Thursday 5 May 2016

Realism in comparitive

Realism of ‘The Book Thief’ compared to ‘Othello’

In the essay I will discuss the realism used in ‘The Book Thief’ by ‘Markus Zusak’ , ‘The Kings Speech’ directed by ‘Tom Hooper’ and ‘Othello’ by ‘William Shakespeare’. Throughout the text, Zusak tends to be quite realistic. He does so by using ‘Death’ as his narrator. Likewise for the time it was set in, ‘Othello’ seems quite realistic, however sometimes it can be quite unrealistic. At the time, the law system may not have been as strong as it is today and justice may have interpreted differently. I think people probably dealt with their problems more head on than they do now. Out of the three texts ‘The kings speech’ is probably the most realistic. It deals with a real life problem, something that happened and happens to people all the time.

The first moment I will talk about is when the Jews are paraded through ‘Himmel street’ and Hans decides to help a struggling old man. This is a very realistic scene as it’s factual. Things like this actually happened and stories like this were made. This is similar to when Bertie goes to Lionel’s home and apologises to him. This takes a lot for Bertie to do as he may have grown up believing that a king doesn’t apologies to anyone. Whereas in ‘Othello’ there is quite an unrealistic aspect as for some reason, beyond my knowledge Othello trusts Iago rather than investigating and questioning his right hand man Cassio. Cassio  is disregarded and his trust is lost just like the Jews in Nazi Germany.

Sometimes I may take things for granted however Liesel and Rudy in ‘The Book Thief’ don’t take anything for granted as they share licks with each other for a single lolly. This shows displays to the reader how desperate times really were in Nazi Germany during WWII. However in The king’s speech Bertie does not like to share. Lionel sits on king William’s seat and disrespects the crown. This is a very realistic moment as it’s not really something that someone does in the presence of the new king, however Lionel is a smart man, he does this on purpose to lighten the mood and show Bertie that he has a voice. This is similar to the small things that are depended upon in ‘Othello’ just like the handkerchief. Othello uses Desdemona’s loss of the handkerchief as a decisive moment, and finally identifies that Cassio and Desdemona must be sleeping together.

Using these key moments, we can identify how different aspects of ‘The Book Thief’ and ‘The Kings Speech’ are all quite realistic. However on the contrary, in ‘Othello’ we can see that there is a varying level of realism involved throughout the story. Some aspects of the two texts are very similar while others are complete and utter opposites.

Realism is an important aspect of all stories, however realistic the text may be. An audience should know wheather or not a text is meant to be realistic.


Positive G.V.V

The Book Thief portrays the image of how people used to be living in Germany under the power of Nazis. All characters in the book including death, were endured by their fatality and how each character had to fear their own death, as well as others' death. This book is filled with cruelty and so much violence. The positivity in this book comes where the reader sees Liesel being a hero and making her life good through all the struggles she faced. Despite losing her brother, and being separated from her family, she still managed to go and find a new life with her foster parents. She even managed to find some good friends in Max and Rudy. 

The message from the Book Thief, is that even when there are harsh obstacles coming your way, you need to be calm and try to deal with things in the right manner. Losing hope would be the biggest mistake that you can make in your life, when you are already praying for your soul to live. As for Liesel, she wanted to live, she didn't want to die. So, Liesel fought and kept her hopes and courage up by reading books. Liesel and Hans, her foster father, also both found hope in the sound of Hans' accordion playing. Liesel figured that books were the only way she could help herself not be overwhelmed by the devastating situation she was in. Everyone needs to find a thing that they feel is comfortable and helps them relax and forget about their problems for a bit. This is because sometimes, reality can be really unsatisfying, but we need to know how to cope with it, and most importantly, how to overcome it. This is the message that should be taken from this novel, and another thing is that in this book it shows how much of a struggling life people live. Many have lives so precious, but don't realize them until they see people in worse situations. So another thing to also understand from this book is to embrace the life we are given and live it happily. 

A similar situation may be found in the play 'Othello' by William Shakespeare. We see the main character , Othello ,presented in both positive and negative terms. The positive depiction of Othello is both verbal and behavioural. We hear about his integrity and great bravery and heroism through the speeches of others and perceive it through Desdemona's admiration. We see him behave towards her and others in a gentle, caring and courteous fashion. 

However we also see the split opinions of society towards the other relationships in the play. Some people are willing to accept change and integration such as Brabantio who is old fashioned and racist, Desdemona who could be said to be very Christian and charitable in her outlook, looking beyond class and colour to the nobility of the soul underneath ,and Cassio who sees nothing but honour in accepting authority from a man of integrity whatever his colour. Others could be seen to be narrow minded and racially prejudiced, for example Iago. But he is a complex character and there may be other forces at work besides racial prejudice. There may be envy, jealousy, revenge, pride, rejection and control issues at work.

