Teaching 11 Regents, Shakespeare, AP Language & Composition

The morning after Charles spends the night reading the literature that Dr. Grogan has given him, Charles sets out his day with an aura of gloom and a new, frightening understanding of his love for Sarah. He realizes, through Dr. Grogan, that Sarah may have been using Charles’ pity for her as a lure – to make him love her. Charles feels victim to the flawed love he has for Sarah, and this knowledge causes him to lose his sense of innocence. Fowles creates a contrast between Charles’ new awareness and the surroundings he encounters the next morning.

            In this passage, Fowles’ diction and terms of clarification – expletive and amplification – present a clear contrast between Charles’ new attitude and Fowles’ portrayals of nature. The author opens with composed diction, describing the hills as “dove-grey”. This picture of softness and calm directly contrasts with Charles’ irritable character. Fowles’ strong diction expresses Charles’ attitude indirectly, describing the people around him to establish this tone. He states, “the people…had that pleasant lack of social pretension, that primeval classlessness of dawn population…” Such biting, petulant descriptions emphasize Charles’ new pessimism and loss of innocence after learning that Sarah may be using him for his love and pity. Fowles then describes the two separate forms of warmth Charles experiences. He amplifies the sun’s rays, with the phrase “this undefiled dawn sun” to stress how Charles no longer contains the warmth of purity, but warmth of experience.

Fowles continues this tone of purity in nature through two methods – a delicate, sweet purity, and a religious purity. The sky is described as “a deliciously tender and ethereal blue” and the tree trunks as “honey gold”. Fowles not only appeals to the sense of taste, but uses diction that gives nature a childlike innocence that infers purity. The author appeals to purity in religion towards the end of the passage, stating that “there was something mysteriously religious” about the tree trunks. Fowles expands his theme of purity into the animal world of nature, describing the fox and roe deer in an almost angelic sense. They both look at Charles strangely, as though he is “the intruder”. The roe deer views Charles “in its small majesty”, with “the same divine assumption of possession” as the fox. Through diction, amplification, and expletive, Fowles establishes the contrast between Charles’ loss of innocence and nature’s purity.

TFLW Annotation

Opening with the depressing scene of Charles searching for the bottom of a glass at an English gentleman’s club, this passage transcends the Victorian Era and encompasses the spectrum of male soul-searching. Fowels utilizes double “P” alliteration in “Profound Philosophical”, “Perennially Prescribed”, and “Profitable Presumption” effectively determining answers to the same question of what a man does when he is confronted with circumstances beyond his power. Fowels comical tone is evident throughout the passage. Opening and closing with “milk punch”, the allusion comes full circle that men look back and emulate their adolescence as the best or simplest times of their lives.

This passage is Sarah’s explanation of her actions to Charles. The loquacious confession of actions and motives characterizes Sarah further and offers the reader a window into her mind. It reveals Sarah’s feelings and delves into her sin and expectance of the term “Whore”. The anaphora and italicization of “Should” emphasized Sarah’s motives and meaning in her actions; it offers her a vindication of her actions, a planned cultural reaction as a form of social suicide. She becomes a walking remnant, a specter of a lost sin, she becomes the French Lieutenants Whore, and it empowers her because she has set herself “beyond the pale”.

In this passage, Fowles frequently uses an ellipsis to enhance the reader’s understanding of the chapter.  There are two reasons why one uses an ellipsis.  The first is to add emphasis.  The second is to show emotion.  The writer accomplishes both of these.  This passage is a very emotional section of the novel.  This woman expresses her unconditional and selfless love.  She is so overcome by emotion that she must pause to recollect her thoughts and gather herself.  If Fowles did not use an ellipsis, this passage would have been dull and less powerful.

Sarah continues to reveal pieces of her past to Charles in this chapter, recounting her story about Varguennes, the French lieutenant. Fowles establishes a contrast between Sarah’s verbal descriptions, which contain little emotion, and her physical language, which speaks expressively and even shows weakness in her character.

