IOBE
In Act 1 Lane remarks that he has only been married once as a consequence of a “misunderstanding between [himself] and a young person.” Algernon sends Lane away to get some more sandwichesand comments to himself that Lane’s views on marriage are rather “lax,” considering that the “lower orders” should set a “good example” for the upper classes.
Identify and comment on the themes this links with in IOBE.
Thematic links - The pursuit of marriage/Cash,class,character/Hypocrisy, Victorian morality
Algernon’s shock at Lane’s “lax” marriage views conveys the hypocrisy of his aristocratic class. While Lane’s morality appears less firm—as he refers to marriage as a past “misunderstanding” rather than a long-term commitment—Algernon is the more hedonistic character. He easily blames his servant for not being a “good example” when he himself is not.
How does the progression of the dialogue between Joan and Harper in Act 1, mirror events in the real world?
Joan assumes the persona of a curious young person who is questioning what they observe, first hand, in the real world. This stream of consciousness dialogue is deceptively simplistic. The child questions, but who does the child question? - The adult, emblematic of the authority figure. Why? Because this is what we do when we are young. Harper's reaction, her manipulation of the truth, the way she twists Joan's questions to support her agenda, these are key components of this dialogue. Churchill is modelling the corruption we all face as we learn through Q&A about the world we live in. Question the answers is her warning to us all.
In Chapter 5, just as Snowball finishes speaking, Napoleon makes an odd whimpering sound. Suddenly nine vicious dogs, the dogs Napoleon had reared from pups, bound into the barn. The dogs jump at Snowball, who runs. The dogs chase Snowball, who flees through a hole in a hedge that leads out of Animal Farm. Once Snowball is gone, the dogs surround Napoleon like a guard. Napoleon announces to the terrified and silent farm animals that the Sunday meetings are over. A special committee of pigs will now decide all Animal Farm policy and give weekly orders on Sunday morning when the animals gather to salute the flag and sing "Beasts of England."
What does this abrupt change in tone signify and what point is Orwell making about revolutions?
Napoleon isn't playing by Animalist rules any more. By seizing power and denying the non-pigs' right to vote, Napoleon counters the fundamental idea of Animalism: animal equality. If the animals let Napoleon get away with this act, Animal Farm will no longer be Animalist and the animals' freedom will vanish. Orwell is paralleling reality - In the USSR, Stalin defeated Trotsky in a power struggle and exiled him. This is an ominous warning about the manner in which power corrupts good intentions.
Bunbury/Earnest
Bunbury is a fictional invalid that Algernon makes up so that he has a ready excuse whenever he wishes to get out of any social commitment, particularly when he would like to escape to the country. Algernon describes this pretext as “bunburying,” but he also uses the term to describe Jack’s false representation of himself as “Ernest” and his own masquerade as “Ernest.” Bunbury and “bunburying” thus represent deception, fiction, and escapism.
Similar to Bunbury, Ernest represents deception, fiction, and escapism, but also idealism. Both women not only fantasize about marrying a man named Ernest, they say it is a name that “inspires absolute confidence.” Their idealism is reflected in these “girlish dream[s]” and definitive assertions.
(IOBE) The Art of Deception: Fact v. Fiction
As a leader of the Aesthetic movement, Wilde was especially interested in the relationship between life and art, pondering the eternal question, “Does art imitate life, or life imitate art?” Wilde explores this relationship in The Importance of Being Earnestthrough the conflict that arises when fact collides with fiction. The conflict between fact and fiction is driven by Algernon and Jack’slies about their respective identities, specifically the fictional personas they create in order to mask their doings, shirk their duties, and deceive their loved ones.
In Act 1, Algernon reveals that he has also invented an invalid friend named “Bunbury,” whose maladies are a ready excuse for Algernon whenever he chooses to go into the country. While Jack finds “Bunbury” to be an “absurd name,” Algernon cautions his friend against doing away with a fictional figure, like “Bunbury,” once he is married.
Explore Wilde's use of irony in the above example and link it to important themes from the play.
Algernon’s “Bunbury” parallels Jack’s alter ego “Ernest.” Through these personas, Jack and Algernon can escape from their duties and live out their fantasies elsewhere. Ironically, Jack does not recognize that his “Ernest” is just as “absurd” as Algernon’s “Bunbury.”
