting that the expectation of feminine nurture persists structurally even when individual women resist it, simply migrating onto whichever woman remains. Jackson complicates this critique, however, by allowing Constance's domesticity to double as a genuine expression of care — her preparation of food "lean and rich and salty" for Merricat figured as an intimate act of love rather than pure subjugation — before undercutting this tenderness with the revelation that the same domestic sphere, in the form of the poisoned sugar bowl, becomes capable of lethal violence. Through this unsettling juxtaposition, Jackson suggests that traditional femininity is not merely restrictive but structurally precarious: the same role that is meant to nurture a family is shown, when women are denied any other outlet for agency, to be equally capable of destroying it.
Body Paragraph 2 — Critiquing the nuclear family ideal
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "Punish me? You mean send me to bed…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Introduction Shirley Jackson's Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, set within the claustrophobic…
Introduction
Shirley Jackson's Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, set within the claustrophobic confines of a decaying New England manor in the conformist years following the Second World War, interrogates the corrosive potential of power as it operates across the domestic, communal and psychological spheres of the Blackwood family's existence. Merricat's flippant rebuttal — "you mean send me to bed without dinner?" — trivialises patriarchal punishment even as it exposes the mundane cruelty from which such power draws its authority, immediately establishing the novel's preoccupation with the fragile boundary between control and its collapse. Jackson demonstrates that power, when concentrated within the patriarchal household, manifests as a quietly punitive discipline that starves rather than nurtures; that when wielded collectively by a conformist village, power escalates into a destructive violence seeking to annihilate difference entirely; yet also intimates that power, however corrosive its origins, can be reclaimed by the powerless as a fragile, if imperfect, instrument of resistance. Writing within a post-war American culture that prized conformity and viewed deviation from the nuclear family ideal with a McCarthyist suspicion of the "Other," Jackson positions power not as a stabilising social good but as a mechanism that inevitably corrupts whoever wields it and diminishes whoever is denied it. Ultimately, while Jackson permits fleeting moments in which the dispossessed reclaim fragments of agency, she affirms that power — whether patriarchal, communal or reactive — is fundamentally destructive, dismantling the very relationships and selves it purports to protect.
Body Paragraph 1 — Patriarchal power as domestic discipline
Jackson first locates the destructive nature of power within the intimate hierarchy of the Blackwood household, where John Blackwood's regulation of food transforms an act of nourishment into an instrument of dominance. Uncle Julian's recollection that John was "a just man" who "never stinted on his food, so long as we did not take too much" operates through a bitter irony: the epithet "just" is immediately undercut by the conditional clause that follows it, so that fairness is revealed as merely the language patriarchal control uses to disguise itself as virtue. This disparity is rendered starkest through the gendered distribution of food itself — with Uncle Julian and Merricat given "less" while John "eat[s] more" and Merricat is, on occasion, "sent to bed without supper" — a hierarchy in which sustenance becomes currency, and deprivation becomes both punishment and pedagogy. Because this discipline is wrapped in the domestic ordinariness of a shared table rather than in overt violence, Jackson suggests that patriarchal power is at its most destructive precisely when it is most mundane, embedding itself so thoroughly within daily ritual that its victims — Merricat most of all — come to regard punishment not as injustice but as simply how a family functions. It is this normalisation that Merricat's dismissive retort ("you mean send me to bed without dinner?") ultimately answers: her flippancy does not diminish the cruelty of the practice so much as reveal how completely she has been conditioned to expect it, exposing power's most insidious effect as the quiet erosion of a victim's capacity to recognise harm as harm.
Body Paragraph 2 — Communal power as collective violence
Beyond the household, Jackson extends her critique of destructive power to the village itself, where collective conformity licenses a form of violence far more overt than John Blackwood's domestic discipline yet no less rooted in the desire to dominate difference. The mob's assault on the Blackwood estate, described as moving "like a wave" as they shatter "plates," "Constance's harp" and "a Dresden figurine," strips the villagers of individual culpability, Jackson's simile collapsing them into a single unified force whose violence is licensed precisely because it is shared; no single villager need answer for what the crowd, as an entity, has done. That the mob deliberately leaves the safe "not been opened" while destroying only items of sentimental value indicates that this power is not motivated by material gain but by a desire to punish the sisters for their perceived difference — their refusal to submit to the town's conformist expectations of femininity, wealth and belonging. This reading is reinforced by the earlier avian imagery in which the villagers are said to "come at [Merricat] like a flock of taloned hawks," Jackson's predator-prey metaphor recasting communal surveillance itself as a slow, patient form of violence that precedes and enables the mob's eventual physical destruction. Read within the context of a McCarthy-era America in which unsubstantiated suspicion could permanently exile an individual from their community, the villagers' collective power becomes legible not merely as small-town cruelty but as a broader indictment of how conformist societies weaponise consensus against anyone who resists assimilation — power here is destructive not despite being shared, but because it is shared, since collective violence disperses guilt to the point of erasure.
