Learning Targets:
-I can identify and define any unfamiliar words by drawing on a range of strategies.
-I can identify and define any unfamiliar words by drawing on a range of strategies.
-I can read and annotate texts for comprehension.
-I can identify and explain appropriate textual evidence.
-I can identify and explain appropriate textual evidence.
Coming up: vocabulary quiz tomorrow (handed out November 1; another copy below)
In class: Note: you will find the correct responses to the "My Last Duchess" graphic organizer at the end of this blog. Yours need not be exact, but should be similar in demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the poem. Today we are reading excerpt from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own"
Tomorrow there will be a graphic organizer on this material.
Tomorrow there will be a graphic organizer on this material.
Essential Question: How are gender roles reflected in the imagined life of Judith Shakespeare?
Who was Virginia Woolf?
Handout for “A Room of One’s
Own” by Virginia Woolf
As we read through the essay,
please circle any unfamiliar words.
“A Room of One’s Own” by
Virginia Woolf
Be that as it may, I could
not help thinking, as I looked at the works of Shakespeare on the shelf, that
the bishop was right at least in this; it would have been impossible,
completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare
in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine, since facts are so hard to come by,
what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister,
called Judith, let us say. Shakespeare himself went, very probably—his mother
was an heiress—to the grammar school, where he may have learnt Latin—Ovid,
Virgil and Horace—and the elements of grammar and logic. He was, it is well
known, a wild boy who poached rabbits, perhaps shot a deer, and had, rather
sooner than he should have done, to marry a woman in the neighbourhood, who
bore him a child rather quicker than was right. That escapade sent him to seek
his fortune in London. He had, it seemed, a taste for the theatre; he began by
holding horses at the stage door. Very soon he got work in the theatre, became
a successful actor, and lived at the hub of the universe, meeting everybody,
knowing everybody, practising his art on the boards, exercising his wits in the
streets, and even getting access to the palace of the queen. Meanwhile his
extraordinarily gifted sister, let us suppose, remained at home. She was as
adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was
not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone
of reading Horace and Virgil. She picked up a book now and then, one of her
brother’s perhaps, and read a few pages. But then her parents came in and told
her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and
papers. They would have spoken sharply but kindly, for they were substantial
people who knew the conditions of life for a woman and loved their
daughter—indeed, more likely than not she was the apple of her father’s eye.
Perhaps she scribbled some pages up in an apple loft on the sly but was careful
to hide them or set fire to them. Soon, however, before she was out of her
teens, she was to be betrothed to the son of a neighbouring woolstapler. She
cried out that marriage was hateful to her, and for that she was severely
beaten by her father. Then he ceased to scold her. He begged her instead not to
hurt him, not to shame him in this matter of her marriage. He would give her a
chain of beads or a fine petticoat, he said; and there were tears in his eyes.
How could she disobey him? How could she break his heart? The force of her own
gift alone drove her to it. She made up a small parcel of her belongings, let
herself down by a rope one summer’s night and took the road to London. She was
not seventeen. The birds that sang in the hedge were not more musical than she
was. She had the quickest fancy, a gift like her brother’s, for the tune of
words. Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door;
she wanted to act, she said. Men laughed in her face. The manager—a fat,
loose-lipped man—guffawed. He bellowed something about poodles dancing and
women acting—no woman, he said, could possibly be an actress. He hinted—you can
imagine what. She could get no training in her craft. Could she even seek her
dinner in a tavern or roam the streets at midnight? Yet her genius was for
fiction and lusted to feed abundantly upon the lives of men and women and the
study of their ways. At last—for she was very young, oddly like Shakespeare the
poet in her face, with the same grey eyes and rounded brows—at last Nick Greene
the actor-manager took pity on her; she found herself with child by that
gentleman and so—who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet’s heart
when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?—killed herself one winter’s night
and lies buried at some cross-roads where the omnibuses now stop outside the
Elephant and Castle. This may be true or it may be false—who can
say?—but what is true in it, so it seemed to me, reviewing the story of
Shakespeare’s sister as I had made it, is that any woman born with a great gift
in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or
ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half
wizard, feared and mocked at. For it needs little skill in psychology to be
sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would
have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled
asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and
sanity to a certainty. No girl could have walked to London and stood at a stage
door and forced her way into the presence of actor-managers without doing
herself a violence and suffering an anguish which may have been irrational—for
chastity may be a fetish invented by certain societies for unknown reasons—but
were none the less inevitable. Chastity had then, it has even now, a religious
importance in a woman’s life, and has so wrapped itself round with nerves and
instincts that to cut it free and bring it to the light of day demands courage
of the rarest. To have lived a free life in London in the sixteenth century
would have meant for a woman who was poet and playwright a nervous stress and
dilemma which might well have killed her. Had she survived, whatever she had
written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and
morbid imagination. And undoubtedly, I thought, looking at the shelf where
there are no plays by women, her work would have gone unsigned. That refuge she
would have sought certainly. It was the relic of the sense of chastity that
dictated anonymity to women even so late as the nineteenth century. Currer
Bell, George Eliot, George Sand, all the victims of inner strife as their
writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a
man. Thus they did homage to the convention, which if not implanted by the
other sex was liberally encouraged by them (the chief glory of a woman is not
to be talked of, said Pericles, himself a much-talked-of man) that publicity in
women is detestable. Anonymity runs in their blood.