Themes:The art of deception/fact vs fiction/Name and identity/Hypocrisy and Victorian Morality
Act 1 "You’re part of a big movement now to make things better. You can be proud of that. You can look at the stars and think here we are in our little bit of space, and I’m on the side of the people who are putting things right, and your soul will expand right into the sky."
Analyse this extract from the play
Being part of a movement is the key in this extract. How the movement is defined is never clarified although Churchill exemplifies a process in the initial dialogue in the act.
"...[to]make things better" is a also very subjective, better for whom? better how? again this is not clarified.
As for [being] "proud of it" well, in what sense and why should one be proud of this? Churchill is demanding that we (the audience) answer these questions for ourselves.
As for the philosophical imagery that follows and the order and reason and safety that it alludes to, Churchill shows that this is not the case and that by believing this we are, if anything, deluding ourselves because danger and chaos await us if we allow ourselves to condone/accept this approach.
In order to build the windmill and keep the farm running at the same time, the animals have to work like slaves, enduring long hours. The animals make the sacrifice happily, since it's for their own benefit rather than for a human master. Boxerworks the longest and hardest. Despite all the effort, the time spent working on the windmill makes the harvest slightly worse than it was the previous year.
What does this willing acceptance of the task of building the windmill symbolise, and what point is Orwell making?
The pigs' deception has worked. The animals still believe they are free even though they have no freedom at all. The pigs use Animalism to get the animals to sacrifice for the pigs' benefit.
Orwell is pointing out how ism's are used by the ruling powers to enslave the people they purport to liberate.
Animal Farm -The Windmill
The windmill represents the massive infrastructure constructions projects and modernization initiatives that Soviet leaders instituted immediately after the Russian Revolution. In Animal Farm, the windmill also comes to symbolize the pigs' totalitarian triumph: the other animals work to build the windmill thinking it will benefit everyone, and even after it benefits only the pigs the animals continue to believe that it benefits all the animals.
Animal Farm - Revolution and Corruption
Animal Farm depicts a revolution in progress. Old Major gives the animals a new perspective on their situation under Mr. Jones, which leads them to envision a better future free of human exploitation. The revolution in Animal Farm, like all popular revolutions, arises out of a hope for a better future. At the time of the revolution, even the pigs are excited by and committed to the idea of universal animal equality.
So what undermines the animal's revolution and transforms it into a totalitarian nightmare? Animal Farm shows how the high ideals that fuel revolutions gradually give way to individual and class self-interest. Not even Napoleon planned to become a dictator before the revolution, but as his power grew, he took more and more until his power became absolute. Revolutions are corrupted in a slow process. Animal Farm portrays that process.
At the end of Act 2, realizing that they have ruined their chances of getting married, Algernonand Jack argue about their failed “Bunburying” schemes, which prohibit them from further excursions in town or country. They also debate about who will ultimately take the name of “Ernest” at their upcoming christenings with Dr. Chasuble. Jack asserts that he should take the name because there is no proof that he has ever been christened. Attempting to manipulate his friend, so that he can take the name for himself, Algernon insists that such a name change could be dangerous. Meanwhile, the two men squabble over muffins and teacake, until the curtain drops.
What themes and ideas is Wilde exploring in this episode?
Jack and Algernon do not bemoan the loss of their fiancées, but the loss of a good alibi for Bunburying—“Ernest.” Without “Ernest” their double lives in the country and city can no longer live on. Wilde shows that even as the fictional “Ernest” disappears, Jack and Algernon still fight over who will actually assume his name in real life, showing their willingness to make real this character to please their partners. Their quarrel over muffins parallels Cecily and Gwendolen’s fight under the pretense of a civil tea service. Wilde is highlighting how self serving and hypocritical the gentry were in Victorian society.
Act 2 - Scene 5 Next day. A procession of ragged, beaten, changed prisoners, each wearing a hat, on their way to execution. The finished hats are even more enormous and preposterous than the previous scene.
Why does Churchill include this critical development as a stage direction excluding the critical characters from the play?
This scene symbolises the the fact that you and I learn about nameless, faceless victims of violence, war etc in much the same way as we witness this procession - it is outside the sphere of our influence - we can't do anything about it, it just happens and then we get on with our lives where just like Joan and Todd, we are the stars. Just like Joan and Todd, we also do nothing to stop the procession.
By Chapter 7 Napoleon issues almost all orders through Squealer, who one day announces that the hens must give up four hundred eggs a week to pay for grain and feed. The hens angrily refuse. Napoleon responds by cutting the hens' rations. He also declares that any animal that feeds the hens will be killed. After five days, during which nine hens starve to death, the hens give in.
