Better C H R I S K E L L E R S M O R A L C O N F L I C T 2015 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Mar 30, 2023 261 likes •433 views

A L L M Y S O N S L E C T U R E F I F T E E N M A K E I T Better C H R I S K E L L E R S M O R A L C O N F L I C T 2015 PRELIM AMS P B Q R EVI EW CHARACTER-TRIGGER CHRIS D I V I D E D S R O E C H I T A A L F R

SLIDE 1

Better

L E C T U R E F I F T E E N A L L M Y S O N S

M A K E I T

C H R I S K E L L E R ’ S M O R A L C O N F L I C T 2015 PRELIM AMS P B Q R EVI EW

SLIDE 2

doghuma

CHRIS

T R A G I C H E R O D I V I D E D L O Y A L T Y T O H I S F A T H E R S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y CHARACTER-TRIGGER ‘ N O W I ’ M P R A C T I C A L ’ ‘ B U T H O N O R W A S R E A L’

SLIDE 3

PROGRESSION

IDENTIFY

SPLIT

EARLIER

CONTEXT

HERE

LATER

IN ACT TWO (76-78), CHRIS LASHES OUT AGAINST HIS FATHER FOR HIS AMORAL ACTIONS IN ACT THREE (80), CHRIS IS PRESENTED BY JIM AS A LOYAL, ’GOOD SON’ CHRIS MAKES A ‘CONFESSION’ THAT ESTABLISHES HIS LOYALTY TO KELLER CHRIS VILIFIES HIS SOCIETY AND HIMSELF FOR LACK OF MORAL PRINCIPLES CHRIS SHIFTS BETWEEN EMPATHY AND DISGUST AT HIS FATHER’S ACTIONS IN THE NEXT SCENE, CHRIS WILL HURL ALL BLAME FOR LARRY’S DEATH ON HIS FATHER IRONICALLY, THE CONCEPT OF FAMILY INFLAMES CHRIS’S MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IDENTIFY SCENES RELEVANT TO ‘CHRIS’ PICK UP SHIFTS IN IDEAS & EFFECTS LINK TO ENDING VIA CHRIS’S ROLE

1-20 21-46 52-65

SLIDE 4

tragic

INTRODUCTION

STRUGGLE

MORAL

C H R I S ’ S ‘ P H O N Y I D E A L I S M ’ ( 4 9 ) ‘ A L I A R T O Y O U R S E L F ’ ( 6 1 ) L IN KS TO E A R L IE R THE TRUTH OF HIS INVOLVEMENT (87) THE DENIAL OF HIS FATHER’S GUILT (50-51) DESERTING HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO SOCIETY (38) CONFRONTING HIS LOYALTY TO FAMILY (87) C H R I S W I L L S H E D H I S ‘ Y E L L O W N E S S ’ L INK TO L ATE R

DENOUEMENT

A N D C H A R G E O N C E M O R E T O W A R D S J U S T I C E 7

SLIDE 5

son

PARAGRAPH 2

G O O D

ESTABLISHES CHRIS AS T HE OPE NING OF TH E PA SS AG E

‘ ‘

A DEEPLY TROUBLED STAGE DIRECTIONS ‘HE SEEMS EXHAUSTED’ CHRIS’S TORMENT OVER HIS   OWN GUILT AND HIS FATHER TRUNCATED SENTENCES ‘I’LL SAY WHAT THERE IS TO SAY’ CHRIS IGNORES MOTHER AND ANN’S CONCERN CONSECUTIVE DECLARATIVES ‘I’M GOING AWAY.. I’M GOING AWAY FOR GOOD’ IS CHRIS DETERMINED TO ESCAPE HIS OWN GUILT? OB S ERVAT ION MANY SCRIPTS COMMENTED ON CHRIS’S ‘SELFISHNESS’ WITHOUT READING IT IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS GUILT FROM EARLIER ACTS CONCERN STRUGGLE TO BE MORAL THIS SURFACES ONLY AT THE END OF THE PLAY, AND BRINGS US TO THE TRAGIC HERO’S ANAGNORISIS.

SLIDE 6

nuance effect methods

ANALYSING LANGUAGE LEVEL BY LEVEL

TONE DICTION SYNTAX PROGRESSION

E.G CHRIS CONSTANTLY REPEATS THE WORD ‘PRACTICAL’ E.G CHRIS REBUKES HIMSELF IN AN ANGUISHED TONE E.G SHIFT FROM ACTIVE (‘I AM…’) TO PASSIVE VOICE (‘YOU MADE ME…’) E.G THIS SELF-LOATHING ESCALATES INTO SELF-DISGUST (‘I SPIT…’)

SLIDE 7

recognises

PARAGRAPH 3 C H R I S H I S O W N G U I L T CONFESSION TO ANN ‘I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING’, ‘IT’S TRUE’ CHRIS ‘CONFIRMS’ ANN’S KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT EVEN HER ASKING. CHRIS ARGUABLY SHOWS A WELLED-UP DESIRE TO SPEAK TRULY. SYMBOLISM OF ‘YELLOW’ ‘I’M YELLOW. I WAS MADE YELLOW…’ A COLOUR ASSOCIATED WITH MORAL CORRUPTION OR COWARDICE. CONSTANT FLUCTUATION BETWEEN INWARD AND OUTWARD AGGRESSION SYNTAX DICTION PROGRESSION CHRIS’S REJECTION OF SELF ‘I SPIT ON MYSELF’ CHRIS REFERS TO ‘MYSELF’ AS THE OBJECT. THE WORD ‘SPIT’ DENOTES SCORN, DISGUST. SYNTAX AND DICTION CONCERN + LINK CHRIS’S MORAL RESPONSIBILITY ARGUABLY BREAKS DOWN DURING THIS SPEECH ITSELF

SLIDE 8

!