The Position Of Women in 'Othello' and 'The Book Thief'






The two texts ‘Othello’ and ‘The Book Thief’ are both set in time periods in which women face inequality and injustice. However, both texts deal with these issues very differently. A large factor in how these women live their lives is based on their relationships with family and friends. Another important factor is how these women are treated by men. Most importantly, despite all odds, in both these texts, women stand up to the injustices around them.


The women in these texts all live under regimes controlled and powered primarily by men, but how men treat women in both is extremely representative of the different time periods in which they live.In ‘Othello’, set in approximately the 1500s, during wartime, the title character, Othello, is very possessive and mistrustful of his wife, Desdemona. Othello’s views are typical of the treatment of women at the time. In contrast to this, in ‘The Book Thief’, Hans, the central father figure in the book, is a gentle, kind character. In this world, women are relatively equal to men despite some inequalities.Othello and Desdemona come across as an idyllic, loving couple at the beginning of the play. They marry secretly, out of love. Desdemona is strong minded for a woman at the time, and she rebels against her father by marrying Othello. However, culturally, women are sweet and demure, and she is an ideal wife, always showing love to Othello. However, Othello views her as his property. Although he loves her intensely, he is very insecure because of racism towards him and he is very easily manipulated by Iago who plays on his insecurities, convincing Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio, his lieutenant. In the early 1600s, the period in which ‘Othello’ was written, just as it has been throughout history, it was widely accepted that a man owned his wife. Othello’s reaction reflects this. He becomes extremely jealous, becoming more susceptible to Iago’s manipulations. He refuses to hear Desdemona’s side of the story and despite her being entirely in the dark about Iago’s plot and what Othello believed, Othello kills her, justifying his actions by telling himself that he is killing her so that she will cheat on no other men, and ruin the lives of no other men. This gives us a shocking insight to the status of women in the world in which Othello is set. 


The lives that these women live are controlled in part by how they relate to their families. Liesel and Desdemona have very different families, and this shapes how their lives turn out. Desdemona in ‘Othello’, is the daughter of a rich Venetian politician named Brabantio. He seems to view Desdemona as property, and is horrified by the fact that she elopes to marry Othello. 'Othello' is set in 1500s Venice, where women are treated as property and not as individuals in their own right.Desdemona falls in love with Othello against her father’s wishes. Despite Brabantio’s feigned friendship towards Othello, he is disgusted at the thought of his daughter marrying a black man. He says that their marriage is “against all rules of nature” and he believes that Othello must have “enchanted” Desdemona with “foul charms”. He doesn’t believe that his own daughter could fall in love with somebody of her own accord, perpetuating both racism and the belief that Desdemona could not have had a mind of her own. Brabantio seems to also believe that Desdemona is his property, and that her marriage is a potential business transaction for him. Because of her upbringing, Desdemona has been at the hands of men all her life, hardly ever making decisions for herself. She has virtually no freedom, and in her act of rebellion, marrying Othello, she finds herself in a far more controlling and damaging relationship that consequently leads to her murder at the hands of Othello.
In contrast to this, Liesel Meminger in ‘The Book Thief’ has undergone quite a different upbringing. Orphaned, and then taken in by the loving Hans and Rosa, she has never faced parental discrimination on the grounds of her gender. Liesel loses her real parents at the beginning of the book, as she is the daughter of communists. She is taken in by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a couple from Molching. Hans is a gentle and kind man, who teaches her to read and coaxes her out of her shell. Rosa is a stern, strict, yet kind-hearted woman, who hurls insults across the room and whoever is there to take them. Liesel’s foster parents never limit Liesel. They provide a loving, safe home for her, where she grows up to become a strong willed, intelligent young woman. She is never objectified or assumed to be weak because of her gender. Race and prejudice prove not to be an issue to the Hubermanns when Max, a Jew, becomes part of the family, hiding in the basement, and Liesel and Max become close friends, sharing with each other a love of words and fighting. The Hubermanns obviously have no prejudiced views and are very selfless. This passes on to Liesel. 
Desdemona and Liesel are not altogether very different people; both are strong willed and intelligent. However their upbringing and circumstance drastically altered the lives of both of them.
Hans Hubermann in ‘The Book Thief’, is the polar opposite to Othello. We are in a different time period here, in and around 1940, during World War II. Hans treats women with as much, if not more respect than men, and he is a gentle, kind character. Hans has lived a long life with his wife, Rosa, who at this time is the main provider for the family. The world wars uprooted many traditional gender roles and Hans is, at the time outlined in the book, mostly unemployed. Despite a small income, they decide to foster a child, Liesel Meminger. When Liesel, the central character, arrives, Rosa is an extremely un-maternal figure, who throws words across the room and has a face like cardboard. It is Hans who takes on a maternal role, sitting with Liesel while she has nightmares and eventually teaching her to read. This gift of words is what gives Liesel her future, her passion, her independance. Hans treats her as he would any child regardless of gender, and Liesel becomes a strong, well-spoken, kind person who is not afraid to stand up to authority. The children raised in the generation of WWII have grown up to become the adults of the generation in which gender roles have dramatically changed, with far more equality for women than has been achieved for the majority of history. 
These two characters prove that how men treat women is extremely representative of the world in which they live. 