Why do the other animals support this and what point is Orwell making through this situation?
By tricking the animals into thinking Animalism and Animal Farm are the same, the pigs can kill or punish anyone who disagrees with their orders and claim they're defending Animalism. It's slavery disguised as freedom.
Orwell is again cautioning his readers to question their absolute acceptance of the reasoning and justifications offered by those in power to support their decisions.
(IOBE) The Coatroom at Victoria Station and The Brighton Line
The coatroom at Victoria Station is a symbol for Jack’s lack of family “relations” and unknown origins. The Brighton Line is Wilde’s play on the notion of a family bloodline. Instead of having a lineage to his name, Jack has a place of origin and a train line to his credit, underlining the obscurity of his roots as well as the ridiculous value characters like Lady Bracknell place on family "lines".
Animal Farm - Language as Power
Animal Farm shows how the minority in power uses vague language, propaganda, and misinformation to control the thoughts and beliefs of the majority in the lower classes. The pigs, especially Squealer, become extremely sophisticated and effective in their attempts to rewrite the rules of Animal Farm and Animalism. They even revise the farm's entire history in order to mislead the other animals into believing exactly what they say. By the end of the novel, the animals on the farm believe Snowball fought against them at the Battle of the Cowshed even though they saw him fight with them. They believe life on the farm has improved even though they have less food than ever, and that Napoleon has their best interests at heart even though he kills those who disagree with him. As the only literate animals on the farm, the pigs maintain a monopoly on information that they use to build and hold their power.
In Act 3, Jack obligingly offers information about Cecily, conveying to Lady Bracknell that her relations are respectably recorded, her three residences are well regarded, and that she is the heiress to a great fortune. Even though Lady Bracknell suspects that Cecily’s relations are dubiously recorded, the news of her wealth entices Lady Bracknell to stay at Jack’s manor, instead of rushing off with Gwendolen back to London. After learning that Cecily stands to inherit even more money when she comes of age and pleased with the “social possibilities in her profile,” Lady Bracknell proposes that the wedding should take place as soon as possible, even though she is against “mercenary marriages,” like her own to Lord Bracknell.
What is Wilde satirising through this episode and how does the satire function?
In this social critique Wilde Parallels Lady Bracknell’s inquiry into Jack’s background, Jack breaks down Cecily’s profile into cash, class, and character. While Cecily’s relations are not quite aristocratic, Cecily’s net worth more than makes up for this lack of noble blood lines. Through Lady Bracknell’s quicksilver change of opinion about Cecily, Wilde emphasises her hypocritical and money-grubbing nature. Though opposed to “mercenary marriages,” Lady Bracknell reveals that she is in fact the product of one and is more than ready to work Algernon into an advantageous and wealthy match, as well. This again accentuates the hypocrisy developed throughout the play.
What does the chaos of Act 3 signify?
Churchill uses the play as an argument - If we choose to accept the answers that others use to justify their views of right and wrong then we sacrifice our agency and freedom to resist.
Once we sacrifice our agency our lives become meaningless (literally) As such we add meaning by focusing on our work (about which we obsess) and our sexual relationships - these add a meaning, and distract us from the realities of the world (the procession etc)
The outcome is a chaotic world of crazy contradictions where life and relationships are defined by others and we can only react as passive pawns on the world's stage. We have sacrificed all freedom to challenge or to change, we are victims of the world we live in.
In Chapter 9, while working on the new windmill, Boxer's lung fails and he falls, no longer able to work. Squealer announces that Napoleon has decided to send Boxer to a human veterinary doctor. Boxer stays in his stall until a van comes to pick him up. The animals yell their goodbyes, but Benjamin shouts that side of the van reads, "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler." The animals cry out. Boxer tries to break down the door of the van with his hoofs. But he's now too weak to escape.
What point is Orwell making through Boxer?
Boxer gave up his freedom without knowing it by trusting the pigs' words instead of analyzing their actions: he allowed them to take power but never held them accountable. By the time he realizes he's been betrayed, Boxer is too weak to do anything about it. In a tragic irony, his strength has been sacrificed to the regime that now sacrifices his life for its own benefit.
Again Orwell is warning his readers about the acceptance of power without question.
