Hi guys I am really bad at english advanced and need help especially with module A. Could someone please mark this general essay (out of like 10 I guess) and give feedback on how to improve it? Thank you so much.
Overarching thesis: Through textual conversations that pursue the reimagining and reframing of existing texts, composers reinterpret such preceding texts, and in doing so demonstrate the ability for reconstructions to evoke greater depth, meaning, and insights into contextual texts. This notion holds true to Jane Campion’s biopic film “Bright Star”, which reinterprets John Keats’ “When I Have Fears I may Cease to Be” and “Ode to a Nightingale”, and thereby inspires new insights into his poems. Directorial purpose is the mainspring for Campion’s reconstruction and is shaped by her context, determining how she reimagines or reframes Keats’ poems, in turn leading to the mirroring, alignment and colliding of several common values present in Keats’ poems. Additionally, Campion reconstructs Keats’ poems and the Keatsian concern for mortality and transience, and the sublimity of nature to further her directorial purpose of engaging contemporary audiences through her unique form of a romantic biographical film and artistic license, which inturn elicits new meaning and insights.
Body Paragraph 1:
Campion's “Bright Star” recontextualises Keats’ self reflective sonnet “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” into a love declaration rather than Keats’ anxiety of dying young, which was catalysed by her contextual influences, and in doing so aligns with and reframes his concern for mortality and the transient to suit her own directorial purpose, resulting in new insights into the latter. The sonnet was written by Keats in 1818, and in watching his brother die from Tuberculosis he uses poetry as a medium to express his fears of failing to achieve a lasting legacy and concern for mortality and the transience of life. This fear is expressed in a musing manner in the first stanza of the poem through the redolent metaphor “Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain”, and in the seventh stanza via the personification of the night sky - a key characteristic present in Romantic texts - in that he “may never live to trace their shadows with the magic hand of chance”, which highlights the innate and transient nature of the human condition and human desire to “relish in the faery power”. Keats’ Romantic context elevates the concept of transience, not just in a conceptual sense but economically, with the lack of healthcare and medicine resulting in shorter lifespans and therefore empowering the humane desire for recognition and everlasting relationships.
Body Paragraph 2:
However, unlike Keats’ self reflection of mortality and transience, Campion’s biopic film, “Bright Star”, repurposes Keats’ “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” into a romantic Christmas dinner scene, where Keats recites stanza 1 in front of Fanny’s family, in turn inspiring new insights into Keats’ concern for the latter. During the Christmas dinner scene, Campion purposefully omits stanza 2 and 3 to create a love declaration, emphasising this through Keats staring at Fanny after orally emphasising “high romance”, a dissonance in form and collision with Keats’ value of relationships. Additionally, Campion’s creative choice of close-up shots of Keats stroking Fanny’s hand - implying a love relationship - and the omission of the last stanza “and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink” to collide with Keats’ ideology of the transience of relationships shows her alignment, but not complete mirroring, of Keats’ concern for impending mortality. Campion’s decision to omit parts of Keats’ poem and collide with his value of mortality is governed by her post-modern context, through the contextual influences of intertextuality, skepticism and relativism, with skepticism providing the framework and basis for Campions collision with Keats’ views and the notion of relativism resulting in the denial of the objectiveness of Keats’ views of relationships. In essence, Campion's reconstruction and alignment, but not complete mirroring, of Keats’ concern for mortality and the transient results in new insights...
Body Paragraph 3:
Likewise, Campion repurposes the Keatsian concern, actuated by her post-modern contextual influences, for the sublimity of the natural world through her representation of Keats’ personal poem “Ode to a Nightingale”, which details Keats’ journey into the state of negative capability, delving into his own contemplation of nature and its beauty while disregarding the framework of logic and science through his analysis of the nightingale. In the ode, published in 1819, Keats voices his loath for the flaws of human mortality, and compares this with the eternalness and sublimity of nature, specifically the nightingale. This repudiation of the immortality of humans is seen through his imagery of earth as a place where “palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”, while simultaneously praising the immortality of the nightingale with the juxtaposition of birth and death in stating “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!”. Moreover, the opening maintains a slow Iambic Pentameter to represent the “drowsy numbness pain” of life and Keats’ desire to “fly away” with the immortal Nightingale. Keats' Romantic context results in his predisposition towards nature due to the prevalence of anti-totalitarianism and a return to nature after the industrial revolution and age of enlightenment.