An extremely important part of both these stories is that women stand up to the injustices around them, both faced by themselves and by others. Emilia in ‘Othello’ is somebody that, throughout the play, is subservient and doesn’t question Iago’s plots. However, at the end, she stands up to her husband and gives her life to make sure that justice is served. Emilia is married to an extremely manipulative, misanthropic, and misogynistic man, named Iago. Iago is the catalyst for all the conflict in ‘Othello’, as he hates Othello so strongly that he will go about anything to destroy him. He uses Emilia in his plot to tear Othello apart through Othello’s insecurities, by convincing Emilia to steal the handkerchief from her closest friend Desdemona, Othello’s wife, and to plant it with Cassio, Othello’s right hand man. Emilia plays along with Iago’s plan, as she tries to please him. Iago has control over Emilia throughout the entire play. However, at the end, when she finds Desdemona dying at the hands of Othello, and Othello himself confessing to the murder, she screams and raises the alarm. When Othello mentions the handkerchief, she is the first person to realise what Iago had truly done, and she realises that it was her fault, too. She reveals Iago’s treachery to Othello and witnesses. Othello realises the truth, and Iago stabs Emilia in revenge. She dies knowing that she has stood up to injustice and that Iago will pay for what he has done. 
In comparison, Rosa Hubermann in ‘The Book Thief’ is somebody who will very clearly fight injustice. She is described harshly, and under many lights can seem mean and heartless, but by the end of the book, we learn that she has more of a heart than most people. She stands up to injustice by opening her home up to someone who could potentially cause her death.Rosa is often compared to a wardrobe, or a piece of cardboard. She is prone to using a wooden spoon and will complain about and criticise both Hans, her gentle husband, and Liesel, her foster child. She has great responsibility caring for her family, and yet is extremely unmaternal.  When Max enters the scene, we see an unexpected side to Rosa. Yes, she took in Liesel, but Max is different. Max is a serious liability, a danger to the lives of her loved ones. Yet Rosa quietly cares for him, takes him in without a question, and never once speaks a harsh word about him. She changes greatly while caring for Max, in fact, and we see a side to her that we always knew was there but never quite saw. Rosa, with her tough exterior, stands up to injustice by opening up the doors to her wardrobe and showing her heart to those who need it the most. Her decidedly dangerous acts of compassion are how she fights the regime forced upon her. 
Emilia and Rosa are extremely different people, and yet they both stand up to injustice and make sure that in the end, they did the right thing.The women in these two texts all have families that influence the course of their lives. They all live in worlds dominated by men, and in wartime. The way men treat them affects their lives and relationships. These women all face the injustices suffered by themselves and others. In many different ways, these women react to their situations and change their own lives and the lives of others, for either better or worse.

The film ‘The King’s Speech’, is set in the same time period as ‘The Book Thief’, and the position of women in the film is similar. While the men do have most of the power, women are not viewed as property in the same way they were in the world of ‘Othello’. They are seen as individuals. The two main characters in the film, Bertie and Lionel, both have loving families and care deeply for the women in their life, Elizabeth and Mrs Logue. However, in this film there are hardly any female characters.Elizabeth is Bertie’s lifeline. His speech impediment greatly affects his life, but she is always there to support him. She knows exactly what he needs, for example, when Bertie claims that he will see no more speech therapists, she goes out anyway to find the best person for him. Lionel’s informality and disrespect for the monarchy are clearly unpleasant to her, and she knows that many people would disapprove of her going to someone so unqualified and unprofessional/ She overcomes this and convinces Bertie to go anyway. Bertie and Elizabeth’s children are both young girls, and they are loved very much by their parents. They are very lucky children. We hear that Bertie’s childhood was filled with neglect and abuse at the hands of a nanny. His own children have been born into a changing time, where they are cared for by their own parents, and in fact his elder daughter will later become queen.

Conflict

In William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” , Marcus Zusak’s book “The Book Thief” and the director Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech", conflict plays a very important role. The authors and director have all put their characters in conflicting situations; both in setting and interpersonal conflict.


Firstly we see that all of the texts are set during wartime; 'Othello' during the Cypriot war and 'The King's Speech' and 'The Book Thief' are set during the second world war. Also each main character has their own conflicting personal dilemma to overcome, for example Othello's wife (Desdemona) had an "affair" with his best friend (Cassio), Liesel Meminger is hiding a Jew from the Nazis and Bertie has a stammer effecting his ability of making speeches as it is expected of him as heir to the throne.


