u/Ancient-Papaya-5731

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So I am a A Level Media Studies student who is currently trying to analyise San Junipero and its use of media language. I am aware of the some of the more surface level meanings of the cinematography (like how the lighting and sets are very colourful in San Junipero but become very bland in the real world, or how the camera uses closes ups so the audience can understand Yorkie and Kelly's facial expressions), but I am curious to know the deeper meanings of the cinematography. Is there any motifs or camera movements that are significant? Are they any shots where the framing has a semiotic meaning? If anyone could help me understand the episode more, then that would be greatly appreciated. 😄

 Hello, I am currently studying aqa english literature and this essay was written for an unseen text. If anyone were to take a quick look at it and see what could be improved, given that aqa paper 2 is in two weeks,I would greatly appreciate it! The extract is the poem George Sqaure by Jackie Kay, it appears after my response.

Explore the significance of political and social writing in this extract: 

The extract, written by Jackie Kay, is meant to be an exploration of the reaction Scotland’s resistance against the oppressive Iraq war during the mid 2000s, a time where islamophobia had increased in the west due to events such as 911, all of which are illustrated using a measly elderly couple, a stark difference to the authoritarian UK government that declared war on Iraq. And given that the autobiographical implications of this poem, since Kay herself was from Scotland, it is easy to say the apple does not fall far from the tree, and that Kay herself giving pathos towards her supposed parents and therefore requesting the reader to be on their side for this peaceful protest. 

The extract’s exploration of political and social protest is initially seen as quite subtle as the first person narrator denotes the actions of her ‘seventy seven year old father’. The choice from Kay to write an age with alteration helps highlight the fragile nature of this old man; it almost creates bathos by the idea that someone so old is described as going to a protest march’, an idea further how he puts on ‘his reading glasses’, a stereotypical semantic sign in literature to imply weakness. Kay continues to set up this unorthodox idea of political protest with the description of ‘my mother’. The first-person narration grounds this parable in reality and thus makes what Kay is describing seem real, added by the intimate description of her father doing her mother’s ‘buttons’. There is even a declaration of honesty, ‘me with my sore wrist, you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’. The use of sibilance to describe the ‘soft’ and ‘sore’ nature of the two creates a binary alignment between the two, showing their trust in each other since they are able to playfully tease each other of their weakness, with the idea of teasing being highlighted with the use of exclamatory language in ‘thumbs!’. Jackie Kay uses these authorial methods to build up the social and political theme of unity and teamwork being key is protesting, as if to say that even those who have trouble putting on their clothes are able to protest oppression, if they simply work together. From the audience’s perspective, it is interesting that the poem gives a voice and therefore agency to two figure’s whose social status in social and political protest usually connote weakness. And the honestly on their ‘soft’ nature could therefore be an anthesis to the UK government and their duplicitous nature of the time, making these protests seem more credible than the violent oppressors. The war against Iraq was seen as a contentious topic in the UK during the 2000s, so by creating this story of resilience over social status, Kay is creating a hopeful atmosphere in this prose, a convention in social and political texts, as if to inspire the younger generation reading to continue the legacy of these old but energetic protagonists. 

In order to further display her authorial intent, Kay uses the language of poetry to make protests against oppression seem significant. The recuring use of enjambment further helps the audience feel engaged with this story, though the way meter is used makes it seem the lines are small in their length, perhaps a sign of weakness. But when the elderly couple go out to ‘march’, the lines increase in length, as if to say protesting gives increases strength. And the fact that the two march despite their ‘plastic hips’ and ‘arthritis’ is kay continuing this motif of age and body being unimportant in the face of protest. These old people reflect the public opposition against the Iraq war in the 2000s, thus inviting the audience to root for them further.  There is therefore a sense of freedom when they arrive at George’s Square, given that it is a central gathering point of similar minded folk, therefore implying that in this setting, there are many more just like this couple fighting against the UK government's declaration against Iraq, a means from Kay to highlight the power of peaceful protests. The personification of the ‘banners’ as they flapped and ‘waved’ at each other like ‘friends’ continues the communal aspect of peaceful protesting. And while the whole poem’s tone had felt hopeful, there is a sense of disappointment in how this old couple has had to attend ‘so many marches over their years’, connoting that struggles against the oppression have unfortunately been an ever present idea in Scotland, with the Iraq war just being a natural evolution of the government's power dynamic. But the closing line of the poem is Kay’s last hurrah towards the audience to strive ‘for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace’. The use of alteration and explicit repetition is meant to pin the significance of political protest, in that it is the right for us humans to give terms like ‘pity’ their justification, and to therefore resist those, like the UK’s choice to declare war on Iraq, from disrupting ‘peace’ on this earth. The lack of mention to violence in the poem is Kay’s clearly making it know she is an advocate for peace, as if she does not want those who protest to stoop to the same lows of those who willingly participate in war, a convention in social and political protest. 