The cats in that alley the bums who ran away

ANALYSING PROGRESSION IN DICTION AND IMAGERY

Only the dead ones But now I’m practical.

A R E P R A C T I C A L W E R E P R A C T I C A L W E R E N ’ T P R A C T I C A L THE IMAGES POSIT THAT CHRIS IS EQUAL TO OR EVEN WORSE THAN ‘CATS’ AND ‘BUMS’. THE CUMULATION OF ‘PRACTICAL’ EXPRESSES THIS INCREASING SELF-LOATHING.

SLIDE 9

Society

PARAGRAPH 4 C H R I S ’ S C Y N I C I S M T O W A R D S H I M S E L F, H I S FAT H E R A N D M O V E S H I S M O R A L S T R U G G L E F O R W A R D ‘I COULD JAIL HIM!’ ‘I COULD JAIL HIM, IF I WERE’ THE SECOND ‘COULD’ SHOWS THE AGONY OF CHRIS’S INTERNAL CONFLICT AND INABILITY TO JAIL HIS FATHER RESIGNED TONE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS ‘THEN WHAT’LL I DO IT FOR?’ THESE SUGGEST THAT CHRIS HAS SOFTENED HIS STANCE AGAINST HIS FATHER, WHERE SENDING HIM TO JAIL SEEMS FUTILE OR MEANINGLESS. BESTIAL IMAGERY ‘LAND OF THE GREAT BIG DOGS’ ‘YOU EAT HIM’, ‘A ZOO’ ILLUSTRATES THE VICIOUSNESS OF SELF-INTEREST AND CHRIS’S REVULSION TOWARDS HIS SOCIETY.

SLIDE 10

past

This is a zoo, a zoo!

ANALYSING PROGRESSION IN IMAGERY AND SYNTAX

This is the land of the great big dogs

you don’t love a man here, you eat him!

We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog

but honor was real there, you were protecting something. THE CUMULATION FROM ‘A MAN’ TO ‘THE LAND’, ‘ACTED LIKE A DOG’ TO ‘GREAT BIG DOGS’ AND FINALLY AN ENTIRE ‘ZOO’ (REPEATED FOR EFECT) MIRRORS CHRIS’S RISING INDIGNATION AGAINST HIS COMMUNITY. WHILE THE PAST (‘USED TO’, ‘WAS’) IS CONVEYED IN GRIEVING DECLARATIVES, CHRIS DESCRIBES THE PRESENT-DAY IN OUTRAGED, EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES.

present

SLIDE 11 PURPOSE

CONCERN LINK TO EARLIER LINK TO LATER

CHRIS’S DISDAIN FOR HIS SOCIETY’S DESTRUCTIVENESS IS CLEARLY DRIVEN BY HIS LONGING FOR THE ‘HONOR’ AND ‘LOVE’ OF THE PAST. HE STILL STANDS BY HIS BELIEF IN HUMAN SOLIDARITY. THIS ARGUABLY PARALLELS THE SHAME IN HIS ACT ONE MONOLOGUE AS WELL AS ITS MORAL IDEALISM. MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT PREPARES THE AUDIENCE FOR AN EVEN DEEPER CONVICTION IN ‘MAN FOR MAN’ RESPONSIBILITY IN THE PLAY’S FINAL SCENE.

SLIDE 12 PARAGRAPH 5

father

DISTANCES HIMSELF C H R I S F R O M H I S PHYSICAL ACT OF SEPARATION ‘PULLING VIOLENTLY AWAY’ VERBAL AGGRESSION ‘DON’T DO THAT’, ‘I’LL HURT YOU IF YOU DO THAT’ COLD RETORTS ‘(WITH AN EDGE OF SARCASM) IT BOTHERS ME’ ‘NOTHING TO SAY, SO SAY IT QUICK’

SLIDE 13

It’s not what I want to do

It’s what you want to do

[

]

ANALYSING PARALLEL SYNTAX PARALLEL SENTENCES SHOW CHRIS’S STEADFASTNESS ANAPHORA (REPETITION OF ‘IT’S’ AT THE START OF BOTH SENTENCES) ANADIPLOSIS (REPETITION OF ‘WANT TO DO’ AT THE END OF BOTH SENTENCES) SHIFTING OF RESPONSIBILITY IS SEEN IN THE SHIFT NEGATION OF ‘WHAT I WANT’ TO AN EXHORTATION OF ‘WHAT YOU WANT’ CHRIS CONTINUES TO EXPECT HIS FATHER TO BE ‘BETTER’. IS THIS MORAL IDEALISM, OR IS AN IDEALISATION OF HIS FATHER?

SLIDE 14

death

Larry’s

Jesus

CONCLUSION CHRIS IS NO APPEARING SIMILAR TO HIS FATHER IN HIS LOYALTY TO THE FAMILY YET HE STRIVES FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND HUMAN SOLIDARITY

THE PASSAGE RESURRECTS CHRIS’S MORAL IMPERATIVE TO PRONOUNCE THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS FATHER’S ACTIONS LEADING TO BOTH MORAL TRIUMPH FAMILIAL TRAGEDY

SLIDE 15

Better

M A K E I T

T HANK YO U FO R T HE L A S T T WO Y EA RS DO NOT SINK INTO A SAD SONG BECAUSE WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER FIND OUT WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WRONG SO THAT WE MAY FIGHT BACK TOGETHER THE END