Vocabulary for quiz on Wednesday, November 15
responses to "My Last Duchess"Vocabulary for quiz on Wednesday, November 15
1. countenance (noun)- a person’s face or facial expression
2. mantle (noun)- a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.
3. bough (noun)- a main branch of a tree.
4. trifling (noun or adjective)- unimportant or trivial.
5. officious (adjective)- assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.
6. munificence (noun)- the quality or action of being lavishly generous; great generosity.
7. dowry (noun)- the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage
8. to avow (verb)- to declare or state (something) in an open and public way
9. dramatic monologue- (noun) -a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person
10. earnest-(adjective)- a serious and intent mental state
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My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Duchess
(n.) – the wife or widow of a duke (the male ruler of a duchy; the sovereign of
a small
state)
Frà
(n.) – a title given to an Italian monk or friar (a Catholic man who has
withdrawn from the
world for religious reasons)
THAT’S my last Duchess
painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were
alive. I call
That piece a wonder,
now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day,
and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit
and look at her? I said 5
“Frà Pandolf” by
design, for never read
Strangers like you that
pictured countenance,
The depth and passion
of its earnest glance,
But to myself they
turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have
drawn for you, but I) 10
And seemed as they
would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came
there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask
thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence
only, called that spot
Of joy into the
Duchess’ cheek: perhaps 15
Frà Pandolf chanced to
say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist
too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to
reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies
along her throat:” such stuff
Was courtesy, she
thought, and cause enough 20
For calling up that
spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I
say?—too soon made glad.
Too easily impressed:
she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her
looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My
favor at her breast, 25
The dropping of the
daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries
some officious fool
Broke in the orchard
for her, the white mule
She rode with round the
terrace—all and each
Would draw from her
alike the approving speech, 30
Or blush, at least. She
thanked men,—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not
how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old
name
With anybody’s gift.
Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling?
Even had you skill 35
In speech—(which I have
not)—to make your will
Quite clear to such an
one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts
me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the
mark”—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so,
nor plainly set 40
Her wits to yours,
forsooth, and made excuse,
—E’en then would be
some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir,
she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her;
but who passed without
Much the same smile?
This grew; I gave commands; 45
Then all smiles stopped
together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t
please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below,
then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s
known munificence
Is ample warrant that
no just pretense 50
Of mine for dowry will
be disallowed;
Though his fair
daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my
object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir.
Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought
a rarity, 55
Which Claus of
Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
|
1.
List the specific words that are used to
describe the Duchess and what this suggests about the relationship with the
narrator.
Some words that are
used to describe the Duchess are “a piece of wonder”, which suggests she is
an object “painted on the wall” and her image is more important than that of
being his wife.
2. What
does the Duke mean by “that piece” (line 3)
The piece is the both the painting and the Duchess.
3.
What words indicate Frà Pandolf’s career?
His “hands / Worked
busily a day”
4.
To whom is the Duke speaking?
He is speaking to
the emissary, the representative to the Count his master.
5. Reread
the first 8 lines. Who else is speaking?
No
one
6.
To what is the Duke referring when he says
‘that pictured countenance” in line 7?