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress.
‘What a pair the two of us are!’
my mother said, ‘Me with my sore wrist,
you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’

And off they went, my two parents
to march against the war in Iraq,
him with his plastic hips. Her with her arthritis,
to congregate at George Square, where the banners
waved at each other like old friends, flapping,
where they’d met for so many marches over their years,
for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.

How did it go?! For me I thought the questions they gave us were really good, especially the Assassins Creed and Tide ones lol. I did underperform in the unseen video, but other than that I’m very happy with the paper. Thank GOD formation didn’t show up 😭😭.

So basically I have an A Level English Literature exam today at 9:00 am. My plan was to get around 6 hours of sleep and wake up at 6:00 am, but I guess god just felt quirky today and thus made me wake up at 4:30 today. I think its too late to go back to bed and get more sleep, so what should I do now? Should I just drink some coffee (im not a fan of the beverage) and just cram in as much revision as possible?

Look, I just want to get a C in aqa Literature B. If this question I did is high band 3, that would be nice to know. Any adive on how to improve would be greatly appreciated.

“Edgar’s journey in King Lear is ultimately one of moral and emotional growth.” 

Shakespeare absolutely uses Edgar’s to showcase a rare case of a character improving himself in a tragic text, with ‘legitimate Edgar’ in the beginning being set up as someone who is a stark contrast to the ending. The fact that Edgar blindly believes his brother’s words that some ‘villain’ have done him ‘wrong’ demonstrates the copious amounts of loyalty he has within his family. With how this prose mainly shows characters lying with their ‘tongue’ into obtaining power and how they always keep an ‘eye’ on their company, Shakespeare here establishes Edgar to be the opposite with his loyalty and honest shock in his brother’s word, an ironic decision since it is his brother that is the ‘villain’ that leads to Edgar’s peripetia. It could be interpreted that by making Edgar seem so gullible, it shows how he is a direct parallel to his father Gloucester, a man’s whose mentally is so blind in its decision making that it causes him to physically have his ‘case of eyes’ gouched out as a means of karma, almost like if Edgar’s does not ultimately grow throughout his journey, he would have ended up the same as a his father. 

In order to make his ultimate growth seem more ‘emotional’, Shakespeare makes Edgar go through the gruelling process of becoming ‘poor tom, I nothing am’, a completely opposite figure to the upper-class man he was. This caricature of a poor person is almost comical in how far his supposed madness goes, as in most stage productions he wears close to nothing while being covered in ‘dirt’, accentuating his dirtiness as tom cannot acquire proper health care, whole Edgar himself changes the inflection and tone of his voice to be high pitched at all times. By making Edgar go down to near the bottom of the Jacobean ‘right of kings’ order, it makes the audience of time understand truly how far Edgar had now fallen, since the poor were often seen as ‘poor naked wretches’ by society. And due to how he shares the stage in act 3 with Lear, a man whose ‘mind’ has become so foolish and lost that he thinks he can command ‘earth, wind, fire’, it becomes clear that Shakespeare wants us to see these two tragic hero as going suffering madmen. It could be interpreted as well that this show Edgar actually as a character who regresses in his journey rather than moral and emotionally grow. However, not only is this ‘poor tom’ performance within a performance merely just a means of survival from his father’s army, but also it is this act that Edgar emotionally understands how ‘plain and portable’ his pain is compared to the former king, therefore making this moment in scene 6 his anagnorisis, a point made more evident with how he is characterized during the climax of this play. 