'Othello' is set during the Cypriot war creating conflict with the Venetians and Cypriots, and seen as Othello was a Commander in the Venetian army he played a major role in this conflict. We see Othello go off and win a battle for his people neutralizing the conflict but his dilemma at home is only beginning.


However, the second world war that both “The Book Thief” and "The King's Speech" are set in, it is not quite as easily negated. Bertie's predicament is that has to make a speech that inspires his people and gives them faith and confidence in their army to win the war. All the while, Liesel is stuck in a war where she is powerless and has no influence whatsoever
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Tuesday 26 April 2016

The Power of Words in ‘Othello’, ‘The Book Thief’ and ‘The King’s Speech’

The Power of Words in ‘Othello’, ‘The Book Thief’     
and ‘The King’s Speech’

In ‘Othello’ and ‘The Book Thief’ the theme of Power of Words runs throughout both texts. The Power of Words is seen in a positive light in ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak, but seen in a negative way in William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’.

The power of words is first seen in ‘The Book Thief’ when Liesel is in Ilsa Hermann’s house, in her  library. Liesel felt the pull of the books were too strong. Every time Liesel read a book she felt the power that words had over someone in a positive way. It was interesting that Liesel saw how strong the power of words was because at that time in Summer 1940 in  Nazi Germany the power of words was being used all over the country through Hitler. Liesel sees how words affect her in a positive way because she loves to read.
The theme of the Power of words is also seen in ‘Othello’. The Power of Words is used in a negative way in ‘Othello’. It is first seen when Iago gets Cassio drunk to take advantage of him because he knows that he can’t handle alcohol very well. He makes sure Cassio gets into a fight with Roderigo and strike him.
When Othello enters, Iago uses his power of words to benefit himself by telling him that Cassio started the fight, but making it sound like he didn't want to tell Othello because he didn’t want to betray Cassio.

The Power of Words is seen again in a positive way in  ‘The Book Thief’ in Max’s book for Liesel ‘The Word Shaker’. It is seen when Max writes about Liesel and ‘’how powerless a person could be WITHOUT words.’’ He knew how powerful words are to Liesel and how they have benefited her in a positive way. He describes the people who understand the power of words as word shakers. He finds that himself and Liesel are word shakers. They both understand the power of words and have built a strong friendship because of it.
The Power of Words is also seen again in ‘Othello’. It is seen for the second time when Iago is using his ‘friendship’ with Othello by telling him about Desdemona and Cassio and how she took the handkerchief that Othello gave to her to show her that he wouldn’t betray her. Iago stages it so Othello is hiding when Cassio comes into the room and Iago asks Cassio about Bianca but making it sound like he was talking about Desdemona. When Cassio leaves Othello comes back out and gets so worked up about what Iago is telling him he goes into a fit.

The last time the theme of the  Power of Words is seen in a positive way in  ‘The Book Thief’ is when Liesel is telling Max his own story of ‘The Word Shaker’ to make him fight for his survival. ‘Is it really you? The young man asked’, she said. ‘It is from your cheek that I took the seed?’ This gives Max the strength to remain standing as he is being whipped by the Nazi soldier. He is not going to let the negative power of words win over the positive power of words.
Lastly the negative use of Power of words is seen in ‘Othello.’ The last time the use of the Power of Words is seen in a negative way in ‘Othello’ is when Desdemona sings a song called ‘Willow’. Desdemona is sent back to her room by Othello because he cannot look at her after what Iago told him about her and Cassio. Desdemona is in her room with Emilia who is helping her go to bed. She starts singing a song called ‘Willow’ that a maid called Barbary that her Mother sang before she died. The negative Power of Words is seen here because these words bring Desdemona’s death.

The theme of the Power of Words is seen also throughout ‘The King’s Speech’ because words are so powerful to Bertie. He finds is difficult to speak because of his stammer. His Father and Brother make fun of him and his stammer. This makes him feel worthless and unloved like Othello in ‘Othello’ when he feels he is not good enough for Desdemona because of his race. Bertie feels he will be a terrible king. Words scare Bertie. This makes the theme of The Power of Words to be seen in a negative light for Bertie in the beginning, but in the final scene of the film Bertie realizes that he doesn't need to be afraid of words, he can control them himself . They have no power of him anymore he has power over them.


In conclusion I have shown that the Power of Words is seen in a positive light in ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak, but seen in a negative way in William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. Also, the theme of the Power of Words is scene in  negatively in the beginning of ‘The King’s Speech’, directed by Tom Hooper ,but at the end of the film the theme has changed to be positive.








The theme of love in "Othello", "The Book Thief" and "The Kings Speech"





The theme of love in Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief” and William Shakespeare’s “Othello” is very import to how the story and characters develop throughout the story. Both “The Book Thief” and “Othello” are set during war times In “Othello” and “The Book Thief” , love is a force that overcomes large obstacles and is tripped up by small ones. It provides “Othello” with intensity but not direction and gives Desdemona access to his heart but not his mind. If offers Lisel hope of a better future and gives hans purposes.Types of love and what that means are different between different characters.

