In what ways have at least two of your writers explored the role of the individual within society and what conclusions might be drawn from these explorations?

Although both Medea and The Handmaid’s Tale depicted stories of different individuals, but an underlying societal issue can be explored. Individuals act as epitomes of the society, therefore individuals can be very representative and symbolic.

In Medea, although Euripides has drawn the attention onto Medea’s own story, through some of her lines we can still see the injustice of the society. For example, in the beginning, after Jason’s betrayal, the Chorus was not on the same side with Medea as she believed that Medea’s reactions were too extreme. This is due to the influence of societal norms on people, resulting in their unequal views on both of the genders. Moreover, Jason’s thought on the marriage is significantly different fro Medea’s. In his point of view, he believed that his leaving will benefit Medea and the two children financially, and Medea should not be blaming on him. Jason is a typical epitome of the society, therefore the how the society views and treats women are presented through the portrayal of Jason. The audiences’ sympathy for Medea was evoked as Medea tells her story. Through the dialogues with Jason and her monologues, her background story was revealed and her actions were justified. This has resulted in the audience to feel more connected with Medea, therefore leads them to think about the injustice she is facing in this relationship.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the story is being told from a first person’s perspective. Offred, the female lead character portrayed a dystopian word through her lens. Society was presented through her own experiences and the witness of others being treated unfairly. Point of view plays a significant role in conveying the message of injustice present in the society, as it is a more direct way of reflecting the narrator’s emotions. Through Offred’s first person’s point of view, the audiences can be affiliated with her feelings, thus acting as a powerful technique for addressing the aim of this text. Her rebellion gradually develops throughout the book, as her emotions accumulates, the audiences are more connected with her hence believing in the fact that all her actions can be justified due to the societal context.

Medea – Fourth Episode, Fifth episode, Exodus

  • How does Euripides use dramatic irony for effect in this scene?
    • Medea called Jason in to fake an “apology” before she takes revenge on him. This scene is full of dramatic irony as the audiences already knows about the plan she is planning on to take. Moreover, the lines she said is also full of ironies. For example, the questions she asked such as “His wife is royal; her sons will be my sons’ brothers. Why not throw off your anger?” According to what she has experienced from Jason’s betrayal, this question somehow acted like a rhetorical question, as she totally has the reason to be angry about it. This adds the sense of irony to this scene. Despite her confession to Jason, her response towards the grief for the children was also ironic. When Jason asked her why is she weeping, she answered that it is because of the children. While Jason believes that she is feeling sad for the children because they are taken away from her, the real reason behind this is because she is going to kill them. The quote “When you just now prayed for them to live long, I wondered Whether it would be so; and grief came over me.” adds further irony to this scene.
  • The final scene of Medea has been much debated. What are your responses to the ways in which Euripides ends the play?
    • In the end of the play Medea left the city after she killed her two children and Creon and her daughter. This ending is controversial as she cruelly murdered two of her children after she already murdered her two enemies. To revenge by murdering two innocent kids are definitely unacceptable to some audiences, and the fact that Medea got to escape afterwards also heats up the arguments. The ending that Euripides gave to Medea also shows his sympathy towards Medea, as she escaped from Corinth after murdering four people. Despite the controversies that this ending has brought up, it is a strong ending in general. The ending of leaving Jason homeless and decimated intensified the theme of the play and left stronger impacts on the audiences.
  • What are the dramatic and thematic functions of the deus ex machina as denouement?
    • In the last scene which Medea flies away in a chariot was a dues ex machina. Dramatically, this left a strong impact to the audience, which states that Medea’s revenge has gone beyond successful. It also adds a twist to the plot, which makes it a strong ending. Thematically, this dues ex machina further emphasises the feminist theme of this play, as it represents Euripides’ perspective on this play. This emphasises the feminist theme Euripides want to convey using this play.

Medea – First Episode and First Stasimon, Second Episode and Second Stasimon

What strategies did Medea use to manipulate Creon?

  • Medea caught Creon’s weakness as she knew Creon is a father and the reason why he banishes her is because she is threatening his daughter. In the beginning Creon was forcing her to leave the country immediately, but Medea uses Creon’s weakness to beg for an additional day to stay. She claims that she wants to stay for another day because of her sons, this is very effective as Creon immediately shows sympathy for Medea and allows her to stay for another day.

How does Medea’s speech after Creon’s exit give us further insight into her character?