Body Paragraph 4:
The aforementioned notion of Keats’ approbation of nature is mirrored in Campion's “Bright Star”, wherein Campion fully resonates with Keats’ ideology, thereby capturing the Romantic concern of the sublimity of nature but colliding with his view of women in society, consequently creating new meaning for the preceding text. Campion reimagines Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale'' to represent his value of nature through wide shots revealing Keats resting against a tree to visually capture the Keatsian fascination with the sublimity of nature. Campion's further sensual mise-en-scene of bright green grass and tree trunks gives the audience a visual reconstruction and reimagining of the poem. Furthermore, Campion’s deliberate creative choice of telling the story through the feminist lens of Fanny, and the feminine narration of the first stanza of the poem while cross-cutting the scene to Fanny while she is sewing, results in a dissonance which elevates her artistry to the level of Keats. This subverts Fanny’s historically silenced and ridiculed representation over her affair as a result of her patriarchal and hierarchical society by representing her as a self-sufficient woman who provides inspiration for Keats, seen through high angle shots of his gaze directed at her while he is composing. This dissonance in form and Keats’ values results from a disposition towards feminism due to Campion’s post-modern context, favouring third-generation feministic values and relativism, with the latter being the catalyst for the films reimagining from Fanny’s perspective. As such, through mirroring Keats’ fascination with nature while also providing the dissonant view of Fanny, Campion provokes deeper meaning into Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”
Conclusion:
Thus, Jane Campion rerimages and reframes Keats’ poems “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and “Ode to a Nightingale” in her romantic and biopic film “Bright Star”, subsequently….
Overarching thesis: Through textual conversations that pursue the reimagining and reframing of existing texts, composers reinterpret such preceding texts, and in doing so demonstrate the ability for reconstructions to evoke greater depth, meaning, and insights into contextual texts. This notion holds true to Jane Campion’s biopic film “Bright Star”, which reinterprets John Keats’ “When I Have Fears I may Cease to Be” and “Ode to a Nightingale”, and thereby inspires new insights into his poems. Directorial purpose is the mainspring for Campion’s reconstruction and is shaped by her context, determining how she reimagines or reframes Keats’ poems, in turn leading to the mirroring, alignment and colliding of several common values present in Keats’ poems. Additionally, Campion reconstructs Keats’ poems and the Keatsian concern for mortality and transience, and the sublimity of nature to further her directorial purpose of engaging contemporary audiences through her unique form of a romantic biographical film and artistic license, which inturn elicits new meaning and insights.
Body Paragraph 1:
Campion's “Bright Star” recontextualises Keats’ self reflective sonnet “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” into a love declaration rather than Keats’ anxiety of dying young, which was catalysed by her contextual influences, and in doing so aligns with and reframes his concern for mortality and the transient to suit her own directorial purpose, resulting in new insights into the latter. The sonnet was written by Keats in 1818, and in watching his brother die from Tuberculosis he uses poetry as a medium to express his fears of failing to achieve a lasting legacy and concern for mortality and the transience of life. This fear is expressed in a musing manner in the first stanza of the poem through the redolent metaphor “Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain”, and in the seventh stanza via the personification of the night sky - a key characteristic present in Romantic texts - in that he “may never live to trace their shadows with the magic hand of chance”, which highlights the innate and transient nature of the human condition and human desire to “relish in the faery power”. Keats’ Romantic context elevates the concept of transience, not just in a conceptual sense but economically, with the lack of healthcare and medicine resulting in shorter lifespans and therefore empowering the humane desire for recognition and everlasting relationships.
