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.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: "How did you change?"
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 72.5%: 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 laid 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 65%: He had laid there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had laid 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 laid 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 conscious 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 65%: He had laid there in the medium stone grey intensive care unit Deep dark stains lined the bed like misguided…
He had laid 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 laid 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 conscious 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 · Text Response
Text Response: There are no heroes in Oedipus the King,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Sophocles also explores the role of divinity in determining morality, with the institution confining both the gods…
Sophocles also explores the role of divinity in determining morality, with the institution confining both the gods and man to a state of moral duality. The gods are presented as both ‘champion[s]’ of man and mechanisms of damage, explored by Sophocles through the parados. The chorus is ‘racked with terror’ due to the divine plague, and ‘worship[s] [Apollo] in dread’, with desperately pleading to understand ‘[Apollo’s] price’. The portrayal of the gods as mechanisms of terror is expressed through recurring thanatological language; the chorus’ descriptions of ‘deaths on deaths’ presenting the extent of divine suffering inflicted upon the city. Sophocles simultaneously depicts the gods as a source of absolution. Apollo is described as the ‘child of golden Hope’ and ‘lord of the light’, Athena as possessing a ‘radiant…kindness’, and Dionysus with ‘eyes ablaze with glory’. His contrast of deathly language in the chorus’ questioning of ‘what will [Apollo] bring to birth’ imbues a duality within the gods as both man’s ‘death’ and their salvation. Oedipus’ ultimate acceptance of his actions as having been ‘brought to light by the gods’ places moral culpability on himself and endorses the
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: “You were looking for the key for…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: Changing Direction “You were looking for the key for years. But the door was always open!”- vce eng exam 2025…
Changing Direction
“You were looking for the key for years. But the door was always open!”- vce eng exam 2025
The room smelled like antiseptic and mangoes.
A woman sat beside my bed, enclosing my hand within both of hers. Her face seemed familiar, though familiarity had become a cruel sensation: the certainty of knowing without the comfort of remembering.
“Dad?” she whispered. “Do you know who I am?”
Behind her stood a man and two children, waiting for an answer I could not give. I smiled because they appeared to need me to.
“I’m sorry.”
The woman lowered her head. As she pressed my hand against her cheek, my gaze settled on the faded name beneath my hospital bracelet.
Alina.
My fingers found the small metal key hanging from my neck.
“Alina,” I said.
The woman looked up. “Who is Alina?”
The sweetness of mangoes grew stronger, pushing the antiseptic from the room, and suddenly my hands were young again.
“Wrong.” Alina tapped the centre of my palm.
“I copied exactly what you wrote.”
“You wrote it backwards.”
“Urdu itself is backwards.”
She gasped as though I had insulted God, then threw a mango seed at my head. We were seventeen, when borders belonged in schoolbooks and death belonged to old people, so we spent entire afternoons beneath the mango tree without believing an afternoon could ever be our last.
Taking my hand again, she traced the Urdu letters of her name across my Punjabi palm.
“Again,” she ordered.
I copied the movement carefully: Aa-lii-n-a.
Mango juice travelled along her wrist as I watched.
“Are you learning?”
“Very carefully.”
“Besharam.”
Shameless.
Although she rolled her hazel-green eyes, a smile escaped from the corner of her mouth. I wanted to tell her that I loved the way she said that word, but there would always be tomorrow.
That afternoon, an eclipse darkened the village. Birds disappeared into the trees, and the cattle became restless as the world held its breath.
“Are you scared?” I asked.
“No,” she replied too quickly.
When sunlight finally returned through the leaves, Alina smiled as though she had summoned it herself.
“See? It always comes back.”
The following morning, the shouting began.
Smoke pressed through our windows, stinging my eyes, while my mother threw clothes into our metal trunk. My father repeated that we would return within a week, although his shaking hands folded the same kurta three times.
They packed enough clothing for seven days. I ran to Alina.
Dragging my bicycle by its broken chain, I pushed past families moving in every direction, their possessions clutched against them as if a bundle of clothing could hold a life together. Someone called for me to stop, but smoke had swallowed the road behind me.
Alina’s front door stood open.
I would later forget the precise sound of her laugh and whether her dupatta had been green or blue, but I never forgot that doorway shifting in the hot wind.
“Alina!”
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘The actions of Oedipus are irrelevant; he…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the idea of fate and whether people have control over their own future.…
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King explores the idea of fate and whether people have control over their own future. Oedipus is shown as a victim of fate because his future has already been decided by the gods before he is able to control it. The actions of other characters also unknowingly help the prophecy come true. However, Oedipus is not completely controlled by fate because his own pride, anger and decisions also contribute to his downfall. Therefore, Oedipus is a victim of fate, but his actions are still important in causing his downfall.
Paragraph 1 — Fate
As a king in 5th century Athens, Oedipus is subject to a future determined by those of higher power. Within the play, the Theban citizens widely accept that “Great laws tower above us,” showing that the gods have more power than humans. The word “tower” suggests that these laws are above humans and cannot be controlled or changed by them. This shows that even though Oedipus is the king of Thebes, he is still below the power of the gods and their decisions. The prophecy about Oedipus’ life also establishes that his future has already been decided before he can control it. Oedipus acknowledges that “Apollo told [him]” it is “[his] fate” that he “must make love with [his] own mother” and “shed [his] father’s blood with [his] own hands.” The phrase “my fate” shows that Oedipus understands that his future is controlled by a higher power. The use of “must” also suggests that there is no other choice for Oedipus and that the events are unavoidable. This makes Oedipus a victim of fate because the prophecy was already determined before he even knew who his real parents were. Therefore, his actions cannot change the final outcome because the gods have already decided his future.
Paragraph 2 — Other people's actions
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There are no heroes in Oedipus the King,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Sophocles critiques the notion of the benevolent dictator, examining their moral complexity and challenging their…
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, imbues 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 facade’. Outside the doors, Oedipus projects a
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There are no heroes in Oedipus the King,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sophocles critiques the notion of the benevolent dictator, examining their moral complexity and challenging their…
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 imbues a political nature to the 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, imbues 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 facade’. Outside the doors, Oedipus projects a heroic image,
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There are no heroes in Oedipus the King,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Sophocles critiques the notion of the benevolent dictator, examining their moral complexity and challenging their…
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 through patricide, he ‘fastened his [son’s] ankles [and] had a henchman fling him away’ to die. In labelling Laius’ attempted filicide a ‘[destruction]’, Sophocles imbues a political nature to the 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, imbues 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 facade’. Outside the doors, Oedipus projects a heroic