VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Sunset Boulevard explore the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: Set against the backdrop of the deception and vanity of 1950s Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, a film noir by auteur…
Set against the backdrop of the deception and vanity of 1950s Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, a film noir by auteur Billy Wilder, was released as stars from the silent film era were being pushed out of the public eye. Wilder investigates how multiple people in the industry are in danger because they prefer living in their own illusions rather than reality. Throughout the film, Wilder shows how the fallen stars are dangerously coping with their loss of fame, as well as those who are falling in love with poor, immoral foundations that can lead to dangerous consequences. Furthermore, Wilder shows how the rise of illusion in the Hollywood atmosphere enables the industry to thrive and exploit its audiences for its own benefit. As a foreign director, Wilder critiques the dangers of Hollywood's lack of realism for those involved and for American audiences.
Throughout the film, Wilder focuses on how the fallen stars of Hollywood place themselves in an unrecoverable state of illusion, which ultimately leads them to a dangerous outcome. Focusing on a group of former silent film actors, Wilder opens with a wide, high-angle shot depicting the “waxworks” playing bridge with Norma. The shot encapsulates their “dim figure” appearance recognised by Gillis, which is then contradicted by the characters' costuming, where they are seated in fancy chairs, either wearing expensive dresses and suits. Wilder suggests that fallen film stars after their period of fame are shunned by society, drawing on the isolating connotations of “dim”. Wilder compounds this notion with the title of “Waxworks”, further implying how these fallen film stars are simply comparable to figures of wax. Wilder establishes this notion to juxtapose the costumes they wear, which are their personal expressions that represent them as valuable and deserving of respect. This juxtaposition amplifies the idea that the fallen film stars are in their own light of delusion, believing they are of value, when in reality they were shunned, stars rejected from the public eye. Wilder utilises his third-person perspective as a foreign director to demonstrate further that the Hollywood film industry is a toxic environment for actors, who are easily replaceable. This notion is to address the present issue of the 1950s, where film stars who failed to transition to the golden era are left in a state of self-illusion and despair, which negatively affects their mental health. Furthermore, Wilder emphasises the self-delusion fallen stars face through the character establishment of Norma Desmond. Through several tracking shots of the grand interior of Desmond’s mansion, Wilder utilises mise-en-scene to create a suffocating environment, with a high density of pictures displayed across the rooms. Wilder accompanies this notion with a rhetorical dialogue in which the house is described as “crowded with Norma Desmonds, more Norma Desmonds and even more Norma Desmonds.” The setting exposes the abnormality and lack of realism in Norma's life through the exaggerated obsession with herself from the silent film era. This signifies the dangerous consequences of losing fame, resulting in an unhealthy addiction to their past rather than an ability to live in the prese2nt. Wilder frames this unhealthy addiction as a danger of living in illusion. As Wilder depicts a visually claustrophobic environment, he critiques the harsh, long-lasting consequences of production companies replacing stars without support. The visual of Desmond’s obsession with herself insinuates how there is a need for a change in the relationship between stars and their production companies, from replaceable to respected.
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Resellers Rethink
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 70%: The society of thrifting has prompted discussion on more ethically approved methods of reselling second hand…
The society of thrifting has prompted discussion on more ethically approved methods of reselling second hand clothes. In her video posted on the Ethical Thrift's social media page, reseller and owner of the Ethical Thrift Felicia Hong endorses thrifting resellers to be more careful and aware in their thrifting practices. By targeting her followers who are also thrift resellers, Hong sets a tone of hope that her audience implement more ethical reselling methods to support and build the thrifting community.
