Practice Essay English HSC PDF

Preview

Summary

Essay on the conversation between texts....

Description

How has your comparative study enhanced your understanding of how a change in context leads to a shift in the values presented in relation to imprisonment and control? Answer this question in relation to your prescribed texts. Through the comparison of texts, readers are able to recognise how values of imprisonment and control have shifted across the ages as a product of the changes in contextual values of its time. This idea is present within The Tempest by William Shakespeare and its comparative retelling Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood through their dissonant representations of the effect of imprisonment on an individual and as a result, the control they gain or lose. The Tempest conveys the melancholy of imprisonment, highlighting the oppression caused by the complete loss of one’s control. Imprisonment is seen as a punitive form of punishment, an essential consequence for an offence. This corresponds to the values of imprisonment in the monachal Jacobean Era, when this play was created. The character of Caliban best represents this idea due to his oppressed role and low status. Due to his crime when he “seek to violate the honour of [Miranda]”, he is punished by becoming imprisoned by Prospero and losing his autonomy. Caliban recognises his loss of control when he expresses that he was “at first mine own king”. The alliteration of the ‘n’ sounds creates a halting cadence, drawing attention to the phrase indicating his initial position in control. This is subsequently juxtaposed when he accuses “here you sty me in this hard rock”. The use of the word sty alludes to a pig’s sty. By incorporating this metaphor, Shakespeare highlights the inhumane treatment of Caliban and in doing so, effectively translates to the audience, Caliban’s loss of control due to his incarceration. The 16th century’s punitive views of imprisonment have been presented in this portrayal of punishment being an essential consequence of committing a crime. Caliban’s backstory seeks to justify the necessity of his imprisonment and therefore, conveys the values of the punitive justice system of the Jacobean era. In this way, The Tempest effectively presents imprisonment as the causes for the loss of control, through the lens of its’ time. The values of imprisonment within The Tempest are conspicuously contrasted by Atwood’s 2016 novel Hag-Seed through its dissonating portrayal of incarceration as a form of rehabilitation where one can regain control over their lives. The inmates, seen as the Caliban’s of the text, present this contemporary value. Although they have committed grave crimes, they are empowered by being given the opportunity to learn moral rights and wrongs in hopes to gain greater autonomy and lead better lives once they are released. Atwood presents this value through Felix’s first message to the inmates, “I don’t care why you’re here or what you’ve done”. He catalyses the motion of redeeming their control by promoting the act of starting anew which is further emphasised by the homoioptoton. This act of renewal and redemption enables the prisoners to regain control of their lives and behaviours without their past crimes affecting their identity. Atwood literalises the separation “this other self of theirs” by encouraging the inmates to think up their “stage name”. This literal separation highlights to the audience the significance of removing oneself from their past identity in order to gain control over their future. Hag-Seed also glorifies the experience of imprisonment in order to accentuate its rehabilitative nature and diverge from the punitive approach of its original text The Tempest. The use of the third person omniscient narration means that the other parts of prison life is omitted from the text. This is essential in positioning the audience to recognise imprisonment as rehabilitative. In these

ways, Hag-Seed presents the modern values of imprisonment being rehabilitative and a means of regaining control over personal autonomy. While Shakespeare’s The Tempest presents the punitive values of imprisonment reflecting the zeitgeist of the Jacobean Era, Atwood’s Hag-Seed promotes imprisonment as a medium for restabilising one’s control over their situation. They work together to emphasise the transition of values over time through the contrast in dissonating values they each present....