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Critical Essay Workshop
Putting quotes in context
Remember!
Not only should you ensure that the quote
that you have chosen supports your topic
sentence (point), but you must also
ensure that it is integrated correctly and
effectively into your paragraph.
Thus, you must ensure that your provide
context for each quote.
Context is important because:
• It makes the quote easier to understand.
• It allows you to demonstrate your
knowledge and understanding of the
text.
Let’s look at an example...
Jean Brodie’s flaws as an educator are abundantly clear from
the beginning of the novel and the reader is made aware of
how her fascist philosophy has such a dramatic influence on
her conduct in the classroom. Brodie’s extremely close
relationship with the six favoured young women in her
“set” means that they are “immediately recognisable” in
the school, mostly as a consequence of being “vastly
informed on a lot of subjects irrelevant to the authorised
curriculum”. This effectively demonstrates the extent of Brodie’s
dereliction of her duties as a teacher as she wilfully disregards the
prescribed curriculum at Marcia-Blaine during her lessons. Instead, she
chooses to teach her pupils the topics that she thinks are interesting and
relevant to pre-teen girls: her romantic life, her recent holidays to Europe
and her fascination with the politics of fascists such as Mussolini and
Hitler. Spark goes on to emphasise that not only are Brodie’s pupils missing
out on important aspects of their primary school education, which will
have a destructive impact on their progress in secondary school, but she
also expects them to collude in her unprofessionalism by hiding the true
content of her lessons from their parents and other teachers, whom she
dismisses as “intruders”...
...Indeed, Miss Brodie demands complete loyalty and
devotion from her pupils and expects them to obey her
unquestioningly, as illustrated by her assertion “give me a
girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life”.
Spark makes it clear that Brodie sees it as her duty and right to
mould her pupils into her own image of womanhood by
indoctrinating them with her own dogmatic beliefs, opinions and
values. By choosing to teach girls on the cusp of secondary school,
she knows that she is able to not only control and dominate them
but also manipulate their supple minds and vigorously discourage
any independent thought in them, much like the fascist dictators
that she admires so much. Although Miss Brodie’s prime is
eventually brought to an abrupt end as a result of being “betrayed”
by one of her own set, Spark suggests that it is an inescapable truth
that Brodie, in fact, betrayed her pupils due to her unprofessional
and damaging classroom conduct and her flawed educational
methods.
Let’s look at another example...
The atmosphere of death that permeates the poem is
made apparent to the reader through Duffy’s depiction
of the pain and suffering that the Jews were forced to
endure inside the concentration camp as a result of the
inhumanity of their Nazi captors. The speaker would
have been constantly reminded of her imminent
death as she informs us that she was forced to live
“beneath the gaze of men with guns”. Duffy’s use of
emotive language with “guns” clearly demonstrates the
persistent threat of violence and aggression that the Nazi
soldiers represented. These men were able to maintain control
and dominance over their prisoners through terror as they
were in possession of weapons which could end the Jews’ lives
at any moment. Duffy’s use of word choice with “beneath”
also effectively conveys the extent to which the Jews were
perceived to be inferior and less than human by the Nazi
soldiers who kept them imprisoned, and that the soldiers
firmly believed that they had not only the power but also the
right to murder them without fear of reprisal...
...This atmosphere of death is further conveyed
by Duffy when the speaker reveals that “strong
men wept” due to the suffering, torture and
murder being inflicted upon the innocent
people inside the camp. Duffy effectively illustrates
the emotional turmoil that the Jews endured in the
knowledge that their lives, and the lives of those that they
love, were soon to reach an unjust and premature end due
to the Nazis’ genocide. Her contrast of the words “strong”
and “wept” makes the reader understand that these men
who are usually brave, stoic and resilient could no longer
cope and were engulfed by overwhelming sorrow, despair
and anguish due to the death and horror that was
surrounding them every moment in the camp.