            Fowles’ curt sentences develop Sarah’s tone of restraint, and her determination to keep her emotion about her past from breaking free. He states, “He left the next day. There was a ship. He had excuses.” Sarah is able to restrain herself in these phrases, but unleashes her emotion through alliteration, stating that she was in a “daze of despair”. She is fighting between exposing her vulnerability to Charles and holding her emotion within. However, Fowles’ expletive, “An outcast” demonstrates Sarah’s firm decision–that she has inevitably resigned herself to this social status. After this phrase, Sarah is able to contain her emotion, saying very little and keeping her silence as she “stare[s] out to the sea”.

            Sarah’s physical language, however, is completely unbounded – she is unable to fight back and keep her vulnerability inside. When Sarah “bow[s] in promise”, the reader recognizes the pain Sarah feels regarding her past. The physical action of bowing reflects just how much effort and perseverance it took for Sarah to continue telling Charles. Her physical reactions even affect Charles who realizes—from Sarah’s turning away—that his “trite” remarks have not alleviated Sarah’s pain. Sarah’s one action causes Charles to feel like “an old woman”, a metaphor that describes how emasculated Charles felt. After stating that Sarah would “be lost” if she left “her shame”, Fowles uses an extended metaphor to emphasize Sarah’s restriction – that she is forever bound to her pain. As Sarah touches a branch of the hawthorn, she “deliberately…press[es] her forefinger down…staring at a crimson drop of blood”. The author’s diction portrays Sarah’s intentional desire to harm herself. When she “look[s] at it a moment”, the reader can infer that she finds pleasure in her pain, that her label as an outcast and the pain she has repressed about her past actually brings her a twisted form of satisfaction.

Sarah bears an uncanny resemblance to Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, from The Scarlet Letter. Just like Sarah, Prynne is labeled an outcast for her adultery, and is unable to remove herself from her shame – without living with her guilt and bearing the jeers of the townspeople, she would “be lost” just as well.

tflw annotation 3

In this passage, Fowles, through careful attention to detail and diction, conveys Charles’s attitude toward both himself and his relationship with Ernestina.  Fowles initially uses understatement to indicate Charles’s attitude toward Ernestina; his “morose introspection…was directed not a little against Ernestina.”  This use of litotes, or negative understatement, conveys to the reader Charles’s attitude toward Ernestina without an explicit statement of his displeasure.  Fowles also harnesses diction to further develop the characters of Ernestina, Charles, and his uncle, Sir Robert.  Fowles’s use of ‘fastidious’ to refer to both Ernestina’s ‘fastidious little London ways’ and Charles as ‘more fastidious than most men of his class and age’ suggests that both Charles and Ernestina are, in a sense, equally distanced from Sir Robert.  Fowles also subtly distinguishes Charles from ‘most men of his class and age’ when he states that ‘dowry hunting was as honorable a pursuit as fox-hunting or gaming,’ and indicates Charles’s disinterest thereof; as Charles was earlier described to have no interest in ‘traditional gentlemanly pursuits’ such as hunting, this serves to both further differentiate Charles from other men of his time and communicate to the reader his thoughts on the fiscal differential between himself and Ernestina.  Fowles also further develops the character of Sir Robert, with his references to breeding; his description of Ernestina as a ‘poor new entry to such fine stock (emphasis added) as the Smithsons’ alludes to his potentially snide character and offers humor in an otherwise serious passage.