Initially, Hong lightheartedly explores her experience with thrifting while having a lack of knowledge for the ethics, strengthening this argument by uplifting the reselling community. Hong opens her argument by introducing the title, 'Resellers Rethink!' to strengthen the purpose of the opening image depicting a full bag of recycled clothing with clothes nearly folded to the left and blank space to the right. The alliteration of the title forces the audience to look deeply at the intent of the image while understanding the playful tone, triggering the meaning of the image to be that resellers should be leaving clothing for others to also enjoy the thrifting experience and have access to needs, due to the space demonstrating that clothes can be left for others. Hong is celebrating this behaviour using a lighthearted tone elicits a feeling of understanding within her audience of resellers of the effect their thrifting has on the culture of thrifting, reinforcing how thrifting is a cheap method to buying clothes and that others need them to afford their clothes. Hong then continues in a positive tone to turn focus onto her own habits as a thrifter as an example to educate others by using connotations of how she was "diving in" and "meticulously rifling" through clothes. By supporting these connotations with an anecdote of how she too became worried with the "emerging trend" she was participating in, therefore undercutting her own habits. By both using a positive tone and self-deprecating, Hong honors the reseller audiences love for thrifting by making them aware of her own to inform them that the process can become harmful when overused, the audience more open to advice to their own. Therefore, Hong lightly encourages other resellers who may be watching her content for advice to be more awake and mindful in their practices, supporting her hope for more ethical reselling of second hand clothing.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: There is more hope than despair for people…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Jane Harrison’s play, Rainbow’s End, set in rural Victoria in the 1950s, reflects the difficulties faced by…
Jane Harrison’s play, Rainbow’s End, set in rural Victoria in the 1950s, reflects the difficulties faced by Aboriginal Australians through their segregation from society. The colonisation of Australia in the 1700s built numerous challenges to overcome for all Aboriginal Australians as their homes and families were taken away from them. For the residents of the Flats outside of Shepperton, it is shown in Rainbow’s End that hopes cannot overcome the despair faced by the Aboriginal Australians. Harrison’s own connection to culture as an Aboriginal Australian women is utilised to reflect the physical segregation faced by residents of the Flats. Furthermore, the play also analyses the social prejudice faced by three generations of Aboriginal women, Nan Dear, Gladys and Dolly. Finally, these residents have limited opportunities available to them in the play.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: Change Stimulus: “If you can’t…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 67.5%: The Atlantic Change – Venice is a Wake Up Call for the Rest of the World By Ben Davis 2/5/25 The history of…
The Atlantic
Change – Venice is a Wake Up Call for the Rest of the World
By Ben Davis
2/5/25
The history of interconnectedness between land and humans is a story of utilising and exploiting land for our survival, and then using this to thrive and dominate. However, this story is now a fleeting one. This land which we once dominated now is continually disappearing. Parcels of ground we once ruled is becoming increasingly unsteady, and the proof of this is seen nowhere better than in Venice.
Venice, once an anchor of European tourism now lay silent, a once thriving maritime city now a mere ghost of what it once was. Constantly rising waters threaten the very foundations upon which the city was built. According to the Royal Museum of Greenwich, on the night of the 1st of November 2019, tides swelled to over 2m high. Rushing waters flooded the city, gnawing at the base of buildings and flooding rooms. That one night alone caused over a billion euros in damages, a cost which was placed back onto residents, one most couldn’t afford to pay. They were forced out, forced to change their lives, to leave the place they called home their whole lives. Venice had never seen waters like these, a direct result of climate change which now lay as an ever-present threat, ready to lay siege on the city. The flooding of Venice a foreboding warning of what is to come for countries around the world if we continue to refuse to change, to start to move towards action to fight back.
Even more alarmingly, Venice is not an isolated incident. Other island nations such as Tuvalu and the Maldives are also under direct threat from rising sea levels. Scientists project that by the turn of the century these countries will be fully submerged, and 77% submerged respectively. If that’s not a motivator to run towards change, then nothing is. These are not just stats, these are projections which are predicting the loss of cultures and stories, the displacement of their people, devastating forced change in the lives of these people simply because their countries sit 1-2m above sea level.
Figures such as these should stun, they should shock governments into action, but they are hesitant. Not hesitant due to a lack of intent, but because of a lack of resources and financial support. It’s a global issue which they are being forced to fight alone. It’s not
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: A newspaper opinion piece titled "Our…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 72.5%: In the opinion piece "Our Planet, Our Problem," published in The Melbourne Times (2024), environmental…
In the opinion piece "Our Planet, Our Problem," published in The Melbourne Times (2024), environmental activist Jordan Michaels urges Australians to take personal responsibility for climate change, condemning both governmental complacency and corporate exploitation. Through an assertive and impassioned tone, Michaels combines emotive appeals, inclusive language, and rhetorical questioning to stir guilt and urgency in readers, ultimately positioning them to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. The accompanying cartoon reinforces the argument visually by highlighting the destructive consumerism driving environmental decline.
From the outset, Michaels employs emotive and inclusive language to immediately unite readers in shared accountability. The declarative statement, "We are burning our own future," confronts the audience with a collective sense of blame and responsibility. The inclusive pronoun "we" erases distance between reader and issue, fostering guilt while urging collaboration. This is intensified through the metaphor of "burning," which conjures images of irreversible damage. By appealing to readers' emotions and moral conscience, Michaels compels them to see inaction as a personal failing rather than a distant political issue. The tone here is accusatory yet rallying, designed to motivate change through discomfort.
Michaels then shifts to logic and credibility to strengthen the argument. Citing data that "temperatures have risen by 1.5 degrees in the past decade," he builds authority and grounds his emotional appeal in fact. The phrase "the science is undeniable" positions those who ignore
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: Walking Toward Myself Childhood should be about scraped knees and laughter ricocheting off the walls — warm,…
Walking Toward Myself
Childhood should be about scraped knees and laughter ricocheting off the walls — warm, bright, safe. Mine was not. Nights came like a locked door. I’d lie awake while shadows twisted across my ceiling, their movements thin and sharp as wire. My pillow always smelled faintly of salt; the air felt tight, like it was watching me breathe. You were meant to protect me, to build a world I could trust. Instead, you built walls that whispered my name back at me until I forgot how it sounded.