  • Medea is very revengeful, but intelligent and rational. Her resentment for Jason, Creon and his daughter is shown from her lines. Her resentment are due to the fact that Jason left her, her thoughts on revenging also implies her dependence on Jason, thus highlighting the theme of women do not have independences in the society. Her resentment also shows her helplessness, as stated in the quote “Take sword in hand, harden my heart to the uttermost. And kill them both. even ifI am to die for it.”

What is the thematic function of the choral stasimon after this chapter?

  • The Chorus summarised Medea’s speech and her past in a third person’s perspective, it also shows the Chorus’s sympathy towards Medea. The stasimon also creates dramatic tension through lines “Your marriage lost, your bed solitary, You are driven beyond the borders, An exile with no redress. The grace of sworn oaths is gone; Honour remains no more In the wide Greek world, but is flown to the sky. Where can you turn for shelter? Yor father’s door is closed against you;  Another is now mistress of your husband’s bed; A new queen rules in your house. ” From theses lines, the Chorus highlights the struggles of Medea from more objective third person’s perspective. This does not only shows how tough Medea’s life is, but also shows the Chorus’s sympathy for Medea. By listing all the consequences of her husband leaving her, the Chorus’s stasimon effectively evaluates the theme of patriarchy in the play. Medea now has nothing, and this triggers the readers to feel sympathetic for her while thinking about the message conveyed.

How does Euripides dramatically present the contrast between Medea and Jason’s different perspectives on their relationship?

  • Jason and Medea’s different perspective on their marriage is contrasted through their dialogue. Jason believes that he brought Medea what she has now, and she is ruining her reputation herself, although the root cause of everything was Jason leaving her. When Medea betrayed her father, left her country, Jason believed that it is him who brought her the fame and brought her into this wealthy country. His lines are spoken in a condescending tone, which further contrasts with Medea, who has dedicated so much into this marriage. Jason also believes that by marrying to Creon’s daughter, he is bringing wealth for the family. Jason is not guilty for his act at all, instead, he blames Medea for being “ridiculous”.

What sympathy does the chorus show to Medea? Why?

  • The Chorus has shown sympathy to Medea as she immediately criticises Jason for “abandoning his wife” after his speech. This sympathy is coming from a woman’s perspective, as in Jason’s speech he blames Medea for her “sex-jealousy”. He even says that ” If women didn’t exist, Human life would be rid of all its miseries.” The chorus sympathises Medea as a women, since she understand her struggle of marrying to a man like Jason.

How is this dramatically effective?

  • This is dramatically effective as in the beginning, the Chorus was not on Medea’s side. However, her perspective started to change throughout the conversations between Medea, Creon and Jason. The Chorus’s sympathy further highlights the struggles faced by women in a patriarchic society.

 

 

 

Medea Prologue and Parados

  • What is the significance of the information the Nurse gives the audiences?
    • Since the play started off with no context, the Nurse’s words provides a basic understanding on Medea’s situation from a third person’s perspective. The Nurse did not only sympathise Medea, but also her children whom will suffer their mother’s anger. The Nurse’s sympathy to the children can be shown in lines such as “don’t go within sight of her” “keep a safe distance”, her sympathy to the children suggests the undesirable and unstable state that Medea is in, hence indirectly reveals the The Nurse’s lines also sets the tone of the whole play, it immediately suggests that Medea’s marriage is a tragedy.
  • How does it influence our impressions of Medea’s character before we see her?
    • Since we do not get to hear the story from Medea’s perspective, the portrayal of her image from the Nurse’s words depicted her as a very unstable women. The audiences only get to hear her voice while the Nurse is telling her story, and the yelling and shouting of Medea further reinforces the unstable image created. This also lowers the audiences interest in meeting Medea, as she is portrayed as such an unreasonable character.
  • How does The Chorus develop the detail and themes outlined in the Prologue?
    • The Chorus in the beginning did not agree with Medea’s actions when she was wailing and crying about Jason’s betrayal. From the quote “why let it anger you” and “check this passionate grief over your husband which wastes you away” suggests the Chorus’s opinion on this incident, she believes that Medea should move on and let it go instead of crying over it. However, after Medea’s monologue in explaining the impact of her husband’s betrayal on her, the Chorus changed her mind and decided to pass Medea’s message without any doubt. In Medea’s monologue, she explained why the betrayal of her husband is particularly unfair and traumatising for her. This is not only due to the fact that her husband can continue living a normal life after leaving her despite leaving Medea in great pain, but also due to Medea is a foreign lady that came to the country to marry Jason and she got nothing left. Her monologue conveys the theme of the unequal states of different genders, and the Chorus’s respond shows sympathy for Medea, thus highlighting the theme as she changed her mind and began to sympathise Medea.
  • what dramatic effect is created? How does Medea characterises her suffering to the audience in her initial address?
    • Dramatic tension is created, as Medea started to address her story. This tension reaches the peak in the quote “So, I make one request. If I can find a way To work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to me, Say nothing. A woman’s weak and timid in most matters; The noise of war, the look of steel, makes her a coward. But touch her right in marriage, and there’s no bloodier spirit”. Before the audience meet her, from the Nurse’s quote, we can picture her as an unstable and irrational women due to the fact that even the Nurse finds that her anger is endangering her children’s safety. Tension already start to build up before she enters, and once she has addressed her monologue, the tension created becomes even stronger. She did not specify her revenge, but from her quotes the audiences can feel her anger and resentment for Jason. “Say noting” does not only highlights the theme of feminism, but also strengthens the tension as it triggers the audiences to wonder what revenge will she take next.

