Analysing texts

Rhymes
• Eye rhyme -> if it looks similar (through and
though)
• Slant rhyme -> same consonants at the end
although different vowels (worm and
swarm)
• Identical rhyme -> if it is identical (chant,
rant)
• Internal rhyme -> within the same line
Rhythm and pace
- Iambic pentameter
- Free/blank verse
- Prose

Greek techniques
- Chiasm : cycle
- Metaphor
- Repetition / mantra
- Alliteration
- Anaphora
- Metonymy
- Synecdoqy
- Lexicon : animalistic
- Hyperbole
- Personnification
- Allegory
- Sibilance

Other techniques ( more important)

- PUNS IN SHAKESPEARE ++ : polysemic
words
- Tone
- Narrative voice / diction : assertive, submissive
- IRONY : dramatic irony
- Point of view / perspective
- Sentence structure : inversion, exclamation
- Imagery : auditory, tactile, visual, olfactory,
gustative, sensibility, biblical
- Contrast,
- Stagecraft
- Props / symbols
- Proxemics : a seated character mirrors the
audience
- Parallelism
- Syntax : Active vs passive form
- Pathetic fallacy
- In medias res, deus ex machina
- Foil character
- Stichomythy
- Soliloquy
- monologue
Mirror “I see her back and reflect it faithfully” ->
treacherous reflection that only contains the verso
“Mirror”, repetition of the “I”, focalization on the of the individual, turned inside out
self, introspective
Paradox -> the speaker is the mirror, however the Themes :
reflection itself is the one who is the most • Passage of Time / loss of innocence
preoccupied by the self • Male / female / societal gaze
“Exact”, “no preconceptions” : Idealized mirror, • Sight vs insight / illusions vs reality /
objectiveness of the object perspective
“Unmisted” : untroubled, maybe crude, violent? -> • Gender roles
not hidden behind social norms
However the mirror is deceitful, flawed as is tinted
by the viewer’s own judgment I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Divine power of the mirror -> the reflection of Whatever I see I swallow immediately
ourselves, of the others is what governs and Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
drives our actions I am not cruel, only truthful‚
We ourselves are the mirror for others, as we The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
reflect what they are, we ourselves are the “little Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
god[s]” that are constricted in our own It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
preconceptions I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
God Four cornered, paradox, god is all mighty Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
but he is limited and constricted in 4 corners, god
is all knowing but the mirror uses modal verbs “I Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
think” Searching my reaches for what she really is.
“Eye”, “Heart”, human traits, the mirror is Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the
humanized by the woman’s gaze that transmits moon.
her vision of herself I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
The idea of introspection itself is impossible She rewards me with tears and an agitation of
through a physical instrument as a mirror, as it hands.
only provides superficial reflection -> ambivalence I am important to her. She comes and goes.
of the word “reflection”, can be thinking (=” Each morning it is her face that replaces the
meditate”) or an actual reflection darkness.
Description of the wall “pink, with speckles”, gives In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an
the impression the opposite wall itself is a face, old woman
the mirror could be contained by an allegorical Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
house = the woman’s own mind
\> “I have looked at it so long” -> internalization of
our reflection over our life
“it flickers” -> inconstance of one’s identity, that
shifts through time as well as its perception by
others