At first, I called it love. I told myself pain was just another kind of care — that bruises were lessons, not warnings. I learned to make myself smaller, quieter, to survive within the narrow shape of your moods. When I visited my auntie’s house, the world widened. The air was full of burnt sugar and laughter. I’d sit at her kitchen table, legs swinging, pretending that light could last. But home always found me again — the silence clinging to my clothes, heavy as damp wool.
That silence became a language I spoke fluently. It filled my chest until it hummed. It taught me to fold feelings into neat corners, to appear untouched. But inside, I was fraying. Shame didn’t hollow me; it thickened beneath my ribs, syrupy and slow, coating everything I tried to say.
Years passed. You grew smaller, or maybe I grew into myself. I began to recognise your reflection in the things I feared — the sudden quiet, the echo of anger. I started unlearning it, piece by piece. If I could speak to that seven-year-old girl,
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: personal journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 67.5%: Walking Toward Myself (650 words – Personal Journeys) Childhood should be about scraped knees and laughter…
Walking Toward Myself (650 words – Personal Journeys)
Childhood should be about scraped knees and laughter ricocheting off the walls — warm, bright, safe. Mine was not. Nights came like a locked door. I’d lie awake while shadows twisted across my ceiling, their movements thin and sharp as wire. My pillow always smelled faintly of salt; the air felt tight, like it was watching me breathe. You were meant to protect me, to build a world I could trust. Instead, you built walls that whispered my name back at me until I forgot how it sounded.
At first, I called it love. I told myself pain was just another kind of care — that bruises were lessons, not warnings. I learned to make myself smaller, quieter, to survive within the narrow shape of your moods. When I visited my auntie’s house, the world widened. The air was full of burnt sugar and laughter. I’d sit at her kitchen table, legs swinging, pretending that light could last. But home always found me again — the silence clinging to my clothes, heavy as damp wool.
That silence became a language I spoke fluently. It filled my chest until it hummed. It taught me to fold feelings into neat corners, to appear untouched. But inside, I was fraying. Shame didn’t hollow me; it thickened beneath my ribs, syrupy and slow, coating everything I tried to say.
Years passed. You grew smaller, or maybe I grew into myself. I began to recognise your reflection in the things I feared — the sudden quiet, the echo of anger. I started unlearning it, piece by piece. If I could speak to that
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: honour and morality in society
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: In “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” a 1981 magical realist novella, Gabriel Garcia Marquez constructs a…
In “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” a 1981 magical realist novella, Gabriel Garcia Marquez constructs a Latin-American microcosm governed by the dogma of honour, religion and gender. Within this insular Columbian milieu, personal agency is subjugated to the rigid binaries of machismo and marianismo, exposing a society entrapped by its own sanctified moral codes. Through harsh traditions and cyclical narration, Marquez illuminates the moral hypocrisy and collective complicity that culminate in Santiago’s ritualised execution- a sacrificial act through which the town seeks to restore its illusory sense of divine order.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, honour functions as a catalyst for violence, compelling individuals to act against their own moral conscience. This is epitomised through the Vicario twins, Pedro and Pablo, whose actions are governed by the dogmatic codes of their society.
The brothers’ decision to kill Santiago is fuelled by the belief that he has besmirched the Vicario family name, transforming their sense of duty into an act of sanctioned brutality. Their fatalistic assertion “there’s no way out of this… it’s a matter of honour” encapsulates collective fatalism and illustrates how social determinism suppresses individual agency. Márquez employs this declaration to expose the illusory morality underpinning the town’s honour system, whereby the same society that condemns sexual transgression simultaneously legitimises murder as a means of moral restoration. The declarative tone of “it’s a matter of honour” thus reinforces the irony of a culture that conflates violence with virtue, suggesting that the true corruption lies not in Santiago’s alleged act but in the community’s obsession with preserving its reputation. Furthermore, the contrast between the brothers magnifies the psychological burden of conformity: Pedro, described as the “more dominant and masculine” twin, embodies the expectations of machismo, whereas Pablo, the “hesitant follower,” personifies the internal conflict between morality and obligation. Despite his reluctance, Pablo’s ultimate compliance reveals how patriarchal orthodoxy coerces even the unwilling into complicity, forcing individuals to perpetuate a cycle of ritualised violence in defence of familial dignity. Through the recurrent invocation of “defending honour,” Márquez critiques the performative morality that governs this Latin American microcosm- a morality that demands cruelty in the pursuit of purity and subjugates ethical reasoning beneath the weight of social expectation.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: Open your eyes Stimulus: the…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 82.5%: 'Open Your Eyes' I am sure by now that you, Bob Hawke, leader of a democratic nation, have heard of the…
'Open Your Eyes'
I am sure by now that you, Bob Hawke, leader of a democratic nation, have heard of the atrocities, committed by the Chinese Communist party on June 4th 1989.