How is intersectionality explored in The Handmaid’s Tale?

Intersectionality is referred as a theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.  It suggests that we should not over generalise an individuals problem as the causation of the problem can be complex. In the Handmaid’s Tale, the obvious issue is the unequal rights of women in a male-dominant hierarchy. However, the novel fails to identify and portray the coloured women in the society, thus leading to critiques on the intersectionality of the novel. Since women of different colours are not portrayed in the novel, it raises an issue of failing to identify how other identities could further impact their lives.

Moreover, an intersectionality of gender and power can also be explored. Whilst the Handmaids are being unfairly treated, the Wives do not have to bear the injustice and inequality.  This also leads to the differences in their status and why people are being treated differently. Comparing to Offred, who does not have the power and freedom to live as her true identity, Serina Joy, the Commander’s wife, also being a woman, can command on Offred and give her orders. The rebellion of Offred and other Handmaids also highlights this intersectionality, as the population which is against the Gillead policy are mostly Handmaids. This suggests even though people have the same gender, they do not share the exact same identity and experience.

Is Atwood’s novel ultimately a feminist work of literature, or does it offer a critique of feminism?

The journal  Women Disunited: Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale as a critique of Feminism.’ by Alanna A. Callawayproposed an interesting perspective while looking into The Handmaid’s tale, which is whether the novel conveys a message of feminism or a satire of gynocentric misogyny. As the novel establishes a clear hierarchy in society, the differences in power of different classes can be shown by the use of language.

The Aunts are whom trains the Handmaids, and from the speaker’s point of view, readers can conclude that the Aunts have more power over the Handmaids. In the first chapter, when the environment for training is established, the Aunt’s power over the Handmaids were revealed and thus reinforcing the idea that the Handmaids are controlled by women rather than men. The suppressive atmosphere “army cots that had been set up in rows” “flannette sheets”, “could not talk” was used to highlight the power controlled by the Aunts. The word “cattle prods” also shows a strong sense of dehumanisation and misogyny, as the Aunts are gaining power from the “electrical prods” which means that the Aunts are not treating Handmaids as human. Therefore, it emphasises on the hatred from the same gender.

Moreover, the power difference between the Commander’s wife and the Handmaid also showcases the misogyny from the same gender. The Commanders wife clearly did not like Offred, from “don’t call me ma’am” , the clear hatred from the commander’s wife is displayed. “I would like to see as little as you as possible” also suggests that the Handmaid is in an unfavored position, which emphasises the wife’s power and her dislike towards the Handmaid. The hatred from the Wife was primarily due to the fact that she is not fertile but the Handmaid is, the wife feel hostile towards the Handmaid due to the fact that the Handmaid is doing the “ceremony” with their husbands, and it imposes a threat on their marriage. From Serena Joy’s quote “As for my husband, she said, he’s just that. My husband. I want that to be perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It’s final”, she is pressuring and warning Offred by stating her identity, the reinforcement of her identity highlights Serena Joy’s power as she is commanding Offred from a higher position. Instead of the Commander, the wife is the one giving the speech. This represents that in this house, the wife is the one who actually is controlling the Handmaid. This reinforces the idea which the novel focuses on a topic of gynocentric misogyny.