Body Paragraph 2:
However, unlike Keats’ self reflection of mortality and transience, Campion’s biopic film, “Bright Star”, repurposes Keats’ “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” into a romantic Christmas dinner scene, where Keats recites stanza 1 in front of Fanny’s family, in turn inspiring new insights into Keats’ concern for the latter. During the Christmas dinner scene, Campion purposefully omits stanza 2 and 3 to create a love declaration, emphasising this through Keats staring at Fanny after orally emphasising “high romance”, a dissonance in form and collision with Keats’ value of relationships. Additionally, Campion’s creative choice of close-up shots of Keats stroking Fanny’s hand - implying a love relationship - and the omission of the last stanza “and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink” to collide with Keats’ ideology of the transience of relationships shows her alignment, but not complete mirroring, of Keats’ concern for impending mortality. Campion’s decision to omit parts of Keats’ poem and collide with his value of mortality is governed by her post-modern context, through the contextual influences of intertextuality, skepticism and relativism, with skepticism providing the framework and basis for Campions collision with Keats’ views and the notion of relativism resulting in the denial of the objectiveness of Keats’ views of relationships. In essence, Campion's reconstruction and alignment, but not complete mirroring, of Keats’ concern for mortality and the transient results in new insights...
Body Paragraph 3:
Likewise, Campion repurposes the Keatsian concern, actuated by her post-modern contextual influences, for the sublimity of the natural world through her representation of Keats’ personal poem “Ode to a Nightingale”, which details Keats’ journey into the state of negative capability, delving into his own contemplation of nature and its beauty while disregarding the framework of logic and science through his analysis of the nightingale. In the ode, published in 1819, Keats voices his loath for the flaws of human mortality, and compares this with the eternalness and sublimity of nature, specifically the nightingale. This repudiation of the immortality of humans is seen through his imagery of earth as a place where “palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”, while simultaneously praising the immortality of the nightingale with the juxtaposition of birth and death in stating “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!”. Moreover, the opening maintains a slow Iambic Pentameter to represent the “drowsy numbness pain” of life and Keats’ desire to “fly away” with the immortal Nightingale. Keats' Romantic context results in his predisposition towards nature due to the prevalence of anti-totalitarianism and a return to nature after the industrial revolution and age of enlightenment.
Body Paragraph 4:
The aforementioned notion of Keats’ approbation of nature is mirrored in Campion's “Bright Star”, wherein Campion fully resonates with Keats’ ideology, thereby capturing the Romantic concern of the sublimity of nature but colliding with his view of women in society, consequently creating new meaning for the preceding text. Campion reimagines Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale'' to represent his value of nature through wide shots revealing Keats resting against a tree to visually capture the Keatsian fascination with the sublimity of nature. Campion's further sensual mise-en-scene of bright green grass and tree trunks gives the audience a visual reconstruction and reimagining of the poem. Furthermore, Campion’s deliberate creative choice of telling the story through the feminist lens of Fanny, and the feminine narration of the first stanza of the poem while cross-cutting the scene to Fanny while she is sewing, results in a dissonance which elevates her artistry to the level of Keats. This subverts Fanny’s historically silenced and ridiculed representation over her affair as a result of her patriarchal and hierarchical society by representing her as a self-sufficient woman who provides inspiration for Keats, seen through high angle shots of his gaze directed at her while he is composing. This dissonance in form and Keats’ values results from a disposition towards feminism due to Campion’s post-modern context, favouring third-generation feministic values and relativism, with the latter being the catalyst for the films reimagining from Fanny’s perspective. As such, through mirroring Keats’ fascination with nature while also providing the dissonant view of Fanny, Campion provokes deeper meaning into Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”
Conclusion:
Thus, Jane Campion rerimages and reframes Keats’ poems “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and “Ode to a Nightingale” in her romantic and biopic film “Bright Star”, subsequently….