Animal Farm - Character Names
Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory, a symbolic representation of real events. Many characters and events in the novel symbolize people in the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union. Here are some of the animals who symbolize individuals or groups in Soviet society: Mr. Jones (Russian Tsar and the aristocratic order); Old Major (Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin); Napoleon (Stalin); Snowball(Trotsky); Squealer (the press); the pigs (ruling bureaucrats); and Moses the Raven (organized religion). Nearly all of the other animals represent the working class and Soviet peasants.
(IOBE) Hypocrisy, Folly, and Victorian Morality
A witty wordsmith, Wilde exposes the hypocrisy of the Victorians’ strict social mores through puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and inversions in the characters’ actions and dialogue. For instance the characters often say and do the opposite of what they mean, or intend. For example - Gwendolen flips “style” and “sincerity” when she says, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.” One would expect that “sincerity” should take precedence over “style” in “matters of grave importance” so Gwendolen’s inversion of these words appears not only funny, but also a tad foolish.
There are many examples of this and you need to know them ...
As we near the end of Act 3 the mystery of Jack’s true name remains, as his present name remains an “irrevocable” obstacle to Gwendolen’s consent. Lady Bracknell believes that Jack, as the first born son, is likely named after his father, General Moncrief, but she, nor Algernon can remember his full name. Jack rushes to his bookshelves, which house volumes of Army Lists from the last forty years. Jack feverishly flips through the books’ long lists of “ghastly names”, until he finds General Moncrieff’s first name: “Ernest John.”
Why did Wilde choose Ernest as General Moncrieff's name? What point is he making?
Wilde makes fun of the union between class and character by making Jack’s marriageability contingent upon his name, as well as family background. Jack’s relations satisfy Lady Bracknell’s criteria, but they are not enough for Gwendolen, who wants him to be “Ernest.” That Jack has to prove his “Ernestness”/ earnestness by verifying his name from a list of “ghastly names” is absurd, and highlights the general absurdity of the importance of names and family lines in Victorian decisions about love and marriage.
The final monologue in act 3 ends, "I stood on the bank a long time. But I knew it was my only way of getting here so at last I put one foot in the river. It was very cold but so far that was all. When you've just stepped in you can't tell what's going to happen. The water laps round your ankles in any case."
This id Churchill's climactic final argument. What does it mean?
The river represents a barrier that prevents us from heading Churchill's warning. According to Churchill we don't have any choice but to attempt to change - yes it will be difficult (very cold) but that is all, nothing worse will happen - Once we attempt to change the status quo she doesn't claim to know how things will develop because ["water (life) laps around your ankles (happens) in any case"(despite our attempts to control it] Through this simple truism I believe Churchill is challenging her audience to recognise that in this crazy world of misguided priorities and injustice, they have nothing to lose by trying to change things.
In Chapter 10 the pigs start carrying whips and wearing clothes. A week later, they invite humans from nearby farms to look around and stay for dinner at Animal Farm. That night, the animals, led by Clover, sneak up and watch the pigs and humans through the window. Pilkington and Napoleon toast each other. Pilkington says he's pleased to have their history of mistrust behind them. He expresses admiration that the pigs can feed their animals so little yet get so much work out of them. He adds that pigs and men have similar problems: pigs have lower animals to deal with, while men have lower classes.
What do these developments signify?
The pigs, who once wanted to kill all humans, now seek friendly relations with nearby farmers. Animal Farm suggests that all totalitarian governments are fundamentally the same because their leaders share one goal: to maintain their own power by oppressing and exploiting individuals in particular and the lower classes in general.
The stranger/other/them vs us
These others symbolise the way in which we divide things into camps in our world - the arbitrary definitions we use to ascribe qualities of right an wrong, good and bad etc. These are all subjective, and yet we accept them as fact and use them to justify all of our actions.
By doing so we surrender our freedom, our voice, and ultimately our lives to the whims of others.
Question everything or accept everything, there is no middle ground.
How is this theme developed
At every stage of the play we are confronted by choices not taken:
Joan accepts Harper's explanations and joins her group.
Joan decides to make hats & then makes hats her principal motivating factor in her young adult life
Joan establishes a relationship with Todd the only male character in the play
In later adult life Joan is a victim of a chaotic world in which nothing makes sense, Todd's membership of her elite group is questioned, and she has to commit an offence just to go home.
Her final response to Harper's accusation an attempt to kick her out of her house (group) "Of course birds saw me, everyone saw me walking along but nobody knew why", has tragic connotations of a meaningless life without agency.
Churchill wants her audience to recognise that by ignoring these issues her audience risks repeating the same outcome.