A L L M Y S O N S L E C T U R E F I F T E E N M A K E I T Better C H R I S K E L L E R ’ S M O R A L C O N F L I C T 2015 PRELIM AMS P B Q R EVI EW
CHARACTER-TRIGGER CHRIS D I V I D E D S R O E C H I T A A L F R S E I H S P O dog huma O T N Y S T I L B A I L Y I O T L Y T R A G I C H E R O ‘ N O W I ’ M P R A C T I C A L ’ ‘ B U T H O N O R W A S R E A L’
CONTEXT IDENTIFY EARLIER IDENTIFY SCENES RELEVANT TO ‘CHRIS’ IN ACT TWO (76-78), CHRIS LASHES OUT AGAINST HIS FATHER FOR HIS AMORAL ACTIONS IN ACT THREE (80), CHRIS IS PRESENTED BY JIM AS A LOYAL, ’GOOD SON’ SPLIT HERE PICK UP SHIFTS IN IDEAS & EFFECTS 1-20 CHRIS MAKES A ‘CONFESSION’ THAT ESTABLISHES HIS LOYALTY TO KELLER 21-46 CHRIS VILIFIES HIS SOCIETY AND HIMSELF FOR LACK OF MORAL PRINCIPLES 52-65 CHRIS SHIFTS BETWEEN EMPATHY AND DISGUST AT HIS FATHER’S ACTIONS LATER LINK TO ENDING VIA CHRIS’S ROLE PROGRESSION IN THE NEXT SCENE, CHRIS WILL HURL ALL BLAME FOR LARRY’S DEATH ON HIS FATHER 6 IRONICALLY, THE CONCEPT OF FAMILY INFLAMES CHRIS’S MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
INTRODUCTION L IN KS TO E A R L IE R ‘ P H O N Y I D E A L I S M ’ ( 4 9 ) C H R I S ’ S ‘ A L I A R T O Y O U R S E L F ’ ( 6 1 ) MORAL STRUGGLE tragic THE TRUTH OF HIS INVOLVEMENT (87) THE DENIAL OF HIS FATHER’S GUILT (50-51) DESERTING HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO SOCIETY (38) CONFRONTING HIS LOYALTY TO FAMILY (87) A N D C H A R G E O N C E M O R E T O W A R D S J U S T I C E 7 L INK TO L ATE R DENOUEMENT C H R I S W I L L S H E D H I S ‘ Y E L L O W N E S S ’
PARAGRAPH 2 OB S ERVAT ION MANY SCRIPTS COMMENTED ON CHRIS’S ‘SELFISHNESS’ WITHOUT T HE OPE NING OF TH E PA SS AG E READING IT IN THE CONTEXT OF ESTABLISHES CHRIS AS HIS GUILT FROM EARLIER ACTS son A DEEPLY TROUBLED G O O D ‘ ‘ CONSECUTIVE DECLARATIVES STAGE DIRECTIONS ‘I’M GOING AWAY.. ‘HE SEEMS EXHAUSTED’ I’M GOING AWAY FOR GOOD’ CHRIS’S TORMENT OVER HIS IS CHRIS DETERMINED TO OWN GUILT AND HIS FATHER ESCAPE HIS OWN GUILT? CONCERN TRUNCATED SENTENCES STRUGGLE TO BE MORAL 7 ‘I’LL SAY WHAT THERE IS TO SAY’ THIS SURFACES ONLY AT THE END CHRIS IGNORES MOTHER AND ANN’S CONCERN OF THE PLAY, AND BRINGS US TO THE TRAGIC HERO’S ANAGNORISIS .
ANALYSING LANGUAGE LEVEL BY LEVEL effect TONE E.G CHRIS REBUKES HIMSELF IN AN ANGUISHED TONE DICTION methods E.G CHRIS CONSTANTLY REPEATS THE WORD ‘PRACTICAL’ SYNTAX E.G SHIFT FROM ACTIVE (‘I AM…’) TO PASSIVE VOICE (‘YOU MADE ME…’) nuance PROGRESSION E.G THIS SELF-LOATHING ESCALATES INTO SELF-DISGUST (‘I SPIT…’)
PARAGRAPH 3 recognises C H R I S H I S O W N G U I L T SYNTAX CONFESSION TO ANN ‘I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING’, ‘IT’S TRUE’ SYNTAX AND DICTION CHRIS ‘CONFIRMS’ ANN’S KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT EVEN HER ASKING. CHRIS ARGUABLY SHOWS A WELLED-UP DESIRE TO SPEAK TRULY . CHRIS’S REJECTION OF SELF ‘I SPIT ON MYSELF’ DICTION CHRIS REFERS TO ‘ MYSELF ’ AS THE OBJECT. SYMBOLISM OF ‘YELLOW’ THE WORD ‘ SPIT ’ DENOTES SCORN, DISGUST. ‘I’M YELLOW. I WAS MADE YELLOW…’ A COLOUR ASSOCIATED WITH MORAL CORRUPTION CONCERN + LINK OR COWARDICE. CHRIS’S MORAL RESPONSIBILITY ARGUABLY BREAKS DOWN DURING THIS SPEECH ITSELF PROGRESSION CONSTANT FLUCTUATION BETWEEN INWARD AND OUTWARD AGGRESSION 8
ANALYSING PROGRESSION IN DICTION AND IMAGERY The cats in that alley ! A R E P R A C T I C A L the bums who ran away W E R E P R A C T I C A L Only the dead ones W E R E N ’ T P R A C T I C A L But now I’m practical. THE IMAGES POSIT THAT CHRIS IS EQUAL TO OR EVEN WORSE THAN ‘CATS’ AND ‘BUMS’. THE CUMULATION OF ‘PRACTICAL’ EXPRESSES THIS INCREASING SELF-LOATHING.