He is referring to
the Duchess’s face.
7.
Explain what the stranger “read[s]” in lines
6–7, “for never read / Strangers like you that pictured
countenance.” What might read mean here?
The Duke is
insulting the emissary, saying that he does not have the intelligence or
connections to understand the Duchess’s face.
8.
What are some words that the Duke uses to
describe the “glance” in line 8?
Depth, passion,
earnest
9.
Reread the poem independently
If you did this, you should have a deeper
understanding of the poem
10. This
is a dramatic monologue. Drama means story; hence contains literary elements.
a. Who
are the characters in the poem?
Duke, Duchess, emissary, Fra Pandolf,
the Count
b.
Write a summary of the plot?
The Duke of Ferrara’s “last Duchess” has
died and he wished for another wife. He is speaking with an emissary for a
Count about what the expectations are for his new Duchess, and that she
should be respectful of him and never challenge his authority, but look upon
him as a god to whom she owes allegiance; otherwise, she will have a similar
fate to her predecessor
11. Paraphrase
the lines “Strangers like you always ask me, if they dare, how the Duchess
came to look that way in the portrait.”
What the Duke is telling the emissary is that people who do not know
him well, if they have the courage, they might inquire about the Duchess’
beauty within the portrait.
12.
Give two reasons that the the Duke might
mention Frà Pandolf twice in the first six lines of the poem?
He is boasting about his wealth, power and superiority.
13.
In line 11, what do the words “if they durst”
suggest about the Duke’s view of himself?
The Duke is
throwing down a challenge to assert his superiority.
14. What
does the Duke imply when he uses the word “only” in line 14? He is trying to insinuate that he Duchess
was unfaithful.
15.
What does the phrase “that spot of joy”
suggest about the Duchess? What does the Duke imply in
lines 15–19 might have caused
such an expression?
The spot of joy is blushing, but the Duke is implying she committed
something immoral.
16.
What does the Duke imply when he remarks that,
“such stuff / Was courtesy she thought, and cause
enough / For calling up that
spot of joy” (lines 19–21)?
Again, there is an implication
of immorality
17.
Reread lines 21–22: “She had a heart—how shall
I say?—too soon made glad / Too easily impressed…”
What is the effect of the
repetition in these lines? Respond in
a complete sentence.
The repetition emphasizes the Duke’s feelings and that he wants to
convey to the emissary that this is something he needs to note and share with
the future Duchess.
18. What
does the Duke mean by “the dropping of daylight in the West” (line 26)?
He is referring to the sunset.
19. What
does the Duke mean when he claims the Duchess’s “looks went everywhere”?
19.
Once more he is expressing his frustration at her not making him her
sole focus and perhaps there was another relationship going on.
20. What
does the Duke mean by the “gift of a nine-hundred years old name” (line 32)? And
20.
From the Duke’s perspective, how does the Duchess value this gift?
The Duke considers his family name to be extremely prestigious;
however, the Duchess values this equally with other of life’s pleasures.
21. What
might the Duke mean when he states, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles
stopped together” in lines 45–46?
21.
He has ordered someone to dispose of the Duchess.
22. How
does the repetition of the phrase “as if alive” in lines 2 and 47 impact the
poem?
This reinforces that she is dead.
23. The
word object:
a. What
does the word object mean in line 53?
goal
b.
What other meaning does the word object have?
An inanimate thing
c. What
is the impact of Browning’s choice to use the word object in this line?
c.
This implies that his Duchess
was another one of his collector’s items.
24. What
does the Duke ask the listener to “notice” as they go downstairs?
24.
He asks the listener to look
at Neptune taming a seahorse, which represents how he expects the new Duchess
to understand.
|
1. countenance (noun)- a person’s face or facial expression
2. mantle (noun)- a loose sleeveless cloak or shawl, worn especially by women.
3. bough (noun)- a main branch of a tree.
4. trifling (noun or adjective)- unimportant or trivial.
5. officious (adjective)- assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.
6. munificence (noun)- the quality or action of being lavishly generous; great generosity.
7. dowry (noun)- the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage
8. to avow (verb)- to declare or state (something) in an open and public way
9. dramatic monologue- (noun) -a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person
10. earnest-(adjective)- a serious and intent mental state
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