Merchant of Venice Related Text

[hyello]

Hello guys,

Supposed to compose a multi-modal on Merchant of Venice and another related text, and how we learn more about ourselves through storytelling. And how that's represented in the texts.

I was thinking Taxi Driver could be good. Would this be a good idea? However, I am a bit stuck on connecting it to the module statement (especially around individual and collective experiences), as I'm still wrapping my head around it. Any ideas?

I'd really appreciate it 

[angewina_naguen]

Hello guys,

Supposed to compose a multi-modal on Merchant of Venice and another related text, and how we learn more about ourselves through storytelling. And how that's represented in the texts.

I was thinking Taxi Driver could be good. Would this be a good idea? However, I am a bit stuck on connecting it to the module statement (especially around individual and collective experiences), as I'm still wrapping my head around it. Any ideas?

I'd really appreciate it 

Hey, hyello!

You could definitely use Taxi Driver so long as you can apply it to the rubric concepts and draw links between it and The Merchant of Venice. We also have a list of related texts recommendations here in this thread which you could have a look at! All the texts listed make fantastic related texts for the module so check any out if it catches your fancy.

As for the concepts themselves, what's stumping you?

Angelina 

[hyello]

Hey!

I guess my main concern was whether Taxi Driver could be strong enough to connect with the rubric (though I think I feel better about it
Would Morality, Justice and Prejudice be strong concepts to connect with both texts?

Thanks,
Hyello

[angewina_naguen]

Hey!

I guess my main concern was whether Taxi Driver could be strong enough to connect with the rubric (though I think I feel better about it
Would Morality, Justice and Prejudice be strong concepts to connect with both texts?

Thanks,
Hyello

Hey, hyello!

Good to hear you're feeling better about it! Those themes would work excellently with the module and you can definitely see some strong connections across both texts. Hope this gives you some reassurance! Let me know if you have any other questions here in this thread 

Angelina 

[vassp45]

okay so i dont actually know if anyone will reply cause I have never used this before bu basically I'm doing a speech for the common module and I need to choose a poem to relate with the merchant of Venice but I have no clue which ones to do and it's stressing me out
some of the options I have are
- the applicant by Sylvia Plath
-  In praise of limestone by WH auden
- the unknown citizen by WH auden
I don't even know if these are goo but if anyone has any ideas of what poem will be good and has notes on them please help me out

[caffinatedloz]

okay so i dont actually know if anyone will reply cause I have never used this before bu basically I'm doing a speech for the common module and I need to choose a poem to relate with the merchant of Venice but I have no clue which ones to do and it's stressing me out
some of the options I have are
- the applicant by Sylvia Plath
-  In praise of limestone by WH auden
- the unknown citizen by WH auden
I don't even know if these are goo but if anyone has any ideas of what poem will be good and has notes on them please help me out

The only one I know in detail is The Applicant and I think it would make an amazing comparison. The oppressive nature of society and force with which it is imposed on those within it is key in both texts.

You could look at the similarities in these two quotations:
"Yes—to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you." -TMOV

"A living doll, everywhere you look./ It can sew, it can cook,/ It can talk, talk, talk.' -Plath

Both convey how the oppressed is reduced to their functionality. In TMOV Shylock is perceived by what he can and (more significantly) what he cannot do. All the ways he is different are highlighted; this emphasises that he is less valuable to society as he is not truly one of them. In Plath's poem, she highlights the functions that women can fulfill for men. Yet such a reduction serves to devalue and dismiss women.

Wealth and Money
The lines from Plath's work "Naked as paper to start/ But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,/ In fifty, gold." remind me of the boxes offered to Portia's lover. It could be interesting to consider how the idea "All that glisters is not gold" is conveyed in "The Applicant". There is no love, only duty. Thus love loses its luster. It is transactional. It is what society expects.

I hope this can get you started if you do choose to use "The Applicant". Let me know if you have any more questions; I'm already missing lit and it's only been three days since my exam.

[vassp45]

OH MY God, that was so exciting to see a reply! and that honestly was really helpful but I did only just remember that our assessment has to link to one of our given quotes and I am not sure if it fits them? i also was wondering if you think doing 2 poems would be a dumb idea?

here are the quotations:
 “One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.”
 ― Friedrich Nietzsche
 2. “Justice is what love looks like in public” ― Cornel West
 3. “Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the
 right-to-freedom of the human spirit -- in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the
 university or wherever.” ― Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
 4. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”― Socrates
 5. “What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of
 

[caffinatedloz]

OH MY God, that was so exciting to see a reply! and that honestly was really helpful but I did only just remember that our assessment has to link to one of our given quotes and I am not sure if it fits them?

Which quote are you leaning towards? Personally, I am really drawn to the first or the fourth (when considering "The Applicant" and TMOV).

For the first: Loss of control of the heart is evident in "The Applicant" as marriage is portrayed as transactional, and without love. When decisions are made without the heart in mind, slowly free thought and rationality are eroded too. In TMOV Shylock's desire for revenge leads to his downfall. In both, losing control of emotions leads to irrationality.

For the fourth: Plath's detached examination of life (the dissociated state she writes in) seems to link well with the coldness connoted by "examined". Society as emblemized by the speaker demonstrates the oddness of societal expectation, the formulaic and oppressive expectations. Both Plath and Shakespeare examine and consider and challenge interpretations of the world around them.

i also was wondering if you think doing 2 poems would be a dumb idea?

I don't know enough about HSC to answer, but I would check with your teacher. If you have enough time (and the task allows you) to use two poems, it could be really interesting to consider the ideas of three texts. Which two poems are you considering?

If you were to also use "The Unknown Citizen" perhaps the third given quote could be a good one to use. The following line from the poem: ("Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:/ Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.") suggests that it is silence that allows the perpetuation of societal oppression. As such storytellers are what prevent oppression from continuing. Speaking out against the speaker of "The Applicant" and thus against society in general, would lead to loving relationships and "freedom of the human spirit". This supports the suggestion that Shylock's wickedness is driven by oppression which is driven by silence and inaction.

[vassp45]

both the first and second were the ones I was leaning towards.
but I'm nervous that i won't have 2 different human experiences(points) for the applicant and TMOV!!! i kinda need to have like a structure and i don't know another point that i could connect between them?

[vassp45]

Which quote are you leaning towards? Personally, I am really drawn to the first or the fourth (when considering "The Applicant" and TMOV).

I'm really sorry this is probably really annoying but I did just recently think of another option for related text which is the help by Kathryn Stockett and my English teacher said that refugee blues could be interesting but I feel as though the help has so many themes I'm getting confused on which ones related to what and if it's too long.
and I'm not too sure how I can relate the refuge blues and TMOV to 2 human experience type things?

[vassp45]

IM IN NEED OF HELP!!!
basically, I have been semi-forced by my teachers to do refugee blues so I will do that but I'm not too sure how to from 2 thesis for my main points linking the poem refugee blues and my prescribed text the merchant of Venice to 2 human experience things.

PLEASE SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM MY TUTORS WRATH!