Shift of the poem : lake = more profound than a

mirror, natural, “reaches”
Maybe the comprehension of one’s self becomes
deeper, aging? -> “Now I am”, shift
Lakes can be dark, ominous, opaque.
A mirror is rigid, solid, and can break vs
Reference to the myth of Narcissus, drowning in
individuality and self contemplation
“These liars” + “moon” -> Ironic, as the moon itself
reflects the sun, thus if the moon by being a
reflection of the sun is a liar, what tells us the
mirror / lake isn’t a liar?
The tempest : Settings :
- masque : dancing and singing - Tempest
- Begins in medias res - Island : microcosm, reveals true nature of
- Metatheatre : prospero is stage director characters
- Naples
Themes - 1 place, 1 time, accelerated action ( what gives
- Chain of being : hierarchy : spiritual/civilized/ prospero vertigo, takes a step back in act 4 )
social/noble instincts, animalistic/baser instincts,
release and restraint / temperance, theory of Characters :
panopticon : disciplined because fear of being
observed - Prospero : de jure duke, magician, despotic
- Harmony (cosmos) / discord, order / chaos authority, individualism, stage director,
- Duty and balance vs betrayal playwright, manipulative, abandons noble
- Power and legitimacy of leadership, heredity instincts, somewhat sadistic. Gives up on
and generations, merit ( worth ), trial miranda and books at the end of the play : talks
- Hierarchy : sailors vs court, freedom vs authority about end of existence = end of play, ca,,to
- Social roles and inversion of social roles, class, intervene in. His fate : role of the audience to be
social determinism, the judge of his actions, catharsis. Relief from
- Man vs Nature : brutality, helplessness, role = metatheatrality
meaninglessness or control - Ariel : air, music, tied to prospero, vows, deus
- Illusion vs reality : prospero’s magic, power, ex machina inversion : drives the court mad.
deceptive appearance, monstrosity End : acquires freedom but lacks purpose
- The human condition : awareness, life vs death, - Miranda : pity ( christian ideal), purity, noble
fate instincts, explicit sexual innuendos, maid/ virgin,
- Vows : love and loyalty, lust, desire paragon (perfect character), struggles between
- Secrecy / opacity, lies, falsehood, concealing, obedience to her father and self expression
deceptive characters vs trust, disguise, - Ferdinand : noble, restraint, accepts bondage to
schemes miranda, voluntary servitude, moral / sacrificial
- Alienation, othering love, disciplined
- Colonised vs colonizers : language, exotic other
noble savage ( Montaigne essays of cultural Nobles : scapegoat, irrational discourse
relativity), bondage - Alonzo : isolates instead of taking leadership :
unqualified
Motifs : - Antonio : de facto duke, ivy to prospero
- music : earthly representation of the spiritual (invasive plant )
harmony, pan and his flute: charmes ( carmen) - Sebastian : illegitimate
lyrical, enchant, manipulative - Gonzalo : perceptive, idealistic : utopia of
- magic and art (mastery) : Prospero’s desire for leadership
power, individuality, magic garments, staff,
books (turmoil between individuality and duty ) Clowns :
- Tempest / storm / natural elements : water = - Trinculo
feminine element, weather and pathetic fallacy - Stephano
- Clothing and garments : power, social roles, - Caliban : pun canibal, colonized, baser instincts
disguise, appearances vs real; life is a play, (food, assaults miranda) yet iambic pentameter
cleansing : pocket= dissimulation speech ( harmony from chaos), poetic,sensible,
- Actions vs words, physical toil vs mimicry understands island sounds ( harmony ),
- Names knowledgeable of the island, freckled ( curse
- Alcohol : bottles. Loss = infinite loss : irony, from his mother “hag-born”), environmental
comical, alcohol becomes a religion monster born from oppression
- Sight vs insight
- Dreams = life, sleep = death : “ we are such Other :
stuff as dreams are made on” : nothingness - Mariners
- spirits : higher powers
- Sycorax : blue eyes ( witchcraft in north africa )
- Claribel : alonzo’s daughter : sold off for
mariage
character parallels : foil character to bring out Exil and alienation
another character’s personality - Amanda excluded from society because of her
husband, bad decisions
- manipulative words : prospero // Antonio // - Laura cast aside for her leg
caliban - Antoinette : exotic other “ alien eyes”, temporary
- Sexual innuendo : prospero’s staff vs thrill
Ferdinand’s logs
- Power dichotomy : prospero vs Antonio, Social conformity
miranda and Ferdinand willing to share power : - Esther gives up her dream for social conformity
play chess : balance and marriage
- Rage : sycorax imprisons Ariel by rage // - Antoinette and the miller’s daughter portrait
prospero opens the play with rage // caliban - Okonkwo’s strength and masculine power
anger issues collapses with the arrival of colonialists and
- Social alienation : miranda // sycorax // claribel religious virtues
- Slavery : Ariel ( nobility, negociates, vows) vs
Caliban ( agressive) vs, marriage vows of Individualism :
servitude, caliban has a new master (unwise - Poetry books and magic books
choice) // miranda disobeys her father to be with - Individual needs : Mayme, : pianist, free from
Ferdinand (natural, harmony between the pair) religion, mrs dickson : economic freedom
- Greed and leadership : Sebastian and Antonio - Social expectations : mrs van buren : wishes
plot to kill alonzo : serious // Stephan, trinculo pregnancy, Esther : gives up economic freedom
and caliban plot to kill prospero : comical, for marriage : oppressive quality of society on
laughable, derision women
- Marriage : alike Claribel was married of,
prospero plans the same fate for miranda Nature :
- Sensibility : caliban’s monstrous appearance - oppresses the unnamed husband vs Antoinette
hides sensibility vs prospero’s divine authority finds harmony with nature
conceals moral rigidity - Hurricanes bending trees, referred to by
- Patience : Ferdinand and miranda’s patience vs unnamed husband to show patriarchy,
conspirator’s rashness superiority of colonisers
- Speech : both caliban and Ferdinand speak in - Transcendentalism for Walt Whitman : finding
blank verse inner and outer peace within nature, out of
- Loss : alonzo’s infinite loss of his son, only heir civilisation
vs the drunkards’ “infinite loss” of a bottle of
alcohol : different visions of infinity, ironic/
pathetic/comical Illusions vs real, legitimacy
- imitation of the English summerhouse
Links - Power of literacy : false letters : deceptive
marriage
Narration : - Moon : shapeshifts, Amanda wishes on the
- Tom : unreliable narrator, stage director, moon with Laura
manipulative, in exile, refuses sacrifices - Heritage ; nwoye rejects the heritage of is father
- Unnamed husband : power of voice, perception (power of speech) : power is gained though self
to cast credit of discredit development ( just how okonkwo developed his
- Paint themselves as victims, martyrs own farms )