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This passage almost becomes uncomfortable to read since Fowles so effectively translates the interaction between Charles and another traveler sitting in the same train compartment. We later understand the traveler to be the narrator in a more physical form who intently stares at the sleeping Charles. We are offered another analysis of Charles and the narrator demonstrates his frustation with Charles and the rest of the story. The stare itself is the most uncomfortable. The diction which Fowles ultilizes is excellent for conveying such a mood. The traveler’s gaze is described as “peculiar: sizing, ruminative, more than a shade disapporving” (404), “cannibalistic” (405), and “leechlike” (405). The characteristics which the travel glean from the sleeping Charles during this awful stare include much of what we have already assumed — “an unpleasant aura of self-confidence” (404). The rhetorical questions that would presumably be presented by the starer such as “Now could I use you?” (405) make the passage even more uncomfortable. Of course, this discomfort leads to the narrator’s confession that he does not know what he shall do with Charles — his frustration in not having a satisfying end to Charles’ story.

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FLW Analysis 4, Chapter 50

Chapter 50, pages 380-381

The first reference made in this excerpt is the fireplace. The sexual affair between Sarah and Charles began near a fireplace which it represented lust, passion, and the growth of the sexual tension. Now, this fireplace represents shame and dishonesty. Fowles uses immense imagery and precise diction to suggest the contrast between Ernestina and Charles (in regards to honesty) and to create a painfully, uncomfortably open atmosphere. As the passage continues, the reader follows Charles in his attempt to be honest. He begins with his back to Ernestina, as the text states, which already closes himself off. He is hiding his emotions from both Ernestina and himself. On the other hand, Ernestina is direct with her feelings from the start when “she was weeping openly, with her eyes on him”. “Weeping” illustrates much more than just crying. It comes with devestation and helplessness. While Charles remains distant, Ernestina is in a vulnerable position.

Fowles associates Ernestina with a “terrified, lost child” after Charles glances at her. She has thrown her pride out the window because of her feelings for Charles. Right now the most important thing to her is to keep her relationship with him and she is willing to be truthful in order to do so. Fowles is representing two extremes. On one end, Charles is closed off and keeping secrets and on the other end, Ernestina is so open about her feelings it comes across as desparation. The reader then sees Ernestina, “with her hands towards him”, fall “to her knees”. This gives the image of begging (more proof that she disregards pride). Following this action, Charles feels a “sharp revulsion”. Both words add a violent touch to the pain. The causes for these feelings are “his half-truths, his hiding of the essential”. He blames himself and his own reluctance to tell Ernestina the truth about Sarah, while Ernestina blames herself for the faults in their relationship.

In this passage, Fowles’s goal is for the reader to develop a clear vision of Mr. Freeman.  He begins by placing Mr. Freeman’s interests in “Profit” and “Earnestness,” capitalizing these words to give them the greatest significance possible.  Fowles employs zeugma twice in the passage: once when he says, “…from manufactory shop, from producer to consumer,” and again at “…an exceptionally advanced establishment, a model of its kind…”  Through zeugma, Fowles emphasizes and specifies his words; it’s obvious that he wants the reader to thoroughly understand Mr. Freeman.

         Fowles plays up Mr. Freeman’s more religious, idealistic characteristics when he says that Mr. Freeman “hunts sin.”  This diction is so effective because when we hunt something, we look for it and we kill it.  Mr. Freeman doesn’t just want to diminish society’s sin; he wants to obliterate it.  A contrast is made between Mr. Freeman and society’s “normal” tycoons: while the “normals” are spending their money to expand their art collections, Mr. Freeman is donating his money to charities.  Fowles assures the reader of Mr. Freeman’s holiness in his reference to “going to heaven.”  Through diction, contrast and religious references, the reader is confident that Mr. Freeman is a holy man.

        But then again, Fowles wants the reader to feel inferior to the “headmasterly man, with intense gray eyes.”  We can literally picture the solemn Mr. Freeman glaring at Charles, as Charles becomes increasingly uncomfortable.  Mr. Freeman’s introverted nature is revealed by his office walls, which give no hint towards his profession. The art on his walls gives the impression of an “inchoate humanity a very great distance from present surroundings.”  The reader gets the feeling that either Mr. Freeman is not in touch with reality, or he is striving for some great change.