Still up to this point in time you have chosen inaction.
For fifty days, young hopeful students, just like myself, gathered in millions, filling Tiananmen Square to protest in peace for a basic human right - a voice. Their fifty days of peace was abruptly ended in one day of violence brought about by the Chinese government.
Open your eyes Prime Minister, open your eyes to the Chinese soldiers who opened fire on unarmed civilians and protesters. Open your eyes to the protesters who were beaten and detained as tanks rolled through crushing barricades and even people.
All they wanted was something we love Prime Minister, Something we are all so grateful for and pride ourselves for. All they wanted was democracy, and their own government handed them death.
The Chinese governments explicit dismissal of freedom of speech is simply inexcusable.
How could our nation, a great democratic nation simply let this go unnoticed. The opposite of love is not hate Prime Minister, but apathy, inaction, a lack of concern.
But I know just how much you love democracy, and I know you won't let the Chinese government escape the consequences of their action.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: I haven’t lived at all. And if this is…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 92.5%: Get uncomfortable
Get uncomfortable
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Framework 2: Writing about protest •…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: Human Rights My name is Aisha Rahman, and I am seventeen years old. I speak today not just as a grieving…
Human Rights
My name is Aisha Rahman, and I am seventeen years old. I speak today not just as a grieving sister, but as a witness of a nation's conscience. A conscience stained in the blood of its youth.
Last year my sister, Zara, walked out of our house carrying nothing but a heart filled with courage and a cardboard sign scrawled with hope. On the sign were five words that now echo through every crumbled street, "we beg for a change". But what does it mean to beg for a change in a world deaf to pleading? Zara's words captured a painful paradox, which told us that those who deserve justice and basic human rights, have to beg for it. In a country where power only listens to force, the act of begging becomes its own quiet form of rebellion.
Zara marched on the streets of Dhaka, with thousands of other students, demanding for a future unchained from corruption and inequality. A future where this broken quota system no longer serve only the powerful and abandon the deserving. A future where our human rights are not just some obligation, but the very essence of our humanity. Zara thought that if we raised our voices together, this government, our government, would listen.
But they didn't.
Instead, when we raised our voices, they met our calls for justice with brutality. Tear gas filled the air like a smog of suppression, except the ones in the authority were masked to prevent any harm to themselves, and we were left with burning lungs. Our efforts to stand up for our rights, our dignity, were crushed. The pavements became battlefields, and the banners of peace trampled beneath the boots of the authority. In a storm of rage, Zara went missing, one of many whose dreams were destroyed before they could bloom.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: title connections stimulus man with…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: Dear Mr Borrows, Subject: Wage & acts I am writing this letter for an increase in hour rate to your company due…
Dear Mr Borrows,
Subject: Wage & acts
I am writing this letter for an increase in hour rate to your company due to my finical freedom, I’m unable to have a connection with my youngest son Tori due to my working hours and getting paid below average income doesn’t even let me provide for my family, the rest of the country in Australia makes at least 30% more than I do which is outrageous especially with how much effort and time I put into your company. Getting paid below average wage is making me suffer as I’m unable to support my family and I don’t even get to get my son.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "In High Ground, it is impossible for…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s western film “High Ground,” explores the pasts and the influence over their present…
Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s western film “High Ground,” explores the pasts and the influence over their present persona. Throughout their time in Arnhem Land, individuals find it impossible to break away from their past. Travis is depicted as an individual still attached to war and its connotations, unable to move past his actions. On the other hand, Gutjuk is stuck in the personality of his Yolngu culture past, as well as Baywara and Gulwirri, who continue to live in a state of anger and vengeance.
