Hello
I am super unsure about how to structure text response and how much you can expand on the prompt until it becomes off topic, because my teacher always says I don't have proper planning D:
So, please help give an indication if this essay is on the right track. It doesn't have to be really thorough, but any feedback would be greatly appreciated <3 Also a mark / 10 if possible
Prompt:
Although death is at the center of Burial Rites, Hannah Kent is still able to show there is value in life. Do you agree?
Hannah Kent’s historical fiction ‘Burial Rites’, is a book that begins with hints of Agnes’ death and ends with the fulfillment of it. However, it also tells of how she is able to see the true value of her life only because of this and the love she has gained as a result, to the point where she begins to cling on desperately to it. Kent also endeavours to provide different perspectives of this same life and death, namely through the eyes of Blondal who uses it to his own advantage, and through Toti who is willing to protect that life regardless of dangers to his own.
Agnes was written from the very beginning of the book as a character ‘knifed to the hilt with fate’ and predestined to die. Burial Rites reinforces this sentiment, not only due to the fact that the book is based on true historical events, but also due to the multitude of official documents included that add a layer of authenticity to it. As such, readers see Agnes as a ‘condemned person’, who was ‘cripple with waiting’ due to an already foregone acceptance of death. This hints towards the woman’s powerlessness to avert her death sentence, with no other choice but to wait, a sense of despair prevalent ever since Agnes was a child, when Inga’s child ‘died in [her] arms’ and she saw it as her own fault. From that point on, compounded with the death of Inga as well, Agnes too ‘wanted to die’, and ‘pronounced it like a prayer’, reflecting how life had become unbearable to endure due to the loss of what little semblance of familial love she had left. Thus to the child Agnes, death was the only way she could see to escape that. As a result, Agnes associates herself with death, which Kent conveys most strongly when the woman rejects touching Roslin’s baby as it ‘ought to live’ - a superstitious thought as if the death that surrounded her was contagious. It is these points which reinforce Agnes’ notion that her life is ‘not worth much’, as she believes herself inexplicably tied to death, having known naught but it and little joy in life ever since she was born.
Subsequently, it is only after Agnes begins to be treated as a part of Margret’s family, and no longer as a ‘murderess’, that she begins to shift this mindset. Previously, the idea of a happy life was nothing but a fanciful delusion to Agnes, suggested by her imaginings of ‘Agnes Jonsdottir’, as if it were impossible for her identity as ‘Agnes Magnusdottir’. These also betray the woman’s true desires for familial love- ‘a husband by her side, and a kip of children’- in order to combat the lack of such that has plagued the woman her whole life.Thus to be accepted by Margret and her family fulfills everything that Agnes has ever wanted, and this is when she finds value in continuing to live. Consequently, Agnes, for fear of losing this love and acceptance of herself, begins to fight for survival; talking about death ‘as though in naming things, you could prevent them from happening’, and considering that ‘perhaps [she] could beg’ for an appeal from Blondal despite knowing its hopelessness. The very fact that Agnes entertains these irrational thoughts, even though she is praised for her intelligence, speaks volumes towards the value that life has attained for her, and the lengths she is willing to go to prolong it in desperation; a far cry from her earlier sentiments towards death which she has held up to this point in life. However, Agnes only realises this scarcely before the day of her execution comes, and this is Kent’s method of truly pulling at the audience’s emotions, reinforcing the impact of this tragic turn of events which only serve to elicit sympathy towards Agnes and anger towards the injustice she has fallen under.
Furthermore, Kent’s Burial Rites displays how characters, such as Blondal and Toti, can see different values of a single life, namely Agnes’. Kent delineates this contrast between the two most clearly during the conversation engaged between them. Blondal places very little importance on Agnes’ life, seeing her as nothing but a murderess, and thus believing ‘she is to die, for good reason’. In fact, the woman may have more worth to him dead than alive. Her execution is nothing but a way ‘to make an example’ of a criminal and fulfill his ‘duty as lawkeeper’ - to give ‘justice in the eyes of their peers’, whether this ‘justice’ is truly correct or not. As seen from this, Blondal is only interested in using Agnes’ death to appeal to the public’s negative opinion of her, all in order to ‘honour the authorities’ who appointed him, and consequently boost his own reputation as a result. It is all for self worth, whereas the man himself in fact has no real interest in seeking the truth. On the other hand, Toti strives to such extremes for Agnes’ life, vowing that he ‘will save her’, to the extent where, despite being dangerously ill, he overlooks dangers to his own. He ignores his father’s warnings that ‘the cold will kill [him]’, and that ‘it is against God’- these two voices which have always played such a big role in Toti’s life. So in this way, Toti, while protecting the value of another’s life, is also able to find value in his own. Rather than being influenced by his father or his belief in God, the man makes decisions based on his own morals, and this is a turning point representing the independence he has gained to live his life freely.
Kent shows in this way how the value of life can differ between individuals, and indeed, how this worth can be changed due to the impact of death. Ultimately, although Agnes’ memory may ‘live’ on forever, due to her legacy immortalized in ‘Burial Rites’, and indeed certainly in the memories of the characters in the book such as Toti and Margret who state that they will ‘always remember’ her, there is no substitute for true life. (??off topic??) Simply Agnes’ words, that she ‘doesn’t wants to be remembered, [she] wants to be here!’ alone, speak volumes to the importance and desperation with which she clings to life, despite the affixation and acceptance of death she has previously held.
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