“The Book Thief” focuses on characters who are learning to love in the face of great hatred. There is also romantic love in the novel. Of course, it's an innocent childlike romance that tragedy cuts short. The novel is set in a Nazi Germany, where giving another person something as seemingly small as a crust of stale bread or even a smile could be seen as act of immense kindness. These acts almost always involve penalty. To love in such a harsh world is both a necessity and a triumph for the characters of “The Book Thief”.

In “Othello” love is the defining theme in the text. It is love that drives the story forward. It is Othello’s love for desdemona that allows Iago to manipulate Othello. Iago often falsely professes love in friendship for Roderigo, Othello and Cassio and betrays them both. For Iago, love is leverage. Desdemona's love in friendship for Cassio is real but is misinterpreted by the jealous Othello as adulterous love. Love is often seen as beauty but in Othello it is what leaves them in ruin.

The theme of love in "The Kings Speech" is very important in the film.
It is Elisabeth and her love for Bertie that makes her go out of her way and against her husband will to go and find another speech therapist in this case it is lionel.
Berties love for Elisabeth is what inspires him and gives him the perseverance to continue with his speech therapy. It gives him the courage to continue through the difficult times in his live. We see this love fuled perseverance when Bertie listens to the recording of himself flawlessly reading out a paragraph from shakespeares hamlet, Elisabeth hears him playing it and from this Bertie gains the confidence he desperatly needed .The lack of love in Berties family is what led to Berties stutter and other physical problems. We see this lack of love when Berties father dies, David goes to his mother and hug her in sorrow, seeking comfort from his mother but instead of what a normal mother would do Berties mother stood there, still.


Friendship


There are many examples of friendship in both texts, “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak and “Othello” by William Shakespeare.  The friendships in each text are very different.  There are examples of people being good friends and there are also examples of people who pretend to be friends but really don’t care about each other.
The first example of a true friendship is between Liesel and Max in ‘The Book Thief’.  The best example of this friendship is when Max is sick, Liesel is constantly worrying about him.  When he is in the basement, only inches away from death, all Liesel does is pray for him to get better.  Liesel is always down in the basement keeping him company, even though he is asleep and doesn’t respond to what she is saying. He is sick for weeks and Liesel goes down to the cold basement every day for hours to read her book ‘The Whistler’ aloud to Max.  This shows the loyalty and genuine concern Liesel has for her friend Max.  
This friendship is not a one way street, Max writes a short book for Liesel. He spends days down in the basement painting picture and writing sentences in a short book which he gives to Liesel.  He names the book ‘The Standover Man’.  In this book Max describes how during his life many people have been good friends to him, Wenzel Gruber who used to stand over him after beating him in fights then turned into one of his best friends and kept him in hiding for over two years.  Max then goes on to speak about how his best friend and true standover man is actually Liesel. After days of hard work in the freezing basement Max gives the book to Liesel at night. Liesel loves the book he writes for her and keeps it for life.
These two occasions in the book really show how the friendship between Max and Liesel is real.

Parent- child relationships

The parent - child relationships in ‘The Book Thief’, ‘Othello’ and 'The King's Speech'



The theme of parent - child relationships is an occurring theme in both ‘The Book Thief’ and ‘Othello’.  We see how different parents act and how their children are affected by that.  The way each parent acts affects their own child’s attitude towards them.  Hans manages to gain Liesel’s trust and is kind to her. He respects her opinions and their relationship grows.  Brabantio, on the other hand, doesn’t respect Desdemona’s opinions.  Although he does respects her love for Othello, this is after Desdemona runs off and marries Othello in secret. In ‘The Book Thief’, Liesel has just lost her brother and both of her parents. She is scared and in an unknown place.  Hans understands how she must be feeling and tries to reach out to her.  He knows that she probably won’t trust him at first so he gives her time to adjust to her surroundings and is just kind to her, he comforts her at night as her parents cannot.  Hans is missing a daughter and Liesel is missing a father.  Liesel then finds it much easier to live her new life with her new parents.  Liesel is not afraid to talk to Hans if something is wrong. However, the opposite is seen in ‘Othello’.  Brabantio doesn’t love Desdemona like Hans loves Liesel.  In ‘Othello’ Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, doesn’t seem all that interested in Desdemona’s life.  Here we see a different kind of parent - child relationship, one that is lacking trust.  Brabantio cares for his daughter but he is a very controlling character and thinks he knows what is best for Desdemona.  He doesn’t trust her judgement, and he thinks differently from the way she does.  There is clearly not enough communication in their relationship, as Desdemona feels that she needs to run away in order to be happy.  