Travis is an individual who is constantly seeking redemption following his war involvement and attachment to the massacre. At the beginning of the film, Johnson introduces Travis through a point of view shot through the scope of a rifle, instantly representing his past involvement to war as a sniper. His introduction 12 years later, after the massacre, is identical, also through the eye of a rifle. This exhibits his recurring connection to war and resistance to change from his past. Travis’s journey throughout the film is one of redemption, attempting to rectify his mistakes, particularly following the massacre. Furthermore, Travis saves Gutjuk as a child at the conclusion of the massacre, which guides his personality throughout the film – as he feels that saving Gutjuk is the one positive thing he has done in life. Johnson immediately illustrates this through a deliberate use of mis-en-scene to position Gutjuk on Travis’s horse, rather than the other soldiers, highlighting his desire to become a morally better individual, and forget his past. Johnson further enhances his depiction of Travis as an individual searching for redemption and reaping from guilt through his relationship with Eddy. As Eddy and Moran look to kill Baywara, Travis opposes this, questioning, “and shooting him does that, ya reckon?” regarding solving the conflict. Travis’s emotional connection to Gutjuk and moral code is evident here, as he understands the importance of Baywara to Gutjuk. His continual search to break his past actions is portrayed when he tells Eddy, “I won’t make the same mistake twice,” regarding following Eddy’s orders rather than Gutjuk’s. Travis is evidently unable to escape his past war involvement, instead “car[ing] more about [Gutjuk] than he does himself.” While Travis feels his actions to save Gutjuk are morally correct, it is visible that his past is inescapable, and these actions are simply to improve his emotional wellbeing. Travis’s involvement in war and the massacre dwells as an internal conflict that proves impossible for him to escape the past.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: "How terrible- to see the truth when the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: Sophocles' rendition of the Ancient Greek myth, 'Oedipus the King' (OTK) asserts the notion that although…
Sophocles' rendition of the Ancient Greek myth, 'Oedipus the King' (OTK) asserts the notion that although ignorance of taking responsibility and acknowledging the truth is painful, in some cases it is less painful than knowing the whole truth. Sophocles' play was developed in 429 BCE, shown at the Dionysia festival, in order to re-calibrate society's reliance on divine will during the conflicting Sophist movement. Initially, Sophocles' demonstrates that others feel pain attempting to keep the truth from those responsible, then the tragic torment of discovering the truth and being forced to take responsibility. Ultimately, Sophocles' asserts ignorance of taking responsibility for the truth is less painful than knowing the full truth.
From the prologue, Sophocles' demonstrates that hiding the truth from those responsible brings agony to society. Initially, as Oedipus is unaware he is the "corruption of the land," the city of Thebes is "dying". Sophocles' utilises strong linguistic language of "corruption" to showcase the impending doom that Oedipus' existence holds over the city of Thebes, thereby personifying Thebes as an entity to enunciate the extent that every living creature within Thebes is suffering from the plague. Sophocles' careful lexical choices were constructed to generate a sense of sorrow from contemporary audiences for the "dying" city, whilst encouraging them to place themselves, due to dramatic irony, in the position of one who knows that Oedipus is the cause of the plague, but feels too sorry to tell him. Moreover, to urge contemporary audiences both to feel pity for those carrying truthful burdens, and to re-establish a dependency on divine will for Ancient Greek society, Sophocles' utilises Tiresias as an instrument. To do so, Sophocles constructs Tiresias begging Oedipus to "bear [his own] burdens," whilst Tiresias will "bear his," to underline the unwanted burden of knowing the full truth that comes with being a prophet, and the pain from carrying that burden and hiding it from those responsible, such as Oedipus. Sophocles' utilises "burden" in this way to elicit imagery of the truth heavily and undesirably weighing on Tiresias' shoulders, to remind audiences that keeping truth from those responsible brings agony. Overall, OTK demonstrates that it is painful for those who hide the truth from perpetrators.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “Sunset boulevard shows that the pursuit…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: 2025 Prac (SAMPLE) exam / 3 hours PART A Sunset boulevard, a noir, melodrama film directed by Billy wilder…
2025 Prac (SAMPLE) exam / 3 hours PART A
Sunset boulevard, a noir, melodrama film directed by Billy wilder discusses the hunt for fame in the hollywood 1950's industry. wilder forshadows all characters with undying want to be in the spotlight. Shown most in forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond. The films title included, with the major street 'sunset boulevard' running through the centre of the town. wilder portrays topics such as greed, fame, delusion and selfishness in each individuals strive to be successful.
wilder shows In the opening scenes, we can see failed screen writer Joe Gillis, deseaced in a pool. The camera shot, being a high angle, broadcasting Joes vulnerability during this time. This important scene forshadows Joes future as he falls victim to the delusion of hollywood. "The poor dope, he always wanted a pool". wilder includes this line, narrated by Joe Gillis to almost explain to the audience Joes passion for success, with wants for his short-lived life.
Wilder uses Joes death to make the audience infer how pursuing fame in this dark age of hollywood can put your whole life at risk to chase fame. "you dont yell at a sleepwalker, he may fall and break his neck. Thats me. I was that person, drifting along towards the big dream". Joe admits that he has been blind to chasing the hollywood dream, thats what ends up destroying him. Norma Desmond aids Joe in falling into the trap of hollywood. As Joe, mistakenly enters her home, he inturups Normas funeral for her beloved chimpanzee. This scene forshadows Joe's fate in Normas home as she now uses Joe to fill her chimp shaped hole in her home. This scene also plays a part in Norma's delusion towards hollywood. As she sends Joe on his way, the camera shot
of her at the top of the stairs and Joe at the bottom casts norma as having power over Joe, which ultimatly ends her journey to fame.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The play presents truth as more…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: "The play presents truth as more destructive than ignorance." To what extent do you agree? Sophocles' Oedipus the…
"The play presents truth as more destructive than ignorance."