 

What is the symbolic power of naming as described in The Handmaid’s Tale?

In chapter 14, Offred’s monologue significantly highlighted the symbolic power of naming in the Novel The Hand’s maid’s tale. in the beginning of the monologue, she said that “your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others”. This suggested that in the beginning, she believed that her name isn’t that relevant to an individual, as it is more like a label which others use to identify you. However, this concept is shows that “name” is somehow a powerful symbol of the individual’s identity. For example, the name Offred explicitly suggests that the identity of the Handmaid is a property of the Commander, as it can be broken down to the words “Of Fred”. her monologue showcased that she started to realise the link between one’s name and one’s identity.  The “forbidden name” also reveals the deprivation of her own identity, by hiding the name, she is not allowed to live as who she used to be. The fact that Offred wanted to dig up her name one day can be seen as a sign of her starting to show rebellion towards her Handmaid identity.  Through the phrase “aura around it”, “charm that’s survived from an unimaginably distant past”, she expressed her strong sentiment for her original identity, thus revealing her underlying rebellion towards the society.

What is the most effective way that Atwood creates a repressive atmosphere in these chapters?

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel based in the future, when the US has become the Republic of Gillead. Atwood has written this novel to reflect on the repression of females and aims to raise awareness on the objectification of female, although the setting takes place in Gillead, the same issue can be found in today’s society. By using Gillead as a background of the story, Atwood exaggerates the issue hence emphasises on the significance of the repression of women in the soceity.

In the novel, a societal hierarchy was established. Handmaids’ are women who possess fertility abilities, therefore used by the Commanders as a tool to reproduce. The Handmaids’ are deprived of their basic rights, in Chapter 1, the main character June/ Offred tells the audience story when the handmaids are trained in a gymnasium. The juxtaposition between the “past” and “present” of the gymnasium creates a sense of repression. The use of olfactory imageries such as “sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume”, “pungent scent of sweat” and auditory imageries such as “the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound” created a contrast between the lively atmosphere in the school gymnasium and the dystopian repressive atmosphere now. The living conditions for the handmaids are also repressive, as they are assigned to be trained by “aunts”, whom is a more authoritative figure that aims to train the handmaids into tools for giving births. The handmaids can be seen suppressed and controlled by the aunts, as they had “electric cattle prods”, which dehumanises the handmaids thus creating a repressive atmosphere.

The repressive atmosphere developed even stronger when moving into the second paragraph. In the second paragraph, Atwood described the living conditions of the handmaids after they moved into a commander’s house. They lack of human rights and dehumanisation was further depicted, as they are even deprived of their right to suicide. From the quote “they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to” and “when the window is partly open – it only opens partly”, an underlying message of the handmaids cannot suicide is conveyed. Furthermore, these quote can be interpreted as the fate of the handmaids are doomed, and they cannot escape from their role or reality. This hence created a repressive atmosphere, which also highlights the bigger issue of objectification of women in the society. On the other hand, the Commanders’ wives, who are supposed to have a higher status than the handmaids, also lack of equal rights. In Chapter 3, from the quote “maybe it’s just something to keep the Wives bust, to give them a sense of purpose” implies that even though they are Wives of the commanders, but they do not possess any authority or power. They are appendages of the commanders, and the lacking of meaning of their lives stated that they also cannot escape from this religious based, male dominated society.

Similar oppression and issues can be found in different classes of female in the book, Atwood uses the similarities in the different hierarchies to further create this sense of repressive atmosphere, which is resulted from the totalitarian patriarchy society.

 

ELP – biased headlines

  • PM Lee has announced that the circuit breaker will be extended till the 1st of June.
  • The outbreak of COVID 19 in Singapore foreign dormitory was due to the inattention of the Singapore Government on the foreign workers’ health conditions.
  • Citizens’ incompatibility on the “circuit breaker” not only has caused it to be extended till June, but also forces the government to impose a fine on certain behaviours.

The first headline is very objective, avoids all the personal opinions. The other two all have some subjective point of view involved inside. The second headline have bias by spin, which means that only one interpretation is shown. This could be seen by only focusing on the government’s inadequacy but neglecting other effective strategies used on this situation. The third headline supports the government more and seems to have a disgruntled emotion towards the disobedient citizens. This could be seen involving bias by placement which the author tries to tell the story from how he/she considers about the story.