Evil characters : Control :

- Sycorax ( witch) // tom puts the blame on is - unnamed husband : naming “bertha”,
mother, calls her a hag ( // sycorax), her care is confinement, psychological hierarchy, addiction
a deprivation of his freedom to alcohol and sex : destructive, strips her of her
- Smoking jacket in intimate apparel : betrayal identity, value of virginity
Other works : Poetry
“Praise the great windows where immigrants from
“Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” — Martín the kitchen
Espada could squint and almost see their world, hear the
chant of nations
Dignity of labor and the working class, immigrant “After the thunder wilder than thunder,
lives and their invisibility, mourning and collective after the shudder deep in the glass of the great
loss (especially connected to 9/11), praise as an windows
act of resistance and remembrance "Alabanza I say, even if God has no face.
“Alabanza. When the war began, from Manhattan
Espada honors the kitchen workers—many of and Kabul
them immigrants—who died in the World Trade two constellations of smoke rose and drifted to
Center attacks. He elevates their everyday labor each other,
(“washing dishes,” “chopping onions”) to an act mingling in icy air, and one said with an Afghan
worthy of praise, restoring dignity to workers who tongue:
are often unseen. The poem serves as both elegy Teach me to dance. We have no music here.
and celebration. And the other said with a Spanish tongue:
I will teach you. Music is all we have.
“Power” — Audre Lorde

Racial injustice and systemic violence, rage, The difference between poetry and rhetoric is
power, and self-possession, the cost of survival in being ready to kill yourself instead of your
a racist society, moral conflict between anger and children.
humanity trying to make power out of hatred and destruction
trying to heal my dying son with kisses
only the sun will bleach his bones quicker.
Lorde reflects on the killing of a 10-year-old Black
four centuries of white male approval
boy by a police officer and the acquittal that
until she let go the first real power she ever had
follows. She meditates on her own rage—how it
I have not been able to touch the destruction
arises, how it must be channeled—and the
within me. But unless I learn to use the difference
dangers of letting anger turn into destructive
between poetry and rhetoric my power too will run
“power” that mirrors the oppressor. The poem
corrupt as poisonous mold or lie limp and useless
explores the emotional toll of witnessing injustice.
as an unconnected wire
“Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun” — Walt raping an 85 year old white woman who is
Whitman somebody's mother

Desire for nature, peace, and solitude, rejection of

urban noise, war, and societal bustle, tension Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O
between retreat and civic engagement, inner Nature your primal sanities!
longing for simplicity Day upon day and year upon year O city, walking your
streets,
The speaker initially longs for a quiet pastoral life Where you hold me enchain'd a certain time refusing
to give me up,
—sun, fields, and companionship far from the city. Give me faces and streets—give me these phantoms
Yet the second half reverses this desire: he rejects incessant and endless along the trottoirs!
country life and instead wants the energetic, The soldiers in companies or regiments—some
chaotic life of the city and the allure of public starting away, ush'd and reckless,
events and war. The poem dramatizes an inner Some, their time up, returning with thinn'd ranks,
conflict between solitude and engagement. young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;)
O such for me! O an intense life, full to repletion and
varied
fl
“I Sing the Body Electric” — Walt Whitman Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own
bodies conceal themselves?
Sacredness and equality of all bodies, sexuality, And if those who defile the living are as bad as
sensuality, and physicality as spiritual, democracy they who defile the dead?
and the interconnectedness of people, celebration A man’s body at auction, (For before the war I
of human diversity often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,)
I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half
Whitman ecstatically praises the human body— know his business.
male and female—not merely as flesh but as a Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be
vessel of the soul. He describes bodies in physical high enough for it,
detail, valuing them as expressions of identity and For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years
humanity. The poem links the physical to the without one animal or plant, For it the revolving
metaphysical, turning embodiment into a cycles truly and steadily roll’d.
democratic, universal experience. She too is not only herself, she is the teeming
mother of mothers,
Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live
“One Art” — Elizabeth Bishop body? or the fool that corrupted her own live
body?
Loss and the attempt to control or rationalize it,
self-deception and emotional suppression, the
tension between form (villanelle) and emotional The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
chaos, the illusion of “mastering” loss through so many things seem lled with the intent
poetry : poems are a self convincing illusion to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
Framed as a villanelle, the poem insists that losing
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
things—keys, places, time—“isn’t hard to master.”
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
As the poem progresses, the stakes of loss
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
escalate, culminating in the implied loss of a loved
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
one. The speaker’s tone fractures, revealing that
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
the repeated claim of “mastering” loss is partly an
artistic performance meant to conceal pain. Art
and poetry are fake, meant to be lost

