Teaching 11 Regents, Shakespeare, AP Language & Composition

   In Chapter 39, as in many other chapters, John Fowles creates a dazzling scene that not only surprises but impresses the audience. This gaudy, colorful, vivid, and grand setting is like any other in the whole novel. Fowles creates this primarily through word choice, chiefly adjectives. As the author describes the characters moving along the street, he starts to establish the grandeur nature of the setting. He tosses around words like “Royal” and “Kahn”, when describing the businesses in London. Besides conjuring royal imagery, the author also plays heavily on color. A “great scarlet-and-brass” stand is told of, and how it domineers the setting. Even minutia such as the bishop’s son’s lorgnette case is described as “shagreen”. Moving past the static scenery, Fowles also focuses heavily on his word choice in connection with the prostitutes. His word choice not only reflects the vibrant colors but also the characteristics of the women. They are described as “demure [and] little” and “viragoes”, “milky-faced” and “brandy-cheeked”. This cascade of adjectives sets a scene brighter than any reader could imagine on his own, and truly speaks to Fowles’ exceptional talent. The author intertwines ideas (vibrant colors, greatness, royalty) with concrete words (shagreen, viragoes, Khan) to craft an unforgettable city scene.

Chapter 39, pg 301 Text Analysis

            In this excerpt, Fowles excellently constructs a scene of intense, contrasting emotions. In his pursuit of criticizing Victorian society as social class-centric, the author must draw attention to Ernestina’s extreme disgust and anger with the loss of Charles’ inheritance. He does this by giving each character their own specific word choice and sentence structure.

            The passage opens with an exclamation by Ernestina, which also conveniently sets the subject of the conversation (disinheritance). This terse expletive is juxtaposed with Charles’ lengthy and low-emotion sentence style. He makes use of the word “exaggerate” and the phrase “It is simply” to temperate Ernestina’s harsh tone. Again Ernestina rebuts with an additional exclamation while also decrying the disinheritance as unfortunate. Ernestina also makes use of hyperbole to convey her extreme dissatisfaction.

            By the end of the passage, the author has achieved his goal; to make the audience consider the difference in emotion between Charles and Ernestina. Fowles uses a superb choice of words, diction, and sentence structure to accentuate the difference in attitude and ultimately to get the audience to recognize Ernestina’s shallow, Victorian morals.

Chapter 24, pg 200 Text Analysis

Very rarely does an audience come across a work of metafiction. Metafiction is a work of literature that self-consciously recognizes itself as a work of fiction. In The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles expertly employs this technique to give the novel another dimension.

By the end of Chapter 12, Fowles is already experimenting with point of view, as he wanders in and out of first person, second person, and first person plural. These points of view are much less common in a novel, but not totally unbelievable as narrators sometimes comment on the stories they tell. What separates The French Lieutenant’s Woman is the beginning of the 13th chapter, when the narrator claims “This story I am telling is all imagination.” The audience is thrown out of the plot, and forced to consider the author’s intent. Once thought to be merely the relayed of a story, the narrator becomes the central focus of the novel. He reveals the techniques he has used to create this story, how he “assumed some of the vocabulary and ‘voice’” in order to fit in with the time period of the plot. His reference to these literary techniques is the essence of metafiction. Fowles goes on to comment about authors of the plot’s time period and the disposition to writing a novel (”[standing] next to God”), and even alludes to modern authors that have influenced the telling of this fabricated narrative (”Alain Robbe-Grillet and Roland Barthes”).

In closing, John Fowles tells his audience that the piece of literature they are reading is not a common novel, however, metafiction.

Introducing a character is one of the most challenging aspects of writing a novel. Their entrance must accurately represent their qualities and personality. Knowles expertly introduces the “French Lieutenant’s Woman” by creating conflict between her and Charles. She says not a word, but rather coldly stares at Charles. Despite this lack of any considerable action, much information is imparted to the reader. The woman is perceived as extraordinary, as Knowles contrasts her with the traditional woman of the age. The impression she gives is described as “unexpected”, because women of the time acted in an obedient, submissive way. Knowles creates this imposing, surprising quality by also connecting her to nature. Charles is taken aback when he firsts sees the stare, and feels as if the bay belonged to her. When describing her sorrow, Knowles once again makes a comparison with nature by relating it to water flowing from a spring. The references to nature create a mystique of sorts around the French Lieutenant’s Woman that is larger than a single character.
    Also, the description of the stare the woman gives is evocative of things to come, described as “unforgettable…tragic.” This heavy foreshadowing is wonderfully executed through superb description on part of the author.

FLW, page 10

Steven Johnson, a blogger from www.outside.in, discuses the similarities between neighborhoods of NYC and the world wide web. He tells the audience how the internet is not a central idea, but a summation of everyone’s smaller ideas and how their ideas relate to eachother.

Another very interesting point he makes is that the web can be used to probe this collective knowledge. By analyzing what web users are searching for, one can gain a better understanding of the users.

 http://www.ted.org/index.php/talks/steven_johnson_on_the_web_as_a_city.html