The way the parent sees the world also affects how the child sees the world. There is a big contrast between the way Hans and Brabantio see the world. Hans teaches Liesel to be kind.  While Brabantio is not as accepting.  In ‘The Book Thief’, Hans is very kind and very accepting of everybody.  He does not join the Nazi Party as he does not believe that anyone should be discriminated against.  This is what he teaches Liesel.  He shows Liesel that she should be kind to everyone, even Jews, as if they were her own family.  Liesel continues to always be kind, and never judge a book by it’s cover.  She becomes close to Max, and like Hans, is brave enough to help him.  Hans does not hesitate once to help Max.  Hans is not a sheep.  He doesn’t follow in everybody else’s footsteps, he sticks to what he believes in.  We see this trait in Liesel.  On the other hand, Brabantio does not teach Desdemona to be kind to everyone. Brabantio is the complete opposite to Hans.  In ‘Othello’, Brabantio looks down upon Othello because he is a ‘moor’.  He is disgusted at the thought of Desdemona marrying a moor and he has no problem telling the world.  He immediately becomes angry when he learns of their marriage and says ‘O treason of the blood!’  He doesn’t believe it and claims that Othello put Desdemona under a spell.  The way he acts affects Desdemona negatively, as she feels that she needs to go behind her father’s back in the first place. Desdemona is the one to convince her father that she will be okay with Othello. He is hesitant at first, but agrees, although he doesn’t fully trust Othello.  


Actually having a caring parent around will affect how the child turns out. Rosa deep down is a caring mother. She is always looking out for Liesel, even if Liesel doesn’t know it.  Desdemona doesn’t have a mother, not one that we know about.  In ‘The Book Thief’, Rosa is the big, tough, scary parent.  She is described as a wardrobe, tough on the outside, but a mystery on the inside. Rosa does love Liesel like her own daughter, her love for Liesel is just hidden. She too, like her husband, did not hesitate to help Max, even though it put her life at risk.  Rosa is a genuinely caring person, but not enough people know that.  When she dies, Death tells us, ‘Make no mistake, the woman had a heart’. Liesel knows this, that is why she feels safe with the Hubermanns.  This compares to ‘Othello’ because, unlike Liesel, Desdemona has no mother.  In ‘Othello’, we are only told about Desdemona’s father which leads to believe that she does not have a mother.  It must have been difficult for Desdemona not having a female influence while growing up.  She is quite different to Liesel as she has had no female role - model.  She is used to males being in charge, and considering the time she is living in, is used to men making all the rules.  She only has one parent to care for her, but her doesn’t take that much of an interest in her.  The other main person in her life is her husband, so she sometimes feels lost without her mother’s opinion, especially when Othello begins to distrust her.  

In 'The King's Speech', Bertie is a very caring father, like Hans in 'The Book Thief', he just wants his children to be happy and to have no worries. He has some horrible memories of his own childhood, so he never wants his children to feel they way he did. He makes his daughters laugh by reading stories and pretending to be a penguin. Similarly, we see Lionel playing with his children and entertaining them by acting out plays. In comparison to Bertie and Lionel, Hans will do anything for Liesel, even though he is not her real father he does his best to comfort her. He plays his accordion to her every day, and he spends a fortune on books for her. However, the same is not seen 'Othello'. In contrast to Bertie and Hans, Brabantio puts his own best interests before Desdemona's. Although deep down he must care for his daughter, Brabantio is a controlling character, he has strong opinions of Othello and he is not afraid to voice them. Compared to Brabantio, Lionel thinks before he speaks.

Violence in the World – Author’s GVV - "Othello" , "The Book Thief" and "The King's Speech"




In William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” , Marcus Zusak’s book “The Book Thief” and the director Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech", violence plays a central role. All of the authors and the director seem to believe that violence is human nature and that violence in the world is inevitable. 

For example, Zusak’s “The Book Thief” is set in Nazi Germany during the height of World War 2 and the Holocaust, when Germany was steeped in warfare. Zusak uses violence to shape his characters lives and impact their choices. For example, Liesel, the main character in the text has her whole life molded by the violence in the world. Her mother, a communist, is taken away from her by the brutal Nazi regime of World War II Germany and her new family. the Hubermanns, are taken away from her by violence as well, when Allied bombs are dropped on Himmel Street. Like wise in the other text that I studied, "Othello" , Shakespeare uses violence to shape all aspects of the plot and character development in the play. Othello, the titular character is a renowned Ventian general and his whole life revolves around violence. When he is corrupted and lied to by Iago, his speech goes from being very poetic and full of images of love to being very animalistic and full of images of death.
Zusak also uses Death , the narrator of the story as a way of voicing his own opinions on violence in the world, which shows Zusak's distaste for it but offers no alternatives in situations such as World War 2 where the Allies were forced to use violence in order to end the war and the Holocaust. Zusak realizes that war is inevitable and that violence is human nature. I believe that Shakespeare had the same view on violence in the world that Zusak which is very clear to see in his play “Othello”.
In the play, the premier character Othello, is introduced to us as an honourable and poetic man but he leads a very violent life as a general of a Venetian army. He manages to keep his violent tendencies at bay and he runs away with Desdemona, the most beautiful woman in Venice. But as the play progresses and as Othello’s descent in madness also progresses because of Iago’s lies about Desdemona’s infidelity, Othello’s true violent nature is revealed. I think that Shakespeare believes that humans are violent by their very nature and this is why Othello's inner animal instincts take over. William Shakespeare's Othello conveys the cycle from mental violence to physical violence on several different occasions. The mental violence in this story led to the physical deaths of Emilia, Desdemona, Othello, and eventually Iago.