Nature

Represents peace and authenticity (Whitman),

Represents loss and erosion (Bishop),
Is overshadowed by violence or labor (Lorde, Espada)

Power

Political and oppressive (Lorde), Communal and

redemptive (Espada), Bodily and democratic
(Whitman) ,Psychological and unstable (Bishop)

Humanity

Sacred and physical (Whitman), Grieving and

communal (Espada), Repressed and vulnerable
(Bishop), Endangered and rage-filled (Lorde)
fi
Other works : 3. Intimate Apparel — Lynn Nottage
Main Themes
1. Wide Sargasso Sea — Jean Rhys • Loneliness and Longing: Esther’s dream of
Main Themes love, connection, and companionship.
• Colonialism and Postcolonial Identity: The • Race, Class, and Immigration: Social
destruction of identity caused by British constraints shape the relationships between
imperialism, racial tensions, and the legacy of Black, Jewish, and immigrant characters.
slavery. • Women’s Labor and Independence: Sewing
• Madness and Psychological Fragmentation: as a means of survival and self-expression.
How isolation, gaslighting, and displacement • Desire vs. Reality: Romantic hopes versus the
contribute to mental breakdown. harsh realities of life and betrayal.
• Gender and Patriarchal Control: Women’s • Intimacy and Vulnerability: Clothing as
voices suppressed by marriage, property laws, metaphor for emotional exposure.
and male dominance. Stakes
• Cultural Displacement: Belonging to neither • Esther’s emotional and economic future is
European nor Afro-Caribbean worlds. at risk as she seeks love and stability in a
• Power and Oppression: Economic, racial, and world that limits Black women’s opportunities.
marital power used to erase Antoinette. • The play confronts the structural barriers that
Stakes confine women, especially working-class
• Antoinette’s identity and sanity are at risk as women of color, in early 20th-century America.
she is stripped of her name, culture, and • At stake is the possibility of connection—
freedom. whether Esther will achieve real intimacy or
• The novel directly rewrites the colonial gaze remain isolated.
of Jane Eyre, challenging the canonical • The work asks: Can a woman build a life of
portrayal of the “madwoman in the attic.” dignity when society offers her so few choices?
• At stake is the humanization of marginalized
women erased by empire and literature. 4. The Glass Menagerie — Tennessee Williams
• Rhys asks: What happens to a woman when Main Themes
every system—colonial, racial, marital—works • Memory and Nostalgia: Tom retells the story
to unmake her? through the haze of regret and longing.
• Fragility and Illusion: Laura’s glass animals
2. Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe symbolize emotional delicacy and avoidance of
Main Themes reality.
• Cultural Clash and Colonialism: The collision • Family Obligation vs. Personal Freedom:
between Igbo tradition and British imperialism. Tom feels trapped between duty to his family
• Masculinity and Social Expectations: and his desire to escape.
Okonkwo’s fear of weakness and failure shapes • The Destructive Power of Illusions:
his tragic life. Amanda’s hopeful fantasies clash with harsh
• Community, Ritual, and Tradition: The realities.
richness and complexity of Igbo society. • Isolation and Disability: Laura’s shyness and
• Change vs. Tradition: The tension between physical condition isolate her from society.
old ways and imposed Western structures. Stakes
• Fate and Personal Agency: How individual • The family’s economic survival and emotional
choices collide with historical forces. stability are under pressure.
Stakes • Tom’s freedom is at stake—whether he can
• The survival of an entire culture—its break free of obligation or repeat his father’s
traditions, language, and social systems— abandonment.
hangs in the balance as colonial power • Laura’s future is deeply precarious: her ability
encroaches. to live independently depends on fragile
• Okonkwo’s tragedy shows the personal cost social circumstances.
of refusing to adapt in a world undergoing • The play asks whether a family built on illusion
violent change. can withstand the demands of the real world.
• Achebe challenges Western narratives that
depicted Africa as primitive, asserting the
literary and cultural authority of African
voices.
• At stake is historical truth, identity, and whose
story gets to be told.
1. Colonialism, Power, and Cultural Erasure Esther constructs identity through her craft; she seeks
