Burial Rites summary PDF

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Summary of Burial RItes...

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Ideas: Power Truth Family Love

Motifs: Ravens Lambs Light and Darkness Views and Values:

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Kent condemns the Icelandic patriarchal society, in the way that they perceive intelligence in women as suspicious. Hannah Kent shows the values of the society the characters live in in the text. Society has given Agnes labels such as ‘monster’ and they judge her without knowing who she truly is and what her side of the story is. Hannah Kent displays the importance and need of family Hannah Kent illustrates how hard it can be to let others in. She ultimately argues that this risk is worth taking. Hannah Kent highlights the double standards that occur as part of the justice system (Sigga and Agnes) Hannah Kent reveals the importance of being included and accepted Hannah Kent shines a negative light on family and the damage that family members can do to one another Hannah Kent uses the harshness of the weather to reflect the rigidity and coldness of the Icelandic justice system Hannah Kent shows us how difficult it is to let go of love, even after we have been treated badly Hannah Kent seems to show that people build strong defences when pushed to a corner Kent criticises the unfair treatment Agnes receives due to her being wrongly labelled ‘a criminal’ Hannah Kent chastises Blondal for the way he uses his power to control and diminish others Hannah Kent insinuates the negativity of corruption that can arise with power. Hannah Kent reveals how important it is to have someone that you can trust and who loves and understands you. Hannah Kent is sceptical of truth

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Hannah Kent presents official documents as containing a narrow perspective; ultimately they do not provide a valid or truthful representation. Human rights Gender Equality

Quotes:

They said I must die.

They pick a mouse to tame a cat. We are peasants I am determined to close myself to the world They will not be able to keep my words for themselves. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there. She chose me, he repeated to himself. She had killed two men. Slaughtered them like animals. He silently mouthed the word to himself. Murderess. Mordingi. It slipped through his mouth like milk. I will save her,' he whispered. I was two dead men. I was a burning farm. I was a knife. I was blood. In their eyes I am already a dead woman, destined for the grave. Like Natan used to say, once you let it in, it doesn't leave you alone. Like a woman, he said. The sea is a nag. Cruel birds, ravens, but wise. And creatures should be loved for their wisdom if they cannot be loved for kindness. Is it necessary I keep her bound like a lamb ripe for the slaughter? The only murderesses Margrét had known were the women in the sagas A witch often has fair skin.

She knows nothing. Criminal. The word hangs in the air... I want to shake my head. That word does not belong to me, I want to say. It doesn't fit me or whom I am. It's another word, and it belongs to another person. I am alone... I could escape. Winter is as cruel as any executioner. This is it, then. Kornsá. The last bed, the last roof, the last floor. I have made a mistake. You call me child, Reverend Thorvardur, but you're little more than a child yourself. God has had His chance to free me, and for reasons known to Him alone, He has pinned me to ill fortune, and although I have struggled, I am run through and through with disaster; I am knifed to the hilt with fate. They want to disappear you. To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.' No such thing as truth,' Agnes said, standing up. Shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free... Not in my case, Reverend Thorvardur... I've told the truth and you can see for yourself how it has served me.' There is only ever a sense that what is real to me is not real to others, and to share a memory with someone is to risk sullying my belief in what has truly happened. No doves come from ravens' eggs. I was too clever. That's exactly why they don't pity me. Because they think I'm too smart, too knowing to get caught up in this by accident. But Sigga is dumb and pretty and young, and that is why they don't want to see her die.' And God said, "Thou shalt not kill"?' He didn't like me reading or writing either, and was not averse to whipping the learning out of me if he caught me at it. Blind is the man without a book.' I cannot think of what it was not to love [Natan]. To look at him and realised I had found what I had not known I was hungering for. A hunger so deep, so capable of driving me into the night, that it terrified me.

Why not kill me here, now, on an unremarkable day? It is the waiting that cripples... I have been in the killing pen for months. [Heaven is] a lie. Man has created God out of fear of dying.' You don't belong in this valley, Agnes. You're different. You're not scared of everything.' On a clear day it's beautiful, and on others it's as miserable as grave-digging in the rain.' Natan always said we were as alike as a swan to a raven, but he was wrong. Remember your place, Agnes!' I know [that you have had Sigga], Natan. I forgive you.' What makes you think that I wait until you're asleep?' And do you think I love you?... You, Agnes?... You're a cheap sort of woman. I was wrong about you.' I was suddenly overcome with gratitude - he regarded me clearly. It seemed like forgiveness. Agnes? Agnes? I am here. I am with you.' ...and if no one will say your name you are forgotten I am forgotten. I will have to think of what to say to him [Tóti].

Toti: Good Lord,' he muttered, 'They pick a mouse to tame a cat.' She had killed two men. Slaughtered them like animals. He silently mouthed the word to himself. Murderess. Mordingi. It slipped through his mouth like milk. I will save her,' he whispered. I do not like to share my house with the Devil's children,' she said, lowering her voice to a whisper. He wanted to turn away, flee at the sight of her. Like a coward. Tóti,' she said in a panicked voice. 'Tóti, I don't think I'm ready. I don't think they can do it. Can you make them wait? They have to wait.'

Margret: [The right name for a flock of ravens is] a conspiracy, Reverend. a conspiracy.'

Actually, I'm a bit worried about [Steina]. She smiles at Agnes.' Just make sure the bitch stays away from the knives in my kitchen.' Easier to squeeze blood from a stone, I should think.' Your brooch.' Some part of her had relished the tension between her family and the criminal, was greedy for it, even. It had unified them; made her feel closer to her daughters, her husband. You are not a monster.'

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