Edgar in act 4 and 5 specifically is a complete contrast to the gullible and lost character he was when he was first set up in his journey, as it is here that he gains agency and the power to take on his ‘villain’ of a brother. The fact that act 4 starts with Edgar lamenting that ‘the worst is not when can say “this is the worst”’ is Shakespeare painting the character’s emotionally growth in how he now understands life is a more nuanced way, showing how much, he has matured. But also, it is this scene that shows Edgar’s first meeting with Gloucester since he hath been blinded, and their conversation in the play as a whole, an intentional structural choice from Shakespeare in order to show the growth of these characters. Because while Gloucester’s new found nihilism causes to use animalistic language to blame the ‘gods’ for how human are just mere ‘flies’, it is Edgar that tell his father, albeit in another disguise, that ‘the gods are just’, as if the paths that are set out for us, even if cruel, are still right path for us. It is Edgar’s optimism here that demonstrates the qualities of good nature he had in act 1, but that they are now ironed out to show his moral growth as a human, an emotional development that causes the audience to have pathos for him. This sense of newfound agency is continued into his growth as a warrior, a convention in tragic texts where those with physical strength are usually those with power. Edgar killing Oswald in act 4 scene 6 shows his new found bravery, and his disguise in act 5 scene 1 is another showcase of emotional growth as he gives Abalny the letter that denotes Edgar’s ‘darker purpose’ an event that causes a domino effect that leads to the deadly clash between Edgar and Edmund. It is cathartic to see Edgar finally gain revenge on the ‘traitor’ that caused him to have this emotional and moral journey; the legitimate brother is shown as besting his brother in terms of strength but also mentality. And it is Edgar that delivers the final line (in most versions) of the play, asking those around him on stage to ‘speak what we feel, not what we ought to say’, he is encouraging those to have honest nature, as so the new kingdom can ‘never’ succumb to same mistakes the dead Lear made, leaving the play on a hopeful note while showing how Edgar’s journey is an emotional and moral story of growth. Given the recurring theme of Edgar being a stark contrast to the other character’s beliefs, such as Gloucester’s nihilism and Edgar’s deception, it perhaps means that Edgar is the true hero of the story, given how he is a disruption to the misery that Shakespeare writes for this play. 

Hello there, this is a question I have towards teachers in the UK. I am a year 13 student who is about to finish their A levels, and recently I have had this realization that I would not mind becoming a Media Studies teacher. This is mainly due to how Media is my favourite subject and the one that im getting the highest grades, but also due to how just generally enjoy being in the classroom and dicussing media texts and theories. It has made me think that being a teacher for either secondary school or college for media would be quite benifical to me, so I am just wondering what I should do if I want to pursue this dream (for example what certificates should I get or if there are any voluntering opurtunities out there). Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

I am an AQA Literature B student and this is my reponse to the section A question from 2021 for King Lear. Right now, I am working towards a B grade so I am wondering if this question I did falls in line with band 3 or band 4, any quick notes on it would be greatly appreciated! I have put the extract bellow the question:

Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic methods. 

The extract opens with dramatic tension as the three blows of the ‘trumpet’ build up to the reveal that Edgar will face off against his illegitimate brother Edgar in a climactic showdown to the death. Edgar throughout the whole play thought he was ‘sure’ to trust his brother, but after having just read the letter that Albany is to be executed under the commands of Edmund, it becomes clear that is innocent like trust was for naught and that he must now take the responsibility of taking down Edmund. Given in how the extract takes place in the final act and scene of this tragic play, Shakespeare makes it so that the falling action of this climax is that of tragedy, with the audience being led on to believe this battle with bring a happy ending, only for their dreams to die in a similar vein to Edmund himself. 

