War Poetry
Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bend double like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags we cursed through sludge
‘Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge
Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots
but limped on bloodshod…

Gas! Gas! Quick boys, an ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time
But still someone was crying out and stumbling
And Floundering like a man in fire or lime
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you to could pace
Behind the wagon we flung him in
…
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin
…
Vile incurable sores on innocent tongues
…
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie; Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.


Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns
Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons

No mockeries now for them; No prayers nor bells
Nor any sound of mourning save the choirs
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells
And bugles calling for them from sad shires

What candles may be held to speed them all
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmer of goodbyes
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds

Rupert Brooke
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
that is for ever England’s
In that rich earth, a richer dust concealed
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware
Gave once her flowers to love her ways to roam
A body of England’s, breathing English air
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts of England given
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day
And laughter, learnt of friends, and gentleness
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.




Othello
Othello
Description
Othello is the protagonist of the play, he is a Moor and a general in service of the Venetians.  He has eloped with the fair maiden Desdemona secretly and without the permission of the Senator Brabantio.

Key Quotes
“My life upon her faith”
“If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!”
“My noble Moor is true of mind and made of no such baseness as jealous creatures are”

Key Themes for Othello
Nobility
Jealousy
Passion

Desdemona
Description
On the one hand, Desdemona is a strong female character as she; (at the beginning of the play) defies her father Brabantio through the marriage with Othello, argues with Iago about the role of women and, lying to her husband Othello about the symbolic handkerchief.
On the other hand, Desdemona is shown to be a weak female, as she is full of doubts and fears, not standing up to Othello when it really matters.  She also seems resigned to the fact that she will die.
Desdemona is a typical upper class woman of the 17th century, she is devoted and loyal to her husband.

Key Quotes
“My sweet Desdemon”
“A most exquisite lady”
“Truly, an obedient lady”
“Your wife my lord, your true and loyal wife”
“I would do much T’atone theme, for the love I bear to Cassio”
“A guiltless death I die!”
“Our generals wife is now the general”

Key Themes for Desdemona
Love
Marriage

Other
Desdemona is abused by four of the plays male characters
Othello who ignored her protestations of innocence
Brabantio who misjudges her and then rejects her
Iago who uses her for his revenge
Roderigo who seeks an adulterous affair
Demonstrating the manipulation of women by men,

Iago
Description
Iago is a soldier and Othello’s flag bearer, he is envious of Cassio who Othello made his lieutenant.  Iago manipulates the characters of the play through a web of deception in order to gain his revenge upon Othello.

Key Quotes
“He has done my office: I know not if’t be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety.”
“So will I turn her (Desdemona) virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all.”
“I follow him to serve my turn upon him”
“I am not what I am”
“Honest Iago”

Key Themes for Iago
Revenge
Envy/Jealousy
Deception/Manipulation

Other
Dramatic Irony is key for Iago as he openly reveals to the audience all of his plans before they are put into action, in this way Iago is made to be an even more sinister villain as the audience can see there are no motives which might redeem him in our eyes.  All Iago’s motives are for personal gain.

Other
Quotes
“O damn’d Iago, O inhuman dog”
“Old black ram is tupping your white ewe”

Shawshank Redemption
Key ideas
Hope
Andy Dufresne is the man who brings hope and redemption to the fallen world of Shawshank Prison and its convicted felons, especially Red.  The character of Brooks is a good example of an inmate who lost all hope and accepted his life at Shawshank as ordinary.

“These prison walls are fuuny.  First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em.  Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them.  That’s institutionalised.  They send you here for life, that’s exactly what they takes.  The part that counts, anyways.”

After Brooks is released from Shawshank he is unable to integrate back into society because it is not the life he has known.  The scene of Brooks’ release consists of a montage of events that follow his life after prison, with a voice over of him reading out his final letter to the inmates at Shawshank.  The scene shows the world outside the prison to be busy with an abundance of auto-mobiles and numerous colours competing for attention, Brooks who is only used to a very quiet bland life in prison.

“The world went and got itself into a big damn hurry”

As the letter ends the audience sees Brooks pack his bags, scratch his mark into the eaves of his room then hang himself to end it all.  Showing how devastating a life without hope really is.

Red is actually headed down the same path as Brooks until Andy changes his course by bringing hope.  Andy is thus Red’s redeemer from an inevitable death through a life without hope.  Andy’s source of inspiration for hope is the music which reminds him and others

 “that there are places in the world that aren’t made out of stone”

In the final scene, the last line, involves Red confessing, “I hope.”  The film shows that this hope was well-founded because he finally rejoins his “redeemer” in paradise, a biblical allusion.

Key Quotes

“Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine”
“I have no enemies here”
“Let me tell you something friend.  Hope is a dangerous thing.  Hope can drive a man insane”
“That’s the beauty of music.  They can’t take that away from you”
“Get busy living, or get busy dying”