PARAGRAPH 4 C H R I S ’ S C Y N I C I S M Society T O W A R D S H I M S E L F, H I S FAT H E R A N D M O V E S H I S M O R A L S T R U G G L E F O R W A R D RESIGNED TONE BESTIAL IMAGERY ‘I COULD JAIL HIM!’ ‘LAND OF THE GREAT BIG DOGS’ ‘I COULD JAIL HIM, IF I WERE’ ‘YOU EAT HIM’, ‘A ZOO’ THE SECOND ‘COULD’ SHOWS THE AGONY ILLUSTRATES THE VICIOUSNESS OF CHRIS’S INTERNAL CONFLICT AND OF SELF-INTEREST AND CHRIS’S INABILITY TO JAIL HIS FATHER REVULSION TOWARDS HIS SOCIETY. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS ‘THEN WHAT’LL I DO IT FOR?’ THESE SUGGEST THAT CHRIS HAS SOFTENED HIS STANCE AGAINST HIS 8 FATHER, WHERE SENDING HIM TO JAIL SEEMS FUTILE OR MEANINGLESS .
ANALYSING PROGRESSION IN IMAGERY AND SYNTAX past We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog but honor was real there, you were protecting something . This is the land of the great big dogs present you don’t love a man here, you eat him! This is a zoo, a zoo! THE CUMULATION FROM ‘A MAN’ TO ‘THE LAND’, ‘ACTED LIKE A DOG’ TO ‘GREAT BIG DOGS’ AND FINALLY AN ENTIRE ‘ZOO’ (REPEATED FOR EFECT) MIRRORS CHRIS’S RISING INDIGNATION AGAINST HIS COMMUNITY. 9 WHILE THE PAST (‘USED TO’, ‘WAS’) IS CONVEYED IN GRIEVING DECLARATIVES, CHRIS DESCRIBES THE PRESENT-DAY IN OUTRAGED, EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES.
PURPOSE CONCERN CHRIS’S DISDAIN FOR HIS SOCIETY’S DESTRUCTIVENESS IS CLEARLY DRIVEN BY HIS LONGING FOR THE ‘HONOR’ AND ‘LOVE’ OF THE PAST. HE STILL STANDS BY HIS BELIEF IN HUMAN SOLIDARITY . LINK TO EARLIER THIS ARGUABLY PARALLELS THE SHAME IN HIS ACT ONE MONOLOGUE AS WELL AS ITS MORAL IDEALISM. LINK TO LATER MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT PREPARES THE AUDIENCE FOR AN EVEN 9 DEEPER CONVICTION IN ‘MAN FOR MAN’ RESPONSIBILITY IN THE PLAY’S FINAL SCENE.
PARAGRAPH 5 C H R I S DISTANCES HIMSELF F R O M H I S father COLD RETORTS ‘(WITH AN EDGE OF SARCASM ) PHYSICAL ACT OF SEPARATION IT BOTHERS ME’ ‘PULLING VIOLENTLY AWAY’ ‘ NOTHING TO VERBAL AGGRESSION SAY, SO SAY ‘ DON’T DO THAT’, ‘ I’LL HURT IT QUICK ’ YOU IF YOU DO THAT’ 9
ANALYSING PARALLEL SYNTAX It’s not what I want to do ] It’s what you want to do [ PARALLEL SENTENCES SHOW CHRIS’S STEADFASTNESS ANAPHORA (REPETITION OF ‘IT’S’ AT THE START OF BOTH SENTENCES) ANADIPLOSIS (REPETITION OF ‘WANT TO DO’ AT THE END OF BOTH SENTENCES) SHIFTING OF RESPONSIBILITY IS SEEN IN THE SHIFT NEGATION OF ‘WHAT I WANT’ TO AN EXHORTATION OF ‘WHAT YOU WANT’ 9 CHRIS CONTINUES TO EXPECT HIS FATHER TO BE ‘BETTER’. IS THIS MORAL IDEALISM, OR IS AN IDEALISATION OF HIS FATHER?
CONCLUSION Jesus CHRIS IS NO APPEARING SIMILAR TO HIS FATHER IN HIS LOYALTY TO THE FAMILY YET HE STRIVES FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND HUMAN SOLIDARITY THE PASSAGE RESURRECTS CHRIS’S MORAL IMPERATIVE Larry’s death TO PRONOUNCE THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS FATHER’S ACTIONS LEADING TO BOTH MORAL TRIUMPH FAMILIAL TRAGEDY 10
THE END M A K E I T Better DO NOT SINK INTO A SAD SONG BECAUSE WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER FIND OUT WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WRONG SO THAT WE MAY FIGHT BACK TOGETHER T HANK YO U FO R T HE L A S T T WO Y EA RS
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