Given how the ‘armed’ and masked man is usually portrayed as having a slow gait onto the stage of battle in most productions, it creates a feeling of suspense that flows into catharsis when he declares his ‘name is lost’, with the irony of this being that the audience is able to identity that this is indeed Edgar just based on the voice. Shakespeare, in a play full of nihilism, makes the audience almost feel excitement that Edgar has become so ‘noble’ that he is willing to fight and bring his own brother to just, giving us hope that the play will make the audience feel like that them seeing the ‘worst’ in humans will indeed have a satisfactory ending. Edgar confidence to take on the new ‘Gloucester’ of this fractured kingdom is all the more cathartic given it is a stark contrast to how Edgar, or more specifically ‘poor tom’ had been portrayed by Shakespeare. It is because of his brother deceitful nature that Edgar had been forced to be one of the ‘poor naked wretches’ that the foolish Lear relates to, a real showcase of his Catastrophe, further exemplified by him having to combat his dying father’s nihilistic views that we are just ‘wanton flies’ to the gods that torture us, because in his mind the ‘just’ gods has made it so that ‘ripeness is all’ and that death will come for us, a foreshadowing to how he will deliver Edmund’s death. The cathartic nature in this comes in how the whole play has built up to Edgar’s character growth, there is no cyclical structure in how he was portrayed earlier in the play and instead that he is embraced his identify as a man with no ‘name’, and instead uses his experience to defeat his ‘adversary’. By this point, it would expected of any play that Edgar’s battle with the ‘traitor’ would be a satisfactory end to the play, however Shakespeare instead adheres to Aristotle’s views on Tragedy and robs both the audience and Edgar of a cathartic ending. Because not only after Edmund ‘falls’ that it is revealed that Goneril kills herself after seeing her lover lost in combat, but also that we see Edmund’s anagnorisis that he was ‘loved’ and instead could have prevented his demise had he continued to give passion to both his then loyal brother and to the two women who loved him. The conventions of tragic texts are conformed to by how catharsis is robbed from us, something that this extract is able to show here. 

What makes the extract all the more significant is how Edmund’s confident body language, (with a smile even on his face in productions such as the 2018 BBC version of the play) are supposed to play up his motif that his karma had been long over-due, and that it is this scene that finally wipes away his confidence and makes him endure his tragic fall. As a Machiavel villain throughout the whole play before this extract, we have seen a parelell to Edgar’s own growth with Edmund own rise to power, only with his it is with a ‘darker purpose’ in a manner that upsets the natural order. Edmund’s pent up emotions of enragement after being defined his illegitimate ‘nature’ despite his ‘shape being well compact’ has been all due to his father’s Gloucester, so Shakespeare throughout the play has made us understand but still resent Edmund by how he has grown to becomes so conniving despite his intentions giving him pathos; he now finally is given the status of power that he had been denied his whole life. And due to how Shakespeare could be using this play as a didactic allegory to Jacobean audience that upsetting the great chain of being will give you harsh consequences, it is in this extract that Edmund is given his fall from grace and is indeed stripped of his title ‘earl of Gloucester’, with this name of his alone being an indicator of how his bloodshed has irreparably  altered the kingdom for the worse that the natural Gloucester is now dead. Edmund’s hubris in this extract is so extensive he forgets ‘wisdom’ and doesn't even ask his adversaries name and instead judges his appearance rather than reality, an ironic indicator into has far he has fallen given how soliloquy in act 1 scene 2 was to criticise judging ‘base’ and not his actual nature. And it all of these factors that leads to the villain of this story meeting his end, a convention of tragic text that had tragically been a long time coming, making the audience wonder that had his father given him the slightest bit of love, this whole debacle would have never existed. 

A trumpet sounds

HERALD (reading) If any man of quality or degree within the

lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed

Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold traitor, let him

appear by the third sound of the trumpet. He is bold in his

defence.

(First trumpet)

Again!

(Second trumpet)

Again!

Third trumpet

Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar armed, a

trumpet before him

ALBANY

Ask him his purposes, why he appears

Upon this call o’the trumpet.

HERALD What are you?

Your name, your quality, and why you answer

This present summons?

EDGAR Know, my name is lost,

By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit;

Yet am I noble as the adversary

I come to cope.

ALBANY Which is that adversary?

EDGAR

What’s he that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester?

EDMUND

Himself. What sayest thou to him?

EDGAR Draw thy sword,

That if my speech offend a noble heart

Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.

He draws his sword

Behold; it is the privilege of mine honours,

My oath, and my profession. I protest,

Maugre thy strength, place, youth, and eminence,

Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,

Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor,

False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,

Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrious prince,

And, from th’extremest upward of thy head

To the descent and dust below thy foot,

A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou ‘no’,

This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent

To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest.

EDMUND In wisdom I should ask thy name;

But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike

And that thy tongue some ’say of breeding breathes,

What safe and nicely I might well delay

By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.

Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,

With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart,

Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,

This sword of mine shall give them instant way

Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!

Alarums. Fights. Edmund falls

I do really want to play this game, but I am worried that my PC does not have the required specs that are needed to play the game. My specs are as follows:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8350U CPU @ 1.70GHz (1.90 GHz)

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)

Graphics card Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (128 MB)

Storage 132 GB of 238 GB used

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

It is a Windows 11 pro with a 'Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620' graphics card.