Body Paragraph 3 — Power reclaimed, but never redemptive
However, Jackson complicates a purely condemnatory reading of power by suggesting that the dispossessed — denied any legitimate access to authority — inevitably repurpose the domestic sphere itself into a site of resistance, even as this reclamation remains fundamentally corrosive rather than liberating. Merricat's grotesque fantasy of asking Constance to "make a gingerbread man" that she "could name him Charles and eat him" fuses childish play with an unmistakably violent symbolism, Jackson's imagery of consumption transforming a tool of feminine domesticity into an instrument of imagined retribution against the patriarchal intrusion Charles represents. Similarly, the arsenic concealed within the sugar bowl — a symbol of sweetness and nurture inverted into a weapon — allows Merricat to seize, however briefly, the structural power denied to her by an economy of inheritance built entirely around men; her "coup," as it might be termed, reclaims agency precisely by destroying the mechanism that had denied her any. Yet Jackson refuses to frame this reclamation as triumphant: the very act that grants Merricat control also isolates her and Constance permanently from the world beyond the estate, so that what begins as resistance calcifies, by the novel's end, into a self-imposed imprisonment scarcely distinguishable from the confinement it sought to escape. Through this, Jackson suggests that when power can only be seized through destruction, its reclamation offers not restoration but a mirror image of the very violence it resists.
Conclusion
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Jackson critique traditional…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Written amidst the social upheaval of mid-twentieth-century America, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in…
Written amidst the social upheaval of mid-twentieth-century America, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a psychological Gothic novella that explores the complex notions of individual identity and behaviour. Jackson contends that traditional societal expectations are not neutral or universally applied, but are selectively enforced according to an individual’s social power. She initially exposes the hypocrisy of conventional norms by revealing their unequal consequences for those who possess differing degrees of agency. Furthermore, Jackson demonstrates that rejecting social expectations can become a source of authority, while ultimately exposing the corruption that occurs when these expectations become internalised.
Jackson initially exposes the flawed nature of conventional norms by demonstrating that their consequences are dependent upon an individual’s social agency. This is evident through Stella, whose ownership of a café establishes her as a woman exercising economic independence within a public sphere. The café itself functions symbolically as a space of female autonomy: traditionally, mid-twentieth-century expectations positioned women within the private sphere of the home, yet Stella occupies a commercial environment in which she possesses both economic and social agency. Significantly, her deviation from conventional femininity appears relatively unchallenged by the community, revealing that societal expectations are not consistently enforced. Jackson therefore exposes the hypocrisy of social convention, suggesting that deviation is tolerated when an individual possesses sufficient social legitimacy or authority. This contrasts with the rigid hierarchy of the Blackwood household, where John is described as “the head of the family” while Lucy is expected to follow “all the other Blackwood women” into domesticity. Jackson consequently demonstrates that gendered expectations are not natural limitations but socially constructed mechanisms through which authority is distributed. This hierarchy is further destabilised after John’s absence, as Merricat assumes traditionally masculine responsibilities, “going into town” to “get groceries” and “checking the fences”. Through this inversion, Jackson demonstrates that authority can be performed by women just as masculinity can be undermined in men, particularly through Uncle Julian’s physical dependence upon Constance. By juxtaposing Stella’s economically independent femininity with the Blackwood family’s rigid gender hierarchy, Jackson exposes the selective and contradictory nature of traditional norms, ultimately suggesting that society’s expectations are less concerned with enforcing consistent morality than with determining who is permitted to possess power.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like bloody…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like bloody tears. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
The slipping hourglass fell upon me.
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lacklustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day; the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like bloody…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like bloody tears. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
The slipping hourglass fell upon me.
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lacklustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like wounded…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like wounded angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
The slipping hourglass fell upon me.
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lacklustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 82.5%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like wounded…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like wounded angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
The slipping hourglass fell upon me.
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lacklustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
6 months later…
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lacklustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
6 months later…
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disillusioned by the lack lustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the hunted I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like rats chewing against the walls, rotting moss in a basement, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 77.5%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lay in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
6 months later…
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disenfranchised by the lack lustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the prey animal I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like paint drying against the seams, growing grass against the footpath, SACs accumulated like dull dust.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had lain there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit
Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided angels. Throbbing intensified, the body coiled ready to spring forwards to fly like an arrow of God. There he lie in all his glory; someone who had purpose, someone who had style, someone who was happy. I could see through my visor-like eyes the mirror to the perfect alternate version of myself. No one was around but my own conscience to guide me through the pain. My life was fading, something I couldn’t control. Was life ever going to change?
6 months later…
Getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day, disenfranchised by the lack lustre purgatory of not improving. Twice a day, I wrote to myself during the summer; year 12 was looming, I wrote my dreams into a timeless capsule under my bed in the aged monopoly set that smelled of cat piss.
I was told year 12 was suffering…
The start of a brand-new day, the same normal people I called my peers were distant background noise to me. I was silently suffering like a prey animal, but much like the prey animal I had learned to conceal hardships. Bogged down, brought down, beaten. The days went by in a gruellingly slow fashion, like paint drying against the seams, growing grass against the footpath, SACs accumulated like dull dust.