Welcome!

Hello year 13s,

Congratulations on finding your way to the A Level English blog.

As promised, you can view the slides I used in our lesson this week by copying and pasting the link below in to your browser:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iNXeCKumvJbfwTrndiCRn90pkDOiX7sgtxweWR8QZNo/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Key points from our discussion this week:

• There are elements of 'the uncanny' through the text. Right from the start, the narrator notices something 'queer' about the house that she struggles to explain.

'Uncanny' - Sigmund Freud: when something familiar and comforting becomes foreign and frightening. E.g. when there is something threatening in a home. (We discussed the example of Winston catching sight of himself in the mirror in George Orwell's 1984).
You can access the full text at: web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf

• The opening passage gives us an insight into attitudes towards women's health in the 1890s: the language, short, isolated sentences, and punctuation show that the narrator is helpless against the 'knowledge' of her husband and brother. We also discussed the possibility that the narrator is already thinking of ways to show her husband she is ill when she repeats 'what can one do?'
• We looked in to the autobiographical elements of the story, considered Charlotte Perkins Gilman's treatment for hysteria (including the rest cure and an 'unspecified gynaecological procedure'). She may have chosen to write autobiographically to empower other women in her situation, or as a form of therapy in order to 'self-heal'.
• The narrator is hopeful that the house might be haunted because she is looking for some excitement/adventure. She knows she has been forbidden to write or work and is looking for entertainment.
• Key themes: marriage/relationships; entrapment; isolation, power/control; mental instability.

I have been impressed by your work ethic and initial analysis of this text. I am really looking forward to exploring it with you over the next few weeks. Don't forget to email your coursework question to me by this Friday - 16th September 2016, along with a short justification for your choice.

Miss Ryall