In "The Kings Speech", violence plays a central role in the importance of Bertie or King George VI in his role as king of Britain. The violent brutality of Hitler's Third Reich is spreading over Europe and Bertie feels inadequate to Hitler when he sees him in a clip after watching his coronation. Hitler is everything that Bertie is not, a charismatic strong leader which sharply contrasts with Bertie's own opinion of himself, a stammering fool like "Mad king George VI"

This shows how Shakespeare, Zusak and Hooper all used violence in such a way where it plays a central role in their respective pieces of work. 

Tuesday 15 March 2016

How do the authors create the settings in 'The Book Thief' and 'Othello'?



In both of the texts I have studied; ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare and ‘The Book Thief’(TBT) by Markus Zusak,  there are three main traits that create the setting, which are: the status of women, how power is attained and tragedy.
Status of the female characters is very important in creating the setting in these two texts. As both text are set in two very different setting; ‘Othello’ set in seventeenth century Venice and TBT set in nineteen forties Nazi Germany. So the status of the women should be different as well. An example of this would be the treatment of Desdemona in ‘Othello’. Desdemona, from a rich Venetian family, after marrying Othello, went from being under her father's control to her husband's.  After Brabantio, her father, had found out that his daughter had eloped with Othello, he brings him in front of the Duke and the pair start debating over who Desdemona should be allowed be with. There is some hope of Othello being a better man than Brabantio, when he requests for the duke to hear Desdemona's side of the story but as the play progresses and as Othello’s love for Desdemona turns sour, he shows himself to be the most flawed character in the book. Even when Othello’s actions turn violent towards Desdemona, she respect for him never falters and nobody helps her. After  Othello slaps  her and tells her to leave, she responds with ‘I will not stay to offend you.’ And Lodovico comments with; ‘truly an obedient lady.’ This creates the setting of a world where women are only valued for their silence, this concept is continued, of women being powerless,voiceless, by the way Othello kills Desdemona, he chooses suffocation, physically silencing her as she is powerless to fight back. The exact opposite is the case in TBT, women have high status and are very powerful. A polar opposite of Desdemona would be Rosa Hubermann. The use of this headstrong, unorthodox maternal figure creates the setting of a world where women are respected. When we are first introduced to Rosa she is described as a ‘small wardrobe with a coat thrown over it’ and has a strong akin to calling those around her ‘saukerl’, ‘saumensch’ and bashing Liesel with ‘wooden spoons and words, at various intervals.’But beyond her resilient and tough exterior; complete opposite to soft spoken Desdemona, the extraordinary thing about Rosa is that she is the head of her household and also the main breadwinner. The use of Rosa creates a setting far off from the expectations women had imposed on them in the sixteen hundreds.
A way the authors created the setting was with the race for power, the two texts are separated greatly by the way power is perceived and how it is obtained.
In ‘Othello’ a person is in power when they have a high rank, as Venice is at war with Cyprus and Othello, Iago, and Cassio are in the army, therefore rank  important. But because how power is perceived people go about obtaining it in a very destructive manner. From the very beginning we know Iago hates the Moor and only wants to be his downfall, ‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him.’ Iago is power hungry and is willing to do anything to get it. To become Othello’s righthand man, Iago must get rid of Cassio first. With knowledge that Cassio has ‘poor brains for drinking’ he gets him drunk and with his accomplice, Roderigo, goads him into a brawl knowing ‘he’ll be full of quarrel and offence.’ After severely injuring Montano, when he tried to calm Cassio down, Othello is awoken and as Cassio is in no state to explain himself, Iago tells Othello a false truth of the events, which leads to Cassio’s demotion, ‘nevermore be an officer of mine,’and Iago’s promotion. This is the exact opposite of how power is perceived and obtained in TBT. I this text power lies in words and since words are easily obtained, they can be used for good and bad. In the short story ‘The Word Shaker’ Written by Max, as a gift to Liesel. The story is about how Hitler decided to use words to take over the world, he grew a forest of words and symbols and used them to brainwash people. ‘They were hypnotised.’ This would be an example as how words can be used for bad because as Hitler only used the to spread lies, fear and hate. Because of these words Max is ‘despised by her (Liesel’s) homeland.’ But as the story continues the best word shaker, the one that climbs the tree and collects the words, was Liesel as she ‘understood the true power of words,’ planted a seed made of her and Max’s friendship that grew to be the tallest of all the tree. And when the Fuhrer ordered it to be chopped down, the word shake climbed up to the top of it, and even the Fuhrer and ‘ a hundred and ninety-six soldiers’ couldn’t even make a dent in the tree with their axes. But when Max returns for Liesel, he climbs the tree and when both he and Liesel leave the tree it falls on top of the forest, carving a new path for them to walk. What the metaphor of the trees means is that words are powerful  and that they can overcome hate. This idea of almost a diplomatic approach to solving challenges through words creates a very different, more modern setting compared to the more barbaric and scheming ways of obtaining power in ‘Othello’.
  