And another…
The nature of Proctor’s heroism is put to the test in Act Two
as he is faced with a dilemma over whether he should
continue redeeming himself by revealing the lies of
Abigail, or stay silent in order to protect his reputation.
Proctor is aware that Abigail is making false accusations
of witchcraft and his wife, Elizabeth, tries to persuade
him to go to court in order to expose her lies; yet he is
reluctant and he replies “I think it is not easy to prove
she’s a fraud...I have no proof for it”. Miller’s use of
characterisation in this important scene makes it clear to the
audience John’s reluctance to risk the possibility that his affair with
Abigail might be revealed. He knows that he has crucial information
regarding the allegations of Abigail that would undoubtedly bring
the witch trials to an end, but he is concerned that he would be
forced to prove his claims, and that he might have to reveal the
affair with Abigail to do so. Thus, John is torn between the heroic act
of bringing an end to the hysteria in Salem or doing nothing in order
to protect his reputation…
…For the time being he does nothing, and it is only
when his wife is arrested after being accused of
witchcraft by Abigail that he decides to act, crying “I
will fall like an ocean on that court”. Miller’s use of simile
in this effective piece of dialogue emphasises Proctor’s strength
of determination that nothing will prevent him going to court in
order to save his innocent wife from execution. The audience is
aware that he is not willing to allow Elizabeth to fall victim to
the lies of Abigail and he seems to be willing to put his
reputation at risk in order to perform this heroic act. However,
although this act is heroic, it is still evident that his decision to
bring Mary Warren with him and then rely on her testimony is a
crucial error and reveals that he is still obsessed with preventing
the affair with Abigail being revealed.
Now it’s your turn…
You are given a topic sentence and
a quote.
Your task is to effectively put the
quote in context.
“Shooting Stars”
The sinister tone that permeates the poem is made
immediately clear to the reader through Duffy’s
depiction of how the Jewish prisoners maintain their
dignity and self-respect despite being exposed to
such brutal and humiliating inhumanity inside the
concentration camp.
Despite being faced with a firing squad, the speaker
tells us that she and her fellow prisoners remained
“upright as statues, brave” at the prospect of
certain death.
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”
The loving relationship between Brodie and her “set” is
put to the test at numerous points throughout the
novel as she attempts to win their loyalty and
devotion through deception and manipulation and,
ultimately, she betrays the girls through her
exploitation of them.
Brodie’s manipulative nature is evident when she
makes overblown and unrealistic claims such as
“You girls are my vocation…I am dedicated to you in
my prime” in order to ensure that this apparent
dedication and devotion is reciprocated.
“The Crucible”
As the play opens, the audience is immediately made
aware of the extent of Proctor’s self-hatred as he
loathes himself for being a sinner and a hypocrite in
such a religious society and he is determined to
redeem himself for his un-Christian conduct.
Despite that fact that he is “respected and even feared
in Salem” Proctor “has come to regard himself as a
kind of fraud” as a consequence of committing the
heinous crime of adultery with his former servant,
Abigail.
“Shooting Stars”
The intense anguish of the speaker is made apparent to
the reader as she vividly describes the pain and
suffering that she had to endure at the hands of the
Nazis while imprisoned inside the concentration
camp.
The profound trauma of being raped by one of
the Nazi soldiers causes the speaker to lose
control of her bladder and she reveals that
“urine trickled/ down my legs”.
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”
Brodie’s fascination with fascism means that she
has a fractured relationship with her
colleagues as this political philosophy would
not be in harmony with the British political
climate at this time.
“held in suspicion and not much liking”
“The Crucible”
The tension in the play gradually builds to a climax in
Act four as Proctor is faced with a dilemma over
whether to sign his confession to witchcraft and live
as a liar and hypocrite, or refuse and so die a man of
honesty and integrity with his reputation intact.
Proctor tortures himself over this decision and he does
not feel worthy of the same fate as Rebecca, stating
“I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud.
I am not that man”