To what extent do you agree?
Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a retelling of well-known tragedy to Athenian audiences, following Oedipus as he learns the truth of his birth. Throughout the play, Sophocles presents truth as a force that brings destruction. However, truth is also necessary for achieving morality and self-awareness. While initially shielding Oedipus from misery, constant ignorance of the truth due to the illusion of free will, hubris and limits of human understanding leads to his downfall. While truth destroys Oedipus' worldly identity, his constant ignorance to it is what causes destruction.
From the onset of the play, Sophocles explores the relationship between ones truth, their fate, and their persistent ignorance to it, believing they have free will. Oedipus is positioned as a character who is ignorant to his own fate, despite it being the truth he is trying to "bring to light". As the audience is aware of Oedipus' tragic end, Sophocles utilises foreshadowing here to communicate to the audience from the beginning, the ignorance to truth is what makes enlightenment to the truth so destructive. By criticising Oedipus' belief that he has free will, Sophocles further communicates to the audience that the truth would not have been as tragic if Oedipus did not ignore his prophecy. Here, the audience's belief that prophecy is inevitable is enforces, demonstrating that Oedipus' truth, was that he "was born for pain". By utilising catharsis, the release of pity in the audience, Sophocles further demonstrates that the constant ignorance to the truth, Oedipus' fate, eventually leads to his designed life of pain. Next, as Oedipus continues to "search and learn [his] birth", Sophocles uses anagnorisis, highlighting the moment that Oedipus learns his constant ignorance and avoidance of the truth, still lead to its fulfillment. By endorsing the idea that fate is absolute, Sophocles further highlights to the audience, who criticises Oedipus' belief that he has free will, that consistent ignorance worsened the destruction caused, compares to if he accepted his truth of life. As Sophocles suggests that the illusion of free will against fate leads to ignorance to the truth and destruction, he further explores this through hubris.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Rainbow’s End is an exploration of ‘the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: The ‘other’ is a term employed to describe groups of people who have faced prejudice, with their characteristics…
The ‘other’ is a term employed to describe groups of people who have faced prejudice, with their characteristics marking them as separate from accepted social norms as defined by the dominant groups within a society. ‘Othering’ is a process which enables institutions such as patriarchy and white-centric social hierarchies to flourish, thus creating the conditions for women and ethnic minorities to be deemed inferior. In Jane Harrison’s Rainbow’s End, the Indigenous characters fall victim to racial stereotyping, with the female characters also being subject to misogyny, but the potential for empowerment is also optimistically expressed throughout the play.
The ’othering’ of Indigenous individuals is evident through the prevalence of racist discrimination faced by the characters in Rainbow’s End. Racial prejudice creates assumptions that the ‘otherness’ of the Indigenous population makes them inferior, with Harrison examining these deep-rooted notions through the bank manager demonstrating bias towards Dolly in a racially-motivated line of questioning. By asking whether Dolly will “fit in”, the bank manager brings her Indigeneity to the forefront, reducing her from a whole individual to merely an Aboriginal person and thus epitomising how Indigenous people are conceived of as ‘others’ rather than fully included within society. Additionally, through questioning Dolly’s capacity for “reliability” and “arriv[ing] on time”, the bank manager endorses the racial stereotype of Indigenous laziness, reinforcing the link between discrimination and ‘othering’. Moreover, Harrison makes mention of the railway line that separates the Aboriginal community from the white residential areas, crafting it as a tangible symbol of racial segregation and division whereby Indigenous people are excluded from mainstream society. This is reinforced by the Aboriginal settlement being on a floodplain next to the tip, epitomising the inequity faced by Indigenous people due to the racist assumption that they are not on the same level of importance as the white population. Starting the play in the midst of the plot, with the family coping with a flood, immediately makes clear the unequal position of Indigenous people within society; they are literally made ‘other’ by being pushed into peripheral settlements, and figuratively ‘othered’ by experiencing racist marginalisation at the hands of white authorities.
Exclusion and bullying are key processes used to perpetuate the ‘otherness’ of Indigenous people and women. Nancy Woolthorpe is characterised as a bully by Harrison to represent how white society uses belittlement to reinforce the ‘othered’ status of the Indigenous population. Nancy humiliates Dolly by announcing that her gown was made from her family’s discarded curtains, showcasing the effectiveness of bullying in marginalising minorities; in this case, Nancy
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal journey
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 72.5%: When Ozzy Osbourne died, it felt as if a bridge between my father and me finally collapsed. Dad was gone long…
When Ozzy Osbourne died, it felt as if a bridge between my father and me finally collapsed.