Wide Sargasso Sea connection and self-definition in a world that offers her
Colonialism is the central destructive force. Antoinette’s none.
identity is shattered by racial hierarchies, English The Glass Menagerie
domination, and her husband’s erasure of her culture Laura, Tom, and Amanda cling to fragile, imagined
and voice. identities—Laura with her glass collection, Amanda
Things Fall Apart with her memories, Tom with the dream of escape.
Shows colonial power from a community perspective: Shared Thread:
the violent clash between Igbo culture and British All characters struggle with unstable identities in a
imperial rule. Power destroys a culture from the outside hostile world. Identity fractures when the surrounding
in. culture refuses to make space for them.
Intimate Apparel
Colonialism is not direct, but structural power still 4. Illusion vs. Reality
determines characters’ lives—racial hierarchy, Wide Sargasso Sea
economic inequality, and immigration shape every The illusion is the English husband’s claim to rationality
relationship. and “civilization.” Reality is the violence of colonial
The Glass Menagerie power masked as order.
Colonialism is absent, but the theme of Things Fall Apart
powerlessness is strong: economic and social Okonkwo’s illusion of permanent cultural stability
systems restrict the family’s choices. collides with the reality of colonial change.
Shared Thread: Intimate Apparel
All four texts explore systems that restrict Esther’s romantic fantasies with George and her
individuals or communities, whether political idealized view of intimacy collapse into betrayal and
(colonialism), economic, racial, or familial. loneliness.
Power operates by erasing identities—Antoinette as The Glass Menagerie
a wife, the Igbo as a culture, Esther as a Black working Illusion is the central theme: Amanda’s nostalgia,
woman, and Tom/Laura/Amanda as people trapped by Laura’s glass world, and Tom’s escape fantasies
social expectations. dominate the story.
Shared Thread:
2. Gender, Patriarchy, and the Limits of Each text asks: What happens when illusions—
Womanhood cultural, romantic, or personal—collide with brutal
Wide Sargasso Sea reality?
Antoinette’s life is controlled by men—her husband Often, the answer is fragmentation, loss, and escape.
renames her, isolates her, and treats her as property.
Things Fall Apart 5. Freedom vs. Constraint
Patriarchy is embedded in Igbo culture; women’s roles Wide Sargasso Sea
are restricted, and Okonkwo’s fear of weakness is tied Freedom is impossible: Antoinette is trapped by
to rigid masculinity. marriage, race, and colonial rule.
Intimate Apparel Things Fall Apart
Esther struggles against limited opportunities for Black Characters are constrained by cultural expectations,
women—romance, autonomy, and financial then by colonial domination. Both individual and
independence are deeply constrained by gendered communal freedoms collapse.
expectations. Intimate Apparel
The Glass Menagerie Esther seeks independence but faces structural
Amanda and Laura represent two forms of trapped constraints tied to race, gender, and class.
womanhood: Amanda clings to old fantasies, and The Glass Menagerie
Laura is immobilized by disability and shyness. Tom is trapped by family obligation; Laura is trapped by
Shared Thread: emotional fragility; Amanda is trapped by the past.
Across all four works, women bear the weight of Shared Thread:
societal limits. Whether through colonial marriage, All four works dramatize the pain of wanting freedom in
traditional culture, racialized labor, or domestic environments that refuse it.
obligation, female characters face restricted choices Whether physical, cultural, economic, or emotional,
and dependence. constraint defines the characters’ lives.

3. Identity, Selfhood, and Fragmentation Synthesis:

Wide Sargasso Sea - Systems of power shape and limit lives.
Antoinette’s identity disintegrates as she loses - Women and marginalized people bear
connection to her culture, home, and self. disproportionate burdens.
Things Fall Apart - Identity is fragile under pressure.
Okonkwo’s identity is built on resisting his father’s - People cling to illusions when reality is too harsh.
“failure,” creating a rigid self-image that ultimately - Freedom is desperately desired but rarely fully
destroys him as society changes. attainable.
Intimate Apparel