English Literature ExamSection A: 4 short questions @40Section B: 2 Commentaries on literary extracts @20Section C: Essay question @40Area: Bartleby, The Yellow Wallpaper, Cathedral, The Man of the Crowd

Bartleby• Symbolism and imagery

• Symbolic meaning of character: personality, behaviour, narrator's sympathy of Bartleby despite the theoretically antagonistic relationship. Each person is a manifestation of some cultural features of that time.

• Bartleby is the symbol of the resistance towards capitalism and the working condition.

• The narrator "an unambitious lawyer", but admires John Jacob Astor, contradiction? Narrator symbolises middle class, through comments of other workers, shows vanity. Always mention windows, walls, screens. Describes Bartleby as a fixture, a pillar of salt, the last column of a ruined temple

• Turkey, Nippers, Ginger Nut: all with unique qualities. Narrator introduces them before Bartleby: shapes reader's response, set atmosphere to tell that the working atmosphere is bad, passively reacts to working condition

• Eating and food imagery• Prominent in Bartleby: dysfunctional eating habits that the workers have, the

absence of nourishment. In what ways does this imagery symbolically reinforce the story?

• Subtitle: A Story of Wall-Street• Direct reader's response to the questions.

• Language• Important quotations: "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" Humanity: the essence of

human being, the freedom to fight against the structure of the society that tortures people. "I would prefer not to" instead of "I will not": passive resistance instead of active resistance, always alternatives and choices for acting differently

• Cultural context• Dead-letter office: explains Bartleby's actions, or simply a device the narrator uses to

frame, to flatten Bartleby's image in a particular way that he wants• Middle class in a relatively high position in the society those days

Cathedral• Language

• Short, clipped sentences• First person point of view: help us to know more about the narrator's characteristics

• Symbolism• Cathedral• Epiphany

The Yellow Wallpaper• Gothic

• Features of gothic stories, apply (explain why some part of The Yellow Wallpaper is considered gothic)

• Explain behaviour of the narrator, and how she changed in the story. "I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane." Illusions, hallucinations.

• "Why I wrote the Yellow Wallpaper"• Imagery and symbolism

• How the author builds up an image of a mad woman--what devices and symbols used? Appearance, behaviour, obsessed with the wallpaper and the bed in the room

• Cultural context• Separate ideals: women are supposed to do domestic work or work but give entire

salary to the family. Women in the 19th century, status much more inferior to men• The Birth of the Clinic. Hospitals, the idea of madness. Psychoanalysis a new field

at the time. Mental asylums. Categorisation of people as mad, before defining the normal person. Women are the "other", the perverse, categorised as hysterical.

• To write is to build up identity.• From the author's point of view: once a doctor diagnosed her as crazy, not

allowed to work, author thinks it is only to put her in to the stereotype of women. Resist such identity: write this story, to confirm her identity and subjectivity.

• In terms of text: The mad woman in the story writes a diary to confirm her identity.

The Man of the Crowd• The "other"

• Concept of otherness in the story: "It does not permit itself to be read". Uncanniness in most everyday life things.

• Person "genius of deep crime"

Comparing otherness in the texts in terms of heterologies• Bartleby: passivity as a way to resist• The Yellow Wallpaper: madness• The Man of the Crowd: uncanniness• Crime and Punishment: transgression