Dad was gone long before Ozzy. He died when I was sixteen, suddenly, the kind of loss that leaves silence humming in the walls. In the months that followed, I searched for something to hold on to-some trace of him that hadn't vanished. I found it in Dad's battered old stereo and the stack of Black Sabbath CDs beside it. I remember pressing play and hearing the opening riff of "Iron Man." The sound was rough, heavy, unfiltered-exactly like him. Through that music, Dad was still here, still loud, still alive.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: open your eyes
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: June 2025- FIFA tribunal and Spain’s high court verdict: the FIFA disciplinary committees have and opened their…
June 2025- FIFA tribunal and Spain’s high court verdict: the FIFA disciplinary committees have and opened their eyes and banned luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish football association, from all football related activities on national and international levels as well as being found guilty of sexual assault for an unsolicited kiss on the lips on national player Jenni Hermoso following the world cup win
2024- speech by Jenni Hermoso at a rally demanding justice
“it’s inevitable, the comments, looks and action women are given from males who have authority over us especially in this male dominant sport is disgusting. Revolting behaviour and vile objectification are ubiquitously being swept under the rug and covered up. Because God forbid their true colours are shown. God forbid their professional reputations are ruined and God forbid we bring any of this harassment to light. FIFA is not a perfect and safe environment they portray. Under their mask is an organisation filled with misogyny, secrets and lies. Countless coaches are hired who possess amazing skill and knowledge for the game, I for one can admit that, however several of these coaches have committed or covered up these heinous acts that or going on behind closed doors. Inappropriately touching a player is disgusting, inappropriately commenting about them or to them is disgusting and inappropriately threatening them is disgusting”
Flashback- recounting events at the tribunal hearing – 2023
Entering the changerooms after a conditioning session was always gradual, aches and niggles took over my legs. The silence was loud, the room was empty besides myself and Mr Rubiales. He had always hated the “formalities” and urged that I called him Luis because his name “sounded sexy from my mouth”. I never complied with his request much to his dismay, it was my silent protest against his behaviour despite the other girls shying away from opposing him. I vividly remember his eyes analysing my every feature, possessing a hungry look, accompanied by a smug smirk that made my stomach churn. His eyes locked with mine, never straying as he watches me submerge into the freezing water of the ice bath. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, little things happened here and there, but my teammates and I let it slide purely because his behaviour was normalised. This should have never gone to this extent, I despise myself for not standing up sooner and I’m extremely disappointed that the staff surrounding us haven’t opened their eyes, instead, they remain wilfully blind to his behaviour. Regardless he’d always had an unsettling thing for me…
2024-
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journey framework - title:…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: I want to start by saying that I’m no expert on the topic of brain psychology. I don’t hold a PhD, a science…
I want to start by saying that I’m no expert on the topic of brain psychology. I don’t hold a PhD, a science degree, nor am I even studying it in VCE. My only qualification is lived experience. According to a National Science Foundation study, most of us have up to 80,000 thoughts per day, of which up to 80% are negative and 95% are repetitive.
So, it is proven that the human brain biases negativity, however one more damaging branch of negative thoughts is self-criticism. Psychologists call this negative self-talk. But I like to call it my critics.
What helped me battle my self-critical tendencies was recognizing that these thoughts don’t constitute me—they’re just occurring within me. because once upon a time, they were only voices — nameless, faceless, punishing echoes that bruised the inside of my mind. I stumbled in the dark, too afraid to move, cowardly obeying their insults. But naming them was an act of defiance; with each name, each moment where I chose to face them instead of cower before their insults, a flicker of light emerges, and my mind becomes a little brighter.
Let me introduce you to the shadows I live with.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Harrison suggests that hope, not hardship,…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 62.5%: Jane Harrison's play Rainbow's End presents the lives of three Aboriginal women-Nan Dear, Gladys, and Dolly-who…
Jane Harrison's play Rainbow's End presents the lives of three Aboriginal women-Nan Dear, Gladys, and Dolly-who endure relentless racism and social exclusion in 1950s rural Victoria. Yet, rather than being defined by their suffering, Harrison portrays them as sustained by hope, love, and intergenerational strength. Through moments of humour, ambition, and connection, Harrison suggests that hope becomes both a survival mechanism and a quiet act of resistance against the hardship imposed by colonial Australia.