The use of a tragic ending creates the setting in both the texts that the world is bleak. In ‘Othello’ the play ends with the annihilation of almost all the characters: first Othello suffocates his wife, Desdemona, after Iago convinced him that she was cheating. Then Iago kills his accomplice, Roderigo, and Iago stabs his wife, Emilia, when she confesses her part in  his lies. Then as the authorities find out about these crimes and are about to take Othello and Iago away, Othello slits his throat and dies. The entire play was full of lies, deception and mistrust, creating a bleak world where no one, innocent or not, is safe, very much alike the ending in TBT. There was no warning for the people in Himmel street, ironically,the one named after Heaven. First to be hit is Tommy Muller’s apartment killing him and his family in their sleep, then Frau Holtzapfel dies sitting in her kitchen, alone. The Steiners were next, Rudy lied asleep with his arm around his little sister, as Death carried them away. Then lastly Hans and Rosa Hubermann, but not Liesel, pulled from the rubble she had to witness the destruction of her life for a second, losing her home and her family for a second time and having to start her life over again for a second time. After growing such a strong attachment to each character, this makes this event a tragic loss for the reader and creates the setting of  bleak and disheartening world like in ‘Othello.’
The authors for the two texts i have studied used status of women, how power is obtained and tragedy to create the setting in ‘Othello’ and ‘The Book Thief.’

Very similar to TBT, the use of strong and dominant women in the text creates the setting. Even though , "The King's Speech" ( here after referred to as TKS)  is about Bertie: a king too be, its his wife who plays a detrimental part in this text, which separates this text greatly from the societal expectations in "Othello" that Desdemona experienced. Elizabeth is first seen in the text standing next to her nervous husband, comforting and supporting him just before he has to address an audience at Wembley. Just like Desdemona, who went with Othello to Cyprus, she loves her husband and does everything to support him. But shes also very different from Desdemona as she will ignore her husbands wishes, when she knows whats best for him, just like when she went on her own to find Lionel Logue, knowing that he can help her husband's stammer. Even though Bertie had given up on finding help for his stammer, Elizabeth wouldn't give up, her strength and initiative in the text creates the setting.

Monday 14 March 2016

Book Thief Essay - World at War

In Markus Zusak’s ‘The Book Thief’ and similarly in William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, war is central in both a narrative and thematic sense. ‘The Book Thief’ begins months before the outbreak of the Second World War, likewise, ‘Othello’
is set during a big war between Venice and Cyprus.
The war is used in both texts to move the characters from place to place. In ‘The Book Thief’, Liesel is brought to stay on Himmel Street due to the impending outbreak of World War II. This introduces us to all of the other central characters of the novel such as Hans, Rosa and Rudy. The narrative is kick-started by the outbreak of war. Likewise, in ‘Othello’ the central characters are brought to Cyprus by the war.
The post-war celebrations serve as a perfect opportunity for the scheming Iago to carry out his plan to bring down Othello. Zusak and Shakespeare are showing how war affects people’s lives, as both narratives rely upon the characters being forced to travel somewhere.
‘The Book Thief’ portrays the native German people’s reaction to World War II, and the time leading up to the war. Zusak shows that at first people may have enjoyed the Nazi regime ‘Nazi Germany was a wondrous place’.  However, the reader is quickly brought down to Earth with the War’s outbreak, the bombings, the lack of food, and the eventual deaths of much of the main cast. This is in contrast to Othello where the focus lies elsewhere, and we do not see any of the effects of warfare.
In Othello the warfare is skipped over in favour of the narrative, and Shakespeare’s viewpoint in this play is more to do with manipulation, honesty and lies than with the horrors of war.
In conclusion, war is used as both a narrative tool and an avenue for both authors to express their views on certain topics.

In Tom Hooper's 'The King's Speech' the outbreak of the second War War is central to the climax of the film; the build up to the war also adds tensions to proceedings prior to the climax.

Bertie is forced to make a radio wartime speech, an incredibly important wartime speech, and the direction of Hooper shows us the effects of this. Troops abroad are shown with sad, accepting expressions, Bertie's family and friends are shown to be tense and worried.

In 'The King's Speech', rather than war moving the characters around as it did in 'Othello' and 'The Book Thief', it moves the plot forward towards the climax.