From the outset, Harrison contrasts the physical poverty of the Dears' home with their emotional richness and pride. Living in a "humpy down by the river," the women face the daily indignity of being marginalised by the white community of Shepparton. However, Nan Dear's insistence that "we keep things neat and tidy" conveys a hopeful assertion of dignity in the face of prejudice. Nan's humour and storytelling nurture her family's morale, showing that hope can exist even amid deprivation. Her laughter, often at the expense of those who look down on her, becomes a weapon against despair. Through Nan, Harrison reveals that Aboriginal women's strength and optimism are acts of defiance against a society that seeks to diminish them.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: “Just be yourself” Stimulus - “ our…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: I used to believe that looking away was harmless. I've seen creatures suffering in plain sight, birds dragging…
I used to believe that looking away was harmless. I've seen creatures suffering in plain sight, birds dragging string bound feet, animals limping silently, struggling with each breath. And yet, I still walked on. It wasn't because I didn't care, but because caring out loud made you different. Back then I was terrified of being different, everyone said to “just be yourself” but no one warned me that being myself might mean standing apart. I just told myself that someone else would help, that someone else would save them. But deep down I knew I was choosing to walk past them, to ignore their pain. It seemed easier to blend in and ignore the suffering around me than to stand out.
One quiet morning, everything changed.
She was huddled in the corner, her tiny body trembling. Her feathers fluffed up, each shallow breath a fragile struggle against the floor beneath her. Her eyes, tired and glassy, seemed to look straight into me, pleading in silence. Chickens don't cry out, they don't shed tears, they can't ask for help. Instead they suffer in silence. Almost invisible unless someone chooses to see it. I remember freezing as all the other chickens rushed past me and out the door, a thousand doubts rushing through my head. I didn't know how to help her, I didn't know what to do. No one told me I had to help her, I could have walked away. Yet I chose to stay.
I picked her up and carried her inside, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her chest against my palms. I had her life in my hands. I soon learnt how to clean wounds, to treat common illnesses and to hold life gently in my hands, as it could slip away at any moment. I whispered reassurances that she would never understand , yet I hoped she felt them through the steadiness of my hands. Nights became the hardest test, long after everyone had gone to sleep, I'd tiptoe to her with a torch, focusing the light on her chest, praying it would rise. Holding my breath as I looked for the slightest flicker of life. Those moments showed me what responsibility truly meant, she didn't give up and
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Title: Let Go
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 80%: How can a nation call itself free when its head of state still wears a foreign crown? It is not a symbol of…
How can a nation call itself free when its head of state still wears a foreign crown? It is not a symbol of unity, but a relic of empire, one that still echoes with the silence of stolen voices and stands in the way of a nation ready to speak for itself. This was powerfully clear in Lydia Thorpe’s protest at King Charle’s III’s proclamation, as she protested for a free Australia. Australia’s continued allegiance to the British Monarchy, a relic of colonization in 1788, remains a painful symbol of invasion and injustice for many, particularly the First Nations People here with us today. My name is Radvi, a new face to the senate, and I am speaking to you — young Australians preparing to vote for the first time — because your voice has never been more important. This is your opportunity to help our country take its final step towards independence by supporting the removal of Australia’s ties to the British Royal Family. Australia must cut ties to the British Royal Family, not just to break free from a foreign monarch, but to confront the violent legacy of colonization, reclaim full national sovereignty, and reshape our identity to reflect the values of a modern, diverse, and democratic nation.
Firstly, The British Monarchy is a living symbol of Australia’s violent colonial history and the continued injustice faced by Indigenous Australians. When the British arrived in 1788 under the authority of King George III, they declared the land “terra nullius”, claiming it belonged to no one. This false doctrine erased the existence of First Nations people and gave moral and legal cover to invasion, dispossession, and massacres. It wasn’t just land that was taken in that moment. It was language. Family. Culture. Identity. This trauma still echoes today. Senator Lydia Thorpe’s protest in 2022, shouting “You are not my King! You are not our King!”, during the proclamation of King Charles III, wasn’t a political stunt, it was a cry of generational pain. For many Indigenous Australians, the monarchy isn’t neutral. It is a living reminder of a system that tore through their communities. And yet, we still carry the Crown, a symbol of that legacy, on our coins, in our Constitution, and in our laws. The monarchy is a wound dressed in gold-polished on the surface, but painful underneath. To truly move forward, we must face that truth and cut ties with the power that authorized our nation’s original injustice, make your first vote count, every voice matters.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: The longing to act honourably may lead to…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: Sophocles develops the idea that the longing to act honourably may lead to mental and physical anguish. In…
Sophocles develops the idea that the longing to act honourably may lead to mental and physical anguish. In Jocasta and King Laius' attempt to escape the prophecy, "fated to [his] father and marry his mother," believing they took the noble act in preventing this disastrous occurrence from happening to their family.. Sophocles suggests through this that in one's attempt to escape divine will the already assured outcome will lead to an enhanced suffering, as seen in Jocasta hanging herself and Oedipus gouging out his eyes. This serves as a reminder to the Athenian audience that acts that underestimate the divine control will will result in mental and physical anguish. Attempts to discover the truth in an act of serving and saving the city of Thebes lead to a more meaningful and harsh confrontation with reality. Oedipus' hubristic endeavour to take control of